She's No Beauty Queen

Things slowed down a bit around 7 PM. They would be there until closing at 8 and then Lily would spend an hour or two working on her research paper before bed.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when Mark spoke to her during a slow time where nobody was coming by. "You doing alright?"

"Egg-yolk jellies eat other jellies so sometimes other species of marine life use them to hitchhike," she blurted. This was a bad habit of hers. If she was in the middle of going over her encyclopedic knowledge in her head and someone interrupted her she unconsciously said whatever random fact she was on.

He looked completely confused. "Egg-yolk jellies?"

"They get their name because they're translucent except for a mass of yellow in the middle that looks like an egg yolk," Lily mumbled in embarrassment. "Sorry. You caught me off guard and that was what I was thinking about."

"It's fine. But what were you saying about hitchhiking?"

She was surprised he actually cared to hear more about her totally random fact about an animal he had never heard of. But she supposed with a statement like that someone would want elaboration so they weren't confused.

"That's cool," Mark replied. "You know an awful lot about marine life, don't you?"

"Uh yeah, it's kind of my job to," Lily said as if it were obvious. What she didn't tell him was that she knew more than the majority of the students in her major because to her it wasn't just a job. It was her passion.

"How many types of jellyfish are there? I know nothing about them."

She had a feeling he was only asking because he felt bad for startling her but she couldn't simply ignore a question like that. "Jellyfish is actually a misnomer. They aren't fish at all. Many scientists are starting to call them 'sea jellies' or simply 'jellies' as a result.

"But traditional jellyfish are rather different from comb jellies despite how similar they look—they're in different phyla and have very different life histories. To answer your question properly, there are approximately 4,000 types of jellyfish divided into four groups. Comb jellies only have 100-150 different documented species divided into three groups. Not a lot of research has been done on them yet."

Lily realized she was babbling and was immediately contrite. "I'm sorry! I'm such an ocean nerd. You don't care about minute details like this."

Mark shook his head. "I actually appreciate that you answered my question so fully. I enjoy learning new things even if they aren't in my normal areas of interest. Now I want to check out a book on jellyfish."

Well. Wasn't he full of surprises today?

"Would you like to borrow one of mine?" she asked a bit hesitantly. "I have a few that aren't textbooks. They use a lot more laymen's terms so anyone can understand them. My sister gave them to me for Christmas a couple years ago. They came in a combo pack for jelly enthusiasts."

He actually laughed. "Those exist?"

"What, combo packs or jelly enthusiasts?"

"Both I guess."

Lily rolled her eyes. "As a jelly enthusiast myself, I can say with certainty that both we and combo packs exist."

"As a jelly enthusiast, how many have you seen in person?" Mark asked.

She deflated slightly. Not nearly as many as she wanted to. She had only ever seen them in aquariums, documentaries, or pictures. Most of her fellow marine biology students were scuba certified but she wasn't allowed because if she ever had a seizure that deep underwater it would surely be fatal.

"Only the ones at the aquarium. I can't go scuba diving because of my condition," she said glumly.

Even swimming wasn't allowed unless she was supervised by someone who knew how to handle her seizures. Pools were safer than open water because of the risk of sudden current or water temperature changes.

It was cruel that such an avid lover of the ocean wasn't able to swim in it very often. If she did go swimming in the ocean she had to wear a lifejacket and have someone directly next to her at all times. Usually at the beach she didn't make it past wading and even that hadn't ended well for her last time.

Mark realized he had asked a bad question. "Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't think about that."

"It's fine," Lily reassured him. He hadn't known any better. Most of the time her epilepsy didn't hold her back much so people didn't realize there were things she couldn't do. "I've heard they have submarine tours near L.A. Maybe someday I can give that a shot."

The conversation ended there because people started moving down the food line again. They finished the rest of the shift without any real setbacks. Darcy headed out immediately after she was done not stopping to chat as she hastily said goodbye and that they should meet up again sometime soon on the way out the door.

That had gone much better than expected. She didn't seem to suspect a thing. Maybe Lily really could pull off being Angelina Dawson after all.

Granted, nobody knew she had an identical twin so even if she did act a little weird people wouldn't immediately jump to the conclusion that she was actually someone else. That would be too farfetched under normal circumstances.

Mark dropped Lily at home and she got to work on her research paper. Talking about jellyfish had sufficiently distracted her from worrying about Angel for the time being, as did focusing on her homework, but as she lay in bed that night it took her a long time to fall asleep.

She would be okay, wouldn't she? Lily truly believed she was still out there. She could feel it in her bones. She wanted to meet this strange woman she had a special connection with more than anything so it might be wishful thinking but she had to stay positive.