A New Kind of Science / Holtzbert

Evasive Action

Patty Tolan was headed up to the second floor of their ghostbusting building, hoping to figure out what's been going on with Holtzmann lately. The other two women didn't really see much of a difference in the eccentric blonde as she was still as awkward as usual and Kevin wouldn't notice anything. Patty, however, detected something was up. She didn't know why or how. Perhaps it was the fact that she was the only normal one of the bunch who wasn't thinking about scientific breakthroughs or spirits all the time. Anyway, it didn't matter. What did matter was Holtzmann's slight change in behavior and Patty was determined to figure it out. 

When she got halfway up the stairs, she heard a loud crash and snapped her head, looking down to see Kevin on the floor. "Kevin!" Abby yelled. "Ugh! Are you kidding me?" Yates walked over to help him up. "I told you to stop standing on your desk. It's not gonna help you hear ghosts!" Erin helped him up as well, though she seemed more concerned with touching his muscles as she did so. Patty couldn't help but shake her head with a chuckle.

Mumbling to herself, she said, "Man, he ain't gon' last long." She continued to walk up the stairs and make her way up to Holtzy. When she reached the second floor and looked inside the inventor's room of machinery, she found the blonde testing her walnut cracker with the stale goldfish she still had in her locker. "Girl, what you doing?" Tolan asked, knowing that the Nut Cracker was tested enough and they all knew how well it worked. Holtzmann gave her one look before returning back to enjoying herself. "You missed Kevin falling off his desk again." Patty laughed. "I didn't see it, but this one sounded bad."

"Oh, good." Jillian said with a smile before crushing another goldfish cracker, causing Patty to jump. 

"You, uh..." Patricia swallowed with a nervous grin. "You alright?"

Holtzmann looked to her colleague and awkwardly laughed, clapping her hands together and strangely raising both arms in the air. "Oh, yeah. I'm fine. I'm just taking evasive action." She crushed another fish shaped, cheese snack and silently celebrated with a high five to herself.

"Evasive action from what?" Patty asked. The shorter of the two kept her smile but widened her eyes at the other woman. "Yeah, that's right I know what that means." Patty boasted with a nod. 

Attempting to change the subject, or at least avert the question, Jillian spoke again. "Did you see Gilbert's outfit this morning?" She squinted as if she were thinking of something significant. Small talk was never her strong suit. 

"Uh...yeah." Patty responded, unaware of the reason for bringing that up. 

"Where do you think she buys her clothes?" Holtzmann asked while she crushed a goldfish with a hammer, just for fun. 

"I, uh, I don't know? Kinda look like a mixture of the Gap and JC Penney to me. Why?" She couldn't picture Holtzy in any of that style of clothing. Jillian didn't answer her, which brought her mind back to the 'evasive action' comment. "Holtz, what's up?" She asked nonchalantly.

"Nothing. Nothing's up." The blonde answered. "Oh, well...the sky is. Aha!" She laughed at her own (fail of a) joke and crushed one more goldfish with the hammer before setting it down. "Woo!" She bent her knees and raised her hands in the air, proud of herself for disposing of all the leftover goldfish in the funnest way possible. 

"Uh..." Patty stared down at the table filled with crumbs and she tried to ignore the mess when she spoke again. "Have you eaten?" She wondered, seeing as the only food in the place was now in extremely tiny pieces all over the counter and the floor.

Ignoring the question, Jillian responded with an unrelated remark. "Kevin is single, isn't he?"

Caught off guard by that comment, Patty replied, "Well, uh....to be completely honest, I don't know. Part of my guess would be a no, by the way he's treating Erin. And the other part of my guess could possibly be a yes, by the way he looks at Abby."