Chapter Text
Bingo had always taken kindly to nature. It wasn’t really that hard, it was so interesting, and there was a lot of exposure to it at her childhood home. From the gardens of her neighbor Wendy, to the various plants her mother had around, Bingo always had something pretty to look at.
It led her to where she was sitting now, in the lecture hall of the Brisbane Environmental Science University, trying to complete her major in botany. Ever since she was younger, she knew her fascination would blossom into a career she would want to pursue. Over time, with help from Bluey guiding her during secondary school, she delved into some more specific classes and really enjoyed biology. The better knowledge of living organisms branched out into botany, which she was her major.
Her father had been absolutely ecstatic that she had also chosen a field in the realm of scientific research. The amount of times where he had excitedly rambled to her about cross referencing his archaeological findings with Bingo's knowledge of plants could just about make her ears fall off, but she shared his sentiments nonetheless.
Maybe it was coincidental, maybe it wasn’t, that the lecture her professor was giving today was about extinct species of plants. If Bandit knew, he would probably start dancing. That call was going to be fun. Bingo was broken out of her thoughts when her professor, Mrs. Husky started to explain some criteria about the project near the end of the lecture.
“As you all already know, this month’s project is about an extinct species of plant. You will need to do some extensive research on a species of your choice, while also providing examples you find in person of how the species came to extinction. Whether it be more research or physical examples is up to you. A full report is required for credit, and it’s due by the end of the month.”
It seemed simple, just another research report for this month. She could do that, she got consistent top grades on papers like these.
“One more thing, for this project you will all need at least one partner.”
Well that changed things. Bingo wasn’t usually the most social person, like her older sister, but if prompted she could meet some new people. She didn’t have any friends in this particular class, so someone new it would be.
“You can do groups of more than two people, but that is your choice. Max amount is five though, and the criteria slightly shifts with more people to ensure people are doing an equal amount of work. This is our first group assignment to start the introduction of researching along with others. The rest of the assignments from here onwards will be groups. You can find the rubric online or I have some paper copies up here by my desk. Alright, that’s about time. Have a good rest of your day everybody.” she finished.
People began to get up as class had just ended, rushing to leave the room. For people who paid to be in this school, a lot of them seemed way too eager to get out. Bingo looked around her, deciding to get the whole partner thing out of the way before she left.
Plenty of people had the same idea, small groups forming from people sitting nearby each other. Not many people usually stayed for long after class like Bingo did, but today was a perfectly valid exception.
She turned to look around her seat from the right middle side of the room, and spotted somebody with white fur sitting by her. She occasionally noticed her during the lectures, and she seemed pretty nice. It was now or never she supposed.
“Excuse me,” she said to the other dog loudly, getting her attention.
“Do you want to work together? I don’t know anybody else in this class and you usually seem to work pretty hard.”
The other dog looked at her for a second, “Sure. I don’t really know anybody else either. My name is Lila, we should exchange contacts.”
“My name’s Bingo, and yeah. I’ll look into the rubric and we can work together some time, I’ll text you?”
“Yeah sounds good to me,” Lila said, and then gathered her things and walked over to where Bingo was sitting. She put her number into Bingo’s contacts.
“See you later.” Bingo watched her walk out of the lecture hall. Gathering her own things, Bingo made sure to grab a paper version of the project’s rubric before leaving as well.
Her apartment building was a bit of a walk away from her lecture hall, off campus by a little bit, but it was a good way to get steps in. Exiting the building she walked out onto the bustling campus, warm air embracing her. Walking down the steps, she weaved her way through the crowd towards the direction of her housing.
Over the course of her time at college, she hadn’t really interacted with too many other people. It made her kind of sad, considering she was in her third year out of four, that she didn’t have as many friends as she would have liked. Bluey always was the more outgoing of the two Heeler children. Maybe it could be different with Lila? Bingo hardly knew her at all, but she seemed nice. She hoped that they could get to know each other better over the course of this project.
Her walk was peaceful, a slight breeze rustling the leaves on the way. Her building was made of brick, and the outside wall was covered in a growing vine, running alongside with most of the windows. A small pathway with bushes was in the front, making it seem very homely.
She entered the building and went towards the stairs. Her room was on the third floor, giving her a nice view out of the window. The red heeler checked her mailbox on the way up, humming to herself as she went up the stairs. It didn’t take too long to reach her door.
Unlocking it, she went into the room that is her current home away from home. Her decor didn’t differ much from her and Bluey’s childhood bedroom, just a bit updated with her current interests. Bingo was the one to take the watermelon rug, and she had many posters hanging from the walls. Family photos hung in the lounge room, along with some potted plants sitting on the ground near her couch. A small coffee table sat in front of it, with a candle and various papers.
Her bedroom was also similar to her old one. Instead of the nursery mobile above her bed, she had fixed attachments to allow for various plants to hang from the ceiling. A lot of them were vines, flowers, and kinds of small shrubs. On her windowsill sat a few succulents.
There were fairy lights strung up where the walls met the ceiling. The nightstand next to her bed had an alarm clock, and a pink shaded lamp. Of course, Floppy the bunny also sat there.
She set her bag down by the door and grabbed out various notebooks and her laptop. Going to her kitchen she got out a teapot and started to heat up some water. Turning on her laptop she started to work on the homework from her different classes. Popping in her headphones and preparing tea always made the somewhat tedious process of completing work a little bit more enjoyable.
It was always satisfying for Bingo to complete tasks in an orderly fashion. Checking off items on a list helped her stay on track, so she incorporated it into her daily life. Her routine consisted of completing her homework, cleaning parts of her apartment, a bit of free time, having dinner, and then doing her nightly video call with Bluey.
It took her a while to do her homework, which cut her tidying time down. Luckily for her, her room didn’t need that much cleaning today as she kept up with it pretty well. The evening sun pouring in through her windows, she started to make herself some food. She didn’t really feel like making anything too complicated, considering her gluten-free diet, so she tossed together some fruits and vegetables into a salad.
After she ate, she washed her dishes right away, the few that there were. The red heeler walked to her bedroom, turning off the lights and flopping down onto her mattress. Her laptop was sitting next to her and she was idly waiting for the impending call from her older sister.
She reached over to her nightstand, turning on the lamp, and turned the switch on the cord to her fairy lights. The room went from dark to a nice dim glow. Easy on the eyes, yet a great lighting to fall asleep in. She almost did fall asleep, yet the music from her laptop notifying her of the incoming video call sobered her up. She reached over and accepted the call, adjusting where the device was to get a good camera angle.
“Hey Bingo!” her sister called from her own laptop. Bingo could see that she was set up in a barren lounge room, full of cardboard boxes.
“Hey Bluey,” she said in return.
“What happened today?” Bluey asked.
“Well, we got this new project in one of my classes. I think dad would like it a lot.”
“Oooh, what is it?” she asked.
Bingo smiled, “We have to do research about an extinct species of plant, research paper and everything. We even have to do some field research.”
Bluey nodded at her over the call, “Yeah sounds like dad would love that, don’t tell him though. I don’t want him to steal you away for good.”
“Oh stop, I’m kind of excited to tell him about it, it sounds fun to work with him. Remember the story he told us about that one time his coworker spilled some soda on a dig site?”
Her older sister laughed at that, “Yeah, that does sound pretty fun actually. Have you decided what to do for the project?”
Bingo shook her head, “No, there’s a catch. We have to do the project with at least one other person. Something about us starting to be ready for working with other researchers in the future.”
“Well that sounds reasonable.”
The red dog sighed, “Yeah but I don’t know anybody in my class. I just asked the closest person to me that looked responsible.”
The older Heeler sibling hummed, “What else can a dog do right? Sounds like you got it solved. What’s your partner like so far?”
“She seems pretty nice, her name is Lila. She’s got a white flowy coat, kind of long but not that long? I’m not really too sure, I only talked to her once. Sometimes I would see her in class if I try to remember hard enough, she seems like a good student. What about you? I see those boxes everywhere.”
Bluey looked at some of the boxes in her room, “The struggles of moving. We finally got every box into the new house. I can’t wait to unpack everything, it’s gonna have to wait until tomorrow though, we’re beat.”
“Where is Jean-Luc anyways? He usually says hi at least,” Bingo asked.
Her question was answered when Bluey turned the camera over to a cardboard box in a different part of the room. Laying on top of the box sleeping, was her fiancé Jean-Luc. Bingo couldn’t really blame him for sleeping like that, just his face looked dead exhausted, and he was already sleeping.
Bluey giggled a little bit when he snored, “Tellement charmant.” she said.
Bingo snorted, “Give him a break. Knowing you, he probably did all the work while you recounted some story about when we were kids to him.”
“I did not!” Bluey exclaimed, faking the most hurt expression Bingo had ever seen out of her. “I helped plenty,” she paused. Bingo raised her eyebrow, knowing her older sister was going to say more. “...Okay I did stop for little bits just to watch him lift things.”
“I knew it!” Bingo said, laughing loudly.
The older dog blushed, “Yeah yeah, laugh it up. Oh, Bluey likes her big strong man,” she said mockingly. “Seriously though, I am a bit tired, moving is hard. I think I’m gonna get ready for bed,” turning her camera back to Jean-Luc, “and wake this guy up too. He needs to help me finish putting together our bed frame. I am not doing that, or moving the mattress by myself. Good chat.”
“G’night Bluey, love ya.”
“Night Bingo, love you too.” she said, and then the call disconnected.
Bingo watched the blank screen of her laptop for a moment. It was really sweet that Bluey and Jean-Luc met again at the caravan camping spot the Heeler family went to. She probably should’ve expected that more would happen between the two camping friends, considering how much Bluey would reminisce about the labrador.
She was glad for them nonetheless, even with all of the pining. Bingo was grateful when they finally confessed to each other after about a year or so of dodging back and forth. That wedding was going to be chaotic, she just knew it. Classic Bluey.
Finally closing her laptop screen, she got out of bed and plugged the device in. She needed it for some classes tomorrow and couldn’t forget. It reminded her of the project again.
Bingo opened her contacts on the way to her bathroom. She should probably set up a time to get the start of the project organized with Lila. Better to start early than to procrastinate and be swamped with work. Too many of her classmates during secondary school had done that.
Looking at the number Lila put in, she opened her messaging app and sent a simple text.
Hey, it’s Bingo, from the botanical class. We should start setting up our project, can you meet sometime around lunch tomorrow at the benches under the trees by the main court? sent at 9:06 p.m.
It seemed good enough for her, specific yet not too winded. She grabbed her toothbrush and got ready for the night. Hopefully Lila wasn’t already asleep. Sure, Bingo went to bed a bit earlier than most college students, but she kept a tight schedule. It would also put her mind a little at ease to know that Lila would be okay with the plan before tomorrow.
Leaving her bathroom, she went and checked the rest of the rooms in her apartment to make sure the lights were off. Sometimes she would forget to turn off a lamp or switch the fairy lights off. They were nice to have in terms of comfort lighting, but they could get a little expensive if used too much.
She went back to her bedroom, yawning on her way to the bed. She sat down on the bed, and plugged her phone in, setting in on the nightstand. Finally ready for a good night’s sleep, she reached over and turned off the lamp, brushing the stuffed animals’ head that was seated next to it.
“Night Floppy.”
Although the rabbit couldn’t answer back, she said it every night. She settled into her mattress and blankets, trying to get as comfortable as possible. She almost fell asleep, when a ding came from her phone on the nightstand. Odd, she swore she could’ve silenced it.
Cracking open her eyes, she looked over at the nightstand. Bright light from her phone illuminated the lamp and part of the wall. She reached over and checked the screen, squinting at the contrast to her darkened room.
A notification sat on her lock screen, it seemed like Lila texted her back. She opened her phone and checked the message.
Lunchtime sounds good to me, and location too. I’ll see you there. sent at 9:17 p.m.
At least Bingo knew that the other dog could make it to the meet up. Too bad it was while she was trying to sleep that she got the confirmation though. She turned her phone off and snuggled back into the sheets, hoping now for an undisturbed rest.
Luckily for Bingo, her hopes were answered.
It was almost noon when Bingo got to the bench. It was shaded in a row of trees along a path near some of the larger campus buildings, with a river flowing next to it. Not only did the Brisbane Environmental Science University have a great program, the campus was also very appealing to the eyes. Flowers and bushes lined the edge of the walkways, which were gray toned and brick layed.
For such a pretty location, Bingo was surprised that there were only a select number of students that utilized the area to hang out or work. She had come here many times before just to relax from a hard day’s work.
It was a little less relaxing and more boring when Bingo realized she probably got there a bit early. She thought that 11:30 was a reasonable time, a bit before noon, when she usually had lunch, but now that she thought about it not everybody had lunch at the same time.
Bluey sometimes told her about how she and Jean-Luc would have lunch at 2 p.m. That seemed a bit extreme for Bingo’s own taste, hopefully Lila shared the same sentiment, but as time stretched on it seemed that wasn’t the case.
It had been an hour since Bingo got to the bench, almost nearing 1, and her boredom didn’t go entirely to waste. Although the main purpose of coming here was to work on her research project, Lila wasn’t yet there, so the time spent waiting was used productively for other classes.
While she did complete most of her assignments the day before, there were some things that were left behind. She was almost done with them though, maybe she could even get a headstart on the next day's couple of assignments.
Lunch time was getting closer to passing, and Lila hadn’t shown up yet, which was starting to make Bingo worried. Maybe the other dog forgot? She didn’t want to text her back though, it would make her feel like she was bothering Lila, they did still have the whole rest of the month to work on the project, but at the same time she didn’t want to let the time pass. Bingo didn’t want to let Lila know she waited for her to not show up and then make her feel bad.
She decided to start researching extinct species of plants while she waited, along with grabbing out her lunch. She had a bit of leftover salad stuff from the night before, so she packed it into a container this morning along with one of her favorite snacks, bananas and peanut butter.
The heeler looked at a few encyclopedias listing extinct species when a breeze blew the rubric of the project off the table. She got up to grab it when the wind took it further down the path, to the feet of another dog.
She looked up from the paper to the face of the dog whom it landed by. Lila finally showed up. She was wearing a sunhat with a few daffodils in it, along with a pink ribbon tied around the base. The white furred dog bent down and picked up the rubric, then walked over to the table.
“Sorry I’m late.”