"See," Willa stays, head tilting to the side as she slides into the seat opposite Noa, "It's stuff like this that I don't understand. Half the time it feels like some sort of fraternity pledge stunt, and half the time I worry that I'm stepping outside whatever bounds I'm supposed to stay within?" The structure of the Dog Park feels like it makes sense one day, and the next she's thrown for a loop. "If it's a matter of rank, how can a pledge mean more than someone like Ruth, when she's in charge of distributing all of the things they're tasked to go out and gather? Or why is it offensive if I'm asking for help with the livestock, when Rodeo was the one who suggested that I do it in the first place? When you knocked, I thought 'ugh, I don't want to carry that on in person'," Willa's hand gestures to the phone sitting near the window -- if Noa had been looking at the post she would have seen at least half of what happened. "Or if it was Bode or Rodeo, come to check on me when I'm a grown woman who can handle herself, I just..."
She looks at Noa and feels the color bleed into her cheeks, embarrassed by the obvious frustration being vented so soon after a simple introduction. "Sorry. I'm trying to get a handle on all of this, and it feels like I suck at it. I didn't mean to -" Willa's hand waves between them, the rest of the sentence finished by the gesture, get dramatic. "I don't know where I fit, yet."