Third Floor Common Room, Thursday Morning

[vanillajello]

Kate was in the common room, sitting on one of the sofas, eating from a bowl full of cornflakes with milk and strawberry jam. The bowl was normal-sized, but the serving seemed pretty big for just one person. Whatever, she was hungry. She also had a fairly large cup of coffee on the coffee table in front of her.

She was wearing pink pyjama bottoms and a dark blue t-shirt with the logo of Four Winds Landscaping on it. Four Winds Landscaping was her father’s firm, and judging by the extremely loose way in which the shirt hung on her slim body, the shirt was his too.

It was still morning. You couldn’t expect her to get properly dressed just for breakfast and low volume MTV.

[Open!]

Comments

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

"Hey, Kate," Hannibal said, glad to have discovered life one floor down. His own floor was boring. "Getting an early start on the day? Or a late end to the night?"

[vanillajello]

"Hey, Hannibal," she greeted him back. "Early start. I just woke up and couldn't go back to sleep, so I got up, even though I have absolutely nothing to do today."

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

"You and me both," he said, finding an empty chair and flopping in it. "I don't have a class till tomorrow. I should not be up this early. It's a crime."

[vanillajello]

"I don't have a class until Monday," Kate chuckled, and took a sip of coffee. "So I guess I win the 'why the hell am I up?' competition."

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

"I concede," he said and laughed. "You win. Gonna make the most of your day now that you're up?"

[vanillajello]

"Define making the most of it," she smirked. "I dunno. I thought I might head into town later, and finally take my camera with me."

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

"You another artsy type?" he asked, getting comfortable now that he'd found something to do. "Angela likes to do that too except she draws."

[vanillajello]

"Not really, it's more like documenting," she replied. "My parents bitched at me for not bringing any pictures to show them when I visited, so I thought I'd send them some now."

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

"Aww, parents are great, aren't they?" he asked, mostly teasing. "I've sent my own a few postcards but no pictures. I don't really own a camera and they accept that excuse. You should take a picture of the zombies in Caritas."

[vanillajello]

"I can take that picture, but I'm definitely not sending it," she said. "My parents will be kept as far away from the weird as possible."

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

"They never planning a visit?" he asked, amused.

[vanillajello]

The look of terror on her face was approximately 60 % joking and 40 % real. "Not if I can stop them!"

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

"You know the school invites family and friends once a year for a weekend, right?" Hannibal asked. "Invitations get sent out and everything."

[vanillajello]

"...I've heard. I just thought we get some sort of a say in that," she said, frowning a little. "We don't?"

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

"Well, you do," he said after a moment. "With your family. I don't know if you can dictate who the school sends invites too, though. My friend got one last year and came and I had no idea it was going to go to her."

[vanillajello]

Kate made a face and sighed. "Ugh, why does everything have to be so random here?"

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

"You have to ask that question after a few months here?" Hannibal snickered at her. "It might not be too bad. If they show, just keep them away from the weirdness. Not so hard."

[vanillajello]

"You haven't met my family."

She bit on her bottom lip. No use in blurting out how hiding the weirdness was a two-way street in her family's case.

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

"You could always ask them not to come," he tried, shrugging. "A polite request telling them you're still settling in or something and need time?"

[vanillajello]

"I'm probably doing that. They'd probably understand," she said, poking at her cereal with the spoon. "I wouldn't object to my brother coming here, though."

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

"I only had a friend come up so that's probably possible," he encouraged. "He'd be able to deal with the weird?"

[vanillajello]

"Yeah," she nodded. "And he'd totally get why I haven't told them about it. And he wouldn't blab to our parents about the freaky stuff, either."

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

"If you can get to the invitation before him, I bet you could swing that Parent's Weekend is sibling weekend or something," he suggested with a small smile. "So, you get your brother but don't hurt your parents feelings or something."

[vanillajello]

"I'll have to see how it goes," she said. "Moosh is probably willing to play along with something like that. I know he really wants to see this place."

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

"Moosh?" he repeated, grinning. "Interesting name, there."