Fifth Floor Common Room, Tuesday Evening

[icecoldfrost]

It was her birthday.

Emma turned the crayon-colored card Hank had manged to mail her over in her hands, trying to wrap her mind around it while the television droned on in the background with Tim Gunn telling someone why they sucked in an awesome manner.

It was her birthday, and she was eighteen. She no longer had to worry about Winston trying to have her committed so that she'd disappear, or social services, or anything like that. She could open a bank account in her own name. She could go to college, get a job, be seen in public. She could have her life back.

It was almost too big to process, but every time she started getting overwhelmed, she touched the flower in her hair and had to grin a little bit.

It was her eighteenth birthday. And so far, it was off to a pretty good start.

[Open post is open!]

Comments

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

Quinn hadn't made it home just yet. She figured portalling in Wednesday morning would give her plenty of time to celebrate Christmas without having to deal with seeing Finn around town. (And that one just seemed inevitable.)

She smiled a bit at Emma as she poked through the fridge for a Diet Coke. "Hey," she greeted. "We never got around to planning that party, did we?"

[icecoldfrost]

"For the new kids, maybe?" Emma suggested, slipping the card out of sight. "I'm too lazy to do it this week."

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"And I go home tomorrow morning," Quinn said. "After the New Year is better. We can get to the fresh meat before it picks up bad habits."

Someone's inner cheer bitch was slipping out.

[icecoldfrost]

"It already has bad habits, we're just going to break them like all their dreams on Christmas morning, when they find out they're going to boarding school." Someone's inner bitch wasn't so inner.

[vanillajello]

After walking out of Bod's room earlier in the day, Kate hadn't really expected to be on the fifth floor again any time soon. By now, though, she'd realized there was one last thing to do up here.

She didn't even notice Emma straight away as she strode in with a sense of (mildly shaky) purpose, heading for the fridge.

[icecoldfrost]

"If there's cake or ice cream in there, I want some," Emma yelled, glancing at Kate from her television program. She could tell Kate was...upset, to put it mildly, and she was a telepath, but it would be uncouth to say such things aloud.

[vanillajello]

Kate was a bit startled to hear Emma. Or maybe more than a bit. She swore under her breath as she got the fridge open. "Not really looking to steal anyone's stuff," she called out in reply, as she yanked a half empty pack of pudding cups out.

[icecoldfrost]

"It's not stealing if it's my floor and you're giving it to me," Emma pointed out, annoyed. "And even if I wasn't here, it would just be reallocation of resources."

See! Emma learned big words in Kerrigan's class!

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"There's still soda behind the orange juice," Quinn offered.

She had kind of hidden it there. It wasn't being possessive of soda in a fridge that wasn't even hers, it was just being realistic.

[vanillajello]

"I got about half a dozen bottles of Coke from the bears outside earlier," Kate replied, still peering into the fridge. "So I'm good, sodawise. I'm just taking out what's mine."

And dumping it in the trash.

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"I don't want to deal with anything delivered by bears," Quinn said with a little shrug. "... thanks for cleaning the fridge out?"

The fridge that still wasn't even hers, yes.

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

Hey look, people in the dorms. Zatanna supposed it was a sign that staying over wasn't such a bad thing. At least until they left, of course.

"Can you believe not even one bear had cherry Coke? Apparently they dig the original flavor a little too much."

[icecoldfrost]

"Bears?" Emma looked lazily towards the window, then shrugged. "I would pretend to be surprised, but that's too much work."

Also, one had delivered her flowers, but she had just chalked that up to either Jack being funny, or the delivery boy getting a bad case of the Fandom Transformation for Christmas.

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

"I think I'm more surprised at your lack of surprise, really. Busy day?" As unlikely as it sounded, though.

[icecoldfrost]

"I've been here a year, and I was once an ermine for a week. Bears with soda isn't that far off from talking goblins," Emma pointed out.

[glacial_queen]

"Happy Birthday!" Karla's greeting wasn't quite as enthusiastic as it would have been before her conversation with Triela, but it was sincere all the same for that. "Kiss kiss, darling!"

[icecoldfrost]

"Happy Birthday to meeeeeeeeeee," Emma agreed, toasting Karla with her soda. "Eighteen, and Winston can, as they say, 'suck it.'"

Gloating? Emma? FUCK YES.

[glacial_queen]

"You'll have to wait for your birthday gift until we get to Sookie's," Karla said with an impish grin, "but I assure you, it's well-worth the wait. I think it'll go quite nicely with your plans to tell your family to go screw."

Really, what didn't diamonds go with?

[icecoldfrost]

"I have to wait?" Sorry, Karla, Emma's going to break out the pout she uses when she wants something. "Why do I have to wait? What if I want to unwrap it now?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela was all packed, which meant that she walked into the common room with her bags slung over her shoulder. But it wasn't like she was going to leave without wishing her roommate a happy birthday.

And dropping off a gift.

"Happy birthday, Emma," Triela called with a subdued smile.

[icecoldfrost]

"Thank you, darling," Emma said, taking in the sight of Triela and her luggage. "Off on a thrilling adventure?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Back to Rome for the break." She cocked her head. "If I don't come back, well... you were a good roommate."

[furnaceface]

You know what was funny? Jonothon didn't actually know Emma's birthday.

Now, he should have, granted. But he was terrible at things like this at the best of times. At least intuition had led him as far as the common room. That had to be good for something, right?

//Evening, Emma,// he greeted, making his way to the fridge to deposit his armload of Coke bottles.

Somebody had a rubber arm when it came to sad polar-bear faces.

[Sorry I tagged in so late. o.o Crazy day.]

[icecoldfrost]

"You trespass in my domain, you pay the toll," Emma said, sticking out a hand. "Soda."

Beat.

"Please."

[furnaceface]

//Manners and everything,// Jono mused, picking out one of the colder bottles and offering it her way. //Somebody's in a good mood this evening.//

Really, she could have all of the Coke. It wasn't as if Jono was planning on drinking it.