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.

[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]

"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.

[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.

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"Point," Quinn had to agree thoughtfully, as she went over to flop into a seat. "I don't even care if they keep their old bad habits, as long as they aren't habits that annoy me."

[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.

[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.

[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]

"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.

[vanillajello]

Kate snorted at said big words as she dumped the pack in the trash. "Nicely put." That wasn't even sarcasm.

[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."

[vanillajello]

Kate found a few more loose pudding cups that she recognized as hers and dumped those in the trash as well. Then she shut the fridge door, quirking a brow at Quinn. "Don't you live on my floor?"

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"There used to always be better stuff up here," Quinn explained with a little shrug. "I dunno, I just got into the habit of using this kitchen. Same as you, probably."

She just didn't do crazy stuff like clean out the fridge.

[vanillajello]

Kate snorted. "No, I just used to store some shit here," she said with a cursory glance around the kitchen area. "But I won't, anymore."

[icecoldfrost]

"And so long as they're willing to learn new habits, so I don't get annoyed with them," Emma agreed. "The sibling program is like housebreaking puppies sometimes."

[icecoldfrost]

"...right, who are you, and where's the evil twin?" Emma asked, raising one eyebrow. "Cleaning the fridge? Seriously?"

[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.

[vanillajello]

"I'm not cleaning the fridge, Emma," Kate replied, a little flatly, as she peered into the fridge. "I'm throwing away the stuff I won't eat because I won't be frequenting this floor anymore."

[icecoldfrost]

"Can you be any more melodramatic?" she complained. "Just take it downstairs to your own kitchen. Or at least you could say 'Gee, Emma, happy birthday. I forgot, but have a pudding cup.'"

"What's got your bra in a twist?"

[vanillajello]

"I didn't know it was your birthday." The statement started out snappish but dissolved into mildly apologetic, and actually got Kate to look Emma's way for the first time since coming in.

She shrugged a shoulder, vaguely. "You wouldn't want my break up pudding cups, anyway. But, happy birthday."

[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!"

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

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