Second Floor Common Room, Tuesday Afternoon

[endsthegame]

To say that Ender was Not Amused when he came home from classes to find all of Karla's books (as well as his copy of the Complete Works of Shakespeare, his books by Nietzsche and Kant and other philosophers, and any number of biology texts) reduced to romantic drivel would be a severe understatement. His laptop was not a credible alternative because he was still trying to come up with a good way to deal with Jane, and so the only option left to Ender was to head into the common room, and at least hope there were some good documentaries on.

"Oh, you have to be kidding me," he said, when the 111th channel also turned out to be playing... something by Jane Austen? No, even that was too much to hope.

This was not his week.

[[ open! ]]

Comments

[momslilassassin]

Ben, in a shocking change of pace, blushed.

"Maybe the book will give me hints."

[glacial_queen]

Ooooh man. Somehow, Karla knew Ender was going to blame that on her. Unfairly.

"You should start reading it," she said, because she might as well be dipped for a sheep as a lamb. "I'll help explain any unfamiliar concepts as you go."

[momslilassassin]

Ben coughed and flipped to the beginning of the book "'Forest shoved his unruly sandy hair out of his eyes for the thousandth time and joined the dozens of laughing and shoving boys as they climbed onto the bus,'" he read. "What kind of name is Forest, anyway?" he asked, conveniently forgetting that some version of him somewhere had named a child King.

[glacial_queen]

"A lot of Earth names are dumb," Karla pointed out, unaware of a future child named Rook. "You know, we're never going to get anywhere with you stopping to provide color commentary every line or two."

Because that surely hadn't been Ben's plan! At all!

[momslilassassin]

"It's still early in the book," Ben said. "Maybe Forest isn't even our protagonist."

He let out another sigh, then read steadily through a chapter describing the camp and then each boy in Forest's cabin.

"Slate seems kind of interesting," he offered.

And not because he was quiet and had dark hair, okay.

[glacial_queen]

Suuuuure it wasn't.

"What's-his-name, Skye? Do you think he's going to be a jerk through to the end? Or will he have some amazing epiphany about the power of friendship and turn out to be okay?" Karla asked, scooping the dough out onto the cookie sheet.

'Dough' though the consistency was more like batter.

[momslilassassin]

"Probably the second thing, but not until they have to team up and fish him out of the river or something," Ben declared. "That way everyone's wet."

[glacial_queen]

"And then they get stuck outside somewhere and have to huddle up for body-heat," Karla said with a knowing grin.

It was like they had read the book already!

[momslilassassin]

He grinned back. "Because despite being at camp, no one knows how to build a fire."

[glacial_queen]

"This camp's activities seem to center more on water sports anyway," Karla said, blissfully unaware of any double entendre. "Only the first chapter and we've already made mention of the showers and the lake. I don't even know where they eat, but I know the various places to bathe."

[momslilassassin]

Ben began skimming the next chapter. "Boring, boring, no one cares about the kids you're teaching, boring, boring...ooh, useless shower sequence!"

Don't be so excited about that, Ben.

[glacial_queen]

Karla nearly choked on his enthusiasm there. It was...interesting, to say the least. "Are you going to read that part out loud?" she asked.

[momslilassassin]

"No," Ben decided after a minute. "It's totally unrealistic. No normal guy wanders around a bathroom with just a towel over his head."

[glacial_queen]

Karla pouted at him. "Ben, don't destroy some of my most cherished ideas of what goes on in the males' bathrooms," she teased.

[momslilassassin]

"Fine," he said, grinning. "We all leave our towels in our rooms, except the ugly people."

Beat.

"Which could explain what the towel was doing over this guy's head."

[glacial_queen]

"Much better," Karla said approvingly. "Gives me more incentive to leave my door open when I hear you guys heading to the showers."

[momslilassassin]

"I'd say I'd take the long way around, but I don't think that would really help anything," Ben replied.

[glacial_queen]

"A friend who isn't as nice as I am would make a comment about expecting you to be in a towel anyway," Karla pointed out. "I'm awful glad I'm nice, arne't you?"

[momslilassassin]

"Oh, very," Ben said, grinning back. "'Nice as Karla' is a phrase I use use all the time."

[glacial_queen]

"That sounds about right," Karla decided. "Feel free to add 'as astral as Karla' and 'as pretty as Karla' to that, too."

The mess on the cookie sheet was...well, messy. There was a thin layer of liquid covering the entire pan, with slightly bigger lumps at not-entirely-even intervals across it. Karla, however, was beaming at the sheet with pride as she slid it into the oven. "What do you think? Ten minutes on the timer?"

[momslilassassin]

Ben would probably not be using the phrase 'as amazing a cook as Karla' soon.

"Maybe eight?" he replied. "And check on them?" He held out the book. "While we're waiting, you can read about skinny dipping in the secret grotto."

[glacial_queen]

There went checking on them. Good job, Ben.

"Should I read it aloud?" she asked, eagerly taking the book from Ben. Then, without waiting for an answer, she launched into the first full paragraph of the page. "Forest hesitantly undid the buttons on his shirt, watching the other boys frolic in the grotto. They seemed to sure of themselves, having no other thoughts than a good time in the water. So why was he so worried? His shirt hit the ground and his fingers stumbled over the fastening of his pants. Dared he? Truly? With Slate's dark eyes watching his every movement from the far side of the grotto?"

[momslilassassin]

"And then he tripped and brained himself of a rock?" Ben added.