Third Floor Common Room, Saturday Morning

[lockestheway]

Peter prided himself in being able to adapt to any situation in a short span of time. By the end of this week, he was genuinely no longer thrown by their current location. Skeptical of half the stories that had been told him, yes, but a touch of healthy skepticism had never helped anyone.

He'd also noticed the importance everyone here seemed to put on their friendships with one another. Their little common room get-togethers. And, wel, it was obvious he was already a little behind, PR-wise, here. So what else could he do but move his ass to the common room in the morning and set out some cereal? Enough to make it look like a properly catered breakfast.

It took a little planning, sure. But if his brother had managed to make friends here - of course he had - then he'd just have to pretend to be just as loveable as Ender to get ahead.

So, cereal, a stack of plates, bread, stuff like that. And Peter with a bowl of cornflakes, watching the news.

[[ open! ]]

Comments

[vanillajello]

"What can I say?" Kate deadpanned. "I spend my life depending on the opinions of others, especially ones I barely even know."

She was sure that somewhere, there were people cracking up royally right about now without any idea why they were doing it.

[lockestheway]

"It's all right," Peter said, humbly, and shook some more cereal into his bowl. "Most of us have to live with that malfunction. That's how we got actors, and the sex industry."

[vanillajello]

"Mm." La la la, Kate was so not going to touch on that subject more than by a slight twitch of her eyebrows.

Spoon acquired (and briefly inspected for cleanness), she wandered over to flop on a couch. "So, have you been settling in, or do you still think I'm on drugs?"

[lockestheway]

"We're at the third impossible place in almost as many weeks," Peter said. "I think I'd be skating 'really slow on the uptake' if I did, don't you?"

[vanillajello]

"Well yes," Kate replied, almost cheerfully. "But, you never know. I thought it best to check so I'd have a little advance warning if you were intending to be stubborn and eventually have a crazy-induced meltdown."

[lockestheway]

"I'm made of sterner stuff than that," Peter replied, sounding almost-but-not-quite offended. "If finding out about my siblings wasn't going to kill me, a little shifting scenery wasn't going to cut it."

[vanillajello]

"Well, I don't know," Kate shrugged, peeling the lid off her cup and licking it thoughtfully. If such a thing was possible. "I think I've been here so long I've kinda lost some of my ability to judge how much weird too soon is likely to break people, anyway."

[lockestheway]

"It probably depends on the individual," Peter said. "I can't be sure we didn't already lose a few back when this turned out to be Iceland, not Maryland. Probably passed out right on the causeway, limbs up in the air like falling birds."

[vanillajello]

"I would be amazed if that hasn't happened at least once or twice in this school's history," Kate drawled, shaking her head. "Probably there's a clean-up crew waiting somewhere in case people can't even handle getting on the island."

[lockestheway]

Peter snickered. "Picking them up by those sticking-out limbs and tying them to a stick," he volunteered, "And dragging them right off the island into the mental care unit."

[vanillajello]

"Mm, weeding out the weak ones wight at the start," Kate agreed with a slight smirk, then made a face as she considered her words. "Which, okay, is kinda making the place sound like some... evolutionary experiment. But on the other hand, it also makes my junior and senior year plus graduation without a mental breakdown seem like an accomplishment. Not bad for a chick from a completely ordinary Kansas."

[lockestheway]

"Think they put that on a stamp on your diploma?"

[vanillajello]

"Might as well have," she snorted. "I mean, everything else on my records from here here reads weirdly."

[lockestheway]

He swallowed down another spoonful. "Like what?"

[vanillajello]

"Like any transcript of the classes I've taken," Kate supplied. "Like, Love and Romance, I'm sure that would go down well with college admissions if I even wnated to go to college. Or a class on how being marooned isn't all that bad."