Second Floor Common Room; Wednesday Evening [ 06/01 ].

[geewhizfellas.livejournal.com]

This task had gone undone for far too long, and Butters, who felt he'd gone too long without being grounded and didn't want to take any chances, felt he was just the person to do it.

These pantries were a mess. If his father knew, he probably wouldn't see the sun for days. And so he pulled up his laces, buckled up, and took to the task of setting everything all nice and neat and, most importantly, alphabetized. A well-organized pantry, after all, was what kept a family together. And, if you thought about it, why, all his fellow students here at Fandom High were his family now, and he wanted them all to stay together.

Of course, he had a song on his lips as he worked.

"Here in my car
Where the image breaks down
Will you visit me please?
If I open my door
In cars!"


[[ open common room is totally open, yes! ]]

Comments

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"That is an interesting song you're singing," Elphaba remarked on her way into the common room. "But what are you doing while you sing?"

She was intrigued.

[geewhizfellas.livejournal.com]

"It's Gary Numan!" Butters reported happily as he moved the Spaghetti-Os next to the Spam. "And I'm organizing the pan--"

You could tell when Butters glanced over his shoulder to look toward the girl because his statement changed directions with a rather plaintive observation. "H-hey! You're green!"

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"Am I really?" Elphaba deadpanned. "I must've eaten something awful, mustn't I?"

[geewhizfellas.livejournal.com]

"Aww, see," said Butters, sighing as he shook his head and put back a box of AppleJacks. "That's w-what you get, w-when you don't have an organized pantry. People'll eat things an' get all sick and please don't go and throw up all over the place, ma'am, that'd make a terrible mess, an' I don't really feel like...like cleaning it all up."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"I didn't eat anything awful," Elphaba said. "I was born this color, thank you."

She went over closer to better observe. "You're alphabetizing it all?"

[geewhizfellas.livejournal.com]

"Born that color?" asked Butters. "Well, then, did your mom eat something awful, then? And, yeah, I'm organizing it alphabetically; it's the best way. A well-organized pantry's what keeps a family together, you know."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

Elphaba narrowed her eyes slightly. "I would prefer you not cast aspersions upon my mother," she said. It was a little bit of a touchy subject. "I... don't believe I've heard the expression about a well-organized pantry, though."

[geewhizfellas.livejournal.com]

"An' maybe," Butters reasoned with a shrug and a little bit of a worried look toward the girl, "that's why she wound up eatin' something awful."

He kept humming a little bit more of the tune of Cars as he kept organizing.

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

Elphaba made a face. The boy clearly wasn't trying to be rude, but... it still wasn't pleasant. "I asked you not to speak of my mother," she clarified. "Please don't continue to speak about what you cannot know."

[geewhizfellas.livejournal.com]

Butters shared a look with the box of macaroni in his hands, seeking its agreement that the lady was probably just on her period. He settled the box in place and picked up the next one. "I'm just saying," he reasoned, "I don't think people are normally born green. I'd definitely be grounded if I was born green."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

Now that comment got a sad smile out of Elphaba. "You're very right about that, at least," she said. "But what my dear departed mother did or did not eat is not something I wish to discuss right now."

She hoped the little emphasis would explain why it was touchy.

[geewhizfellas.livejournal.com]

"Well, then, why'd you bring it up?"

She was, after all, the one who mentioned eating something awful in the first place.

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"I'm not the one who brought up my mother," Elphaba pointed out. "But you're right, perhaps I should come up with a new saying when people foolishly think I am supposed to be different."

[geewhizfellas.livejournal.com]

And now Butters was just confused.

"But you are different," he said. "No one else here's green."

That he'd noticed so far.

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"Different than what I am, I mean," Elphaba said. "There's no denying the evidence of plain sight. And there was another student of similar complexion, before. Though he was a frog."

[geewhizfellas.livejournal.com]

"There aren't any students that're towels, are there?" Butters wondered, a little worriedly.

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"Not that I've met," Elphaba said, simply. She gave it a moment's thought. "It's always possible. I've learned not to be too hasty in what may or may not be true, here."

[geewhizfellas.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I hope not," Butters said, shaking his head. "Because all the towels I know just wanna go and get high."

Butters was also left wondering if the girl's mother was a frog, and that's why she was green, but he had the feeling she wouldn't appreciate him asking, so he didn't.

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

Elphaba tilted her head. "You know a towel who can talk?" she asked, rather interested in such a thing.

[geewhizfellas.livejournal.com]

"Yeah..." Butters sounded pretty miserable about the whole thing. "Towelie. He was created by the government, but then all he did was want to get high. We had an intervention, and things started to get real good for a while. He got back together with his girlfriend so that he could be there for little Washcloth, but then he had a relapse, and he's back to just bein' a bum again. At least that's what I heard; he's more Stan's friend than mine, but I sure am worried about him. Sometimes I wonder if life just isn't better without him, though. P-poor little Washcloth."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"...that does sound rather awful," Elphaba said, sympathetically. "I do hope it works out best for all, especially the children involved. Perhaps... it can be an object lesson. The dangers of intoxication."

[geewhizfellas.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Butters agreed, organizing now with newfound determination. "There's lot of lessons like that, so I definitely am not going to throw my life away with drugs and alcohol and too much sex with wonton, easy floozies."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"...well, that's advise that anyone can live by," Elphaba said. "Had it been much of a temptation before?"

That was a slight tease, the boy didn't seem... well, she didn't know what he seemed like, honestly.

[geewhizfellas.livejournal.com]

"There's always temptation," Butters said gravely, and now seemed to be focusing on alphabetizing the food with an even more sincere dedication. "Towelie relapsed, didn't he? Why, then, that means anyone could, if they're not careful. I sure don't want to relapse. If I relapse, I'll be grounded."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"...I would ask what you might relapse into, but that would be rude of me," Elphaba said. "So I will only say that I hope you remain strong, for your sake."

[geewhizfellas.livejournal.com]

"Well, it'd be just about nearly everything," Butters offered easily enough, "so I hope so, too. I sure am a bad old bear, but, see, bears are pretty strong, too."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"Bears are very strong," Elphaba said. "Why, some of the strongest creatures in the wood. And also rather regal, if I may say so."

[geewhizfellas.livejournal.com]

"Yes," said Butters with a nod, "you may."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"Not quite as regal as lions, of course," Elphaba said. "But bears are stronger than lions, I believe. And strength is much more admirable."

[geewhizfellas.livejournal.com]

"Have you...ever seen an all out brawl between a lion and a bear?" Butters asked, because it seemed a relevant sort of question. "I bet that would be intense. An', you know, I'm pretty strong. I gotta be strong!"

He'd be grounded if he wasn't.