Third Floor Common Room, Saturday Morning

[dollpocalypse]

Now, Topher could tell that there was some kind of activity going on outside. It looked like a fair or a carnival, but either way it didn't really hold much appeal to him, and besides that he didn't think his parents were around to buy him a ticket. So he wasn't going to bother with it.

Instead he went to the kitchen, and with his trusty goggles on, he climbed onto a chair and began assembling a sandwich. What he really wanted was pancakes, but he had no idea how to make those. A sandwich, though, he could do, even if the cheese-to-turkey ratio was turning out awfully high and about sixty percent of the lettuce (because all sandwiches had to have lettuce even if it was gross, right?) was ending up on the floor. He figured there was probably a housekeeper here like at home who could take care of that.

Once he was done, he got a chocolate milk carton out of the fridge and settled at the table to eat his breakfast. Maybe he'd be the only one here. He'd like that.

Comments

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Hi, what are you eating?" Olive asked Topher as she wandered in after having talked on the radio. She hadn't had breakfast yet, so she was pretty much one-track-minding it up at the moment.

[dollpocalypse]

"Sandwich," Topher answered quietly. Normally he'd be nervous by the presence of a newcomer, but she was a girl and looked younger than him, so he was pretty sure she wasn't going to beat him up. "There's raisin bread in the cabinet."

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Raisin bread?" Olive's whole morning just got like, a jillionty times better. "Can I make toast?"

She paused, noting that this was a big kid, and added, "...will you tell on me if I make toast?" She was so not allowed to use the toaster at home. Even if she stood on her tiptoes and watched her mom use it all the time so she was pretty sure she could do it. Oven, too.

[dollpocalypse]

"Nuh-uh," Topher promised. "I mean you can. I won't tell." Seeing as how he didn't know who he would tell or anything. This place didn't seem to be exactly flooded with responsible adults.

"I'm Christopher," he added.

[suitably_heroic]

"What're you eating?"

Jaq lurked over the back of the couch, his eyes set on Topher's meal like he was starving.

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"I'm Olive," she said, already scrambling up on the chair Topher had so considerately left there. "How old're you? I'm four."

She was pretty sure that he was older, but whatever, she was preco -- preconsc --

Um.

Special. For four.

[dollpocalypse]

Oh, good, he'd been right about her being younger. "Seven and a half," he answered because E was considerate enough to guess the age of his PB. "Which, um, is old enough to use the toaster, so I can help if you need it."

[dollpocalypse]

Now this kid looked a little less harmless than the first girl. Maybe it was the lurking.

"Sandwich," he said quietly. "You can have it if you want."

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"I found cereal!" Olive announced from where she was standing on the counter. So unsafe but she was being careful. "Lookin' for raisin bread, though. Want some Coco Puffs?"

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"I'm 'lowed to use the toaster," she assured him, even if that wasn't totally true. Or at all true. And she'd just asked if he would tell on her, so. "I'm big enough to."

She was not.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher was suspicious. "How come you can get told on, then?"

Oh yeah, Olive. He went there.

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"'Cause maybe you don't know that rule," Olive suggested, thinking fast. "'Bout me being big enough. It's a rule."

[suitably_heroic]

"Naw," Jaq said. For all that he was hungry, he sounded pretty mellow. "Where's the thing for the food making?"

[dollpocalypse]

"But then if I told, your parents would just say I was wrong and it's okay," Topher pointed out. "Not that I'm gonna tell. But if."

[suitably_heroic]

"What's a Coco Puff?" Jaq asked - hey, it was a sensible question, turning towards her. "Can I eat it?"

[dollpocalypse]

"There's lots of things," Topher said, because he wasn't sure which one Jaq meant. "Oven stove microwave toaster blender juicer."

The juicer didn't really count, but Topher's mom liked to make smoothies and maybe Jaq did too.

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

Olive stared at him, mouth open a little. "Cereal!" she told him, excitedly as she hauled the box out of the cupboard -- and promptly dropped it on the ground.

"...that's Coco Puffs. It's okay that they're on the floor. S'probably clean."

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"But you'd bother 'em," Olive said, "and we're only supposed to bother parents about that if it's a 'mergency."

She was making this up but it sounded right to her.

[suitably_heroic]

"...I don't think I should eat that," Jaq said dubiously. "I don't know what it's been cleaned with."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher squinted at her. "Your parents have weird rules."

[suitably_heroic]

"Which one is for the sandwiches?" Jaq wanted to know.

He could make his own. He wasn't bothered.

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"They're for safety," Olive told him. "Like stop, drop 'n roll."

Not really.

[dollpocalypse]

"Um." SUCH DIFFICULT QUESTIONS, JAQ. "You don't need equipment for that," Topher said carefully. "There's just bread and stuff inside."

He held up the remaining bread as evidence.

"Do they not have that where you live?"

[suitably_heroic]

Jaq gave that one shrug of a shoulder. That was enough of an answer, right?

"Gimme some bread," he said. "Where's the bantha?"

[dollpocalypse]

"My safety rules are 'don't fight with bullies,'" Topher offered helpfully. "And 'don't put gum in people's hair to see what it does.'"