Second Floor Common Room, Friday Afternoon

[arsenicmauls]

In the semester that she'd been here, Gert had learned that there were basically two reasons to be in a common room: to watch a bad movie or to try to pawn bagels off on people. Today, shockingly, was an example of neither.

No, today she had Chinese food to give away (seriously, what was it with the delivery guys in this town and bringing way more food than any one person needed?) and the movie she was watching, about a fish looking for his son, was actually pretty good. Imagine that.

Old Lace seemed personally moved by this movie. She was making whimpery noises at the sad parts and everything.

Comments

[arsenicmauls]

"Tell me about it." Gert speared a dumpling with her fork, but instead of eating it, just proceeded to pick at it until it was scattered around her plate in little tiny dumpling pieces. "I mean, I'm all for helping people, but in a less attention-grabby way than smashing windows and punching out bears, I think."

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"It's not everyone's thing." Stephanie got the vague feeling she should be looking for a crane to help get her foot out of her mouth. "Think you'll get anything out of the class anyway, even if it isn't what you were expecting?"

[arsenicmauls]

"Depends how good he is, I guess," Gert said. "So far it's just been an exercise in not being as prepared for disaster as I could be."

Which she thought was stupid, frankly.

"How about you?"

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"I'm not sure what I was expecting, actually," Stephanie admitted, "but when I heard 'survivalism,' my first thought involved learning how to climb palm trees and live off coconuts."

She grinned sheepishly. "I haven't gotten out of the city much, except to be here. Well, and when I spent last summer wandering around China . . ."

[arsenicmauls]

"Oh, cool," Gert said, perking up a bit. "Just for fun, or what?"

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"Kind of?" Stephanie scrunched up her face, considering; it hadn't really, considering why they'd been there. "Tony had some stuff to do over the summer, and I got to tag along."

[arsenicmauls]

"Huh." Well, now Gert, in all her cynicism, was picturing Stephanie and a goateed, teenage Tony Stark going around exploiting factory workers. Which was an interesting and unappealing mental image, to say the least. "I've always wanted to go to China. That's pretty awesome, as first trips out of the country go. Mine was to some touristy resort in Mexico when I was nine."

She wrinkled her nose slightly at that. That was maybe a little insensitive, Gert.

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

Luckily, thanks to her choice in boyfriends (Dean didn't count, the jerk) Stephanie was pretty good at keeping the envy out of her reaction when things like this came up.

"Nice," she said, with a soft whistle of admiration (okay, and a bit of jealousy). "My first time going anywhere like that was on one of the school break trips, and can I just say, wow?"

[arsenicmauls]

"Yeah, that was something," Gert agreed. "With the boats and everything? That totally beats out beach tours of North America. Is that like a regular thing here?"

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"Oh, totally," Stephanie said, once she'd slurped up a chow mein noodle anyway. "Ski resorts, the Bahamas, all that stuff -- was the Turkey trip your first one here?"

[arsenicmauls]

"Yep," Gert confirmed. "I'm still shiny and new. Only one luxury vacation so far."

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"Well, is this not the best stay-in-school incentive ever?" Stephanie asked. "Besides the easy class loads and the fine tradition of shirtlessness at the welcome picnics, that is."

[arsenicmauls]

"Hold up, I think I missed the shirtlessness because I go there in the winter," Gert said, holding up her hand like this was a Very Serious Matter. "That and the vacations might have to share the number-one slot."

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"You missed it?" Stephanie feigned scandal and made a tsk-ing noise. "Wow, we're going to have to fix that at the next picnic. If I have to waylay someone personally and make them comply with tradition, this will happen."