fandomhighdorms | 6th Floor Common Room, Sunday Evening

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6th Floor Common Room, Sunday Evening

So...coed slumber party! Kathy had finally decided to stop stressing over it and just throw the stupid party. Sure, A Sunday was a weird time for a slumber party, but since it was the start of break week, she figured it could work. So her morning was spent hanging up ~~handwavy~~ posters advising everyone in the dorms that there would be a party that night, and her afternoon was busy with party prep.

Not that there was a whole lot of setup required. It wasn't a birthday party or anything, so Kathy had skipped out on balloons and streamers and stuff like that. Mostly she just made sure that the common room was clean, that there was a Rock Band and a karaoke setup available, and plenty of places for people to sleep when the 'slumber' part of the slumber party happened. If it happened. She didn't really know what to expect.

Okay, so what made for a good party? Food? She had a bunch of snacks out, lots of different kinds of chips and sweets from JGoB. Also, she'd set up deliveries from Ching Tai and Pizza Planet for later in the evening, so no one would be hungry. Drinks? She had plenty of soda and juice, and both the non-alcoholic punch and the totally-alcoholic Jell-o shots were chilling nicely in the fridge. Music? Right, her iPod was plugged into speakers and shuffling through her Party playlist. What else could a party possibly need?

People. Right. Parties definitely needed people. Well, hopefully they'd show up, either because of the posters or lured in by music and the smell of food. It was the end of summer. What better time for a party could there be?

[OCD up and party open!]

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"Wait, that's not normal here?" Kathy laughed, heading over to the beverages table. "Uhh...what should we drink?"

Someone was spoiled for choice. And had no idea what would be good anyway.

"We were in this Wild West sim. There was a jug of what he assures me is whiskey and I'm pretty sure had corncobs floating in it and we just ended up sharing it. Or, okay, he passed it to me, not-thinking, I drank like half of it, then he realized that had been a terrible idea and stole it back."

She gestured to the table. "You'll notice there's neither whiskey nor moonshine here. I learned my lesson."

"Well, I imagine moonshine's pretty hard to get," Raven said. "I guess an old fashioned is out. Or a manhattan. Or a sidecar." Mr. Xavier liked his whiskey cocktails, okay? "How about a gimlet? It's simple, tasty, and much classier than suspicious jug whiskey."

Not that that was a high bar or anything.

"So does this mean Hardison's going to start bugging me about the getting-drunk-together teacher/TA rite of passage?"

"I have no idea what a gimlet is," Kathy said, intrigued. "I mean, it was an SAT vocab word, but the answer was not a drink, so I defer to your experience here."

A classy drink in a red solo cup. Aww yeah, high school party at its finest.

"And knowing Hardison, it'll be a LAN party bonding experience," Kathy decided. "You drink with Eliot, play video games with Hardison, and...probably pick pockets with Parker."

Those all sounded pretty fun, actually.

"So what you're saying is, they're all fun," Raven said, picking up a bottle of gin and looking for something resembling lime juice. Ah, limeade. It'd be a very sweet gimlet. "What's the SAT definition of gimlet?"

"Sharp or piercing," Kathy said immediately. "Because a gimlet is also a tool. So you get 'gimlet-eyed' from that etymology!"

You voluntarily surrounded yourself with nerds, Raven, why?

"How do you know all of these drink recipes?"

"Charles' parents throw a lot of cocktail parties," Raven said. "I was never supposed to go, but come on. Like they'd notice an extra snooty middle aged white lady."

"You don't consider them your parents?" Kathy asked softly. "I mean, Charles is your brother--you've lived with them for years, right?"

"It's --" Raven cut herself off with a sigh. "I'd say complicated, but I guess it's not, really? Charles is a telepath, and when I moved in, he sort of rearranged his parents' memories to put me in them. But he was kind of -- ten when he did it. So I guess it didn't really work very well. They sometimes forget I'm supposed to be their daughter."

Honestly, they weren't always that great at being parents to Charles, either, so.

Oh. That sounded really...oh.

"Raven...can I ask you a really personal question?"

Raven nodded. "Sure. So long as I can decide not to answer if I need to."

"Of course," Kathy assured her. "I just...was wondering how you ended up with Charles in the first place."

Which was a roundabout way of asking what happened with her parents.

Raven shrugged, looking down. "I used to live on the streets. When I was little. Mostly hiding, scavenging, those sorts of things. As I got older and got more of a hang on the shifting, I started using it to -- break into people's houses. I'd pretend to be the woman of the house and the maids would just let me right in. It worked perfectly -- until I tried pretending to be Charles' mom." She smiled ruefully. "You know, I'm still not sure if it was the telepathy that first tipped him off or the fact that I was, you know, actually acting like a mom."

Kathy winced at that. That actually said a lot about the childhood that Charles had--and Raven with him. "How old were you?" she asked. "When you were on the streets? Jeee, Raven, you couldn't have been more than a kid!"

"Seven? Ish? Maybe." Raven grimaced sheepishly. "I don't actually know how old I am now. I mean, I must have had parents and a birthday and all that at some point, but as far as I remember, I was alone until I found Charles."

"You--you don't remember?" Did Raven want a hug? Kathy was pretty sure this was the kind of conversation that involved hugs. But she didn't want to overstep, either. "Oh, hon, I'm so sorry."

How about reaching for her hands and clasping them? Yeah, Kathy was gonna do that.

"Can...Charles help? Like, get those memories back? Do you want them?"

Kathy was giving her one of those looks again. "I never thought to ask," she admitted. "I had Charles and no one was trying to kill me anymore. For all I know my parents freaked out when they had a blue baby and threw me away."

Kathy was pretty sure that her supervillain origin story would begin the moment she ever met whoever had been the reason Raven had lived on the streets for years. "I've mentioned how you never have to go back there, right?" she asked quietly, clinging to Raven's hand. "When you graduate, come out to LA with me. We'll get an apartment together nearby my school, it'll be awesome. Charles can come visit if he likes."

Sure, they'd need documents and things for Raven's identity, but like Hardison had anything better to do.

"You," Raven said, "are the absolute sweetest. That's the best plan I've heard yet."

"Then we'll do it," Kathy said. This was the most impulsive she'd ever been with her future and yet this was the most sure she'd ever felt. "I'll be the stressed-out, overworked med student and you'll be the glamorous Hollywood starlet who never has to diet."

"I'd fit all the casting calls," Raven said. "Be the second coming of Rita Hayworth. Then come home at night and tell you all the stories about how being a Hollywood starlet is just as grueling as being a med student, just in a very different way."

"We'll spend the whole night picking apart all the different roles you're offered and talking of all the ways they fail at feminism," Kathy agreed.

"And looking through the casting calls for white-washed roles to protest."

"I love you," Kathy said, throwing her arms around Raven and laughing. "This is exactly why we're going to be the best roommates both here and in LA."

Raven laughed and finished making up the second gimlet. She handed one cup to Kathy and raised the other. "To roomies."

"To roomies," Kathy agreed, raising up her glass.

And then took a sip and began coughing. "That's, umm, really strong!" she gasped out.

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6th Floor Common Room, Sunday Evening

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