5th Floor Common Room, Thursday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy had spent much of the morning making a list of all the things about her life that she was going to have to hide from her parents tomorrow when they visited. Sex, powers, Banzai, the island were obvious candidates, of course, but by the time she'd gotten to Raven's abilities, my piercings, Japanese friends, she just couldn't take it anymore. Hiding bits of her life and personality from her family was fine. She was used to that. But having to act like she was ashamed of her friends because her dad was a bigot who couldn't let history go? That was just a line too far.

So, rather than think about her parents at all, Kathy had found the most complicated recipe for strawberry cupcakes she could find, ran to the store for ingredients, and had come to the common room to throw herself into an whirlwind of baking. It was hard to think about, well, anything, when you were trying to made graham cracker crust by hand at the same time you were thickening strawberry filling in a saucepan and beating butter and cream cheese together for frosting.

Normally, she would have tried to distract herself with homework, burying all the things she didn't want to think about under piles of equations, chemical formulae, and essay outlines. It felt good to be doing the same thing with something as frivolous as baking, especially since her parents would have vastly preferred the former. And between snacking on cupcakes (for quality control!) and belting out classic rock, Kathy managed to jolly herself back into a good mood in a fairly short amount of time.

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante'd been wandering around the dorms for a while now, looking for someone something to do. And... hey, did he smell food?

"Holy shit," he called. "You really do make 'em yourself."

He hadn't really believed people could do that.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy pulled a tray of cupcakes out of the oven to transfer them over to the cooling rack; the ones that had been on the cooling rack had been moved to the frosting station, and the other tray of cupcakes was ready to be popped in and baked. "Did you think I'd bought them from somewhere and then stuck them in tupperware so I could try to convince you that I'd made them myself?" she asked, confused. "I mean, yeah, usually I just dump a box mix into a bowl and add eggs or whatever, but I needed something more of a challenge today."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante shrugged, wandering further into the common room. "I've never seen anyone do that," he said. "What's up?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"You've never seen anyone bake before?" The question slipped out before Kathy could help herself. Sure, her mom hadn't been much of a baker, but Kathy had grown up in a large apartment building filled with nosy ajummas and little old ladies who all spent their time gossiping, judging, and making delicious Korean dishes.

"Well, I owed you a cupcake," she added quickly. "And today is my last day to pay it back, so I figured I should get a jump on that." And also sublimating all of her complex emotions around her family's visit tomorrow into treats to share. It was a win/win for everyone.

"...I might have gotten a little carried away, though," she admitted, gesturing to the table where a dozen cupcakes were ready to be eaten and bringing over a dozen more to be frosted and decorated with strawberry wedges.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante, predictably, was immediately distracted by the food. He dropped his interest in what she was doing and beelined for the table, snagging a cupcake. "Hey, I'm not complaining," he said, then shoved it into his mouth, just to make that literal.

[spin_kick_snap]

"That's your one!" Kathy said merrily, picking up a knife to start spreading the frosting around. "Did any of the other cupcakes survive the week, or are they gone already."

That's right, Dante. She'd owed you one.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Hey, now," Dante said, looking up. (There was frosting all over his mouth. He didn't care.) "You eat fast, but you can't eat all of these. Especially while you're baking."

[spin_kick_snap]

"No, but I can share them with other friends," Kathy teased. "Or donate them to the Student Council to use over the weekend. Or just hoard them all to myself anyway, just because I can."

She leaned over, swiping some of the frosting off his lip with her thumb and offering it up to him. "Shall I assume this means they're good?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"So far, so good," Dante allowed.

His eyes darted from Kathy's face to the thumb, then back up. Hey, if she was gonna do that, he couldn't be held responsible for, say, leaning forward and sucking her thumb into his mouth.

[spin_kick_snap]

That had been the point of her doing it at all, so good on him for picking up on it!

"Mmm," she said, biting her lip. "I mean, good to know. It would suck if I put in all this hard work and they were terrible."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante pulled back, tilting his head to consider her. "Nah, it's good," he said. "Though I might have to eat another one just to be sure."

And cover the distance between them by at least one step. For, uh, science.

[spin_kick_snap]

Of course! Science was very important!

"That's because you wolfed down the first one," Kathy chided. "Forget tasting it, I'm glad you didn't choke." She grabbed another frosted cupcake and held it up to him--though not too far from her. Because of science. Again. Yes. "I'll give you this one as a freebie if you promise to eat it slowly enough to appreciate all the hard work I put into it, huh?"

[rebelseekspizza]

Kathy had some downright adorable ideas about this stuff. Maybe too many Disney movies growing up, or something. "I promise," Dante said, sounding faintly amused.

Then he plucked the cupcake out of her hands. Adorable Disney ideas, sure, but they were getting in the way of the really important task of bridging the last of that distance. "In a minute."

[soniaroadsqueen]

Rain or shine, Ringo made sure she got in AT time every day. With the rain today, though, it had been a pretty sedate run. Better not to do anything too tricky when everything was wet. Ringo could keep her balance, of course, even with little traction, but there was no reason to take any chances.

So when she came back, her clothes and hair were soaked through, fabric clinging to her. She'd been planning to head straight back to her room to grab a towel and change of clothes then take a shower, but someone was baking. And they were baking things that looked really, really delicious.

So she could make a little detour.

[spin_kick_snap]

Not just someone, in fact. Kathy. With a little smear of frosting on her cheek where she'd shoved a tendril of hair away and another on her bottom lip from where she'd snuck a taste ENGAGED IN QUALITY CONTROL.

She was also right in the middle of a very loud rendition of Proud Mary, so she didn't immediately notice Ringo's entrance.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Why, so it was! And looking extra cute with her hair a little out of place and frosting smeared on her face and a look of intense concentration. So if Kathy hadn't noticed Ringo, then it was totally okay to stare for a bit, and just take in the view.

That wasn't weird to do when it came to your friends!

After a little bit Ringo realized she was actually staring. Which is when it occurred to her that she should totally take a picture. It would last longer! She fished in her pocket for her phone, and pulled it out to get one. Click.

[spin_kick_snap]

Oh yeah, totally normal.

"Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river." She was adding a little hip-shimmy to it now. "Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the riv--ACK!!"

Guess who'd spotted Ringo finally.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo just grinned and took another picture.

Actually, now she was kind of regretting not taking video. It was both cute, and decent blackmail material.

Though, now that she thought about it, Ringo wasn't sure what she'd blackmail Kathy to do. Especially with their bet almost up.

"Hey."

[spin_kick_snap]

FRIENDS DIDN'T BLACKMAIL OTHER FRIENDS, RINGO.

"Jesus, Ringo, say something next time," Kathy said, clutching at her heart. "Don't just scare me like that, c'mon!"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"I wasn't trying to be sneaky or anything," Ringo objected, but she did look and sound apologetic.

At least she hadn't gotten caught staring.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I know, I know," Kathy said. "I'm sorry, I saw you out of the corner of my eye and startled."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Sorry," Ringo said, ducking her head. She peeked up through her eyelashes. "Though I didn't know you even got startled."

[spin_kick_snap]

"It has been known to happen," Kathy said primly. "While I'm otherwise occupied."

You know, by all that singing and shimmying she'd been doing.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"I suppose singing, dancing, and baking is the limit of your multi-tasking skills, then?" Ringo teased. Then she reached up to wipe her face where some water from her hair had run down almost into her eyes.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Don't forget looking cute as heck," Kathy reminded her with a grin. "I mean, you were going to add that, weren't you Ringo?"

They had a bet that said you were!