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

[spin_kick_snap]

"Eat them?" Kathy suggested. "I mean, I know it's a weird concept to grasp and all, and they are pretty much works of art, but the usual idea is that they're to be ingested."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Uh huh." Ringo smirked a bit, looking at the cupcakes, then at Kathy. "I've heard that there are other uses for pastries, you know."

She probably wouldn't actually ruin one by smushing it in Kathy's face, but it was tempting.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Ringo, that's paties and hardly a proper conversation topic for a common room," Kathy teased, because she was the worst.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Huh?" Ringo looked thoroughly confused. "What's that?" Sorry, Kathy, you're vocabulary was too big for Ringo!

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy couldn't answer that question without blushing. So instead she looked up 'pasties' on her phone and handed it over to Ringo to read up on.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo frowned, leaning in close to read the screen.

"Kathy!" she squealed, her face going red. "I'd swat you if I didn't have my hands full!"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy laughed until her sides hurt. "Hey, you're the one who started talking about uses for pastries besides eating! How am I supposed to know what you meant?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

It was a close thing, but Ringo managed to keep herself from smushing a cupcake right into Kathy's laughing face to demonstrate.

Instead, she just pouted. "You're just lucky these are so tasty. Otherwise you'd totally have a face full of cupcake." But for now, Ringo contented herself with stuffing her own face.

[spin_kick_snap]

"And then I wouldn't ever make cupcakes for you again and you'd be sad," Kathy said cheerfully, unaware of how close she'd come to wearing one of her creations.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"You didn't make these for me in the first place," Ringo objected, making a face at Kathy. "Besides, you couldn't eat this many by yourself, anyway."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I made them to share and if you smushed one on me, I wouldn't share with you in the future," Kathy said. "And if you don't think I can't get rid of a batch of homemade cupcakes in this dorm, you're crazy."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Well, I guess there's that." Not even Ringo being a brat could argue against that point.

She shrugged, then grinned. "Though I don't know how someone with such a dirty mind ended up being such a good cupcake baker."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I am a woman of many talents," Kathy declared loftily. "Good at many things, especially since having a dirty mind and being good at baking aren't mutually exclusive."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"But these are such wholesome and innocent cupcakes!" Ringo objected, polishing off the one in her right hand.

Good thing she had a backup.

[spin_kick_snap]

"You sure about that?" Kathy asked, waggling her eyebrows lasciviously. She lowered her voice to a sultry purr. "Maybe they're naughty and concupiscent cupcakes."

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo heaved a sigh, rolling her eyes. "Okay. Give me your phone again," she demanded, holding out her empty hand and making a little grabby gesture. Someone was going to have to look up another word, Kathy.

At least Ringo's English vocabulary was expanding?

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy laughed and handed it over, helpfully typing in 'concupiscent' before she did.

She lived to help people learn!

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo read over the definition, then shot Kathy a look. "I think you use big words sometimes just to show off," she accused. "That's not very mature of you."

And then she stuck out her tongue. Which is totally how a real adult would act!

[spin_kick_snap]

"Do I really come off that way?" Kathy asked, looking concerned. "I don't mean to."

[soniaroadsqueen]

There was a moment of surprise as Ringo blinked, trying to take that in. Then she burst into giggles. "Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed. "I didn't really mean it, Kathy!" It was, well, kind of weird seeing Kathy sound unsure of herself like that.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy spent a lot of time being unsure of herself. It was just a lot closer to the surface today.

Which was why she was looking very relieved to see Ringo laughing. "Really? You mean that? Oh good! I don't want to come off looking horribly pretentious!"

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo was still laughing, but her expression did sober a bit as she looked at Kathy. "Is it that stressful, having them visit?"

Then she shook her head. "No, sorry. I don't mean to pry." It was Kathy's business, after all, and she might not be comfortable talking about it.

[spin_kick_snap]

"It is," Kathy said, pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on them. "I just feel like I have to hide everything from them. Everything about who I am and what I'm doing in order to win their approval. They expect perfection and I'm hardly perfect."

[soniaroadsqueen]

The cupcake in Ringo's hand was set aside, and she stepped over to wrap Kathy in a hug. It was a little bit of an awkward motion with Kathy's knees involved, but that was okay.

"I wish I had some good advice to give you," Ringo murmured. But she didn't have any parents of her own to use as examples. "All I can think to do is remind you that I think you're really awesome, and that I'm glad you're my friend."