fandomhighdorms | Tuesday Morning: Room 207 to the Second Floor Common Room

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Tuesday Morning: Room 207 to the Second Floor Common Room

Charlie had woken up when the door to her mini-fridge popped open, letting two pies spill out. There were three others on the shelves and as she moved those out of the fridge another two popped in. Apparently all the Aunties who hadn't made it to Parent's Weekend - thank all the gods! - had decided to express their sorrow in pies. Charmed pies, obviously, they were Gales afterall.

Charlie took a few trips to bring them down to the common room and set them out on one of the counters. Then she started going through them to see which ones were the least charmed and could be safely left out for anyone to have. They were still charmed, obviously, but less directly Charlie related. Anyone having a piece or two (or more!) might find themselves with a sudden need to clean their room, make sure they had on clean underwear, get to class on time, or go to bed early.

All of them would make you want to call your mother or other family members.

[Please come talk to Charlie, have pie, mod your own charms or let Charlie stop you from eating one that might be too heavily charmed.]

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On about the third trip, TJ poked her head out of her room, wondering what was going on. "Hey, Charlie!" She followed her to the common room. "Wow. Your aunties went all out?" she guessed.

Charlie shook her head. "Nothing but pies, pies, pies. Half of them have so many charms I'm not even sure you could taste the actual pie underneath."

She made a face. "That's an exaggeration, of course, but you'd certainly feel all on edge as your brain told you ten different things you HAD to do right then."

"Oof. It's not fair; they look so yummy! Don't suppose microwaving them or something gets rid of the charms?"

"No such luck," Charlie said, "But here, this lemon meringue isn't bad. You're going to want to make sure you're wearing clean underwear and you'll want to call home, but that's manageable. Dont touch the raspberry. That's from my mom and she must have been very emotional when she made it."

TJ went to get a plate and took a slice of the lemon meringue. "Already am, called my folks just this weekend. Is your mom okay?"

"I'm far away, the twins are acting out, she didn't make it to Parent's Weekend, and she's sure something dreadful could happen to someone, somewhere at any time," Charlie said. "So, pretty much staus quo. There's a reason I spend most of my time at my cousin Allie's house, even if it means Auntie Jane's always around."

"Ouch." TJ grimaced. "A worrier. My folks are a bit overprotective, but they're not too bad." And there was precedent, after all.

"I heard you had some aunties come, though! Should I be sorry I never met them?"

"You should be counting your lucky stars," Charlie said. "They interrogated Graham. And Dean Skywalker."

"Oh, no. How is Graham?" TJ asked. The dean could probably take care of himself, but Graham was kind of squishy, and he seemed like a nice guy.

"He seemed to think they were wonderful," Charlie said. "But we're going out for pizza tomorrow night as my apology."

"Hey, as long as they didn't traumatize him. Maybe they're not as bad if they're not family."

"They're just unrelenting," Charlie said. "When you can't avoid them they're... just a lot."

"But now they're gone again. Except for pie. Which is really good, even if I do want to call home again."

Charlie laughed. "It is excellent pie, even if you end up doing things you hadn't planned."

"What are some of the other ones?" TJ asked.

"Um... go to class, go to bed early, don't be a pest, eat more vegetables, don't be a layabout, do something useful with your life, make your bed. That sort of thing." She rolled her eyes. "And my mom is clearly losing her mind and set me a 'settle down with a nice boy and start giving me grandbabies'. I think she forgot who she was sending it to."

"Yikes." TJ winced. "You didn't eat it, I hope. The rest don't sound too bad, though. Even if having a pie tell you to eat more vegetables seems a bit counterproductive."

"Yes, well, that's the Gale way," Charlie said. "Not always a lot of sense. And no, I didn't eat it, but I did almost miss that charm since it was buried under a lot of others. Thank all the gods I saw it before anyone tried a piece."

"Seconded. I am never eating any baked goods around here unless I run them by you first," TJ vowed. "This is awesome, though." She had finished her slice. "So is there apple? And what'll it make me want to do?"

"The apple is also relatively safe" Charlie said with a grin. "That's a clean your room. And call your mom."

TJ thought about it. "Eh, could probably use it anyway. Are these, like, cumulative? Am I gonna have to call my mom every day for a week or something? She might start wondering what's up."

"Nah, pretty much once you've done it it stops bothering you," Charlie said. "Eat away."

"Awesome." TJ took a slice. "So how are classes and everything? And is pizza with Graham a date, or just an apology?"

"Classes are good," Charlie said and then was little flustered. "It's well... it's more than just an apology, but I don't think it's a date date. I mean, a date between friends, for sure, but I don't know if it's anything else. We're, we're friends."

TJ held up her hands. "No judgement either way, I was just curious. I hear the pizza place is pretty good."

"You haven't been?" Charlie said, brightening up. "It's incredible. And the owner is an amazing cook and very easy on the eyes. I highly recommend it."

"Oh?" TJ grinned. "I will definitely have to check that out, then." Not as though she had a thing for older guys, but...yeah, she totally did.

Charlie just had a thing for guys. And girls. But especially anyone with inner power.

Or who was friendly and relatively good-looking.

"Let me know, I'm always up for pizza."

Knowing full well that if she didn't swing into the common room for something to eat before returning to her room after class, she would get so caught up in Maya that she'd forget about food, Sakaki detoured to do just that, and then just saw...a lot of pies.

"Oh," she said, "that's a lot of pie."

But she supposed it wasn't really all that surprising, the common room did seem to sometimes go overboard with the food...

"I know," Charlie said a bit glumly. "The one's on the right side are relatively safe to eat, the ones in the trash are obvious no-go's, and the ones on the left I'm still sorting."

The look Sakaki sent toward the trash was mildly startled.

"What's wrong with them?" she asked, suddenly wondering how many close calls she'd had with consuming common room food without even bothering to question it anymore.

"Charms," Charlie said. "My mom and the aunts and the Aunties send me pie, but they bake charms into them. Like call your mother, make your bed, clean your room, do something useful with your life, stop being a layabout, etc, etc. The pies in the trash have lots of charms on them, the others have less. So, if you eat one you'll definitely feel a need to call home and might have to go check you have clean underwear on or make your bed or something, but they're not too bad."

All of a sudden, Sakaki felt the urge to go and do all those things, just from Charlie mentioning them...so at least the pie wouldn't do much more damage at that point?

"Is there....any you'd recommend?" she asked, and then, as she thought about the charms: "Are you very forgetful?"

Because this did seem a like an awful lot of reminders. Osaka could probably use something like these pies...

"No, it's just a Gale thing," Charlie said. "The lemon meringue's all wear clean underwear and call your mom. The chocolate cream is clean your room. And call your mom, of course."

"I should probably call my mother, anyway," Sakaki admitted, moving over toward the chocolate one, because she supposed the room could use some tidying, as well, and she knew for a fact that her underwear was clean because she had to choose the pair with teddy bears on it since all the cuter ones with kittens were in need of washing, and just thinking about that had her cheeks glowing pink.

And now she was remembering that she should do laundry soon, too, and now curious if any of the pies had that in them.

"It's nice of you to share them, though."

"Oh, I'm happy to share," Charlie said. "They just need to come with a warning."

"The way you said some of them were no good," Sakaki admitted, "I thought you were saying some of them may have been poisoned."

"Oh no, nothing like that," Charlie said. "I don't think any of my family members would want to poison me. But with that many charms the pies taste more like duty than pie."

Suddenly, Sakaki was feeling very glad she hadn't actually gotten around to taking a bite of her chocolate pie yet with that phrasing, and was subtly switching it out for lemon meringue now.

"I've heard of eating certain foods for good luck or fortune before," she said, especially since those special foods were part of what made some festivals so fun, "but never for reminders before."

"It's a Gale thing," Charlie said again. "Want someone to do something? Charm a pie, or pour it into a pancake. The Aunties can charm your drink by stirring it in the right pattern."

"Do they ever just....ask?" Sakaki had to wonder. She'd always been a fairly obedient child, so it all seemed a little excessive to her.

At least from her own parents.

She could definitely see Father Cat being involved in this kind of behaviour.

"Oh they ask. And nag and whatever, but Gales like charms. And there's always the chance they'll sneak one past you. That raspberry pie, by the way? From my mom. She must have been super stressed because she added in a 'You need to find yourself a nice boy and settle down and give me grandkids' charm which, I mean, I'm only 16! I almost missed it though, and wouldn't that have been unfun."

"Grandkids?" And now Sakaki was very startled, half thinking she must have heard wrong or mistranslated. "But you're still in school! That's much too young!"

"Like I said she must be crazy stressed," Charlie said. "I let Auntie Jane know and she said she'd talk to her."

"What do you think she might be so stressed about," Sakaki wondered, "that she would have that sort of concerns?"

"I'm far away, the twins are acting out, she didn't make it to Parent's Weekend , and she's sure that something dreaful could happen to someone somewhere at any moment," Charlie said, "Which is pretty much status quo. There's a reason I spend most of my time at my cousin's. But this is a bit extreme even for her. Thus the call to Auntie Jane."

Sakaki nodded a little. "I do hope everything is okay," she said, even though she didn't know Charlie's mom, obviously, it sounded like she just had an awful lot going on, and that something not being okay would only make it worse. "And that nothing dreadful does actually happen..."

Even if Sakaki felt that most people would put having kids while you were still in school as something pretty dreadful...

"I'm sure it's fine," Charlie said. "One of the Aunties - or one of the twins - would have called me if anything was wrong. My mom's just a little high strung sometimes."

She sighed. "And I'm sure something dreadful will happen somewhere sometime. I mean, isn't that just life?"

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Tuesday Morning: Room 207 to the Second Floor Common Room

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