Fourth floor common room, late Sunday morning

[saltandammo]

It had been a while since he'd done the open brunch thing and with things finally feeling like they were getting back to something resembling normal for him, it felt like a good time to do it again

Comments

[goodgirlmeg]

Meg was still bouncy from finding out about Stanford and it definitely showed when she came into the common room.

"Hey!" she said. "What are you cooking and can I have some?"

[saltandammo]

"Bacon, eggs and frozen waffles, and absolutely," Dean told her, smiling at her. "Someone's perky this morning."

[goodgirlmeg]

"I've got good reason to be perky," she said with a grin. "I got into Stanford."

[saltandammo]

"Yeah?" Dean grinned, putting his book down and moving closer so he can slide his arms around her waist. "Always knew I was dating a smart girl."

[goodgirlmeg]

"Why thank you," Meg said, smiling up at him. "Isabel got into UNLV too. I made her open up my acceptance letter for me."

[saltandammo]

"You had nothing to worry about, y'know," Dean told her. "They would've been crazy to turn you down."

[goodgirlmeg]

"Stanford's a good school, I couldn't help but be a little worried," she said. "But I would have been glad to get into any school that wasn't Hearst. I can't spend more time in Neptune."

[saltandammo]

"Place really that bad?" Dean asked, almost managing to pull off the casual tone.

[goodgirlmeg]

"Oh, Neptune's got the problems that every town has," Meg said sarcastically. "Rape, murder, wars between social classes."

[saltandammo]

"Yeah, but does it have ghosts and demons?" Dean said deadpan. Then more seriously, "Take it from someone who's seen a lot of towns -- there's skeletons in the closet everywhere. Sometimes even literal skeletons."

[goodgirlmeg]

"Yeah, I know," she said. "It's just in the last three years a friend of mine was murdered by another friend's dad, the same friend got arrested for someone else's murder and some psycho drove a bus full of my classmates off a cliff. Neptune doesn't need ghosts and demons to make it a hell hole."

She sighed. "You can see why I'm so glad to be here."

[saltandammo]

"Yeah, because we never have psychos or invasions here," Dean teased, then sobered. "But yeah, I get it. Lawrence could be the greatest town on the planet, and I still wouldn't feel comfortable living there anymore."

[goodgirlmeg]

"Exactly," she said. "Hopefully Stanford will be psycho-free. Or maybe it'll be the opposite and the psychos are more intellectual there."

[saltandammo]

"Yeah, just what the world needs," Dean joked. "Supersmart psychos."

[goodgirlmeg]

"Hopefully those are few and far between," she said. "I think I can handle the dumb psychos I come across."

[saltandammo]

"Easily," Dean agreed.