Kate knew she owed Jeff an apology. Or, like, a Cake of Appreciation or something, but Marshall was the baker in the family, not Kate. She'd never be able recreate those Muffins of Triumph, not even when someone deserved it.
Instead, she shuffled back and forth on the path near Jeff's place, trying to decide if she actually wanted to find him or continue to hide. Jail pretty much sucked and she'd done her best to avoid both Jeff and Danny in the following days, but she'd have to talk to him eventually. Now was as good a time as any.
"Nice hammock," she said, a faint, uncomfortable smile on her face.
He'd heard the telltale signs of someone approaching, but he didn't open his eyes until she spoke. Truth be told, he was surprised to see Kate standing there, all things considered.
"You'd be amazed how much work someone would put in for one nice shirt," he said in response, shifting so he wasn't reclining quite as much. He wasn't all that great with this kind of thing himself, which was why he hadn't exactly been seeking her out afterwards. After a moment, he cleared his throat and asked, "How's it going?"
"You know, criminal record," she answered, one shoulder lifting in a shrug, although Danny had pretty much told her that there wasn't really much in the way of records on the island. Which was lucky for her, since she was officially an adult. "And a relaxing stay in a jail cell. Which would've been way worse if you hadn't stopped me from lighting the bookshelf on fire."
Kate paused, then smiled a little and said, "Not to mention the fancy disappearing act you pulled with the matches. No evidence."
"No sense in telling them about something that didn't happen," he replied, a small smirk lifting.
He was pretty sure he still had the matches, too, somewhere in his hut. That said, he had no idea if she was looking for an apology for the first part of what she mentioned, because that definitely wasn't going to happen. He'd have had to basically put all the responsibility of her well-being on himself, which would've probably ended very, very badly.
"So he did write you up?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. She was on something, sure, but that was all that cop knew about. From everything he'd seen, using drugs wasn't against the law here. "I could talk to him if you want, get that erased for you."
"No, it's fine," Kate said, wandering closer, giving Jeff a more genuine smile now. "I mean, he basically said they don't really keep records, so I think everything's okay. He was pretty nice about it."
Nice or not, it still hadn't been fun, but she was sure it would have been much worse if Jeff had told Danny about the matches. He probably would've yelled at her a lot more.
"I guess I sorta owe you an apology, huh?" she asked. "For being kind of a crazy bitch."
He had better been. With as lax as laws were around here, there seemed like there was very, very little that would be worth even noting. A night sleeping off whatever she'd been doing before he found her was definitely not in that list.
"Don't worry about it," he said, waving off the apology. Maybe if it'd been set off by something else, he'd be a little less lenient about it. But he knew why it set her off, and he could be an asshole sometimes, but he wasn't that bad to make her feel bad about it. "The bookshelf is a pain in the ass on good days. I'm surprised you're the first one I've heard of that wanted to literally torch it. Just try to not carry around potentially dangerous objects the next time to decide to go partying. It'll save a lot of trouble in the long run."
"Yes, dad," she said, laughing as she reached the side of the hammock and pressed her fingers against it slightly, trying to see if she could rock it a little. Max would have done a hell of a lot more than given Kate a lecture, and she knew it, but it was still a little funny, hearing words like that come from Jeff. At least he wasn't trying to ground her. Not that he'd have anywhere to ground her to.
"It was stupid, but, um... thanks," she continued. "You know, for stopping me from doing anything too dumb and for being so cool about it." Kate was sure there were plenty of people who might have found her who wouldn't have been half as good as Jeff had been. Even if she'd bee pissed off at the time, she knew that he'd done her a favour.
"Ugh, never call me that again," he replies, scrunching up his face in disgust. He liked to think what he was saying was common sense and not some sort of age-spun advice. He wasn't that old, even if he did conveniently ignore the fact his birthday had come and gone again last month.
He just shrugged then, because really, what he'd done wasn't that big a deal. "It's not a big deal. But hey, you can always owe me a favor in the future if you want to repay me."
The grin he shot her after was, at least, a good hint that he was kidding. Mostly.
"Well, now you know that I can totally hook you up with drugs or matches," she said, then poked his shoulder with two fingers, trying to get him to move over. It was weird, being on the island for over a year now, the people she knew, the ones she felt comfortable with. Meeting Jeff at that party all those months ago, she never would have expected him to be one of those people. But there they were.
"Move over so I can test this shit out, too," she said, nudging him again. "You're not really like my dad, don't worry. My dad's... I don't know. I was pissed at him when I ended up here 'cause he wouldn't let me do something kinda stupid, so maybe you're a little bit like him."
He raised an eyebrow in her direction, but did shift over to give her room to get on. No sense in not testing how well it'd hold up with two people on it when the opportunity is there.
"What were you trying to do?" he asked, not touching the whole 'maybe they're alike' thing. Jeff'd been given the strange role before with the study group, and he was about as good as it then as he would be now: awful.
"I was dressing up in a skimpy costume to go to a comic book store and make men pay me money to take pictures of me," Kate answered, settling down beside Jeff on the hammock, careful not to set it rocking too much. Given that he'd pretty much saved her ass the other day, she didn't think it would be a good idea to make him fall out of the hammock.
"So I was pretty much a hooker. But without showing anyone my boobs," she made sure to clarify. That was important. It might have been close to prostitution, given what was happening, but no one saw her naked. "My dad didn't like that."
"I can't imagine why," he said, dryly. He probably wouldn't call it a hooker either, admittedly, though that was probably as close to one the people who were going to pay her would ever get to something like it. "Was it that same costume from that video you showed me, or worse?"
"The same one," she said, pushing off the ground gently with her toes, setting the hammock rocking both and forth. "And I didn't even get there, anyway. There was this huge tornado and then I was here."
She smirked a little, looking over at Jeff. "Practically a real life Dorothy, huh? From Kansas to this place on a tornado. Sort of. I mean, I wasn't trapped in it or anything."
"And here I was going to ask if you landed on anyone when you came here," he snorted. And he thought the last thing he remembered was bad. "I was in a paintball contest before I showed up here, running from a paint bomb armed to our possibly insane Asian Spanish professor. It was a different kind of interesting."
He was pretty sure that ought to be Greendale's motto most days.
"The same one your friend Abed was in?" she asked, leaning against her arm and looking over at Jeff. As far as her tendency to do stupid things went, she'd gotten off pretty easy with this last one. Jeff didn't seem too pissed off at her and Danny had been relatively nice and Harry'd been more interested in what they'd done before the bookshelf burning to seem too upset about the jail.
And then there was the fact that all sorts of friends were arriving on the island. Ones who should be dead, even. Things were kind of great.
"I met him on the path the other day," she explained. "He had a paintball gun."
"So you already met him?" he asked, glancing over at her. It was hard not to be a little worried about releasing someone like him onto an island filled with fictional people, but this place did have a sense of humor. Selfishly, he was pretty glad to see him, bad idea or not. "That apparently was a second paintball competition, a year after I remember last. Greendale has never been known for being very creative with its' events."
Instead, she shuffled back and forth on the path near Jeff's place, trying to decide if she actually wanted to find him or continue to hide. Jail pretty much sucked and she'd done her best to avoid both Jeff and Danny in the following days, but she'd have to talk to him eventually. Now was as good a time as any.
"Nice hammock," she said, a faint, uncomfortable smile on her face.
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"You'd be amazed how much work someone would put in for one nice shirt," he said in response, shifting so he wasn't reclining quite as much. He wasn't all that great with this kind of thing himself, which was why he hadn't exactly been seeking her out afterwards. After a moment, he cleared his throat and asked, "How's it going?"
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Kate paused, then smiled a little and said, "Not to mention the fancy disappearing act you pulled with the matches. No evidence."
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He was pretty sure he still had the matches, too, somewhere in his hut. That said, he had no idea if she was looking for an apology for the first part of what she mentioned, because that definitely wasn't going to happen. He'd have had to basically put all the responsibility of her well-being on himself, which would've probably ended very, very badly.
"So he did write you up?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. She was on something, sure, but that was all that cop knew about. From everything he'd seen, using drugs wasn't against the law here. "I could talk to him if you want, get that erased for you."
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Nice or not, it still hadn't been fun, but she was sure it would have been much worse if Jeff had told Danny about the matches. He probably would've yelled at her a lot more.
"I guess I sorta owe you an apology, huh?" she asked. "For being kind of a crazy bitch."
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"Don't worry about it," he said, waving off the apology. Maybe if it'd been set off by something else, he'd be a little less lenient about it. But he knew why it set her off, and he could be an asshole sometimes, but he wasn't that bad to make her feel bad about it. "The bookshelf is a pain in the ass on good days. I'm surprised you're the first one I've heard of that wanted to literally torch it. Just try to not carry around potentially dangerous objects the next time to decide to go partying. It'll save a lot of trouble in the long run."
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"It was stupid, but, um... thanks," she continued. "You know, for stopping me from doing anything too dumb and for being so cool about it." Kate was sure there were plenty of people who might have found her who wouldn't have been half as good as Jeff had been. Even if she'd bee pissed off at the time, she knew that he'd done her a favour.
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He just shrugged then, because really, what he'd done wasn't that big a deal. "It's not a big deal. But hey, you can always owe me a favor in the future if you want to repay me."
The grin he shot her after was, at least, a good hint that he was kidding. Mostly.
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"Move over so I can test this shit out, too," she said, nudging him again. "You're not really like my dad, don't worry. My dad's... I don't know. I was pissed at him when I ended up here 'cause he wouldn't let me do something kinda stupid, so maybe you're a little bit like him."
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"What were you trying to do?" he asked, not touching the whole 'maybe they're alike' thing. Jeff'd been given the strange role before with the study group, and he was about as good as it then as he would be now: awful.
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"So I was pretty much a hooker. But without showing anyone my boobs," she made sure to clarify. That was important. It might have been close to prostitution, given what was happening, but no one saw her naked. "My dad didn't like that."
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She smirked a little, looking over at Jeff. "Practically a real life Dorothy, huh? From Kansas to this place on a tornado. Sort of. I mean, I wasn't trapped in it or anything."
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He was pretty sure that ought to be Greendale's motto most days.
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And then there was the fact that all sorts of friends were arriving on the island. Ones who should be dead, even. Things were kind of great.
"I met him on the path the other day," she explained. "He had a paintball gun."
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