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[raw_youth]

"What's the fuckin' difference between a big T and a little T?" Dodge muttered to himself as he read the book on the counter. There was a pretty picture of a muffin and he was going to make that muffin if it killed him. He'd figured out the C in the recipe meant cups. But a big T and a little T...no fuckin' clue. Tablesppon? Teaspoon? He held a

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[notfaking_it]

"So you just knew I was coming around the corner then," Lily replied, flashing Dodge a grin of her own as she came over to where he had everything set up. She didn't know a hell of a lot about baking herself, but she wasn't sure a person was supposed to use a coffee cup to measure ingredients.

It didn't matter, though. Either they'd turn out or they wouldn't, but Lily sort of hoped they would.

"Are you baking just for the hell of it or is someone going to get a present when this is all over?" she asked.

[raw_youth]

"I'm making them for my reading teacher. She's been working with me and I thought that if I could read a recipe it's prove to her how far I've come," he said with a shy little smile. "So, uh, you know. Whatever. They're just muffins."

[notfaking_it]

"No, whatever," Lily insisted as she looked into the bowl. She'd never made muffins herself, so she was hardly an expert, but she wasn't sure batter was supposed to look like that. "That's sweet of you to make her a present." She couldn't remember ever having brought a teacher a gift, not even for the holidays, though she knew kids had done that sort of thing all the time.

"So what's next? Into the muffin tin?" she asked. "I don't bake, so you know more than me."

[raw_youth]

Dodge checked the recipe and nodded.

"Yeah, into the oven for twenty or twenty five minutes," he said, then started scooping the glop into the pan evenly.

"What're you doing today? Just fuckin' around?"

[notfaking_it]

"Just fuckin' around," Lily agreed, leaning her elbows on the counter to watch Dodge work. It would be nice if they turned out just like the picture and she found herself wishing she knew a little more about baking so that she could tell how they might turn out.

"That's pretty much all there is to do most of the time, isn't there?" she asked, although it was clear she didn't mind.

[raw_youth]

"Most of the time, yeah," he chuckled. "I'm starting to think I should get a job or some shit. I'm getting sick of cleaning up and pulling weeds so I can have a drink, you know? But I don't know what I could do."

He couldn't be a cop, nor did he want to be. Given how touch it had been to make the muffins he wasn't thinking he'd be on the kitchen crew, either. There really wasn't much he was good for when he really thought about it. Not here.

Good thing you didn't have to be good for anything. The place was pretty damned easygoing.

"Hey, let me put these in the oven and we can go out and have a smoke. I just rolled a bunch this morning," he offered.

[notfaking_it]

"There are plenty of things you could do," Lily said as she nodded her agreement for the smoke. "I mean, there's the Children's Office. You could sit and play with little kids all day. Or work in any of the offices or with the building crew or with the livestock, although you won't catch me going near the goats," she admitted.

And although she knew there were plenty of jobs to be had around the island, she was still perfectly content to not work any of them.

[raw_youth]

"All that sounds like actual work. If I wanted a job I'd go talk to Neil about doing something at the Winchester. I could bus tables or something. I never had an honest job like that," he replied. But then he thought for a second and added, "I don't know why anyone has a job when no one gets paid. What's the point of working when there's no money?"

[notfaking_it]

Lily laughed, because he was right. It was all work, which was part of why she didn't do any of it. She didn't have a problem with working, but her job had always been dancing and she saw no reason for that to have to change on the island.

"Something to do, I guess," she answered. "I think people would get bored after awhile if they didn't have anything to do. Go stir crazy and run off into the dinosaur's lair."

[raw_youth]

"When I get bored I go to the playground," he said with a bit of a derisive snort. "I don't need a job to stay entertained. That's stupid. What about you? Bored enough to go find a T-Rex to chase you down?"

[notfaking_it]

"No fucking way," Lily asked, laughing. "When I get bored, I dance." Or she found a party or a bar or someone interested in spending the night. There was all sorts of ways to deal with boredom that didn't involve building anything.

[raw_youth]

"Do you miss it? Dancing like you used to?" Dodge asked quietly. It seemed like home was a delicate topic and he usually avoided it because he didn't want to be asked things in return. But they'd been here for a while and he'd started to really fuckin' miss some things from back home. He wondered if he was the only one.

[notfaking_it]

"I guess I'm lucky, because I can still dance here," she said, but that wasn't what Dodge was asking and she knew it. "I miss being on stage. There's no audience here. I miss that."

She didn't require an audience, but sometimes, she couldn't deny that it was a nice thing to have.

[raw_youth]

"I'll watch you," he offered shyly. "I mean, I know I'm not like a real audience. Like a crowd. But I'd clap..."

He didn't know a damn thing about dancing but he knew that whatever Lily did would be amazing. She was fuckin' great and she obviously loved to dance. She had to be something good to watch.

[notfaking_it]

Lily grinned, leaning her elbows on the counter top. Trust Dodge to offer something like that and to be so sincere in it. It was probably one of the sweetest things anyone had done for her on the island.

"We'll make a day of it," she said. "We can hang out and eat some amazing food, maybe you could bake us some muffins and then I'll do a solo for you in the studio."

[raw_youth]

"That'd be cool," he replied. "That's a good idea. I, uh, Anthony, he's a friend of mine, we look at art. There's a lot of paintings of ballerinas. Did you know that?"