Overland Park, KS, Early Thursday Evening
It had been the best afternoon ever. In the history of all afternoons since the beginning of time.
Or maybe Kate was exaggerating, just a touch. Either way, after dressing up as a winged superheroine, she'd spent the rest of her afternoon posing for Lynda who'd been inspired to start a new Princess Valhalla painting. (Inspired! By Kate! How awesome was that?) Not exactly a hardship, even if the sword that completed the pose was fucking heavy.
Even if she didn't have much to do there other than lounge around in her princess boots which Lynda had allowed her to bring home with her along with the entire costume. In addition to admiring those, she busied herself with her glass pipe, smoking some more of the fabulous weed that Ricky had so graciously provided her with. People with too much money they didn't care about were kind of awesome.
Marshall had wandered into her room through the bathroom, and was currently busy raising his eyebrows at Lynda's check. "Five thousand bucks, holy crap."
Meanwhile, Kate was kind of busy with her pipe. "This shit is biblical," she said, having released a puff of smoke. Biblical. No other word for it. A lazy smirk on her face, she stuck her hand out towards her brother, pipe and lighter cradled in her palm. "Here. I'll smoke you out."
And Marshall was predictably lame about it. "Mm, I'm not into weed," he said, lips twisting with doubt. "Makes me like action movies."
"Well, you're not into girls, but you're not letting that stop you," Kate pointed out, drawing her hand away and raising her eyebrows at him. "How is your beard, anyway? You guys boning?"
He just looked at her, silent and awkward. So, she drew her own conclusions. "Way to go, trick," she smirked with surprised admiration. It was good he was getting something out of that little wannabe hetero thing of his, right? She thought so, at least, as she flopped back down onto her pillows with an almost pleased smile.
It was possible he didn't share her opinion on the matter, though. "Gimme that," he said, reaching for her pipe, as if that would help him change the subject even quicker. "What are you gonna do with all that money?"
"I only get five per cent," Kate replied, shrugging. She'd already been joyful over the 250 dollars once before, and it seemed a little more meaningless for other reasons too, now. "Or I might just rip it up."
This idea seemed to surprise him quite a lot. "Why?"
"Because," she began, turning to share her wisdom with Marshall while he was bringing the pipe to his lips, "I like my new friends more than I like numbers on a piece of paper."
"But if you don't turn it in, won't you get in trouble?"
Ugh, why'd he have to be so boring about this? "Dude, take another hit," she said, stretching out on her bed. "Heterosexuality is stressing you out."
Marshall followed her advice, then he looked like there was something on his mind. "Can I ask you something? Uh, what does 'dogs in a bathtub' mean?"
... Kate? Kate just looked away and laughed.
.....
And laughing was like a running theme for a while after that. Whether it changed his cinematic preferences or not, Marshall was not averse to a few more hits. Or several. Like, smoking up the whole room kind of several. They were just engaged in some highly intellectual conversation ("Hi, how high are you?" "I'm fine ma'am, how high are you?") when there was a knock on the door, and their mother's voice calling for them.
"Come on out you two, we're going on an adventure!"
Cue scrambling around for Febreze and trying to get the smooke to go out the window. All the while trying to sound sober and excited.
.....
And even though it turned out to be not quite super excitement worthy, as far as surprise adventure thingies went, it was still pretty cool. Pun intended, since their destination was Paul Bunyan's ice skating rink. Kate couldn't even remember when she'd been skating last.
And she knew she'd never been skating high before. And for the record, the ice chips carved by the skaters' blades tasted nice and cold. Kate knew because she checked. A couple of times.
It was fun, this whole skating thing, swooshing around on ice to funky '70s tunes. Or, it was fun until someone turned the music down and everyone slowed to a stop (or, as in Kate's question, skittered unsteadily to a halt and bumping into her aunt Charmaine), all gazing up at the DJ's booth. A woman's voice came on the loudspeakers. She sounded a little distraught, almost like she'd been crying, and Kate felt sorry for her. This was a happy place, she should be happy! Maybe she should skate. And taste the ice.
"I didn't wanna... do this, but you know, you only go around one time in this life, and sometimes it's speak now or forever hold your peace, so, I'm gonna speak now because I've been holding it all my life."
Oh, sweet. It was gonna be some sort of cute confession, maybe? Oh, ooh, maybe someone was getting proposed to?
"Buck I love you. I love you."
.....
From that point on, it was just noise to Kate, a kind of a dull but grating drone that felt like it went on forever. And ever and ever and ever.
.....
Nothing really registered with her until the noise had gone away and the music had been turned up again and everyone else around them had resumed their skating. Only the Gregsons (and their lone friend the Craine) seemed to have stayed frozen on the ice. Her mother skated a little further away from them, but her father caught up with her.
"All I've ever done is be good to you. That's all I've ever done, just be good to you."
And then they watched him skate away.
.....
A moment later, Kate and Marshall had broken themselves out of their trance enough to start skating again. Aimlessly, drifting, staring ahead, but side by side.
Kate sighed. "Hot dog!" she said, almost idly. Nothing felt real. Or, this felt real, and everything that had come before didn't. "Everything's going normal."
And she felt... far away from it all. Which was exactly like her brother sounded, too. "I guess we really shouldn't be surprised," he said, mildly resigned.
Their aunt skated up behind them. "Come on, you guys," she said, trying for soft and supportive. "Look on the bright side." But Marshall and Kate said nothing. Kate wasn't sure that she'd even heard Charmaine, that the word had even ever been there. It was a funny feeling. She kept on staring ahead.
"Okay," Charmaine said, harshly. "Don't." She skated away. The siblings were unaffected. They kept skating.
"Now, to answer your question," Kate began, after a moment of silence, "the dogs are your balls, and the bathtub is --"
It wasn't as if they were going to discuss the way their family life had just imploded again.
[ooc: NFB, NFI, OOC-okay, and still nabbed and tweaked from USoT S02E03 'The Truth Hurts'. Yes, this is the part that name refers to. Also, that phrase you might want to Google after reading this? Don't.]
Or maybe Kate was exaggerating, just a touch. Either way, after dressing up as a winged superheroine, she'd spent the rest of her afternoon posing for Lynda who'd been inspired to start a new Princess Valhalla painting. (Inspired! By Kate! How awesome was that?) Not exactly a hardship, even if the sword that completed the pose was fucking heavy.
Even if she didn't have much to do there other than lounge around in her princess boots which Lynda had allowed her to bring home with her along with the entire costume. In addition to admiring those, she busied herself with her glass pipe, smoking some more of the fabulous weed that Ricky had so graciously provided her with. People with too much money they didn't care about were kind of awesome.
Marshall had wandered into her room through the bathroom, and was currently busy raising his eyebrows at Lynda's check. "Five thousand bucks, holy crap."
Meanwhile, Kate was kind of busy with her pipe. "This shit is biblical," she said, having released a puff of smoke. Biblical. No other word for it. A lazy smirk on her face, she stuck her hand out towards her brother, pipe and lighter cradled in her palm. "Here. I'll smoke you out."
And Marshall was predictably lame about it. "Mm, I'm not into weed," he said, lips twisting with doubt. "Makes me like action movies."
"Well, you're not into girls, but you're not letting that stop you," Kate pointed out, drawing her hand away and raising her eyebrows at him. "How is your beard, anyway? You guys boning?"
He just looked at her, silent and awkward. So, she drew her own conclusions. "Way to go, trick," she smirked with surprised admiration. It was good he was getting something out of that little wannabe hetero thing of his, right? She thought so, at least, as she flopped back down onto her pillows with an almost pleased smile.
It was possible he didn't share her opinion on the matter, though. "Gimme that," he said, reaching for her pipe, as if that would help him change the subject even quicker. "What are you gonna do with all that money?"
"I only get five per cent," Kate replied, shrugging. She'd already been joyful over the 250 dollars once before, and it seemed a little more meaningless for other reasons too, now. "Or I might just rip it up."
This idea seemed to surprise him quite a lot. "Why?"
"Because," she began, turning to share her wisdom with Marshall while he was bringing the pipe to his lips, "I like my new friends more than I like numbers on a piece of paper."
"But if you don't turn it in, won't you get in trouble?"
Ugh, why'd he have to be so boring about this? "Dude, take another hit," she said, stretching out on her bed. "Heterosexuality is stressing you out."
Marshall followed her advice, then he looked like there was something on his mind. "Can I ask you something? Uh, what does 'dogs in a bathtub' mean?"
... Kate? Kate just looked away and laughed.
.....
And laughing was like a running theme for a while after that. Whether it changed his cinematic preferences or not, Marshall was not averse to a few more hits. Or several. Like, smoking up the whole room kind of several. They were just engaged in some highly intellectual conversation ("Hi, how high are you?" "I'm fine ma'am, how high are you?") when there was a knock on the door, and their mother's voice calling for them.
"Come on out you two, we're going on an adventure!"
Cue scrambling around for Febreze and trying to get the smooke to go out the window. All the while trying to sound sober and excited.
.....
And even though it turned out to be not quite super excitement worthy, as far as surprise adventure thingies went, it was still pretty cool. Pun intended, since their destination was Paul Bunyan's ice skating rink. Kate couldn't even remember when she'd been skating last.
And she knew she'd never been skating high before. And for the record, the ice chips carved by the skaters' blades tasted nice and cold. Kate knew because she checked. A couple of times.
It was fun, this whole skating thing, swooshing around on ice to funky '70s tunes. Or, it was fun until someone turned the music down and everyone slowed to a stop (or, as in Kate's question, skittered unsteadily to a halt and bumping into her aunt Charmaine), all gazing up at the DJ's booth. A woman's voice came on the loudspeakers. She sounded a little distraught, almost like she'd been crying, and Kate felt sorry for her. This was a happy place, she should be happy! Maybe she should skate. And taste the ice.
"I didn't wanna... do this, but you know, you only go around one time in this life, and sometimes it's speak now or forever hold your peace, so, I'm gonna speak now because I've been holding it all my life."
Oh, sweet. It was gonna be some sort of cute confession, maybe? Oh, ooh, maybe someone was getting proposed to?
"Buck I love you. I love you."
.....
From that point on, it was just noise to Kate, a kind of a dull but grating drone that felt like it went on forever. And ever and ever and ever.
.....
Nothing really registered with her until the noise had gone away and the music had been turned up again and everyone else around them had resumed their skating. Only the Gregsons (and their lone friend the Craine) seemed to have stayed frozen on the ice. Her mother skated a little further away from them, but her father caught up with her.
"All I've ever done is be good to you. That's all I've ever done, just be good to you."
And then they watched him skate away.
.....
A moment later, Kate and Marshall had broken themselves out of their trance enough to start skating again. Aimlessly, drifting, staring ahead, but side by side.
Kate sighed. "Hot dog!" she said, almost idly. Nothing felt real. Or, this felt real, and everything that had come before didn't. "Everything's going normal."
And she felt... far away from it all. Which was exactly like her brother sounded, too. "I guess we really shouldn't be surprised," he said, mildly resigned.
Their aunt skated up behind them. "Come on, you guys," she said, trying for soft and supportive. "Look on the bright side." But Marshall and Kate said nothing. Kate wasn't sure that she'd even heard Charmaine, that the word had even ever been there. It was a funny feeling. She kept on staring ahead.
"Okay," Charmaine said, harshly. "Don't." She skated away. The siblings were unaffected. They kept skating.
"Now, to answer your question," Kate began, after a moment of silence, "the dogs are your balls, and the bathtub is --"
It wasn't as if they were going to discuss the way their family life had just imploded again.
[ooc: NFB, NFI, OOC-okay, and still nabbed and tweaked from USoT S02E03 'The Truth Hurts'. Yes, this is the part that name refers to. Also, that phrase you might want to Google after reading this? Don't.]