(Untitled)

[raw_youth]

Dodge was in a reading class and he was working his ass off. It was kind of bullshit because he couldn't smoke or anything, but he had a stack of books that were at his level or whatever. Some of them were kind of cool There were ones where you got to a certain point and you had to pick a thing to happen, then you flipped around in the book. It

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[patriotqueen]

Guy passed Dodge on his way to the coffee machine with a barely audible ‘good morning’. He needed coffee. Strong coffee. Very strong coffee. Preferably nearing poisonous coffee. If there was such a thing as overdosing on coffee, it sounded like a bloody good idea to Guy right now.

He prepared a batch wordlessly, but got tired quickly enough of waiting for it, so he turned around in one swift motion, putting on a smile that did not match the hang-over the rest of his face was suffering.

“What are you reading?” He asked, in an almost sing-song manner.

[raw_youth]

Dodge looked up and grinned.

"A book," he said, unable to keep the smart ass answer from flying from his lips. He was getting quite a mouth on him here now that he didn't have anyone around who was more than happy to clean his clock any time he got sassy.

But most of the time he could catch himself, like now. He dropped his chin a little and tiled his head.

"It's called Lord of the Flies," he said. It's, you know, just a book."

[patriotqueen]

"Ah! A very fitting book to be reading on this island, though I hope you won't take its lessons in grammar to heart," Guy advised and sat down at the table. "Is it coming along?" He asked, casting an eye on the piece of paper.

[raw_youth]

"It's, uh, you know. It's good," he said nonchalantly. "I bet you've read it, huh? I bet you've read them all."

Between Guy and Anthony he was pretty sure he hung around the smartest guys on the island. Not like science smart, but people who actually knew shit. Shit about life and the world and stuff. He couldn't have been a more devoted follower if he'd tried.

[sluttylyingliar]

"Hey babe, what're you reading?" Rachel asks, plopping down across the table with an array of foods. It's always a toss up what's going to make her sick from day to day.

[raw_youth]

"It's called Lord of the Flies. It's about some kids on an island," he said. He sounded damned knowledgeable for only being on page three.

"I just, you know, picked it up. No big deal. How're you doing?" he continued while looking at her food. "Hungry?"

[sluttylyingliar]

"Ah, very appropriate for this place," she snorts. "Survival of the fittest and all that shit."

She delicately bites down on a hunk of mango, pleased when it seems to be staying where it's supposed to. "This fetus is apparently very picky. It's probably already taking after me."

[raw_youth]

Survival of the fittest was something he'd heard of before, but he'd heard it in the context of hustlers who could do the job and those who couldn't. Fagin had told him enough times that he was at the top of the chain or whatever.

"I just started it but it's pretty fuckin' good so far," he said. Then he looked at her...not stomach. More the table since her stomach was beneath it.

"How can a fetus be picky?" he asked.

[wizard_errant]

Dairine's still kind of recovering from having her brain turn into the Data-Eating Monster. She wouldn't have thought it would be that big of a deal, but it turns out learning that much stuff at once is a bit exhausting and she still feels like her head ought to be bigger. Which is obviously ridiculous, but who can help how they feel?

The point is, she's been sticking around home a bit instead of wandering all over the island, digesting all the stuff she 'read'. And now needs a sandwich, because thinking makes a person hungry.

"Hey," she says, conversationally, shuffling past on the way to make said sandwich. She's seen Dodge around a bit, but hasn't really talked to him since he was brand new and smoking inside. "Whatcha reading?"

[raw_youth]

"Oh, uh, you know. Just a book," he shrugged. "Lord of the Flies. I thought it sounded, um, you know...What's up?" he asked, scooting some of his crap out of the way so she could take a seat if she wanted to. He'd kind of taken over the whole table without meaning to. Bad habit.

[wizard_errant]

"It is pretty 'um, you know'," Dairine says, her head half-hidden by the refrigerator door. "Good choice, anyway. Even if it's an object lesson in why kids can't vote." She emerges from the fridge with a bit of meat and cheese and fruit and sets to sandwich-building. "But I should shut up and not spoil it, anyway."

[raw_youth]

Dodge immediately wrote object lesson down on his paper and thought that was something he wouldn't find in the dictionary. He'd have to ask someone.

"You've read it?" he asked. "Is it, you know, hard?"

[phoinikothrix]

Francis entered the kitchen, giving Dodge a brief but friendly wave as he passed the other man's table. Filling a kettle with water, he set it to boil before rummaging around in the cabinets for a mug and some tea.

"What are you working on?" he asked after a moment, walking back towards Dodge's table. "You look rather intent."

[raw_youth]

"Me? Oh, I'm just trying to read a book, man. No big deal," he said, carefully folding his list and using it as a bookmark so Francis wouldn't see his long list of shit he needed to look up.

"What's up? You look good, man," he grinned.

[phoinikothrix]

"Do I?" Francis asked with an answering grin, surprised at the unbidden compliment. "I'm not up to much, really--just getting something to drink before going back to studying."

When the enrollment sheets had gone up for the new island school term, Francis had frankly boggled at the amount and variety of classes on offer. Here, with no Julian to guide his path--or keep him confined to one, more aptly--it was easier, somehow, to let his interests run where they may.

"I didn't mean to disturb your reading. Is it good so far, I hope?"

[raw_youth]

"I'm only on the third page, man. You didn't disturb anything," he replied amiably. He had a lax approach to studying- this was just reading for the fun and frustration of it and he had no issue with closing the book so he could lean back in a comfortable slouch.

"What are you studying? You're probably taking, uh, brainy classes and shit, huh?" he asked casually.

[liliesfromluce]

Luce is giving him a bit of attention -- mostly because she knows that he and Anthony are close and she's a soft spot in her heart for Anthony (a part of her can't help but compare him to Edie). "What are you reading?" she asks, inclining a nod towards the book with her chin. "Is it any good?"

[raw_youth]

"It's, uh, Lord of the Flies. I just started it but it's good so far. Plane crashed and some kid has asthma...that's about as far as I've gotten," he said, sounding casual. "Have you read it?"

[liliesfromluce]

"I think I read it about two decades ago, which only tells you how very old I am," Luce says with a rueful smile. She's never really minded being older, but there are times when her childhood seems so far away. "Are you liking it? The book, that is?"

[raw_youth]

"It's okay so for. I'm not that far into it yet. They just crashed," he replied. Since that happened on page one it said just how little he had read, but Dodge was cool. He said it like he might have been halfway done rather than just beginning.

"You're not that old," he scoffed, really looking at her. "Not, like, twenty years ago old. That's bullshit, man."