Room 508, Thursday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy adored Christmas, a fact that likely surprised no one on the island. She also really, really enjoyed getting ready for Christmas--the baking, the decorating, the shopping, even the wrapping. This year, she'd pulled out all the stops, even going so far as to hunt down a real live tree small enough to bring back to the dorms and put up. She'd never had a real tree before; her mother not a fan of the idea of needles falling on the carpet and her father declaring that the pine smell made him sneeze. But this year, in her room, she was going to have a real tree, even if it was only about as tall as she was and almost as thin.

...In retrospect, she probably should have asked Raven if it were okay for her to get a tree, but she'd seen it while out Christmas shopping and had been too excited by the idea of having a real tree that she'd just splurged.

If having a tree wasn't exciting enough, there had been a large package waiting for her in the lobby; a present wrapped specifically in birthday-themed paper (with Do not open till Tuesday, nerd! scrawled in black sharpie on the side). She knew she's have an extra present or two under the plastic tree back home from her parents as a nod to her birthday, but Sarah always made it a point to keep Kathy's birthday and Christmas presents separate. She had the best little sister, she really did.

So now, tree safely ensconced in their room (and lugging a tree across the island and up five flights of stairs had been a workout, she'd earned this damn tree), Kathy was blaring Christmas carols, singing along while she strung up lights and other decorations around the room. Her gift was still on the bed, next to a small pile of presents she'd bought and wrapped for her friends. Those would be going under the tree as soon as she finished decorating that.

Yeah, it was final's week, with random mistletoe flying about and no chance for snow for her last Christmas on the East Coast, but none of that mattered now. It was still Christmas.

Comments

[tigerundercover]

Please, Raven grew up in the era of Norman Rockwell. If anything, she'd say there wasn't enough fake snow on that tree. Or tinsel!

"Festive! Is that Fandom's or your addition?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Maybe she was also allergic! Kathy didn't know! Kathy also hadn't taken the time to find out, because tree.

"Hi hi!" she said said, literally bouncing up to wave at her roommate. "You like it? It's ours! I bought it! Help me decorate!"

It was Christmas and Kathy was abusing exclamation points.

[tigerundercover]

Raven laughed, dropping her purse and her standard outdoor shape before coming to stand next to Kathy and get a good look at the tree. "It's cute," she said. "The Xaviers usually have one that's about thirty feet tall and covered in expensive matching ornaments we're not allowed to touch." She tilted her head. "Can we cover this one in random goofy stuff?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Well, I only grabbed a few ornaments at the store, so we're pretty much stuck using whatever goofy stuff we have on hand and anything we can craft."

There was a Hobby Lobby on the island. They could probably get a good deal on popsicle sticks, shiny beads, and glitter-glue right now.

"Besides, this is our tree. We can put whatever we want on it!"

[tigerundercover]

"And rearrange it and play with it as much as we like." Raven might be thinking of turning into a cat and climbing it, like the videos on the internet.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy knew her roomie well enough that that statement earned a side-eye. "Mmmhmm, and what are you planning?" she asked fondly.

[tigerundercover]

"Let's just agree that non-breakable ornaments might be a good idea," Raven said, grinning.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy heaved a large, entirely fake sigh. "Fair warning, I find you hiding in the tree as a tiny...whatever...I will tie ribbons around you. You will be the most festive ever."

[tigerundercover]

Raven giggled. "You say that like it'd stop me."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy laughed with her. "Yeah, I'm pretty much pouring sugar on the ground in order to keep ants away, aren't I?"

[tigerundercover]

"Well, that's just silly. You're supposed to use baking soda."

[spin_kick_snap]

"That's my point, my threat was just about as effective," Kathy said, still laughing. "...Does that work? Baking soda? Really?"

[tigerundercover]

Raven shrugged. "The Xavier manor was above anything so base as an ant problem," she said, rolling her eyes hard. "And around here the ants are probably armed. Or students."

[spin_kick_snap]

"We are not bringing ants into this room just to spite your Xavier upbringing and on the off-chance they're students," Kathy declared. "Room rules."

[tigerundercover]

"Why Kathy!" Raven said, feigning shock. "Are you . . . anti-ant?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Yes," Kathy agreed, folding her arms and looking Very Stern. "I am unabashedly anti-ant. Heck, I'm anti-insect and anti-arachnid all the way around."

[tigerundercover]

"Aw," Raven said. "I like spiders. They found a new one last year and named it 'sparkle muffin'."

Or so the internet told her, at least.

[spin_kick_snap]

"They did what with the what now?" Kathy asked, confused. She generally didn't go around looking up spiders on the internet. That way led to pictures of Australia.

[tigerundercover]

Raven, on the other hand, went deliberately looking for pictures of 'monstrous' and 'scary' things that were beautiful. So she found a lot of spider articles. "They're peacock spiders. They're tiny and brightly colored and they do mating dances!"

[spin_kick_snap]

"And if I were another peacock spider, I'm sure I'd be very impressed," Kathy said wryly. "But I'm not, so they can keep themselves and their dances far away from me."

[tigerundercover]

"They're totally harmless," Raven protested. "And they help keep the insect population down."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'd prefer to keep both the spider and the insect population of our room at zero," Kathy said. "They can do what they want outside. That's fair. But in here? I'd really rather they stayed away."

[tigerundercover]

"Alright," Raven agreed. She decided not to point out that that was basically impossible. "They don't come in here and we won't bother them. I'm sure they'll see that's perfectly fair."

[spin_kick_snap]

Shhh. Kathy knew that and Kathy was perfectly happy with her delusions. You had to have delusions when you lived in a huge city and still liked to pretend that you were miles away from the closest cockroach or silverfish.

"Exactly!" Kathy said, nodding. "And if you turn into a giant bug just to mess with me, I'll never watch another movie filmed before 1975 again."

[tigerundercover]

"No weird Kafkaesque pranks, promise," Raven said. They'd barely even scratched the surface of Hollywood's golden age, after all! "But I do look at pictures of them all the time, so don't look over my shoulder when I'm on my computer if you don't want to see them."