spin_kick_snap | 33 Apocalypse Ave, Wednesday Morning

By the kindness of fate--or perhaps the influence of Fandom--Kathy had treated herself to a long bath and a book the night before, ending up falling asleep in her own room mere pages from the end up the book. This bit of unexpected luck allowed the Kathy that woke up the following morning to have at least a little while before she was unexpectedly traumatized. At thirteen and still several years before attending Fandom or developing superpowers, this Kathy was a little less trained to roll with the punches.

But for now, she got washed up and dressed, then headed downstairs to make herself a bowl of cereal and some toast before figuring out what to do with the day.

And wow. That was a lot of booze and leftover pizza to shove into one fridge. Huh.

[Open!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

rebelseekspizza

Dante opened his mouth to explain... then decided not to. "Yeah, you seem a little like a freshman version of my girlfriend," he said. "Bet you're gonna wind up just as badass in a few years."

From:

spin_kick_snap

Kathy squeaked again, this time in happiness. She reminded him--a little--of his girlfriend?! He thought she was going to grow up to be badass?! She was almost too happy to correct that clearly untrue assumption.

Almost.

"No, I--" she was blushing. "Umm, thank you? I mean that! But I'm not very--" She shook her head, still smiling though. "I'm just Kathy, nothing special."

Gee, how many times had Dante heard that before?

"But I bet your girlfriend's, like, really cool." He seemed the type to have a really cool girlfriend. And probably beautiful, too, with long blonde curls, and big blue eyes--like a Disney princess, but with curves and a leather jacket or something.

From:

rebelseekspizza

"Hey, I bet you are pretty cool too," Dante said. "Don't sell yourself short, all right?"

Fuck, how to act around a tiny version of your girlfriend. There was a problem he hadn't anticipated. "Anyway, she's called Kathy too." He reached into his pocket for his phone.

From:

spin_kick_snap

"Oh no," Kathy said, shaking her head. "I'm not. Ask anybody in my school. They'd tell you I wasn't. Umm, I mean, if they knew who you were talking about."

She wasn't even the class know it all. (That distinction belonged to Soo Jin Bak). She was just the quiet girl in the corner who spoke only when spoken to first.

"It is? Oh!" Comprehension dawned. "That's why you called me Kat!"

From:

rebelseekspizza

"Kinda look like a tiny version of her too," Dante said, holding out the phone - with a picture of him, Kathy and Anders, hanging out at the beach.

From:

spin_kick_snap

"Woooooooooooooow..." Kathy said, looking at the picture, eyes big. "She does look like me. She could be my big sister!"

No blonde hair. No blue eyes. No giant curves--not even a leather jacket. A bikini, much skimpier than anything Kathy could ever wear, ever, in her life, but she looked comfortable in it. Confident.

Happy.

For the first time in her life--her real life--Kathy looked at a picture of herself and didn't notice the flaws.

From:

rebelseekspizza

"Maybe she's a cousin you didn't know about," Dante said, grinning as he slid the phone back into his pocket. "Anyway, that's why the confusion and shit. You find everything you were looking for?"

From:

spin_kick_snap

"All of my cousins are in Korea," Kathy said automatically, then nodded. "Yessir," she said, more out of politeness' sake. There hadn't been the (sugar-free, healthy) cereal she was used to or the skim milk she'd been searching for, but she'd made due.

"Is she here now?" Kathy asked. "Your girlfriend, I mean?"

From:

rebelseekspizza

"Nah, she's out," Dante said lightly. "She'll be back in a couple of days, tops."

From:

spin_kick_snap

"Maybe I'll still be here when she gets back!" Kathy said, sounding almost excited. "I bet she could teach me about lots of things!"

Like how to be so cool and pretty and Asian-American. At the same time.

"What's she like?" she asked, then ducked her head. "Sorry? Maybe that's rude."

Mr. Dante probably had lots of other things to do.

From:

rebelseekspizza

"It's fine," Dante said, grinning at her. "She's my girlfriend, I like talking about her."

Shh.

"She's really smart and a little nerdy," he said. "Which is kinda cute. She cares like, way too much about all kinds of things 'cause she's got a big heart and a lot of worries. And she's one of the most fun people I know."

From:

spin_kick_snap

Smart? She was smart too? That almost seemed unfair! Kathy bet she had the perfect life, getting good grades and very popular, going out to do something fun every night and coming home the next day to go to school and ace all her tests without even needing to study.

"I bet she makes her parents really proud," she said, a little wistfully. No wonder she didn't need to eat healthy bran cereal and drink skim milk. Her mom probably wasn't always going on about diets and makeup and being pretty while he dad got mad because she got a B in Music again. "Do they, umm, like you?"

From:

rebelseekspizza

"They're dead," Dante said, after a pause. "And they gave her a lot of shit before they died. It fucking sucked, like she couldn't do anything right."

From:

spin_kick_snap

"Ohhhhh," Kathy said, cheeks burning again. "I'm sorry, that was really personal. I, umm, shouldn't have asked."

But she understood how that felt. At least a little. That feeling of trying and trying and never quite making it. "I'm sure they just, umm, had really high standards? You know, so she'd always do her best. Sometimes parents are just, uhh, really bad at showing it?"

From:

rebelseekspizza

"Nah, they sucked," Dante said flatly. "You don't encourage people to get better by making it so they're afraid to breathe wrong, and you sure as fuck don't show someone you love 'em by acting like they're dirt."

Beat.

"Sorry, it pisses me off."

From:

spin_kick_snap

"It--it's okay," Kathy said, nodding. Her hand lifted up, like she was doing to lean over and pat him in reassurance, but then she lost her nerve and it dropped back to the table again. "Family is, umm, hard. Sorry."

Clearly they needed a new topic of conversation.

"So, umm, what's your family like? Do they like your girlfriend?"

Oh. Oh honey no.

From:

rebelseekspizza

Dante made an-- amused. Let's go with amused, noise. "My brother doesn't like anybody," he said. "My mom liked her."

From:

spin_kick_snap

Kathy wasn't going to ask about his dad. She was at least a little tactful!

"Siblings can be difficult," she confided. "My little sister is the worst. And since I'm the big sister, whenever she does something wrong, I get in trouble, too, cause I'm the responsible one."