Living on Your Own, Friday, Period 1

[tyler_gone]

The group met in a classroom equipped with cooking equipment, and the teacher was wearing an incongruous frilly pink apron that his face dared the class to say something about.

He was teaching home ec. May as well look the part.

After the students were assembled, Tyler began to talk.

"So this is Living on Your Own, or, as I seem to keep calling it when I'm trying to explain what it is, guerilla home ec. We'll talk about some kind of practical stuff -- finding a place, getting a job -- and also about stuff like cooking and enough housekeeping to keep your house from getting declared a fire hazard."

"My name is Tyler Durden. Call me Tyler, call me Mr. Durden, whatever works. As for how I am qualified to teach this, I've been basically on my own since I was 14 and I'm in one piece." He was ignoring the time he'd spent in state custody, yes. "If you need me outside class hours, my office hours are Mondays. Your TA is Meg Manning."

"This week, we're going to make soap. It's a little harder than most of what we'll do, but I figure you may as well dive right in. Plus I like making soap. Really it's a basic project -- rendered fat, lye, cold water and that's it. You can add scents or color if you want to. Supplies and directions are at the workstations. Lye's nothing to screw around with, so please, wear rubber gloves and work together if you don't know what you're doing."

"But before we start on the soap, I'd like to do that introductions thing. Name, age, experience living on your own, and" -- he smiled for the first time -- "who you would fight out of anyone, living or dead. Fictional figures included."

Comments

Re: Introductions [7/11]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Funny how Katchoo had a nice side that pretty much only came out around Francine -- well, now, anyway. She rolled her eyes and nudged Francine lightly. "Your mom needs her eyes checked. You look fantastic."

Re: Introductions [7/11]

[thatsamilkshake]

"Please, I look like somebody who's been eating her weight in s'mores for two months." Francine rolled her eyes, which apparently shook loose her ability to focus on more than just Katchoo's sheer presence in the room. She frowned. "You don't, though."

Re: Introductions [7/11]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo glanced down at her hands, much more tanned than they'd been the last time she'd seen Francine, and thought for a moment about how she was probably a little less scrawny under the jacket than she had been, certainly less bruised. "It's been . . . kind of busy the past two years," she mumbled.

Re: Introductions [7/11]

[thatsamilkshake]

"So busy you forgot to eat?" Beat. "Wait, what? Last two years? You weren't this skinny last fall."

Re: Introductions [7/11]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Last fall?" Katchoo stared at her -- well, it would be staring if not for the rapid blinking of bwuh-HUH, and suddenly the questions about 'when are you from' in Professor Suresh's class the other day made a lot more sense. "Wait. When was the last time you saw me?"

Dumb question on one level, but in the realm of Fandom weirdness it was a lot more legitimate.

Re: Introductions [7/11]

[thatsamilkshake]

That blinking was not an isolated event. "What do you mean? Right after my birthday. After..." There were things not to say in a classroom where anybody could hear you. "You know. And then you went off to Columbus, and you didn't write or anything and I didn't even know if you made it there ok and it's been months." Now that the initial happy shock was fading (though not by much), a tiny, tiny bit of the frustration seeped out.

Re: Introductions [7/11]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

There weren't many things that could trigger a massive wave of insta-guilt in Katchoo. Probably the top item on the short list was standing in front of her.

Which was why she made up her mind right then and there that Francine couldn't know the truth about what she'd been up to. Ironic, that; go figure.

Katchoo glanced around the classroom; luckily, people didn't seem to be paying them much mind, but you didn't work for the lesbian mafia without learning a thing or two about discretion.

"Yeah. I'm really sorry about that. I meant to write." But 'Hi, guess what, I'm a homeless alcoholic' isn't what you want to see on a postcard. "Look, Francine, maybe we should talk about this some other time? Not here," she added, gesturing vaguely at the class.

She'd need a day or two to come up with a cover story, since she hadn't been anticipating needing one in the first place.

Re: Introductions [7/11]

[thatsamilkshake]

Much as she wanted to know what was going on and why Katchoo was here, Francine knew she was right - this wasn't the place. Besides, none of that could manage to overshadow the goofy smile that kept wanting to break across her face because... Katchoo was here. And by wanting to, we really mean 'did.'

She nodded, but then there was, "I missed you so much," and remember the thing about speedy squishing?

Re: Introductions [7/11]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo would have remembered the thing about speedy squishing if she'd had time, but well, see above re: speedy. Well, it wasn't as if she was complaining.

"Missed you too, Francie," was what she said, muffled as it might have been in Francine's shoulder. "Really did."