cafeteria | lunch time | tuesday | 29 september

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After his success with toast last week, Jonas had spent his free time trying his toaster out with a few other things. He'd found that bread worked well but crackers did not. That had been a gigantic mess and Jonas had felt sheepish enough to not touch the toaster for a few days.

But, he'd gotten over that and tried bread again, this time adding peanut butter once the bread had been toaster and packing it for a lunch. So, that's where he was now, prodding experimentally at the sandwich and wondering if he should eat the apple first. The apple was green, something he hadn't seen before but he'd been assured it was ripe.

Food examination and consumption was a lengthy process for Jonas but he enjoyed it. Food was a small but integral part of his memory that he was building.

[cafeteria's open, yep]

Comments

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

"It's not going to bite you." Diana informed the random guy she didn't know as she came into the cafeteria and headed over to study the food for level's of eatability.

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Jonas looked up and laughed a little, still feeling sheepish. "I didn't think it would. I made it myself. I'm just hesitant to eat it."

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

Diana nodded sagely and ignored the falling herbs near her. "That's always a good reason to be hesitant. Wha'd you do to it?"

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"Toasted the bread," he provided, picking it up and, once again, testing the how toasted bread felt different than untoasted. "And there's peanut butter on it. That's all I did. But, it's the first time I've done something like that."

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

"That's not that dangerous." Diana decided and came over with a tray of fruit and what she was pretty sure was a salad. "Unless the peanut butter split or turned or something."

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"It's just the first time I've ever cooked something myself," he said even if all he'd done was toasted the bread and applied peanut butter. "I know it's not dangerous. I'm just hesitant in case I've done it wrong."

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

"Ooooh." Diana sat down across the table. Asking if she could? Nah! "It looks edible."

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"It does," he agreed with a nod. "And if I let it sit too long, the heat will all go away, defeating the purpose of toasting it. I suppose it can't be too awful though. It doesn't smell bad."

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

"There you go." Diana said and shoved a glass of water at Jonas. "And if it does taste bad, have some water."

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"Thank you," he said and took a breath before taking a bite. The mixture of peanut butter and toasted bread made it both crunchy and sticky but it didn't taste bad at all.

He finished chewing before laughing and saying, "I don't know why I was worried. I apologize for my complaining. I should have just eaten it."

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

Diana blinked. "Erm, why are you apologizing?"

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Caught slightly off guard, Jonas didn't have an immediate answer. "I tend to apologize for possibly disrupting someone. That's all."

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

"Why? You're a teenager. We don't apologize." Diana blinked a couple of times. "Unless it's really necessary to keep parents from grounding."

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"Grounding?" he asked, shaking his head. "I don't know what that is."

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

Diana was just going to stare. "Dude, nice parents. It's when parents punish kids - usually by taking away some privilege or other or telling them to go to their room. Or sending them off to boarding school."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"That wasn't a method used where I'm from," he explained, shaking his head and almost wincing at the description. "The problem was pointed out, the person apologized, was forgiven and if there was more needed, the parents talked about it with the child. Punishments weren't very prevalent in the Community."

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

Diana was looking at Jonas as if he had grown a second head. "That's just - weird. How does the kid learn not to do something?" A lot of Diana's childhood very suddenly made sense.

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"Education," he provided, not really understanding what she meant. The Community's rules were followed and if they were broken, you knew it and you knew not to do it again. "We all knew the rules and that we were to follow them."