Room 511, Friday night

[thatsamilkshake]

So. Waiting until Friday night to ask permission to transfer to a new high school when classes start on Monday morning: sign that Francine should have signed up for the 500 level Advanced Procrastination course, or diabolically clever plan the likes of which mere teenagerdom has never seen? Discuss.

Or don't, because shhh. She was about to make a phone call.

Really.

Anytime now.

Oh, crap, it was ringing.

__
[For -- wait for it -- a phone call.]

Comments

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Yes, as a matter of fact, it was ringing, and back in Houston Muffins the tiny yip-yip dog knew the phone was ringing and was yipping right along with it.

So it was possible Francine might have had to strain a little to hear her mother's voice over the sound.

"Hello?" ("Yip-yip! Yip! Yip-yip-yip-yip-yip!")

[thatsamilkshake]

La la la la bright cheery voice. "Hi, Mom!"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Yip-yip-yip! Yip-yip-yip-yip! Yip!

"Hello?" repeated Marie, louder this time. "Muffins, hush -- you'll have to speak up, I can't hear you!"

Muffins, for the record, did not in fact hush.

[thatsamilkshake]

"HI MOM!"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Francine?" This, much louder too, over the omnipresent sound of Muffins. "Honey, is that you?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"Yes, it's me!" Francine shouted. Then palmed her face because wow was that loud. "Can you put Muffins down so I don't have to yell?"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"What was that, honey? Oh -- oh, of course! Muffins, go play over there for a little while, there's a good doggie," Marie cooed, as much as you could coo that loudly.

When the yipping had subsided to a slightly more bearable background noise, she asked, "How are you, sweetheart? It's almost time for you to come home, isn't it?"

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine winced. "Um. About that..."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"It'll be so good to see my little girl again!" Marie was quite capable of happily pursuing her own train of thought sometimes, particularly when oblivious to wincing on the other end of the phone line. "Your Uncle Maury's visiting by the way. Have you lost much weight, dear? We'll have a big welcome-home feast for you when you get back, how about that?"

[thatsamilkshake]

Which Ben and Dad will either miss or argue at... As for the other... Francine looked down at her bare, shorts-clad legs and sighed. Not really? She had been getting some exercise, 'cause hey, summer camp, walking places, but also, hey, summer camp. Picnics and s'mores.

"Actually I was thinking, that is, um..."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Muffins let out a particularly loud yip in the background.

"Just a small family dinner, then?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"I was thinking maybe we could postpone that a little?"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Now just a bit of a tremor crept into Marie's voice. "Postpone it why, honey? You're going to need to come home soon to be ready in time for school."

[thatsamilkshake]

"Well, til... Thanksgiving, maybe?" Whoa, something somewhere near the point! "I was sort of hoping I could stay for school here. That's what my about that was about. That."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

We pause for a moment of Gobsmacked Silence. Then: "You want to do what?"

[thatsamilkshake]

Cringe. Again. Deep breath. "It's not just a summer camp. They have a school. And the teachers are--" Insane, sometimes fruit, and some of them have wings. "Really great, Mom."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"But Francine, honey." Quite possibly, the fact that Muffins had actually stopped barking for a moment didn't help with the cringing. "It's so far away."

[thatsamilkshake]

You have no idea. "But it'd be kind of a new start. I wouldn't have to go back to Puncture and deal with all that stuff from last year."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Oh, honey," Marie replied. "If you're talking about the whole school seeing you naked, just remember there's a whole new freshman class this year!"

[thatsamilkshake]

*head-lap* "Mrrrrm!" Head de-lapped. "Mooo-om! A whole new freshman class to hear alllll about it from everybody else!"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I'm sure they'll just think it's all a big upperclassman prank," Marie said cheerfully.

[thatsamilkshake]

"Until they see the pictures." She actually wasn't sure if there were pictures, but she lived in fear.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Oh, honey, you know the yearbook staff didn't actually publish those!" exclaimed Marie. "That can't be the only reason you don't want to come home, can it?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"That's not enough?" Headknee headknee headknee. "I like it here, Mom. I made friends..." One of whom she'd already met, but she wasn't going within miles of there.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Probably a good thing to take the around-the-world scenic detour on that detail.

"Nice friends, I hope?"