Room 511, Saturday Evening

[thatsamilkshake]

If Francine had made it back to the island in time for the Welcome Picnic, anybody who didn't know her might well have mistaken her for one of the new students, considering the number of boxes and bags she was laden down with.

But no, she'd been here more than a semester now, and the packages were just the debris of a Peters family Christmas, divided about half and half between wearable and edible. Her flight got in late enough that by the time she hit her room and offloaded at least enough packages to start pulling off three layers of mom-knitted outerwear, Francine was way too...... flooooooooph to consider heading down to what was left of the picnic.

It was a happy kind of flooooooph, though, as she set about trying to sort things into Hang Up, Give Out, Eat, or Drop Off At The Thrift Shop And Tell Grandma It Burned In Freak Closet-Fire.

The door was propped open with a couple of neatly-wrapped boxes as she moved around the room, humming cheerfully.

[OOC: Open to oldbies, newbies, roomies, and pretty much anything that ends in ies except mummies because NO.]

Comments

[thatsamilkshake]

"That's what my mom would have given you if she'd known you were here?" No. No, it's not.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo raised one eyebrow at her in the universally recognized 'yeah, not buying that' look. "Franciiiiiiiiiiiine . . ."

What? She wanted her present.

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine grinned and shifted a pile of new jeans from the end of her bed. Lo and behold, a package a bit bigger than a shoebox was revealed, wrapped in red and white paper that was plastered in uber-jolly Coco-Cola Santa Claus faces and tied up with a fussy red ribbon.

"Here you go. Merry Christmas!"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

It's not that Katchoo could see the size tag on said pile of jeans, and she wasn't looking anyway; even if she'd been inclined to peek there was some incredibly cheerful wrapping paper demanding her immediate attention.

"Geez, Francie," she said, staring at the package, "what did you put in there, a fruitcake of doom or something?"

She was, it should be noted, grinning ear to ear, a look that would probably scare just about anyone else in the dorms.

[thatsamilkshake]

"Mayyyyyybe," Francine answered, not remotely disturbed.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"It's kind of huge." Katchoo eyed the box some more. "You sure that one's mine?"

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine nodded, ponytail bouncing. "Ooooooopen it!"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Okay, okay, geez, lay off the caffeine a little, will ya?" The bounciness was kind of infectious, though not "infections," WTF fingers, and Katchoo was grinning as she tore into the wrapping paper.

Not quite so much once she got the wrapping paper off, and just kind of gaped at the box.

"Francie! An . . . alarm clock?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"Uh-huh." Francine smiled. "'Cause yours seem to keep breaking all the time. This one's supposed to be super-durable."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Super-durable," said Katchoo, and who knew Francine's superpower was making Katchoo's voice do that otherwise-impossible weak-and-faltering thing? "Wow, Francine, you, uh -- you shouldn't have, really!" she concluded with a too-bright smile.

Also, lots of internal flailing.

[thatsamilkshake]

"Of course I should have!" Francine insisted, blissfully unaware of what she'd let that poor clock in for. Sort of. "When you love somebody it's your duty to make sure they get to class on time at least once a week!"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Francie, if you love me you should let me sleep through all my classes," Katchoo half protested, but even if that poor clock was in for a rough life of it the gesture wasn't lost on her. So that would be Katchoo going in for a hug again.

[thatsamilkshake]

"If you did that, you might flunk out!" Francine protested, perfectly happy with the hug option.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, that'd be such a loss to the academic world," quipped Katchoo. Who was, it might be noted, still glomping. "Missed you, you goof."

[thatsamilkshake]

"It'd be a loss to the Francine community!" Francine said, bonking her forehead lightly against Katchoo's. "I missed you too."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo grinned up -- and up -- at Francine. "I oughta send your mom flowers for letting you come back, except that would kinda defeat the purpose." She had a feeling Francine would start to wonder if she didn't actually take the clock (*gulp*) out of the box soon, though, and disengaged herself to start the next phase of gift-opening.

". . . it has wheels?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"And a little face!" Francine clapped. "Isn't it cute?"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"It's somethin', all right." Katchoo wouldn't have said 'cute.' It reminded her of one of those roadsters with the round headlights and the gleaming oval chrome grill that looked, in the rearview mirror, like it was coming up behind you to bite you in the ass.

It also seemed to be on, already, and not blinking 12:00. "Batteries included, apparently."

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine looked closer at it. "Really? I bought some but I didn't put them in. I guess you have extras now."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

And then the clock beeped at her. Not a beep so much as a shrill alarm blare, but just for a second. And with attitude.

Katchoo stared at it. "I'm already awake, you know."

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine laughed and patted it on the... well, on the top, which was sort of like a head, since it had a face. "Aww. It's just saying hi!"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

The clock beeped now, an actual beep that sounded much friendlier than the noise it had made a few moments ago.

"Just saying hi, she says, like it's normal for clocks to do that," she muttered.

Bzzzzzt! The clock, apparently offended, wriggled its way out of Katchoo's hands and hit the floor, where it proceeded to drive around her feet in circles.

"Um."

[thatsamilkshake]

"That's what the wheels are for!" Francine explained. Except for how that explained nothing except the obvious, that they were for driving around Katchoo's feet in circles while beeping indignantly.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo started to aim a kick at the clock and caught herself halfway when it hit her that kicking her Christmas present was probably not the best thing to do in front of the person who'd given it to her. (She couldn't help it; hitting clocks was a habit.)

Of course, the end result of this was Katchoo on her back on the floor with a clock rolling up to her head and going bzzzzzzzzzzt in her face. For a standard alarm clock noise, it sounded alarmingly *rimshot* like a raspberry.

"I'm pretty sure none of these features were listed on the box."

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine tried not to laugh as she offered Katchoo a hand up. Reeeeally.

"Well, it did say 'New and Exciting Abilities!' "