A Few Blocks From the Hotel, Monday Afternoon

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A Few Blocks From the Hotel, Monday Afternoon

Okay, so no, Topher had no interest in doing any community service work at any time when it involved hard work. If it was a matter of sending an email or some money, you could probably nag him enough to do it, but when it was building houses? Not so much.

However, in an attempt to ~~prove he wasn't a total dick~~ ~~keep the friends he already had~~ show his good side once in a while, he did make a conscious effort to do one nice thing today: He had just purchased Kenzi a shirt to replace the one he'd destroyed. He had absolutely no idea if it would fit her, but it was red and looked like it was made from some quality fabric (it was polyester), so he was pretty pleased with himself today.

Obviously this break would be easy and painless. Hey, maybe later he could convince Peter to stop by his room to play video games or something!

[[For she who knows who she is! And then the other she, who also knows. And then I guess open.]]

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Ramona also had absolutely no interest in doing anything nice for anyone else, and so she was out wandering around to see what else she could find to do while here. And smoking, of course. She was outside.

And then she saw Topher. Topher, who had ruined her clothes. Topher, who she'd been looking for for like, a week.

Topher, who was going to be on the receiving end of the brunt of Ramona's rage issues today.

"Hey."

And that would be Topher freezing in place.

"Hi," he said cautiously.

He did not want to die today. In Canada, no less.

"You shrank my clothes," she commented mildy, stepping closer.

"N-no I didn't," Topher lied, stepping backwards. "That was Ben!"

Sorry, Ben.

"It was not Ben, and you know it," she said, stepping closer again. "Why'd you do it?"

"'Cause... 'cause... 'cause, uh." More stepping back, except crap, there was something solid in the way. "There weren't any other washers free."

"And you ruined my stuff," she snapped, now actually showing that she was mad. And when she saw what he had with him.... "And you're buying girls' clothes? What, to ruin more things?"

"Um." Topher swallowed. "No, I just, uh. I was just... replacingsomethingIwrecked." His voice cracked on that last part, and he held it up. "You can, uh. Have it! If you want."

"...something of mine?" she wondered, because that almost helped.

"N...yeaaaah," Topher lied. Badly.

Oh, Topher, no.

"You're replacing someone else's crap and not mine?" she asked, getting even pissier.

"Um," Topher said, stepping back again and almost tripping over whatever the hell was behind him. "Well. I, uh. I barfed on it."

See, Ramona? Your problems were petty by comparison! Except not really at all.

See, she didn't even believe that, so now she was reaching out to hold the front of his shirt.

So she could hit him in the face with her fist, you see.

OW.

So Topher was going to go ahead and let out a ridiculously girly whimper, then clutch his face where she'd hit him. "Okay! Okay, I deserved that!" he pleaded. "So now... we can just move on! Now that we're all even!"

Please?

Bo, on the non-smitey other hand, had plenty of interest in helping others and besides, making sure the FH kids behaved on the building site was part of her job -- but that started tomorrow, and a free shopping afternoon was a free shopping afternoon. Especially when there was a leather goods shop just around the corner from the hotel.

What she wasn't expecting to find just around the corner from the hotel were two of the aforementioned kids not even waiting until there were power tools to be idiots around. "Hey, you two. What d'you think you're doing?"

(Kind of a rhetorical question, since the girl with the hair dye clearly thought she was about to punch Topher in the face. Again, judging from the clutching.)

Ramona pretty much just dropped Topher, there, yeah. "Nothing?"

Why was that a question?

Topher did not appreciate falling over and having to brace himself on the poor parked car behind him in order to get back up one-handed. Not at all.

"She hit me!" he accused once he was back on his feet, giving absolutely no thought to the possible consequences of snitching.

"I can see that." Which did beg the then why did you ask question, but Bo was looking for a little more context than that. "Why?"

Directed to anybody who would answer, but mostly Ramona, as Bo walked over to check that Topher was okay.

"He ruined my clothes," Ramona said, thinking that this was fairly sad, that she was caught. "And he's a jackass. Like, in general."

"Not recently!" Topher protested, which had to be the all-time worst way to get out of trouble ever.

"The jackassery or the clothes-ruining?" Bo asked dryly, taking a closer look at his face and feeling pretty sure he'd live.

"He's done both to me recently," Ramona sulked, "but the jackassery is constant."

"She -- she -- she is a repeat offender!" Topher accused, pointing. "I have been punched by her several times!"

She was supposed to be acting like the grownup here, wasn't she. So asking him what he'd done to earn the previous ones was probably the wrong way to go.

"Let's stick with the one I can actually see," Bo said to Ramona, "which isn't any less against the rules because you did it off the island when you're on school trip. Were some clothes really worth beating this kid up over?"

Please don't say they were leather or I'll have to agree. Please don't say they were leather or I'll have to agree. Please don't say they were leather or I'll have to agree...

"Yes," she said resolutely. "Tights and jeans and shirts from shows I'll never see again," she added, melodramatic as she glared at Topher.

"See, now, isn't that a little melodramatic?" Topher tried weakly. "There'll be other shows! Lots more! In fact, I hear, uh, those twins are getting a pop star for their birthday party!"

"Just a little," agreed the woman who'd threaten to hunt down and kill whoever was responsible for turning them all into ponies if her boots didn't return to their proper shape when her body did. To say nothing (Bo certainly wouldn't) of the incredibly thin, hole-filled eleven-year-old Carbon Leaf t-shirt shoved in the bottom drawer of her IKEA bureau (his friends call him Kullen) back on the island.

"Then again, why exactly were you shrinking other people's property?"

"Well, you see," Topher said, waving a hand, "My friend and I were gonna learn about how laundry works, 'cause I always get my stuff dry-cleaned and I had to wash Kenzi's shirt regularly 'cause it didn't say dry-clean-only on it when I barfed on it when she got me drunk, but the spray didn't work and then there weren't any machines open so I had to consolidate her stuff since it was all HERS and, let's be fair, it's rude to take up two washers! Rude!" Duh, Ramona. Duh. "And then I figured it needed more detergent 'cause now there was more stuff in there, right, so I added some for her!" He threw up his hands. "You're WELCOME," he told Ramona.

"So you RUINED it," she replied, with just as much emphasis. "THANK YOU."

All Bo had wanted was a new leather jacket. Maaaaybe a pair of gloves. And now there was a headache and vague guilt from kind of wanting to side with Ramona even though clearly you weren't supposed to punch people in the face over clothes.

If you were in high school. It was fine for adults.

"Right." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I've heard enough. You--" Bo pointed at Ramona. "Need to learn that when the rules say no hitting people, they mean Topher too, even if it's not spelled out in detail, and you--" To Topher. "Need to learn... how to do laundry. Which includes the part where you only do other people's if they ask you to."

Topher had several points of contention with that statement.

"Why would people ask me to?" he asked reasonably. "I'm much better at making robots."

True. He was.

"My Arcade Fire shirt is now only appropriate for a Barbie doll," Ramona pointed out. "You should make me a robot that'll fix that."

Bo was just going to assume that band didn't exist in her universe because the other option was that she was getting old, and no, just no.

"You should both go back to the hotel, stay away from each others' clothes and faces, and feel lucky you're not getting stuck on a bus back to Fandom right now. Mostly because none of the staff would want to give up their vacation to go back with you."

Topher raised a hand.

"Am I allowed to go out?"

Not that it was likely to come up. But this felt vaguely like that "grounding" thing he'd heard about.

No, no, no, no, no. Bo was not old enough to ground people. Not, not, not. Unless they wouldn't stay off her lawn, or something.

"As long as you avoid each other, punching people, and being a jackass." That seemed to cover all of the potential issues. Right? Totally.

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A Few Blocks From the Hotel, Monday Afternoon

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