Jordan looked mildly crushed that we'd solved it so fast, but was proud of us as well. "Good job! Can we eat lunch now?"
Jake's dad smiled. "We can try. We don't have any more pizza."
"Aww…" moaned Sara. "Can you make french toast?
"French toast! French toast!" Jordan began to jump up and down.
Jake's dad pretended to be overwhelmed. "The people have spoken! I'll see what I can do." He headed into the kitchen.
Tom was inspecting the marbles. "Pretty neat collection you've got."
"Thanks," Jordan smiled. "Cassie?"
"Mmhmm?" she replied distractedly.
"Do you, like, like like Jake?"
"Like, no-oh!" Marco's dad replied in a fake girly-voice. "Like, he's too, like, cool, for like, fatsos, like me!"
Cassie (who is not overweight) was too traumatized to speak, but Marco wasn't. "Rachel here takes offense at that. She's cute, yet she's, like-oh, here we go again."
"Who gains pleasure from-um-um-um such conversay-ay-tions?" Ax inquired.
"Nobody does. We're just passing the time while we go through the Apocalypse," Marco's dad said.
"What is the Apocalypse?"
I covered my head in my hands. Not the right question, not the right company.
Cassie's dad immediately interjected. "It's an interpretation of a hallucination."
"Just like the Pledge of Allegiance is a mindless rote recitation? Huh?"
Marco was counting on his fingers. "Reh-cit-ay-that's a ten-letter word. I didn't think my dad knew those."
"You stay out of this."
"What? Can't I share my opinion and participate in, a, um,"
"Free forum and interchange of beliefs?" suggested Cassie's mom.
"Yeah, one of those."
My mom kind of narrowed her eyes. "Um, no, I don't think so. Is lunch ready?"
"Not quite," Jake's dad called from the kitchen.
"Let's try this again," bossed Jordan. "Jake, do you, um, like Cassie?"
"Why do you want to know?" he deflected.
This stymied her.