It'd been a month, and I was regretting talking Dad into letting Ashley cook dinner at least once a week so she could practice and learn.
And I wasn't the only one.
As Ashley walked into Wards HQ, we ambushed her. "Ashley? Sweety? We need to talk."
She looked around at all of us nervously. "...About what?"
"Your overwhelming garlic breath," Missy said with no tact whatsoever. "I don't even... You don't even breathe. How does it... How?"
"All you ever cook is strongly spiced Italian food," I explained. "And..."
"You talk a lot," Dennis interrupted. "And I'm not normally one to criticize that, but..."
"We're still airing out Armsmaster's workshop on the rig from when you spent three hours explaining how Parker Particles work and how to build a generator that runs on them," Kid Win added. "Side-note, are you sure that this Parker guy is just a newspaper photographer? Because this is..."
He trailed off as he noticed Aegis elbowing him in the ribs. "It's starting to affect productivity," our nominal leader added. "Do... Do breath mints exist in your world?"
"Either start cooking something else or start brushing your fucking teeth!" Missy shouted.
"What she said but with less swearing!" Grace added. "You snore and fill the room with garlic and onion and I don't know what else. Do something about it or I'm gonna start using the space heater instead of sleepovers to keep my blood warm."
"Honestly I don't care," Lisa added while reading something or other. "Bitch never showered. If I can put up with that I can put up with garlic breath. Personally I think everyone is overreacting in comical fashion."
Ashley responded by first shifting so that her mouth was full of dagger-like fangs and extending her long, forked tongue. She then pulled a plastic container from her extradimensional space, popped off the lid, and deliberately took a big bite of the lasagna stored inside while deliberately looking everyone, but Lisa, in the eye in turn.
Then she stomped off to our room.