a/n: This is super unedited, but I'm exhausted and am trying to follow my 'one day' rule for these outtake diddies. Hopefully it's not too rough. There are a few things about this that I want to come back to in another chapter; just setting the stage for now.
Cheers,
EQT.95
"Kate Kane?"
"Uh, no. She's not here," Sophie said, staring skeptically back at the red-aproned, four-eyed teenager with braces standing at her dormitory door.
"She live here though?"
"Yea, she's just not he-"
"Delivery," the teen continued, extending a pink box toward her and unphased by Sophie's confused scowl.
"But I…" Sophie started, automatically lifting her hands to take hold of the boot box-sized cardboard vessel.
"Look, I just deliver stuff, and I have a whole car load to get through. If Kate Kane lives here, then that's where this goes," the kid said with a surprising amount of sass for how teenage-awkward he looked. "Can you sign?" he asked, lifting a clipboard to her face.
"Uh, sure, just a second," she said, reaching into the room to set the box down. "Where do I-"
"Just at the bottom."
Sophie scribbled her name at the bottom, paying only marginal attention to it as she scanned the rest of the document for a clue about its origin. The only thing she caught was the name of the company: Trudy's. She handed the clipboard back and in the blink of an eye the kid was gone, retracing his steps back to the elevators that brought him to her door.
She closed the door and moved the pink box to Kate's desk. Before she could examine it in any detail, her curiosity was distracted by the time, and she realized she needed to hurry off to Calc.
xx
Two hours later Sophie returned to the dorm, taking the brief break between classes to swap out notebooks and grab an umbrella. Rain had begun on her walk back to the dorms, and she had no interest in trekking through the rest of the day soaked. She quickly popped in, all but forgetting about the early afternoon delivery until she looked and saw that the pink box had migrated from Kate's desk to hers. She scowled slightly, realizing Kate must have confused it for hers; it was pink, after all. She'd not told Kate about the delivery but instead had assumed she'd have been expecting it. She slid it back over to Kate's side of the room and fired off a quick message to her to confirm it had been delivered before heading off to Lit.
"Hey," Sophie said, seeing Kate laying on the couch.
"Oh, good. I was worried."
"Wh-sorry?" Sophie asked in surprise.
"You're late."
"For…?"
"So, I kind of made a few assumptions."
"Ok…" Sophie began cautiously, discarding her bag at her feet as she slipped her jacket off and hung it in her closet. "What about?"
"We've known each other for a while now."
"Is two months 'a while'?" Sophie joked lightly.
"And in that time, I've discerned a few things about you."
"Such as?" Sophie smirked, shaking her head at Kate's bullheaded disregard for her side comments.
"You aren't big on attention."
"That shouldn't have taken you two months to figure out," Sophie remarked.
"No, that was easy. What wasn't easy was figuring out your birthday."
Sophie froze, her face falling in shock at Kate's remark. She turned and saw a very pleased Kate grinning back at her.
"How did you-?"
"Doesn't matter how," Kate waved off. "But obviously you not telling anyone was your way of avoiding any attention that comes with it."
"Not wrong."
"Good; that means the surprise party I was planning-"
"You didn't," Sophie interrupted, a nervousness swelling inside her.
"-has been postponed for another year."
"Another year?"
"Because that wouldn't be a very good birthday gift if I did, now would it?"
"I don't like gifts," Sophie tried to clarify.
"Which is another thing I've learned about you," Kate said, climbing to her feet. She walked to her desk where the pink box from earlier was sitting. Sophie eyed her suspiciously as Kate lifted the box and moved it back to her desk.
"Then what is that?" Sophie scowled.
"Not a gift," Kate replied easily.
"What is it?"
"You have to open it."
"That's how gifts work."
"And other things," Kate replied.
"What other things?" Sophie challenged, torn between annoyance and humor at Kate's lack of response.
"These things?" Kate asked, gesturing toward the pink box.
Sophie took a cautious step toward the box and lifted her hand toward it.
"You like cats, right?" Kate asked lightly.
"Wh-cats? Is this a cat?" Sophie asked, her eyes bulging. "Why would you get a cat?"
Kate snickered as she dodged the swat of Sophie's hand. "Relax. It's not a cat. It's waay better."
"If you say it's a dog-"
"It's a hamster," Kate admitted, causing Sophie's hands to recoil in surprise. Another chuckle only made Sophie double-down on her scowl.
"You get a weird thrill out of this," Sophie scowled.
"I'm a junkie," Kate shrugged. "Now open it."
Sophie flipped back the top to reveal twelve individual but entirely unique cupcakes.
"The one thing I didn't know was what flavor you liked."
"So you got every type known to mankind?" Sophie gaped in awe. There were a few obvious flavors like chocolate, red velvet, and lemon, but there were also others Sophie could only venture to guess at.
"That's a stretch. I got every type known to Trudy's," Kate corrected. "Can you believe they didn't have cheesecake?"
"Probably for good reason."
"What? Cheesecake? Really?"
"Not a fan."
"Sophie Moore, you're killing me," Kate feigned disappointment. "Did Trudy at least have your favorite?"
Sophie eyed the box and smirked lightly. "Yes."
""Which one?"
"Take a guess."
Kate eyed Sophie critically before glancing toward the box of frosted treats. She studied it for a moment before committing to her answer: "Chocolate."
"Well done," Sophie grinned, plucking it from the box. "How did you guess?"
"Easy; you're a basic bitch," Kate replied dryly, smirking at the reaction playing across Sophie's face. "Aand, because you keep a secret stash of hershey's miniatures in your desk drawer."
Sophie's face fell at Kate's remark. "No I… how di-"
"Hey, no judgement. I hide whisky; you hide chocolate," Kate said easily. "Although, yours is a bit weird. At least mine makes sense."
"Diane Moore kept a tight ship," Sophie said, trying to keep her tone light as she blushed at the admission.
"What, no joy?" Kate asked jokingly before noting the change in Sophie's demeanor.
"There were just certain rules."
"And one of those included no chocolate?"
"It's weird when you say it, but yea. No sweets, no television, daily chores - normal stuff."
"We have very different definitions of 'normal', Soph," Kate scowled. "I hate to say it, but Diane Moore might disapprove of me."
"Well not all of us grew up as millionaires. I think your normal is in more of the minority than me."
Kate fell quiet in genuine thought, as though considering it for the first time. Sophie enjoyed the contemplative side of Kate, even if it was a fleeting experience. She silently began peeling away the wrapper of the cupcake when Kate's attention was caught by the movement.
"Wait," she commanded, reaching toward her desk. "I almost forgot."
"What?"
"Candles," Kate smirked, pulling out a box of bright fluorescent sticks.
"Not necessary."
"Yes-essary."
"Not a word."
"Don't care," Kate said, setting to work on the box of cupcakes. She diligently inserted nineteen little sticks into the eleven remaining cakes before pulling out a box of matches and lighting each one. When she was finished she spread her hands in an act of showmanship, gesturing for Sophie to blow them out. "Voila."
"Good job. You started a fire."
"Not true. It was always burning."
"You know, Prometheus would be upset by Billy Joel taking away his-"
"Just shut up and make a wish," Kate waved away, taking a seat on the couch again.
"You aren't going to sing?" Sophie smirked.
"Consider it my gift to you that I don't," Kate chuckled.
"And to think I didn't like gifts," Sophie teased before taking a deep breath and blowing out the nineteen tiny flames.
"What'd you wish for?"
"Wishes aren't a thing."
"What?! Are you serious? You didn't wish for anything?" Kate cried in disbelief. "That's the whole point of the candles."
"And here I thought it was all about consumerism," Sophie chuckled, removing the melted stubs from the frosting caps.
"What a waste," Kate sighed.
"Do you make wishes?" Sophie challenged back.
"No way," Kate scoffed. "That doesn't mean I don't enjoy when other people do."
"Hypocrite."
Kate shrugged as she reached for two forks from her desk and handed one to Sophie. Sophie knew better than to ask, knowing whatever her response was would be one deflection after another. She added it to the list of outstanding questions she'd ask at a later time as she watched Kate survey the remaining options.
"Wait. What was I late for?" Sophie asked, recalling what prompted the entire conversation.
"Hm?"
"You said I was late."
"Oh, I barely ate dinner, and I'm starving," Kate said, reaching over with a fork to stab at what looked like carrot cake. "If I had to wait a minute longer," she said, shoving a forkful into her mouth, "you might have missed out on all of this."
"You were going to chow down on a dozen cupcakes?"
"Ex-achly," Kate said through another mouthful. "What?"
"You're right," Sophie grinned, digging into her own mini cake.
"About what?"
"Diane Moore would definitely disapprove of you. She'd say you're a bad influence."
"Oh, we haven't even gotten started."
"I won't tell her if you don't."
"Deal. Happy Birthday, Soph."
