Act 29: Sara

"What's so funny?" Rueben asks me when I get into the kitchen.

"Some joke I made to Catherine," I chuckle.

"Do I want to know?"

"Nope," I ruffle his hair. "What's up, Bunny?"

"Scout…" he whines a bit.

"What?"

"I'm too old for you to call me that."

"You'll never be too old for me," I pout a bit.

"Fine…" he rolls his eyes with a smirk. "To answer the question, I'm alright."

"How's the game coming along?" I query about his latest project as I start washing my hands. He has been working on a video a game for the past couple of years making it all by himself.

He launched into a details recounting of how things have been and what problems he encountered. I tease him here and there, sharing his enthusiasm.

"If everything goes well, I should have it ready for next year."

"That's awesome! I'm so proud of you."

"Thanks," he beams. "I'm super excited. Oh and in three months I'll present some of it at a convention and if they like it I'm might get a financial help."

"Is it okay to show me a bit before I leave?"

"Sure."

"Cool," I smile back at him.

"Hey Cath," I singsong when I see her coming into the kitchen.

"Not talking to you," she sticks her tongue at me.

"Uh oh, someone is in trouble," Ruben chuckles.

"You don't say," Catherine retorts and I try not to laugh. "Can I help you with anything?"

"Nope, house rules say you're not allowed to do anything, you're our guest," Ruben informs her.

"I'm sure it's just because you don't want to give away the family recipes," Catherine jokes.

"I can't deny that," Rueben nods with a chortle. "You know, it's a good thing that you're not talking to Scout here because the last thing she needs when she cooks is distraction."

"Oh here we go…" I sigh in resignation knowing full well what's coming. "Don't listen to him, Cath."

"Hey, she's not talking to you!" Rueben intervenes which only makes Catherine laughs. "Where was I?"

"No distractions while cooking," Catherine puts him on tracks.

"Right, thank you. When distracted the things she cooked could be classified as biohazard."

"Come on, that is a wild exaggeration!" I protest.

"What is wild exaggeration?" Hazy asks as she waltzes into the kitchen with Sidney. "Wait, are we talking about Scout's cooking?"

"Ah! See what I mean?" Rueben gloats.

"There are a lot of people here," this time it's Russell who walks in. He goes straight to the fridge and grabs a bottle of water. "You know it's not wise to distract Scout when she is cooking, right?" he smirks.

"Sure, the more the merrier," I mutter with annoyance. "It wasn't that bad!"

"Scout, you've been banned from the kitchen about a dozen of times," Hazy points out.

"I wasn't banned," I keep protesting.

"Uh, yeah, you were," Sidney rubs it in, then he looks at Catherine. "One time she made a cake and was so distracted she didn't realized that she had put salt instead of sugar."

"Oh my," Cath laughs softly

"I'm telling you, no amount of icing was enough to cover that horrendous taste," Russell adds before sipping his water.

"I had a cold and couldn't taste anything!" I justify myself.

"How about the time she overcook the pastas so much that they had turned into thick soup?" Rueben pipes in.

"One word," Hazy intervenes. "Cabbage."

The three of them shudder and make a gagging sound. "Really?" I look at them with exasperation.

"Scout, my stomach still has nightmares about it and that was almost two decades ago," Rueben states.

"It wasn't bad, Scout, it was worse," Sidney confirms.

"What's the story?" Catherine asks intrigued.

"Now, come on, don't encourage them," I plea. There's a glint in her eyes telling me that I shouldn't have teased her earlier.

"… will you show me how you do it?" Lindsey asks as she walks into the kitchen with Howard and Charlie in tow.

I close my eyes and sigh, I look up "Give me a break," I berate the universe.

"It's crowded in here," Charlie states. "What is the commotion about?"

Howard pours some juice in a glass and offers it to Lindsey before getting a glass for himself.

"They're saying how much of a bad cook I am," I pout.

"Don't listen to them you're an excellent cook," Charlie puts an arm around my shoulder and place a kiss on my temple. "Stop teasing your sister," he berates the others and I grin glad to finally have found an ally.

"Hands off," I slap Russell's hand as he's about to grab pieces of vegetables I've just cut, he snatches a piece anyway and sticks his tongue at me before getting out of reach.

"We didn't say you were a bad cook, we were just talking about the biohazard incidents," Sidney clarifies.

"What like the pasta soup?" Howard chuckles.

"Or the fish burger," Russell points out.

"What's a fish burger?" Lindsey asks with a frown.

They all launch into anecdotes after anecdotes, by the time they reach the cabbage incident Catherine has tears in her eyes and her face is red because she can't breathe so much she's laughing as for Lindsey she literally fell off her chair and currently bent in two on the floor holding her ribs.

"I hate you all," I grumble. "And I want you to know that all your birthday and Christmas presents have shrunk to microscopic sizes."

My words are drown into the general hysteria and I just hang my head in defeat, my ego in pieces.

Fuck me.


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