Cats.
Wonderful creatures; beautiful, sleek, graceful, agile, stealthy, muscular, powerful…deadly.
Wild or domesticated, they have an air of superiority, untouchable; extremely particular about the company they keep. Most of them complete loners. They are often portrayed as disloyal, vindictive, self-centered, and conceited. And true, some of them actually are. But if you are the lucky person that they choose, they are far more loyal to you than any dog could ever hope to be. They shower you with their own version of affection, read your moods better than any psychiatrist and know just how to tweak your mood to keep an even keel.
If you aren't the lucky person that they've decided to devote their loyalty to; they'll ignore you completely if you show any interest in them, and if you don't they'll bug you just to get a rise out of you. For instance, they'll make a b-line for the one person in the room allergic to them, simply because they are the one person in the room that isn't paying attention to them. But most of the time, ninety percent of the time actually, anything but their person is beneath their notice. And only fifty percent of the ten percent that is reserved solely for their person will they deign to respond to any overtures made by said person.
After the Christmas incident, Mrs. Williams had decided that Warren was very much a cat. When she had said as much to Josie, within hearing of their children, she had explained as best she could. It was fairly interesting to see the impact that little observation had had on everyone's interaction with the teen. And Mrs. Williams would find herself very amused for years to come that every one of the small group of friends, and their parents, would come to her for advice on how to handle a certain dark haired wild cat. Just because she could talk to animals, and could see the similarities, they all assumed that she knew best how to approach him. She'd just shake her head and point them in Layla's direction.
Yes, it was Warren's cat like tendencies that made dinner difficult for him. He was used to getting his own meals. Breakfast had stopped being a family thing after his father had been put in jail. He had always eaten lunch alone. Even before his father had gone off the deep end kids had been afraid to approach him, and he had been just fine with that (cat). And since he had hit high school his mother had been given more long assignments, and he had started helping at the restaurant, so he pretty much ate dinner alone too.
Since the homecoming incident (which Warren viewed as unfortunate for so many different reasons than the rest of the Sky High population did), his days of solitary cat like tendencies had been numbered. Yes, since that night, five of his seven lunches a week were never alone (half the time the remaining two were invaded as well, and lets not get started on dinners…and he was hoping that Layla…or Josie… never found out he wasn't much of a breakfast person).
The fact that his once solitary lunches had been obliterated had grated on his nerves for a month or two. But he had slowly grown to tolerate it, and then resignedly accept that he would never again have a lunch to himself (at least while he was in high school he liked to think). Now, he was even marginally (barely) grateful for it. Because if he hadn't have had months worth of loud, frivolous, teenage conversations to acclimate him…he probably would have blown the whole house up.
"This is going to be epicly awesome!" Zack cheered around the Doritos he was cramming into his mouth.
"Don't talk with your mouth full." Magenta reprimanded him.
"Is that even a word? Warren is that even a word?" Will asked. Warren refused to answer as he reached for the broccoli.
"No I don't think it is. I could look it up in my dictionary app." Ethan offered.
"So, dude," Zack asked after a glance toward Magenta and a quick swallow of the mouthful of chips. "Why do I need so many pairs of socks?"
Warren stared at him trying to decide if it was worth it to answer the other teen. A glance around the table revealed the rest of them were just as eager to know the answer. So with an internal sigh he blinked and answered.
"Because there are no Laundromats at 7000 ft above sea level in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, and a clean pair of socks will save your life."
"How exactly will a clean pair of socks save our lives?" Magenta asked just as the silence that followed Warren's statement was getting awkward.
Warren just gave them one of his looks, specifically the one that Will had dubbed the 'All in good time young grasshopper' look. Or for those who aren't up on stereotypical pop culture martial arts film references, the 'you are currently being dumb and if you wait a few the answer will become so obvious that a two by four to the head will be more clouded in mystery' look.
The conversation was derailed as Steve walked in the door and gleefully announced, "We got the Hawaii trip!"
Steve was so excited that it took Josie a moment to understand what he had said. But when it clicked, here eyes grew wide and she got just as excited. Steve wasn't above playing the occasional trick on her, but his acting skills weren't nearly good enough to be this convincing. She would never tell him so, it would break his heart to know the reason he didn't get the lead in Oklahoma was because he couldn't act…and not because Barry Battle did something underhanded and nefarious as he continued to believe…but that was another story entirely.
"Really?" she asked.
"Got the tickets right here." Steve said waiving an envelope around in the air. "We leave tomorrow night." Then he seemed to register that they had guests. "Oh, sorry, I forgot." He said, "You all are going camping tomorrow right?"
"Yup." Will answered his father. "But that's awesome that you and mom are going to Hawaii."
"Humm." Steve said, "Maybe we should cash these in and go another time."
"Absolutely not." Josie said. She wanted that trip. It was about time they got a vacation, and it had been 14 years since she had had her husband to herself.
Steve wasn't the only one surprised by the vehemence of her statement. And before the silence could get awkward Josie said, "I've always wanted to go to Hawaii on a non emergency trip. And we've been working for this trip for ages. We will not cash in these tickets. We can take the kids another time."
Her dialogue was met with raised eyebrows. "Ok then." Steve said. "You kids will go and camp for a week and Josie and I will go enjoy white sand beaches and sunshine."
"Good." Josie said and then proceeded to pass more chips to Zack.
"Hey," Steve said, "Did I ever tell you about the time I spent two days in the…"
Warren patiently waited for Steve to get going on his reminiscence and once everyone at the table was thoroughly enthralled by the obviously inflated recollection, he quietly escaped to the living room to fortify his mental preparations for the upcoming week.