# 24 Last Straw
Daphne stared down her siblings, sincerely hoping they couldn't see through her warrior face. Her palms were sweating so much, a worm directly below might think it was raining. She held her breath and crossed her fingers around her short straw, willing the others' to be shorter.
When Sabrina finished counting down from three she and Basil thrust their straws into clear view, while Daphne let her hand linger behind her back, hoping the result would change with hesitation. But after Sabrina's third "humph" of impatience, she was forced to show the final result.
"Ha!" Basil crowed. "You have to go in, Daph! You lost!"
Daphne glowered at him. "That's not fair!" she reasoned. "Let's do two out of three."
"It is fair! You lost. Fair and square," Basil replied, running off before he could hear her response.
Daphne squeezed her eyes closed tight. /This can't be happening,/ she repeated to herself in her head. She didn't know how long she'd stood like that, but next thing she knew Sabrina was shoving a wet bandana into her hands.
"You'll need it to breath," she explained.
Daphne slouched miserably.
"I'll help you tie it on if you like?" her older sister offered. Daphne only nodded.
"Don't hang your head like that," Sabrina chastised as she proceeded to tie the bandana over her mouth and nose. "You have to be brave— I know you can."
Daphne instantly straightened herself out. Her sister was right. She could do this.
But as she approached her grandmother's old dollhouse, her resolve was suddenly withering. She didn't let that stop her, though. They'd drawn straws, after all. So she marched towards the door and swung it open before she lost her nerve.
Only when she took a few steps in did her gag reflexes kick in.
Daphne pulled the wet bandana closer to her face and silently vowed to herself that she wouldn't give Elvis treats for the next ten years. But she quickly withdrew the promise, because what if he didn't live that long? Then he would have lived a treat-less, a.k.a miserable, life. She shortened the sweat suspension to three days. That oughta teach him to leave the house when he had to lay gas. She also vowed to have Puck's head checked after all the smacking that had occurred as his punishment for leaving the sausages out.
She raced to the kitchen and snatched a large picnic basket, piling it high with food, both edible and not. Just then, a wicked thought popped her head. She smirked to herself.
With her mountain of food she trudged up the stairs and into Granny Relda's room, where the smell was less potent— /and/ where, she knew, the boards on the window weren't as firm. She jimmied the first board free and the others were quick to follow. She peered out the window and thought that, yes, it was a long drop, but she would bend her knees and hope for the best.
Daphne grabbed her grandmother's comforter and wrapped it firmly around the picnic basket, unwilling to leg the food come to harm before chucking it out the window. She nervously watched it plunge to the ground and peeled her fingers away from her eyes just in time to see the bundle land safely. She let out a breath before throwing herself over the sill, not giving herself time to think of it.
The feeling of flight overtook her and she momentarily thought she was still in the air after having landed.
Daphne smiled to herself impishly. She unbound the food and laid the comforter on the ground, smoothing all the corners and putting all the food out, before finally plopping in the center.
It was a feast. She ate a luxurious, relaxed pace (which was still really fast) and didn't stop until every last Ogre's Toe Tart was resting nicely in her tummy. She was licking her fingers one by one when she heard a voice above yelling, "Daphne! I can't believe you!"
Daphne looked up to see her sister's reddened face, glaring down at her from their grandmother's bedroom window. A red bandana was hanging around her neck.
"We thought you had passed out or something, only to find /you ate all the food/! After all I've done for you, just to have you turn around and stab me in the back!"
"All that /you've/ done for /me/?!" Daphne shouted. "You made me go into the house of horrors with only a bandana for protection! To get you food you'd have grumbled about had I given it to you! I think it's fair."
"We drew straws! Not even I could have saved you from that fate!"
"Save the Shakespeare! You could have taken my place! Your hands weren't tied!"
"And you punish me by eating all the food we own? I'm /starving/!" her sister complained.
"I think it's only right," Daphne defended, "that since I braved the smell to /get/ the food that I should be the one to /eat/ the food."
Just the Basil's face popped up beside Sabrina's. "But I'm /hungry/!"
Daphne gestured to the empty Tupperware containers that littered the comforter. "Well that's too bad, because it's all gone."
"That's not fair!"
Daphne smiled up at her brother. "In the words of a wise little I once knew, /fair and square/!"
She then stood up, stretched herself out, and turned towards the woods. She needed a little walk.
And as Daphne listened to her sister and brother yelling at her in the distance, she thought about how next they'd think twice about drawing straws.
I know it's kind of a weak attempt, being more 'Drawing Straws' than 'Last Straw', but I've seen less relevance in some.
-Cat
Last Question: What's your favorite board game?
Best Answer: QotC: Oh geez, I have quite a few favorite board games, but I have on least favorite: Monopoly.
Yeah, yeah, it's a classic, it's fun, it's entertaining...
JUST NOT FOR MY FAMILY.
You see, my 5 year old brother, Daren, has a 'wonderful liking' (read: creepy obsession) with Monopoly. He says, and I quote, 'When I grow up, I'm gonna have every version of Monopoly, and I'll play it with my kids every day!'
So every once in a while, he uses puppy dog eyes to convince my mom into having us all play it.
More times than I can count on both hands, this ends with
A) Someone Crying
B) Accused Cheating
C) Screaming
D) Biting/Clawing, and/or Tackles to the Ground
Or E) All of the Above
So, basically, my favorite game is every game BESIDES Monopoly. -(Thank you for making my day.)
New Question: If you could say anything to anyone right now, using no names, what would it be?
My Answer: TheAfterShock on deviantART is my page. Look it up and read "A letter to you" (jouranl entry). That is what I would say.
Happy New Years everyone!
-Red