"Found a school yet?" Eileen asked Mordecai.
"One. It seems like a perfect fit. For me, at least. It's called Porkridge," Mordecai said, making Rigby snicker.
"What kind of school is called that?" he asked.
"Apparently it was named after some dude who founded the place. He was an artist himself, so he decided to open this school nearing the end of his life," Mordecai said, taking a sip of soda. "But yeah. The place looks good. It seems dropouts are put in a type of exclusive class to help catch up in case they ever lost any of their skills or something like that."
"That does sound perfect," Eileen said as she looked at her buzzing phone.
"Yeah, I've already sent them some of the money I got from being up in the space program and put the rest in the bank. I'll be leaving in a few days. I'll spend some time with all of you before moving out to finish school," Mordecai said before turning to his friend. "What about you? You got any ideas?"
"Not really. For me, it would just be easier to use the money to just settle into a simple life," Rigby said.
"Basically early retirement," Mordecai said.
"Yeah, basically. Between me and Eileen splitting the bills and stuff, she said that the money I got would be a little more than enough. So that's how I'm going to do that. It'll be awesome knowing that I won't have to ever work again," Rigby said with an easygoing smile as he put his hands behind his head.
"That definitely sounds like you," Mordecai said with a smile. "You got yourself a charmer here Eileen."
"Don't I know it," she said, moving over to kiss Rigby. Mordecai refrained from rolling his eyes as he cut on the TV. Maybe some Carter and Briggs was on. The explosions would drown out the two of them kissing.
Mordecai had his feet rested on the desk in front of him while his elbow was leaning on the couch's arm rest. Though his attention was peaked when the door was opened.
"Oh, hey Benson," Mordecai said, looking at his boss.
"Please get your feet off the table," Benson asked, Mordecai immediately obliging. "Thank you. You still have plans on going to school?"
"I'll be leaving in a few days. Found a place that appeals to me the most," Mordecai told him, causing Benson to nod.
"Then I wish you the best. Also, you have a visitor coming up as a pre-warning," Benson said before going up the stairs. The three people on the couch looked towards the doorway at Benson's words and in walked Margaret. She seemed caught off guard that they were already aware to her presence.
"Benson told us," Mordecai said in response to her surprised expression. Her mouth opened in a type of 'ah' expression in understanding. "Join us?"
"What're you watching?" Margaret asked. Didn't stop her from closing the door and sitting down next to Mordecai.
"Carter and Briggs. Well, at least I am. Those two have been kissing the entire time," Mordecai said, jerking his thumb towards Eileen and Rigby. Margaret looked towards the two and smiled at her friend lightly blushing.
"I'm glad to see that you're happy," she said. Eileen smiled at her friend and then Rigby decided to go ahead and watch the TV, causing Mordecai to roll his eyes before going back to the show himself.
Margaret's eyes were on the TV, but occasionally, about every few minutes, her eyes would go towards the blue jay next to her. His eyes were on the TV, but it looked like they were far away; distant and on something that wasn't in front of his face. Hesitantly, but somewhat assured, she put her hand on top of his.
Mordecai's features relaxed slightly before he turned around to face her. At his raised brow, she felt herself go red in the face. But it was more of a curious look rather than a judging one. He also didn't move his hand as he turned back to face the TV.
Mordecai's thoughts were previously on the thought of readjusting to school again. Then Margaret putting her hand on his jerked him from those thoughts, replaced by a feeling of confusion and familiarity. Very warm. The feeling was nice, so he didn't pull away.
But at the same time, he felt his confusion growing as he sat here. Maybe she saw that things were on his mind and wanted to offer him some reassurance. After all, she was in the same situation as he was. Though hers was a bit more intense considering what she was leaving behind. She more than understood that apprehensive feeling that was in his bones.
"For your sake..." Rigby suddenly said, causing Margaret to jump visibly and retract her hand off his. Rigby gave her a perplexed look at the way she reacted to him talking. It almost looked like she got electrocuted.
"You alright Margaret?" Mordecai asked, looking at her with a similar look to the one Rigby was giving. But there was curiosity and concern there too. Her cheeks got even pinker at the gaze.
"I'm fine. Just... kind of tired, that's all. Trying to keep myself awake, you know," Margaret said with a nervous smile. She knew Mordecai had been in this situation more than once. It was unbelievably awkward.
"Well, you should find better ways to do it other than jumping like you got scared," Rigby said before looking around Margaret to look at Mordecai. "Anyway, what I was going to say is that for your sake, I hope that you have a lot more luck going to art school this time than the last time." Mordecai smiled at his friend.
"I certainly hope so too. But I'm going to give it my all this time. I'm not going to let anything distract me. I just need to focus and get through it," he said. "I just need to tap into the passion I had for the art at one point. That's all I need to help me."
"Is it there?" Margaret asked, making Mordecai smile.
"It's definitely here. I just need to use it," he said before his stomach rumbled. "Whew. Don't need to think twice about what that means. You all wanna go out?"
"I vote for Wing Kingdom!" Rigby exclaimed.
"Eh... I'm leaning more towards Cheezers," Mordecai said before looking back and forward between the two women. "Ladies?"
"Who says we can't go to both?" Eileen questioned, making Margaret nod in agreement.
"Oh. Duh," Mordecai said, shaking his head. He then opened the door and, with an extravagant bow that was very excessive, opened the door for everyone. Eileen and Margaret both smiled and thanked Mordecai while Rigby just rolled his eyes.
"Showoff," he said before grinning. He lightly pushed his friend forward before walking out of the door himself.
"So..." Margaret said as Mordecai was taking a bite of food. "...how long do you reckon you'll be gone?" Mordecai paused for a moment to do the calculations in his head and swallowed before speaking.
"Couple of years. Anywhere from three to five. Depending on how much I decide to study art. Plus I'll have to take the time to make some projects and see if I have the talent to go anywhere remotely far. It's all a matter of whether things work out or not," Mordecai explained to her.
"If you ever need the time, me and Rigby will be more than happy to let you stay with us," Eileen said, making Rigby nod. Both her and Rigby would help their friend with whatever he needed. She didn't need to ask him that to know.
"That goes double for me. We got your back," Margaret said, making Mordecai smile warmly at the three people sitting at the table.
"Thanks guys. Hopefully, I won't need to. Hopefully I'll just be able to throw something together, make a ton of money off it, and just make my way into the art world smoothly," he said.
"It's all a matter of what you can bring to the table. If you can compete with the current art that's being pushed out, you'll be fine," Margaret told him.
"Never hurts to start off on a base idea. What idea do you have to start off?" Eileen asked.
"Considering all of the crap we've gotten ourselves into, it wouldn't hurt to make some art based off that," Mordecai said.
"That sounds cool. Hey, it wouldn't hurt to adjust my size a little," Rigby said with a grin.
"So what? You want to make you look like a buff version of Don?" Mordecai questioned.
"Exactly," Rigby said, making the three people at the table shake their heads at his antics. They weren't surprised, but it was still somewhat exasperating at times.
"I'll think about it. Not painting how I experienced it might screw up the entire image," Mordecai said.
"How good do you think you'll be at painting things in front of you?" Margaret asked.
"Fairly. Why do you ask?" Mordecai asked.
"Then you'll find me to probably be your first customer," Margaret said.
"What am I painting?" Mordecai asked.
"Me," Margaret said, making Mordecai smirk.
"What, you getting a bit of an ego on me?" he questioned.
"Is that a bad thing?" Margaret asked.
"No, I'd say..." Mordecai's cheeks took on a pink tinge as he stopped his sentence. "Never mind."
"And we're back at step one," Rigby said with a smirk. Mordecai looked in his direction with a small glare, but Rigby took a sip of his drink to hide his smirk. He wasn't going to say anything. He'd let his friend figure it out for himself. Judging by the small twitches on Eileen's face, she was hiding a smirk. He wasn't exactly surprised.
"Anyway..." Mordecai trailed before looking at Margaret. "...anything else been going on?"
"Not really. The town has been quiet for the longest since you've been gone," Margaret said, making Mordecai chuckle and shake his head.
"Says a lot about us, huh?" he asked, looking in Rigby's direction.
"Oh, definitely. Still, a town with us is a boring one," he said.
"Never a dull moment when we're around," Mordecai said, bumping fists with Rigby.
"Couldn't agree more. But it would be nice to not have to get out of my sleep to report the latest unnatural incident," Margaret said with a pointed look at Mordecai, who simply raised his hands in surrender.
"Hey, you wanted this occupation. Not my problem what you have to report," he said with a grin.
"I realize that, but you could try not to get in any trouble so I don't have to report it every other day," Margaret said in an exasperated tone.
"That's impossible," Eileen said, making both Mordecai and Rigby point at her.
"What she said," the two friends said at the same time. Margaret sighed and sipped her drink, but it was to hide the smile that was about to crawl onto her face. She expected something like that. It was nice to see that their time in space didn't see to change them. Well, much. She would never forget that unnatural look of seriousness in Mordecai's eyes. Something that was very permanent looking. It was kind of hot.
She found herself blushing from the thought before looking up and see if he noticed. He was busying himself with his grilled cheese, so she was in the clear in that regard. But judging by the identical smirks from Eileen and Rigby, they did. She glared at them as she mentally scolded herself and tried to rid herself of her colored cheeks. It was a lot harder to do it on demand.
"Alright, we're finished here. I guess we can head to Wing Kingdom next," Mordecai said as he balled his wrapper into a ball and tossed it into the trash can with perfect aim. All that target practice back up in space paid off.
"Shotgun!" Rigby exclaimed, leaping from his seat and getting on all fours to head out of the door. Eileen followed as both Margaret and Mordecai shook their heads at the sight. Without even looking, the both of them took money at and placed it on the same spot. Upon the contact, both of the avians' nerves jolted a little. They looked up at each other and down at their hands, immediately retracting them.
"Oh, um..." Mordecai trailed, his cheeks going red. "I had the tab."
"No, it's fine," Margaret said, her cheeks red as well. "I mean... you have college to deal with and I have a more consistent job. It's fine."
"Well, we can just divide it," Mordecai said, taking half of his money out of the initial amount and placing it down. Margaret did the same.
"I'm fine with that," Margaret said before the both of them walked out.
"Boy, that was awkward," Margaret thought.
"That was very, very awkward," Mordecai thought.
A/N: Took me longer to get this chapter out than I intended, but here it is. Better late than never. I should be almost finished. Just need to come up with more ideas as to how I'm going to end it off. There'll be like one or two chapters left.