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A Clearing In The Preserve, Thursday Evening

This evening, there was a bit more activity going on in the preserve than the usual scampering and frolicking of the teal deer and the alots. Tonight, there were paper lanterns strung up through the branches and along the trees, there were tables set up in the clearing, and there was music. If it lacked a banner and balloons, they were hoping the glimmer of the lantern lights in the darkness made up for it.

Ino was turning seventeen, and there was only one thing to be done about it. Zack had sent out the e-mail yesterday, and he and Karla had taken care of the food and the cakes and the decorations, and, once Zack managed to get Ino to join them, they were going to celebrate!

[Up a little early for PARTY TIME goodness! Open!]

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The mask Bod chose felt a little unwieldy but he wore it anyway since the email had said to do so.

He wandered idly around the area, hands in his pockets.

Karla didn't really know Bod all that well, apart from him being Warren's friend and their brief talk about sunscreen, but it was a party and mingling needed to happen, so Karla was going to head over to him with a plate full of cake and chocolate covered bananas to say hello.

"Hey," she said, giving him a smile. "Have you tried the dango?" She offered him a tiny skewer. "They're really good."

"Dango?" Bod repeated, reaching for the skewer while he tried out the unfamiliar word. "What is it, exactly? I've never heard the word before."

"They're...kind of like candied dumplings?" Karla said, giving Bod a shrug. "Those were the only things I could spell well enough to look up last night. Some of them taste like green tea and some like red beans. And still others are flavored with sesame seeds."

Not that any of those had sounded much like dessert to her when she was reading them last night, but sampling had made her a convert.

Bod listened intently and nodded as Karla spoke. "I've never heard of dango before. It sounds interesting, at least. And diverse, too. I haven't heard of foods that taste differently like that. Did you cook them?"

Bod had obviously never heard the legendary tales of Karla and cooking.

Then Warren was clearly not doing his duty as a friend. Bod should feel free to send him any future medical bills relating to his ignorance.

"No," Karla replied, looking a little downcast. "I'd never heard of any of these things, so we got them from a store. And since the theme of the party was to be as much like Ino's hometown as possible, Zack and I didn't even get a chance to bake cookies."

Had Karla realized that her idea would lead to them being unable to ~~inflict~~ share their combined baking prowess with fellow party-goers, she might have kept her brilliant ideas to herself.

"If it helps, I wouldn't have been able to cook anything like this either," he said, glancing towards the table of food and shaking his head. "I'm used to eating take out and pizza and things I can just heat up. You're probably doing better than I if you know how to cook."

Bod took a bite of the dango, pleased at how good the taste was. He'd have to remember that. "Do you bake often otherwise?"

"Every so often, yes. Usually when I can get other people to cook with me. It's kind of like a social thing."

Plus, Karla wasn't allowed to use the oven by herself, as per several people's rules, one fire and one explosion.

"Zack and I made cookies for the Reserves table at the newbie picnic," she added, beaming. "And Ben and I made ice cream not so long ago. Chocolate Coffee Crunch!"

...From a recipe for French Vanilla.

"I'm afraid I missed both of those," he said and did sound genuinely sad about that. He was brave enough to try anything so Karla's cooking probably wouldn't phase him.

"I tend to eat whatever I can order or I steal Kate's pudding cups. It's not a very healthy diet."

Not at first, anyway. Perhaps after he had his first mouthful...

"Well, next time I bake something, I'll save you some," Karla decided. "I can't promise that it'll be all that healthy--I'm a better better baker than cook, sadly, so most of what I make are cookies and the like."

It was a sad but true fact. Karla did bake better than she cooked, if only because her one foray into cooking involved an explosion, a gout of flame several stories high, and a kitchen turned entirely to ash.

Karla was special.

"I like cookies," he assured her, nodding. "I don't make them either but I've gained quite a sweet tooth since arriving here. I tend to buy muffins and donuts in town and if I don't eat them all, I give them to Kate."

And she polished them off without any trouble. She had a sweet tooth the size of a small country.

"Oh, I can't compete with J,GOB!" Karla said with a laugh. Unless it was for lethality. "But I'll happily add my name to the list of people you donate spare baked goods to."

"Kate does go home a lot so I would need someone to donate the muffins and donuts to," he laughed, nodding. "I wouldn't want them to go to waste and I can't really feed them to my fish."

"And feeding them to the flamingos and ducks in the pond are more of a hazard than a charity," Karla said wisely.

Eeeeevil waterfowl.

"Really, I'm a much safer and far more grateful alternative."

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A Clearing In The Preserve, Thursday Evening

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