fandomtownies | Turtle & Canary; Monday [11/30].

Summer had expected at least a little bit of fallout from her parents for having totally ditched them for Thanksgiving to go do stuff with Barry and jello in Utah instead, but she hadn't really expected her father to successfully circumnavigate her ignoring his calls to her actual phone by just calling the store, where it was too late by the time she picked up and realized what was happening to just hang up, though she was building up to making up an excuse that, oh no, something weird was happening to the phone lines! The call could drop at literally any mome--

But Jerry Smith had an amazing ability to keep a person on the line by causing them to boggle at him so much that they'd forget to even try to just hang up.

"--and, you know," he was saying, "I could come by and help you out with it, or better yet, you can bring it here! There's plenty of space in the driveway, I can break out the old tool kit, you could bring Barry, I know your mother and I would really like to meet him, you guys looked like you were having fun on your trip..."

"Dad," Summer cut him off before the thread went too far down along that line, "have you ever even winterized a ship before?"

"Well, no," Jerry admitted, "but it can't be that much different than doing it for a car, right?"

"Dad," Summer informed him, "it's literally designed to handle the vast, cold infinite emptiness of space. I think it can handle a Maryland winter just fine."

"Well, you can never be too sure, sweetie." To call it insistence would be a misnomer; it was more of a gentle prodding that was ready for hasty retreat. "I'm just saying, it wouldn't hurt, and you really should come visit more, we hardly see you anymore these days."

Summer was almost tempted to point out that there were reasons for that, that it was very much intentional, but she didn't want to get into it, not right now, not when there were so many more important things on her mind and to do, so she just sighed, pinched the bridge of her nose a little, and relented a little. "I'll see what I can do, okay?" she said. "I just have a lot going on right now, okay? We're heading into December, Christmas is always crazy around here, but maybe...maybe after the holidays, okay, when I have a little time to breathe?"

"That's fine," said Jerry, after a pause long enough that Summer had almost just hung up in an attempt to seize a moment. "We know you like your space, but I just know it would mean a lot to your mother if--"

That was enough to get a groan out of Summer and push her to that edge. "I know," she said firmly. "I know, okay? It's just right now's not a good time, and...Dad, I have to go anyway, I have a customer, I promise we'll talk later, okay?"

There was no customer. Summer just needed to keep that from going into a familiar loop, and she took a breath, tried to refocus and get back to her orders, until the store's phone started ringing again.

She looked at Apu as if daring him to pick it up, tried to ignore it, but, in the case that it was a legit customer calling....she caved in and picked it up herself.

"Summer? Hi, it's your mom. Now, I know you were just talking to your father, but I was thinking..."

At this point, Summer was seriously thinking of just setting the phone down on the counter and walking about to do her crap until Beth ran out of steam.

Today's Squishy Flavors
Leftover Turkey
Candy Cane
Red

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When Barry walked through the door, one thing was very apparent. He was covered in Jello. And mandarin oranges were stuck to his clothes

Without saying a word grabbed two bags of Oreos and then got an extra large Red Squishy and headed to the register where he sighed and then forced a smile.

"So. How's work?"

Summer was possibly going to have to deconstruct the fact that her first thought just then was that she could definitely dig this look for him later, but much later, because that seemed like it would be a harrowing journey into her own psyche, for sure.

So instead, she was just going to ring up his stuff and get a good look before responding.

"Better than class, apparently," she said, and then got to the important part: "What happened?"

"I was inspired by one of the jello salads we saw last week and attempted to replicate it for the purposes of helping solve world hunger."

There was a slight pause.

"I made a minor miscalculation."

"Well," said Summer, doing a poor job of hiding the small smirk that was threatening to take over, so she didn't bother with it anymore, folding her arms in front of her and leaning on the counter, "guess that's what you get for not consulting an expert."

None of her jello had ever exploded or attacked or whatever fuck else it was that had occurred, although now she might be a little jealous thinking that some of Barry's students would now have jello trauma even worse than her own students had experienced.

"You didn't even, like, think to stop by your place to clean up or anything first, huh?"

Which, don't get her wrong, she appreciated, greatly, but...

"After a morning like this? I need an Oreo fix," Barry said with a sigh. "Plus I figured Apu would love to clean Jello tracks off the floor."

He then gave Summer a small smirk. "And the next time I try to do anything with Jello I'll make sure to include you first."

He held out his arms as if waiting for a hug. One that would undoubtedly cover Summer in jello and mandarin oranges. "Forgive me?"

Cue Summeer getting very distracted for a moment at the thought of a jello-covered embrace developing into a jello-covered so much more and the subsequent mutual clean-up, and also cue Summer's common sense reminding her that there was probably a less-than-one-percent chance of it actually winding up like that...

"How about you find a shower first," she said, "and then we'll talk forgiveness. Unless..."

And here Summer was going to match Barry's smirk with one of her own, partly in triumph for feeling like she'd found a good middle ground.

"You think you might need some help."

That did look like an awful mess for just one person to clean up, after all. And she was an expert...

Edited 2020-11-30 17:28 (UTC)

Barry looked down at his clothes. "Well, honestly I was just going to throw the clothes away but if you think they can be-"

Barry stopped as soon as the nickel dropped and he realized what she was suggesting.

"Uh."

Ears. Bright Red. Expression? Dazed.

"Not what you were suggesting, right?"

Honestly? Summer was actually impressed that he'd even caught on. There just might be hope for the poor guy yet!

After taking a moment to at least appreciate those red ears for what they were, Summer just bit her lip against a shameless grin and shook her head lightly.

"Nope."

You'd think by now Barry would have been ready for that response. Then again he didn't think she'd make such an insinuation while covered in jello and mandarin oranges.

Maybe she really like mandarin oranges.

Like. Really liked mandarin oranges.

Barry just stood there, leaving a Jello puddle on the floor as he sorted through that.

"I think I'll handle this on my own. This time," he said slowly.

Well, they were in peak citrus season...

Summer had just been about to go get a stick to poke Barry with before he finally came out of that one, while she felt that shifting uncertainty between being proud of her work and feeling a little bad because it was almost too easy.

And then trying not temper her sigh of disappointment once he did, because while she couldn't say she was surprised...

She smiled faintly, holding out the bag with his Oreo's. "Go home," she agreed, "go get cleaned up and plow through at least one of these packages, and there'll be a third one for you here on me if you come back less sticky and fill me in on all the gory jello details."

While she would just content herself with focusing on the fact that this time suggested another time might be more fruitful in the future.

Turtle & Canary; Monday [11/30].

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