Making Fiends {open}

[Garth Colbrith]

"Testing, testing, one two three." Garth called softly, poking his heading into the cafeteria door. Eleven was late enough at night that everyone should have cleared out, but it never hurt to double check. There were maybe half a dozen people just lingering around the room, and a quick visual check assured him that none of them were actually eating. Humming the Mission Impossible theme to himself, Garth stepped inside and closed the door quickly, making a beeline for the doors to the kitchen. At this point, he assumed it was okay for him to make his own foodstuffs, because someone would have mentioned that he couldn't by now, right? "Cool. Now, on to to the noms."

He had checked with the kitchen staff, and the fruit for the next few days was melons and strawberries. Perfectly safe. Still, Garth thought very normal, entirely human thoughts as he opened the fridge, just as a precaution. He was quite relieved to be staring down some fried chicken and carrots, both of which he removed and placed on the counter beside him. That was followed by a carton of chocolate milk and what he assumed was buttered rolls, though they could have just been inventive bread. Garth was pretty sure that the fridge came with leftovers because other students were prone to eating at odd hours.

"Snack attack." Garth muttered to himself, taking out a drumstick. "Man, I haven't had fried chicken in forever... Huh." Taking a quick look around the empty kitchen, Garth discovered that no, there were no super quiet people creeping in the kitchen. "In a place not too far from here..."

"Oh no!" screamed Ms. Drumstick in a strange falsetto. Hail the size and shape of a roll was raining down and it was all she could do to dodge. "This is so terrible and entirely unpredictable! Whatever shall I do? I should probably dodge, oh no!" Actually, it seemed that only one piece of hail was falling over and over again, but she was panicking and not actually thinking these things through. "Oh if only Carrotman were here to stop natural disasters! I should keep running until then!"

Garth continued voicing a terrified drumstick, bouncing the roll a little. Playing with your food never stopped being fun, something he had discovered a while ago. Normally, he tried to seem normal while eating, but every so often, he forgot to be mature. Just a month earlier, his fork and knife had been engaged in epic battle for so long, his soup had gone cold. In fact, Garth was so absorbed in his doomsday scenario, he didn't even notice when someone else entered the kitchen.

[Eric Bower]

Math was pure evil. Why? Because it kept people like Eric up past their bedtime. Not that Eric...had a bedtime. He just liked to be in bed around a certain time, and that was about an hour ago. But his Algebra worksheet wasn't any closer to being completed than fifteen minutes ago. His calculator could only do so much, and his textbook gave him little insight to this horrid subject. He just didn't understand it. Letters had no part in an equation. None, so they shouldn't be there. At all.

After a while he decided he needed a friggin' break, less he start throwing things and making noise that would bring the attention of his roommates. He certainly didn't want that. After his chair completed two revolutions with him still seated he decided a snack would distract him well enough. He then tiptoed from his room into the commons and inspected the minifridge. Alas, there was naught but bottled water. He didn't want to drink water, he wanted a snack. Since there was nothing nibble-able in the fridge, then he would have to go on a raid in the school's kitchen, right? He didn't exactly remember the location of any snack machines around the school so that was his course of action.

After donning his shoes and a shirt (because who did their homework fully clothed?) he left his dorm, he stowed the key in his pocket, and then did his best to silently make his way from the dorms to the cafeteria. He managed to make it there without drawing attention to himself because he knew he'd probably get in trouble for being out of his dorm--Freshmen's had that silly curfew after all. Once he was inside, he was surprised to see that others were up and about, but maybe they didn't have the same curfew as him. Ah well, as long as no one ratted on him, right?

He skirted the wall all the way around until he made it too the kitchen doors and after he glanced over his shoulder and about the room, he made it through the doors. And once he got to the other side, before his wandering eyes appeared someone acting out some sort of superhero scenario with their food. With a small grin on his face, Eric let the door shut behind him with a bit of noise, as to alert the immersed guy of his presence. However, that seemed to go unnoticed by him, since he was so into his story and saving the...drumstick.

"I don't think that's what they are for." Eric commented, his boyish face alight with amusement. "Perhaps you should try eating them?" He continued to ask as he moved about the kitchen (never having been in there before, he had no idea where everything was). Then he located a pantry type area, and he stuck his head inside, looking for anything that would work for a snacky-snack.

[Garth Colbrith]

"Have no fear, Carrotman is here!' It was the most heroic and complete win of a voice that anyone had ever heard, especially the terrified Ms. Drumstick. "Stand back ma'am, this is hero work. Da-dada-da-da-dah!" Even as Carrotman swooped down, something seemed to halt his heroic awesomeness. That something just so happened to be the timely arrival of another student.

Most people would have been at least mildly embarrassed, but not Garth. No, he could hear a hint of laughter in boy's voice, which meant that someone else was having fun, which was completely fine by him. Still, he wanted to see who this was, so he turned around, drumstick and carrots still in hand and a big grin on his face. Everyone felt better when other people were happy, right?

"Eh, eating them is for when things get kinda boring." Garth confessed, shrugging his shoulders slightly. "Hey, are you looking for something in particular? Or are you just digging around? If you want, there is a ton of chicken over here, and the stuff that isn't under attack is totally up for grabs." He shook the container temptingly. Garth was talking to give himself more time to figure out exactly who this was. He had seen the guy before in the hall and probably even talked to him a few times before, but the name was fuzzy. Very very fuzzy.

"So, I know I've probably seen you before, but just in case not, I'm Garth." Ah yes, the introduction of winners. "I've seen you around, is your name like Aaron or Eldrich or Eric or Errol or Erised or stop my weird name guessing at any time..." Actually, guessing names was making him hungry. Garth took a rather sizable - also known as totally huge - bite out of his chicken wing and chewed well. Even though it was cold, the chicken was pretty tasty, and Garth mentally congratulated himself on a good choice of food. Speaking of a good choice...

"Hey, if you see any cake, give me a heads up, 'kay?" Garth asked, abruptly switching topics and opening the fridge again. He suddenly really really wanted some cake, and the fridge seemed like a reasonable place to look first. The counter, pantry and various cabinets would come after that, then the oven. Food-hunting was a no-stone-unturned sort of adventure for Garth, and he would eventually look under individual pieces of silverware. "I'll tell you if I find cake. You like cake, don't you?"

[Eric Bower]

(Ack. Sorry for the delay. I promise to not let that happen again >_>)

"That is a great philosophy. Can it be applied to other things that isn't food, per say?" Eric asked, his amused smile still in place. All those fights conversations with Zac had really improved his skills in banter, and vocabulary. Which was something Eric would never put words too. Zac was already too proud of himself, and Eric wasn't about to stroke that ego any more. However Eric didn't used that better-than-you tone Zac used all the time. Eric was much too nice to be cynical. He was just a bit smart.

"I'm not looking for anything toooo complicated, but that chicken does look like it wants to be eaten." Eric was weak when it came to food. He liked it, and a lot of it. Only in the recent past had he started to eat vegetables and fruits more often than chocolate things and deep fried things. His girlfriend and best friend two good friends had sorta grown a secret garden on the school grounds and since Autie can make plants grow super fast, they were ready to be eaten. So his diet was a lot better and he was feeling a lot better. However. It was chicken.

Garth. He heard Garth before. Garth. Garth....where? He tapped his chin while he inspected the things in the pantry, as if he'd find his memory in there. He snapped his finger and turned around. "Colbrith? I think we're roommates." It was a rather odd way to meet one's roommate like this, but Eric distinctly remembered Fifi and Ariana talking about him. He grinned. "Eric is the name that I was born with, but I think I'll go with Erised now. Much cooler. I'll call the name changing office in the morning." He grinned like the cat that ate the canary before he chuckled at himself and moseyed on over to the refrigerator.

Oh cake. Bad idea. Horrible idea. Terrific idea.

He searched the shelves of the fridge until he stumbled upon a white box. That evil smile (well as close to an evil smile as the innocent boy can get) was back as he pulled the box from the bottom shelf and looked inside. "Happy Bir..." He said slowly as he looked at the diced cake. A good half was already missing, though there were a few crumble remains and one of those cake holding thing. He turned the box so Garth may see inside. "It's chocolate." Double bad. Double horrible. Double terrific.

He plopped the box next to Garth's little food town set up and reached for his own chicken wing. Cold chicken and cake. The snack of kings.

[Garth Colbrith]

"The 'When it gets Boring' philosophy applies to almost everything in life." Garth said with a slight grin. "Basically, life is about having fun. You do other stuff when you're bored or you have to." That really was his basic stance on life. Garth took another bite of his chicken, almost biting through the bone, which would be gross. He tried a bite of carrot instead, in which there was no worry of biting through bone. Only carrot. "Like homework. You only do it when you have nothing better to do, or right before you have to turn it in, right?" Garth was not the most studious, and it showed nine times out of ten. He was okay with that.

"Dude, chickens were made for eating." Garth said, offering the bucket. "Especially after frying. Then they're just asking for it." He liked to pretend he was a healthy eater, but Garth really just ate whatever he found suited his fancy at the moment. Sometimes it was a vegetable tray. More often, it was ice cream and hamburgers. When there were hamburgers, that is. "Chicken is very simple. Bird plus deep fryer equals yum." Math was one of his best subjects.

Roommates. That would explain so much. Like why his name and face and voice were all familiar. Garth didn't mean to be so rude, but he had never quite managed to click with his roommates. Perhaps it was the fact the he was rarely in his room when not sleeping, preferring to be outside or off doing something. "Awesome! Too bad we haven't met before Erised. We could have been up to some epic fun by now." Garth mentally moved Eric from his potentially cool list to a firm spot on the friends list.

At the mere thought of Eric having found cake, Garth perked up immensely. "Happy Bir is my favorite flavor." It was true. Birthday cake tended to have a little more icing than necessary, and was denser than fundraiser cake or I-am-bored-and-shall-bake cake. "Closely followed by chocolate."

Even though Garth actually had rather refined table manners, he often chose to ignore them completely. This was one of those times, as he grabbed one of the lumpy chunks of loose cake in his fingers and took a bite. The cake proved to be good cake, as it crumbled everywhere. Garth made a mental note to try and sweep after he was done eating. Still, this was good. Eric was chill, and liked chicken and cake. No need to rush a good time.

"So, what brings you here for late night snacking?" Garth asked, looking for a suitable nommable piece of cake."You forget to eat during the day, or you just kinda bored and hungry? Or none of the above?" There was a blob of icing, and Garth stuck his finger in, tasting it. Delicious.

[Eric Bower]

"Ah, well that too. I was actually referring about the 'eat it' part." Eric admitted with a small laugh and a grin. As to Garth's philosphy about homework, Eric disagreed. He had to keep his grades good, and to do that, he did his homework the day they were assigned, or over the weekend if they were due the next week. He really didn't like sleeping with the knowledge he still had stuff to do. However, some nights, like tonight, his work load was just a bit too much and he needed a break. Which was why he was in the kitchen so late at night. "I'm actually one of those that do it the afternoon the assignment is given out. Alien, right? But it keeps my parents happy, and when they are happy, they give me my allowance." So it all worked out, right?

As Garth offered the bucket, he picked out a pretty leg that was asking to be devoured. "You don't have to tell me twice; I'm from the South. Chicken is like half of what my parents used to make." The other half was beef things. And vegetables. His mom always made him eat those nasty things.

He was actually quite glad to find out Garth was his roommate. He seemed like a very easy person to get a long with, and that sort of thing. Fifi kinda scared him and Ariana was OK, when she wasn't treating him like her little brother. "That can all be fixed now, though." He said, and grinned as Garth called him by Erised (which made him think of the Sorcerer's Stone and caused him to grin all over again like the nerd he was).

"It certainly is up there." As far as icing went, it was too sweet for Eric's taste buds, the less icing the better. He much preferred homemade cake than store bought, for the icing alone. And in terms of cake flavors, red velvet was perfection. However, Eric was one that couldn't say no to chocolate. As Garth mercilessly grabbed a piece of cake, Eric was not one to prolong the inevitable and he took up one of his own pieces as well, happily, it was one of the inside pieces that had less icing on it, to avoid a headache of sugar.

Chicken and cake together was actually pretty yummy, like two courses of food at once. "I was tryin' to--" his mouth was too full to continue talking and he chewed hard core to swallow and once his mouth was empty, he tried again. "I was up late tryin' to finish my homework. Algebra, however, had other ideas. I needed a break and then stealth-walked it in here." Eric glanced around as if a security guard would pop in at any moment and tell them to scram. Eric was sorta afraid of those guys. They looked extremely tough and scary, and the one lady guard was even scarier. She looked like one of those people that was in a foreign horror movie. "You?"