What, was &quot;Rudy&quot; on cable last night?

"I found handcuffs!" Parker suddenly announced from on top of the TV system set-up. "Lookit lookit!"

They were about as real as the weapons right now, and she was having fun getting in and out of them.

From:

"Dude!" Eliot bounced. "This house is amazing!" He didn't so much mind the lack of electronics. "Though I had to get all the poptarts and pizza bagels myself."

From:

"There's lots of orange soda and popsicles in the fridge," Parker pointed out, hanging down from the top of the entertainment center. "And Froot Loops! And we could get more at Luke's, probably." That Kenzi girl might let them have some, right?

Edited Date: 2015-11-23 06:20 am (UTC)

From:

"We're probably good for tonight," Eliot decided. "But we should keep that in mind for tomorrow."

From:

"Yup!" Parker hopped down and surveyed the fort with pleasure. "This isn't a girls-keep-out-fort, is it?"

From:

"Nah," Eliot said. "I only make those when I need to keep out my sister." Which admittedly was often. And then Gertie cried even harder because Eliot totally let their next door neighbor come in and she was a girl and then Mom yelled at him for being mean to Gertie and also that bedroom wasn't going to clean itself, mister, if he didn't clean up by the end of the day she was going to come through with a trashbag and throw everything on the floor away!

There was a reason why Eliot spent most of his time outside hiding in improbable places.

From:

"Is she bigger or littler than you?" Parker asked, crouching down to crawl inside, pausing to sniff with approval.

From:

"Littler," Eliot said. "And so annoying!!!" He emphasized his point with his hands spread wide on either side of his face as he grimaced at the ceiling. "She can't do anything yet and all she wants to do is follow me around and get me in trouble."

From:

Parker hunkered down and grabbed a pillow, hugging it to herself. "She might get more fun. When she's bigger." Her mouth was set in a thin grimace.

From:

"D'you have a little sister?" Eliot asked, not sure yet why she was reacting like that.

From:

"No." Parker looked away, and looked back, then away again. "Brother. But not any more."

From:

"Oh." Eliot was tempted to ask what she meant by that, but there were plenty of people in his books that lost siblings, so he had at least a little bit of an idea. ". . . D'ya want one?"

From:

From:

"This place has got tons of stuff in it!" Alec agreed. "An' it's way bigger'n the other place we were in."

From:

"Yeah, but that was right over a diner." Parker was always going to value food adjacency. "But I like that nobody's kicking us out of *either* of them. And!" She pulled an Illinois Smith hat over her eyes. Now she looked like an adventurer! "There are cool clothes here too." Beaming at him she added, "I'm never going back."

Edited Date: 2015-11-23 06:43 am (UTC)

From:

"But you gotta!" Alec argued. "There's no grownups here! What about...about doctor visits an' school an'--an'--an'--" He tried to think of other things that adults could help with. "They'll come find us! They got our names in the system an' if they gotta drag us home, we ain't never gonna get a family."

From:

Parker scowled. "Don't want one." She pouted at him. "They're stupid. Doctors are stupid. And teachers are stupid. And nobody wants me anyway, so. They won't come looking for me." She had to grudgingly admit they might come looking for Alec. She scowled at him. "Do you like school?"

From:

"Yeah," Alec admitted. "It's not as loud an' crazy as the group home an' I get to learn new stuff. Didja know that mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell? I learned that lookin' in the science book of one of the big kids." He looked very proud of himself. "You gotta go to college an' get a good job an' that's how you get outta the projects. That or be good at sports an' I ain't."

From:

You could tell Alec was really smart because he was thinking about the future. Not just the big words. Parker scowled again to hide her embarrassment. "Yeah, well." Well. "I'm ... stealing that apartment. And this house. And then I won't have to get a job. Ha!"

From:

"How you gonna steal it?" Alec asked, intrigued. "Ain't like you can put it into your pocket an' run off with it!"

From:

"No, that's what money's for," Parker agreed. "And I found some in that apartment, handfuls and handfuls, and I'll go pay somebody to put my name on it, and it will be mine." So there. Ha! "And we're gonna have adventures. And go places. And maybe join the circus. I bet that can make you rich."

From:

Alec frowned. "I ain't sure that's how it works," he said, though it was hard to pinpoint exactly what was wrong with her plan. Owning stuff was giving someone money till they put your name on it, right? "Who you gonna give the money to?" he asked finally. "Who's gonna put a kid's name on it?"

From:

"Somebody." Hmm. "Maybe that Kenzi girl at the diner? The apartment's right over that." Parker frowned. "That makes sense, right? Who would you give it to?"

From:

"I 'unno," Alec said, mouth pursed as he thought. "I'd probably try to see if I couldn't do it over the computer. No one knows you're a kid on a computer. I get to use the one at school sometimes an' I go to some websites that say you gotta be thirteen to go on. Ain't no one caught me yet."

From: