vanillajello | Overland Park, KS, Friday Afternoon (August)

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Overland Park, KS, Friday Afternoon (August)

The last weekend was still weighing on Kate, just a little bit. She figured that was unavoidable after you got pretend killed, but she'd been trying to keep herself occupied and distracted because it was probably for the best if she didn't think about it too hard.

This weekend was going to be better, though. Or at least that was the plan she was clinging to. She hadn't told anyone but Charmaine that she had a friend coming over, so she figured her whole family knew by now, because Char was not the greatest at not blabbing. Not that it was any major secret, Kate just would've preferred it if her family hadn't been likely to flock to be curious about her elusive Fandom friends.

But that was for later. As it got to be the afternoon, she wandered out of the house and down the street to where the portal tended to dump its transportees, and kept an eye on the houses nearby in case any neighbors decided to wander outside.

Oak Avenue had its fair share of weird without adding portal sightings to the mix.

[ooc: NFB, and for that guy. Not the usual one. The tall one with the scar, yeah, that one. But can be open for texts/calls before he shows up I s'pose!]

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The portal dropped Luke off right on time and, unlike his last portal adventure, there was no unexpected detour to the Jurassic area. Which was good because Luke had packed light, not wanting to scare any mortals.

There was no stumbling or anything like that when the portal spit him out, but he was quick to take a quick look around to make sure nobody had seen that. He was already weird enough with the scar, he didn't need to add to it.

"No one saw you," Kate assured him, pushing away from someone's mailbox she'd been leaning against. "Hey, Luke. Welcome to Oak Avenue."

It looked like any old suburban neighborhood with cozy-looking houses lined up on both sides of the street, mostly because it was.

The whole place sort of reminded him of his house back in Connecticut. Only, you know, without the crazy stuffed animals in his own front yard. "Niiiiiiiice. I can feel the excitement brimming from every house."

Okay, not really.

Luke gave Kate a smile, happy to see her again. "Hey. You look good."

"Thanks," Kate replied with a little smirk, then gave him a quick look over before raising an eyebrow. "Wish I could say the same for you. Dude, have you lost weight?"

"A little," he said, looking down at himself and wondering how bad he looked to other people. "Been stressing out lately."

"Well, that sucks," Kate replied, understating it. She beckoned him to follow her as she started down the street at a leisurely pace. "But, that just means we need to swing by my parents' house real quick before we go to Charmaine's."

Which would be easy as they were located right next to each other.

Luke followed, taking in the sights because he wasn't used to the whole small town thing and found it interesting. "Did you tell them I was visiting?"

"I told Char," she shrugged, "so I'm pretty sure everyone knows by now. That's kinda how it works."

"It's been a while since I've met someone's parents but I think I remember how to work the whole thing so I won't freak people out," he said with a nod. "Of course the last parent I met was Percy's dad. I would hope your parents are less intimidating than Poseidon..."

"Well, I think Bod still lives in fear of my dad pushing him out the window or something?" Kate offered with a laugh. "But since we're not sleeping together I think you should be just fine. No one's gonna want to intimidate you."

"Okay, but how many of them are gonna try to make me wear a homemade glittery tiara?" Luke asked.

"Oh, that'll just be Charmaine," Kate replied, lightly, "but you'll totally do it because I can't have you making her cranky."

She pointed at the beige, two-storey house they were just coming up to. "That's the one," she said, then pointed at the one next to it. "And that's where I live now."

"Moving must've been such a trial for you," Luke joked. "This neighborhood reminds me a lot of where I grew up."

"Where did you grow up, anyway?" she wondered as she led him towards the house. "I can't remember if you've told me."

"Westport, Connecticut," Luke told her. "Small town like this one, only there's less Wizard of Oz jokes to make."

"Trust me, the fewer of those that can be made, the better," Kate said, fishing her keys from her pocket. "They get really old really fast." Even after she'd known a few Ozians personally.

She shook her head as they came to the door, then smirked at him. "So, ready to meet the infamous crazy family of Oak Avenue?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Luke said, nodding. He wasn't all that nervous. No way Kate's family could be worse than his.

Well, they were all human, at least. That was a plus.

Kate opened the door and stepped in, calling out, "Yo, family, anyone home?"

"In the kitchen," came the answer in a woman's voice from further in the house. There was another voice there too, a young guy by the sound of it, but not loud enough to be clear. He was adressing someone else, not them.

"Mom, Moosh and Lionel, by the sound of it," Kate noted to Luke before heading for the kitchen.

Luke followed Kate into the kitchen, smiling and trying his best to look friendly since he knew the scar on his face could make him look like the creepy high school guy you see in movies.

He was surprised to see how normal looking they all looked, Kate's mom especially. Maybe he was too used to the mentally unstable person looking ragged, like his own mother.

Kate could've argued against Lionel's normality, with his shock of bleached hair and outrageously bright clothes, but yeah. It was obviously a good, normal day in the kitchen. Tara was looking over some papers on one side of the table, while Marshall (in his buttonup shirt, tie, and apron) and Lionel were on the other side, the former working on a fresh pan of muffins while the latter... lazed about next to him.

And they were all looking at Luke, now.

"Ooh," Lionel said, quietly. Kate rolled her eyes at him. "I'm pretty sure Char already ratted me out or whatever, so... Guys, this is Luke, Luke... Guys."

It was Tara's turn to roll her eyes at Kate's version of an introduction. "Hi, I'm Tara, Kate's mom," she said with a smile. "Nice to meet you, Luke."

Luke gave them all a little wave. "Nice to meet you too. Hope you don't mind me hanging around for a few days."

"Well, technically you should probably be saying that to my sister," Tara noted, wryly. She was also going to let Charmaine handle the needlessly intrusive questions like the one about the scar. "But we tend to have an open door policy for Kate's friends."

When Kate bothered to let the two social spheres meet. Tara couldn't say she always minded that she often didn't.

"How was your flight? Oh, and are you hungry? Marsh just made muffins."

Which Kate was already helping herself to, yeah. No manners.

"Yeah, sure, I'll take one," Luke said, already moving to help himself so he wouldn't have to bother anybody. "My flight was fine. Super quick."

Super, super quick.

"Never been to Kansas before," he shared. "It's...a lot different from Fandom."

"I bet," Marshall couldn't help chiming in, because he'd been Kate's graduation guest, so he knew. Then he looked almost flustered at having spoken. "Um, and I'm Marshall, in case you didn't figure that out yet. Hi."

Kate shot him a sisterly, mocking smile. "Aww, baby brother."

Luke smirked at Kate before turning his attention towards Marshall. "Hey, Marshall. Kate's told me a lot about you---good things, by the way."

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