like it or not - Noah!

[holly braur]

Twas the night before Sunday, when all through the apartment, not a creature was stirring, not even her hamster. Save for a petite brunette in her superman pajamas and some very fuzzy rainbow slippers. There were big plans for Holly tonight. A bag of popcorn was turning in the microwave and a while she waited, Holly read the back of the season of The OC she was determined to watch all in one night. Who didn’t need an overdose of cheese on such an evening? Ryan and Marissa would fight, Seth and Summer would be awkward and no doubt there would be shenanigans that everyone but the characters themselves could see rolling in on a dinosaur. With her roommates gone, Holly could feel free to shriek like a banshee in the privacy of her own eternal trash-TV geekdom and all would be well with the world. She slid the box out of the cover carefully and unfolded the accordion case. But to her very bitter disappointment, the very first disc was missing. Holly furrowed her brow and set the case and set down on the counter, moving through the kitchen towards her bedroom on a very important quest.

The damned thing was nowhere to be found. Holly did all of the checks she could think of. Under the bed. In the closet. She searched high and low, through drawers and cupboards to no avail. On her desk, under the magnitudes of crap that buried it from the world. The old scraps of paper covered in superhero doodles and chords for songs she had ultimately given up on hadn’t eaten the most important part of her evening. Holly was so consumed with her search that she forgot about the most important edible part of her own evening. She had lost track of time in her search but was slowly noticing a rather burnt smell wafting through from the kitchen. She paused, lifting her nose and taking a whiff. “What the…”

And then the smoke alarm went off.

“DAMMIT!” Holly had successfully, in the last however-many-minutes, managed not only to burn her popcorn but set fire to the bag. A series of screams mixed with coughs and sputters followed, along with a girl tossing a flaming bag of popcorn into the sink and turning on the tap to kill the flames. A variety of curses came with it while she opened up all of the windows before she reached for a dishtowel to flap at the screaming smoke alarm. Things were going from chaotic to worse, and while Holly flapped her noodle arms to kill the wild beeping, a knock on the door to the apartment sounded. “Holly, are you okay?!” She looked over at the door incredulously. Mrs. Dewer, the meddling fish monger. YEAH, I’M FINE. IT’S JUST MY CIRCUS FRIENDS HERE TO HAVE A GOOD TIME. “Yeah! All good! Go back to bed Mrs MongDEWER.” Was the much more polite answer, and the one she surprisingly decided to go with.

And the she caught herself just before worse looped right back into chaos. Holly was finally certain that the smoke detector would leave her in peace, and so she tossed the cloth to the counter, pushing her now wildly misplaced hair out of her face. She took a moment to place her cool hand against her warm forehead and congratulate herself for not letting the apartment burn down. Everything was blissfully silent. Silent, save for one thing. The sound of rushing water brought her back from her ‘happy place’ (as suggested by her anger management leader – a hot beach with palm trees and some really awesome floaty chairs). “DAMMIT!” Holly screamed again, this time focusing her rage on the tap that had filled the sink to nearly the brim. She caught it in time, and this time she very dramatically let herself fall to the kitchen floor, sprawled out on the tile, absolutely exhausted. She should have taken up firefighting with skills like her own.

In her state of post-panic relaxation, Holly felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. With a groan she reached for it, flipping it up to see a text from a fellow student. Holz! I have ur disk for OC, sorry! Ill bring it bak 2 u on Monday. Later babez! Another dramatic grown, arms thrown over her head. What a god damn disaster.

Twas the night before Sunday, when all through the apartment, it reeked of failed popcorn and almost a flood.

But it didn’t have to be like this. “Right.” Holly pulled herself off the ground and straightened out her shirt, slugged her housecoat back onto her shoulders properly and reached for her keys. She would not be trapped in the tower of failed evenings. Instead, she would assault someone else’s.

She didn’t bother texting him to let him know she was on her way. She didn’t even bother to change into real shoes. No, Holly locked her door and marched to his, banging relentlessly and loudly until Noah opened. “I burned my popcorn, almost flooded the kitchen and Rachel sent me a text message with poor grammar to inform me that she’d stolen my dreams. Can I come in?”

[noah davis]

Few people who knew Noah Davis would anticipate how he was spending his Saturday night. While he would like them to believe that he was on a date with some modelesque Parisian girl nothing could be further from the truth. He had a date all right – one with his younger sister, Grace. When it came to his sister there was nothing he wouldn’t do for her. Which explained why there was currently a Barbie and Ken doll and a small pile of very pink doll-sized accessories on his desk. His voice was a low rasp as he held up one of his old G. I. Joe’s and waved it’s plastic face in what he hoped looked menacingly in front of his web cam. “And then, once I’ve shrunk all the candy in the world and people can only eat lima beans and brussel sprouts, people will have no choice! They’ll follow whatever I say so they can get a lolly pop and then I will rule the world!”

The sound of Grace’s giggle interrupted Noah mid villain laugh, and he shifted the doll so he could see her face more clearly. He knew what most people saw when they looked at her. They saw what they believed to be abnormalities; marks of what made Grace different from other girls her age. He was barely cognoscente of the way her bright blue eyes delicately slanted upwards; all he saw was the merriment shining in them. “Noah!” she protested with another high peal of laughter. “You can’t steal all the candy! You’ll get a cavity and then Mom’ll make you go to the dentist. You don’t like the dentist. You said his office smells funny.”

Noah grinned and held the G. I. Joe back up. “My name’s not Noah. It’s Sir Poppycock Meanie Pants - the world’s most horrible criminal mastermind ever! I laugh at cavities. Ha. Ha. Ha.”

“No-ah!” Grace had pressed her face against the monitor of her computer granting him with a close-up of her blonde hair. “You’re not playing Barbie right. Ken’s supposed to take Barbie to the Princess Ball so she can become a princess and get married in a princess dress.” Most times playing Barbies with Grace was interactive with Noah playing the boys and Grace taking care of all the female roles. Tonight, however she was content to direct her big brother as he performed for her. Of course Noah could only take so much direction before he felt the need to interject his own spin on things. Grace would only give him so much free reign before Noah would frustrate her and then she would attempt to bring him back to her carefully constructed plot.

“I know Gracie,” he replied sheepishly. “I just thought it would be funny if there was a bad guy for Ken to save Barbie from. He can get a toothache and have to go to the dentist and then Ken and Barbie can have the most delicious wedding cake ever. Whatever flavour you want.”

“Even chocolate-chocolate-chocolate?”

“It’ll be the chocolatiest chocolate cake ever!” Noah grinned as Grace clapped with delight. Her happiness was a sound he would never grow tired of hearing. People liked to pretend that because she had Down’s Syndrome that she was impervious to their comments. While Grace might not understand what the expressions meant she understood their intent. For Noah the hardest part about attending this school was that he couldn’t be with her. Not that Grace needed someone to constantly supervise her every action – she was more than capable of doing things for herself – he just adored her. Spending night’s like this were the highlight of his week. Even if it meant that his roommate wondered about him and would stare accusingly at the shoebox whenever it poked out from beneath his bed. It made Grace happy and that was all that really mattered in the end. Still, he tried to keep the whole ownership of Barbie dolls on the DL. It wasn’t good for the ultra-cool reputation Noah liked to pretend that he had.

Grace was just telling him why she enjoyed chocolate cake better than any other type of cake when a loud banging on Noah’s door interrupted her. He cast an annoyed look at it before holding up a ball gown that was shiny and comprised of three shades of pink and a lot of lace and asking Grace if she thought that was the right dress for the princess to wear to the ball. With any luck the person would clue in and leave.

Knowing his friends, Noah should have figured that assuming they’d leave was a wasted effort. After about five minutes of relentless banging even Grace had given up. “Noah, there is someone at your door. You should answer it.”

“I was hoping they’d go away,” he muttered mostly to himself. Still it was clear that whoever was on the other side was not about to go away. He made his way to the door and flung it open, completely unaware that the aforementioned Barbie dress had attached itself to his sweater like a badge of embarrassment. Holly stood before him looking very much like a cat whose fur had been pushed the wrong way. There was no time for him to say hello as Holly barrelled over him. “I burned my popcorn, almost flooded the kitchen and Rachel sent me a text message with poor grammar to inform me that she’d stolen my dreams. Can I come in?”

Noah ran a hand through his hair before stepping aside. “Yeah, of course. I was just… uh… Skyping with my sister. What dreams?”