Luke's Diner, Thursday

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Ugh. That jerky white kid was back at the house again this morning. After the...issue...that had arisen when Alec, Jerkface, and Weird Girl had woken up sharing a bed, Alec had been more than happy to spend all of yesterday avoiding them, even if that had meant participating in the paintball thing. But he hadn't had any of his fake credit cards or IDs on him, so he'd ended up going back to the house last night.

To find Jerkface also there. Ugh. And he thought Weird Girl might have been around, too, but she was fast and kinda creepy, so it wasn't like he'd gone looking.

So Alec was out of the house as soon as he was up (at the crack of noon!), casually swiping one of the expensive laptops that had been lying around. Maybe if he could hack into that (maybe? HA!), he could get himself an ID and a cash stream and away from the house. Before Jerkface could decide to beat him up for, like, existing or whatever.

The sign on the restaurant's window caught his eye:

Today's Specials
Yeah, we know you don't have money. Come in and get a meal and pay us back next week. Unless you're Eliot, Hardison, Miguel, or Kanan Caleb. You gotta work.
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup
Shrimp Fajitas (You're welcome, adults)

Free food? Ish? Alec was going to worry about why he was singled out later. He was going in to peel some potatoes and get a huge helping of spaghetti and meatballs.

[Content Warning for a physical fight in the Eliot/Hardison thread with underlying homophobic tones. Please practice good self-care when deciding whether to read, my dears.]

Comments

[what_the_shock]

"Shock," Miguel said, a little awed. "I didn't know anybody had made it that far." He eyed Caleb sideways. "You're not just pulling my leg, are you?"

[uncertain_dume]

"Why is everyone accusing me of lying?" Caleb scrunched up his nose a little. "I have nothing to gain from it, why would I?"

[what_the_shock]

"Because it's pretty unbelievable, and some people lie just because they can," Miguel said, little cynic that he was.

[uncertain_dume]

"Well," Caleb muttered, "that's dumb."

Lying didn't have much of a point to it when your teacher could tell anyway.

[what_the_shock]

"They're usually dumb, too," Miguel said, rolling his eyes. Not that he wouldn't lie for a reason, but some people just did it because they were nasty.

[uncertain_dume]

Caleb shook his head a little, and that was about the moment their food arrived.

He blinked down at the plate that was set in front of him.

"Dumb, or desperate," he mused. "Maybe lonely. Still doesn't make it the right thing to do, though."

[what_the_shock]

"Desperate is different," Miguel said. "If you have to lie to, like, get by or something, I get it. But mean people lie all the time because they feel like it."

He picked up one of his tortillas. "Here, like this," he showed Caleb. "Just pick whatever you want to put in it. The shrimp are shelled, at least. Put it in like this, then you roll it - turn one side then the other, then roll from the other end and it usually holds better."

[uncertain_dume]

Caleb mulled that over for a few moments, and then he nodded.

Lying because they felt like it. That seemed like something he might have to keep an eye out for.

The Jedi were sort of more about 'certain points of view' than outright lies.

"Okay, just... whatever?" He looked over the ingredients, recognizing exactly none of them. "... Maybe I'll try a little of everything."

[what_the_shock]

"Probably the best," Miguel agreed. "Shrimp," he pointed them out. "Shellfish. Sour cream is dairy...something. It's not really sour, I don't know why it's called that. Rice - it's...a grain? I think? with spices in it. Refried beans - they're just smushed up. Those two you can put in if you want, I guess, or just eat them on the side. The rest is all different vegetables. Different colors of peppers, onions. Oh, wait - the lime," he pointed it out, "you just squeeze that over it for the juice if you want. Don't put it in."

That would be bad.

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan was going to thank Miguel profusely for warning him about the lime, when they turned back.

"Okay, thanks," Caleb said, following along, and then starting to dish out each item into his fajita, though he was pausing to sample this and that before it went in. The shrimp was the meat for the whole thing, so they went in anyway. The sour cream wasn't bad, and the rice was... rice. He actually did know rice. The beans, too, though they weren't prepared in any way that he recognized. The peppers were interesting, and he reached for a little green one, holding it up and squinting at it curiously.

Don't do it, Caleb.

[what_the_shock]

Well that was what nice people did. Or even not-so-nice-but-not-actively-trying-to-have-fun-at-the-new-guy's-expense people.

"That one's spicy," Miguel warned him. He didn't stop him, though; maybe the guy liked it.

[uncertain_dume]

Yeaaaah, Caleb was sloooowly putting that pepper right back where he found it.

"I don't have much experience with spicy," he admitted. "It's all been pretty simple food my whole life."

With the occasional bit of fruit for variety. Mmm, fruit.

[what_the_shock]

"So try it!" Miguel urged. "Be a little careful, but you should definitely try it."

[uncertain_dume]

And now he was hesitating with the pepper just shy of the plate.

"If you're sure?"

Caleb Dume, who was going to have his braid dyed pink because he'd been goaded into it by a pushy girl, was absolutely not going to back down from this one. Not now that he'd been encouraged to do it.

"Do you like them?"

[what_the_shock]

"I do, yeah. I grew up with them, though." Miguel shrugged and showed how he was putting a few of them in his next fajita. "Just take it easy, and spit 'em out if it's too much. Or drink water."

[uncertain_dume]

Caleb considered that, considered how Miguel was putting a few into his own food, and then, because some things never changed, he popped the pepper whole right into his mouth and chewed.

... Okay, that wasn't so...

So...

Very slowly and deliberately, with maybe the slightest hint of urgency in his eyes, Caleb was now reaching for the water.

[what_the_shock]

Miguel's eyes were now bugging out. "Slowly! I said go slowly! Are you okay?"

Seriously, he was trying not to facepalm here. "I wasn't lying either, you know."

[uncertain_dume]

Caleb's replies were going to be a little limited to humming and waving around of one hand while he occupied his other hand with pulling the water toward himself, and then knocked back... basically the whole glass.

And then popped a couple of ice cubes into his mouth for good measure.

He was fine.

This was clearly the minor emergency that had him completely manage to miss what was going on over on the other side of the diner, right here.

[what_the_shock]

And Miguel was too occupied with facepalming to notice the glass moving on its own.

He just pushed his toward Caleb, too, and waved a little urgently for more.

"Why would you even do that?" Monosyllables weren't going to deter him from asking.

[uncertain_dume]

"Sthoopidity," Caleb said, around a mouthful of too-much-ice. "Deffinithly sthoopidity."

He knocked back Miguel's water too. And then just kind of took a moment to rest his forehead on the table.

"I need bacta for my mouth."

[what_the_shock]

"Bacta?" Miguel asked. "If you were my little brother, I'd smack you." He mimed a mostly-gentle smack on the head. "Eat some of the rice and sour cream; it should help."

[uncertain_dume]

Caleb, properly chastened, did just that. Or prepared to do just that, kind of sullenly loading up a fajita with a bunch of rice and a dollop of sour cream, effectively inventing the world's most unfortunate burrito.

And that was the last time Caleb would ever reach for a jalapeno.

"But," he said, "now I know?"

Yes. Very well.

[what_the_shock]

"There are easier ways, but sure," Miguel agreed.

That was the worst burrito ever, Caleb.

[uncertain_dume]

Caleb was absolutely not winning any great burrito awards, nope. And the look on his face while he took a bite suggested that he might actually prefer rations over what was currently residing in his mouth.

"I can never be trusted with Earth food again."

That was the real takeaway, here.

[what_the_shock]

Miguel rolled his eyes. "Well, maybe just trust Earth people about food." Then, thinking of some people he knew... "Okay, maybe not. But at least trust them if they say not to do something." That was probably safe.