Mackenzie Shepherd

"Yes you would, and that's part of why I love you," she said. Lexie still appreciated the offer, and she was not going to say no. "It was a really long day," Lexie agreed. "I had back to back surgeries all day," she told her. "And I love it, I do, but I.. Yeah, I definitely need a cupcake," she added with a small laugh. "I appreciate you."

"Aww, I love you too, Aunt Lex," Kenzie said with a smile and a nudge to the woman's shoulder. "That sounds incredibly exhausting. Working on brains all day long? You've gotta have a lot of stamina and patience for that. Sounds like you need to eat your cupcake and then go home and take a long, long nap."

Nodding, Amelia winked, "I'll probably tell him at some point, because it'll bring me joy. I doubt he'll believe me, but in my heart, I know the truth." Nose scrunched at the grandma confirmation, though at this point, there was no denying that the life Amelia led was close to grandma status. When she wasn't at the hospital, there was a good chance she was at home, in bed by 9pm. Throwing in drinking tea with some knitting, a hobby she'd picked up purely out of boredom and hadn't managed to make anything real, there was some moderate grandma-ing. "Some people just take good pictures," she shrugged, "that doesn't mean they're being more productive or having more fun. Just means they took a nice picture, probably spent hours sifting through other pictures deciding which to post, editing the pictures I'm sure, then thinking of captions and all'f that. It's got to be more exhausting having a lively social media presence." Just fully leaning into the grandma thing now.

Mackenzie couldn't help but let out a laugh at this. "You're right; he'd never believe that his own child would betray him by saying his sister was better than he was." Her father was just egotistical enough to think he was the best of the Shepherd children, even if his own child didn't necessarily agree with that sentiment. While she knew what Amelia was saying was true, there was still a part of Kenzie that wondered if she was squandering her life away, working as a cafeteria worker at the hospital instead of out there at college, going to parties and living in the dorms. "I guess," she finally said, with a soft sigh. "Probably used a bunch of filters on them too." Though she had no room to talk there, as she did the same thing. "Maybe I should just delete all my social media and be done with it." Yeah, right.

She grinned at her cousin being willing to help her run lines. "I absolutely don't expect you to do any accents or anything, Kenz. I just need the lines to be read and for some of the cues to be given, but that really also just comes through reading what's on the page." She handed over the script. "This is for the performance I'm in at college this term. But there have been a lot of creative...differences already."

Kenzie nodded. "That sounds easy enough," she assented, taking the script from Presley and looking it over. "Read lines and give cues - you got it." She was far from being an actress, but this was simple enough directions. "Oh, that doesn't sound good. How many times have you had to try and memorize your lines then?"

"And don't you forget it," she spoke with a wink. "Unfortunately," Amelia nodded, inhaling through her teeth, "I do have a few consults over the next couple of hours, so sleep isn't attainable just yet. So the goal, at the moment, is being as awake as possible and the bonus of the outdoors is that it does help my eyes adjust from the microscope a little more than the hospital halls." The I'm fine that came from her niece was almost laughable, and Amelia did crack a slight smile. "Well, that's really all you see, isn't it? Not to, like.. act like a grandma here, but isn't that the entire point of social media? Just to make everyone else think you're having the best time?"

"Don't worry, Aunt Amy, I'll always know you're the best of the Shepherd siblings. Just don't tell my dad I said that." He didn't need to hear just how much Kenzie thought Amelia was better than he was and cause friction in the household. "That sounds pretty unpleasant, but I don't blame you for wanting to give your eyes a break from the walls of the hospital. This place is a pretty good place to come for a break." Kenzie couldn't help but nod her agreement with her aunt's further words. "You're definitely acting like a grandma, but I'll give you a free pass this time because what you say makes sense. It just sucks that it's always out there for people to see and not measure up to."

April was a bit taken aback by the harshness of Kenzie's voice, not having expected that to come from such a sweet, young girl. "Uhh, I was going for a walk and decided to rest my feet by taking a seat?" she muttered as more of a question, quirking her brows. "Are you okay? You seem a bit... I dunno, tense, upset?" she guessed, setting her water bottle down beside her on the bench.

"Right..." Kenzie let out a sigh as she turned to face the doctor who was sitting on the bench the teenager herself had just been occupying. "Okay? That's a bit of a strong word. I'm just... questioning my life choices." Why she was opening up to April when she didn't feel comfortable opening up to most people, she didn't know. Probably because there was no familial relation there. "Tired of everyone I went to high school with parading about how perfect their lives are all the time."

Amber smiled at the girl before taking a seat and opening her bag gently before taking a taki out and tossing it in her mouth. "Where do you work in here?" she asked, pulling her water bottle to sit on the table instead of her knee. "It's just about the only thing I could find that wasn't fried." She typically wasn't a sandwich and chips person but today she welcomed anything not coated in oil.

Kenzie nodded her head in the direction of the food line. "Mostly do cashier up there, but sometimes they have me work as a cook. That's usually as a last resort, though." While there were instructions for how to make everything back there, cooking had never been a particular strong suit of hers. "Yeah, they don't have a lot of options here that aren't fried. Which is strange, considering it's a hospital. You'd think they'd want to promote a healthy lifestyle among the doctors and patients."

It had been a long day, and Lexie was ready to leave. She wasn't sure when Mark was going to be done, so she wasn't waiting around. Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she let out a soft sigh of relief at the thought of crawling into bed. When one of her nieces approached her though, she smiled. "Hey Kenz," she said, greeting the younger woman. "Oh god, yes," she stated. "Please. I mean, if you're sure, that is. I don't.. I'm not gonna take your last cupcake if you wanted to eat it later though."

Kenzie let out a laugh at her aunt's statement. "I wouldn't have offered it to you if I wanted it for myself." Okay, she might still have done that to be polite, but one cupcake was enough for her. She'd gorged on food throughout the day as it were and didn't need to indulge in any more sugar than just the cupcake she'd finished moments before. "Besides, I'm sure you had a long day cutting into people's brains - you need it way more than I do."

"When you're in a gloomy city with an even gloomier hospital, you tend to discover the slightly more pleasant spots," Amelia shrugged. "I just got out of a nice little twelve hour surgery, so I'm trying to be as far as I can without being too far while on call." Brow quirked slightly, having only seen Kenzie toss her phone into her pocket, "are you good?"

"Makes sense," Kenzie replied with a soft shrug. "Twelve hour surgery and your first thought is to come out here instead of trying to get some sleep? You really are badass, Aunt Amy." Any other person would probably go straight to the closest bed, but clearly Amelia was not most people. "Me? Yeah, I'm ... fine." Just having an existential crisis, she added to herself, but it wasn't anything she needed to bother her aunt with. "Just tired of seeing everyone's perfect little lives all over social media."

Presley rubbed at her face in frustration, looking over all of the changes that that had been made to the script that they'd been working on for the past month. She didn't understand how it had taken this long for the director to decide that they weren't happy with everything, but it was more than a little frustrating. Hearing the sound of someone walking toward her, she looked up from the pieces of paper in her hands and forced a weak smile. "Any chance you might be willing to help a girl run some lines?"

Kenzie had spotted the familiar face of her cousin, and had decided to go and say hi. She hadn't, however, expected to be asked to help Presley learn her lines. It wasn't like the younger Shepherd had a lot to do, though, so she didn't see the harm in helping out. "Sure. As long as I don't have to, like, make up weird voices for characters or anything. Pretty sure I wouldn't be able to do that." Nor would she want to. "What are we reading lines for?"

Amber stood in line in the cafeteria, a banana and ham sandwich in hand before she stepped up to pay, making sure to grab the bag of taki's beside the register before paying and making her way toward one of the tables. "This seat taken?"

Break time - the best part of the workday, when Kenzie could grab some food, sit down, and just people watch. That was exactly what she was doing when she heard a voice nearby, asking about sitting there. It was a little surprising, having a doctor wanting to sit with her, but her eyes roamed the cafeteria and noticed there weren't exactly a whole lot of tables available. "Be my guest," she finally stated. "I have to head back to work soon anyway. Nice little lunch you've got there."

Ellis was hanging christmas lights, standing on a small step stool in her room and making sure they draped along most (if not all) of her ceiling. She was polite and waited until October came around to put the little white lights up. "Well, that's not a loaded question." Ellis dusted her hands of an looked over at her little sister. "What did you do?"

"What makes you think I did anything?" Kenzie asked, doing her best not to make a comment about the fact Christmas was still a couple months away. Getting on Ellis's bad side would only hinder her whole reason for being here. "Okay, fine," she eventually acquiesced. "I need to know the best way to cover up a hole in the wall. Like, before mom and dad get home." She really didn't want to get into the reason there was a hole in the wall of the living room downstairs; what she needed was to figure out how to get rid of it - and fast.