#apocalypticaries

Valais stood outside the door, hands clasped tightly together over her stomach. To anyone who did not know her, she looked the picture of calm and together. To those that did know her, the tightness in her shoulders and the shallowness of her breath were dead giveaways to the internal turmoil she was feeling. The night before, she discovered that the group of children she was instructed to keep an eye on due to rumors of misbehavior included her own daughters. That wasn’t how she intended to tell them about her new position on campus and it certainly wasn’t how she recalled raising them to behave. She couldn’t speak for the other but Damara and Aradia were good girls. Well, she thought they were when she sent them here… Well she thought Aradia was. Damara hardly spoke to her these days, if ever, and had been out from under her thumb a little while longer than Aradia. Valais mentally shook her head. Regardless of their time spent away from home, underage drinking was in excusable for young Megido women.

Slowly, she released her white knuckled grip and raised a fist to knock on the door. She paused, hand poised only centimeters away from the polished wood of the dorm room door. What was she doing? Obviously she was here to establish boundaries with her child. Now that she was on campus, it was time that her children understand that their careless behavior would not carry on as it had. She was the adult. In addition, it was her duty to discipline the students for any misdeeds. It would reflect poorly on her if she allowed her daughters a pass even once. So why did she hesitate?

Damara hated it when they ran out of precooked meals in the dorm. And, of course, it was right as she was feeling too lazy to go out to one of the cafeterias or a restaurant. Both her roommates were out too, or at least if they weren’t she couldn’t find them and make them cook something for her.

Crocker Institute was, fortunately, well-funded enough to install full kitchens in each dorm room so she could probably whip something up with what they had. Skip forward fifteen minutes, and the Japanese girl had some meat, she hadn’t checked what kind in a pan on the stove, and some water getting ready to boil, though for what she didn’t know, it had just seemed a good idea at the time. Nodding to herself, she walked off to find something to entertain herself with while she waited for the meat to cook and while she thought of some use for the boiling water...