Editing Story:ROAD TRIP! (Warhammer High)/Part Five (section)

===Time For Food===


One by one, the other Daughters who had taken trips showed their own images and videos.  As they did, Jake noted the people who had just arrived: the small group of friends from the Hive he had invited.  He discreetly got up and walked over, sitting down beside them.  “Hey, hey, what’s up, guys?” he asked as he sat down.

The three other boys looked over at him, astonished.  “You…didn’t say they’d actually BE here,” one whispered.

Jake blinked.  “What?”

“I thought you were just going to show pictures of the trip you took to their homeworlds,” the boy whispered urgently.  “They’re actually HERE?”

Jake sat back in his seat.  “Yeah, they are…don’t worry, I asked if they minded if you were here, and they wanted to meet you.”

Angela rose last, holding up her pamphlet.  “Well, this is it…not much to look at, but it’s ready and done,” she said.  She held it up to the crowd, who applauded politely.  “I’ve already ordered a single print run for distribution.  If schools like it, they can order more.”

“Very cool.  Can I read it?” Freya asked.

“Sure!  I’ll leave it up here,” Angela said, setting it down by the projector control.

Roberta stood as she sat.  “All right, we don’t have much time before Remilia, Farah, and I have to bolt, so let’s eat, huh?”

“Yay, Terran food,” Venus said.  “No offense to Roemer’s larder, but I suspect that when you can requisition any food you want, you just get the same few things over and over again without meaning to.”

“How was food in the Fang?” Miranda asked.

“Amazingly good, actually.  Spicy, though.  And more or less everything is cooked in its own blood.  Very heavy food,” Venus said, walking over to the plates.

Jake intercepted her as she made for the food with the others.  “Hey, Venus, I said I was gonna invite a few friends?”

She looked them over.  They flinched at her eyes.  “Oh, yeah, right!  Well, hi, guys,” she said.

“Dieter, Abram, and Will,” Jake said, pointing each out in turn.  He held them up as each started to kneel.  “Guys, come on, we’re having lunch,” he said, walking over to the food.

Venus grabbed Abram’s shoulder and hauled him up as he sank anyway, a look of total awe on his face.  “Glad you all could make it,” she said, as if nothing had happened.  “I understand you went to middle school with Jake?”

All three were nearly dumbstruck, but one finally managed to speak.  “Uh…y-yes, your Highness,” Abram said.  “It…I mean, it’s been a while, you know, but still…”

“Are you guys hungry or what?” Jake asked from the buffet line.

One by one, almost gingerly, the three boys made their way over to the food and stared.  “I don’t even…what is half of this?” Dieter asked.

“Just take a spoonful of each item, it’s all good,” Jake said.

Farther behind them, Angela lingered at the tail end of the line for Remilia.  As the other blond passed her, Angela halted her with a faint remark.  “When you left, I was really worried for you.”

Remilia shrugged.  “That was a dark part of my life, I’m not gonna lie…but come on.  Kelly and Morticia were worse off and they’re fine now.”

“Morticia took it on the chin and came out stronger, and Kelly’s been in intensive psychotherapy for three months,” Angela said softly.  “You’ve been stuck on a warship and two Death Worlds.  So…what did you do to make your soul heal so much, so quickly?”

Remilia looked down and blushed faintly, checking to make sure her mother wasn’t within earshot.  “I met a really, really nice guy on the ship…he took very good care of me.  Mentally, I mean.”

“A doctor?”

“Bartender on the O-Club, actually,” Remilia admitted.

A smile played around the edges of Angela’s lips as she made the obvious leap of logic.  Remilia wondered if she had been a bit too unsubtle, but then Angela wrapped her arms around her taller cousin’s torso and slid her wings around her too, drawing her into a gentle hug.  “I’m really happy that you’re feeling that much better,” she said softly.

Remilia hugged her back.  “Miranda said the same thing…was it that obvious that I was fucked in the head before?” she asked under her breath.

Angela opened her wings again and snugged them against her back with a rush of air.  “Blindingly.  Once I knew what to look for.  But…don’t worry.  You’re in vastly better shape now.”

“Good.”  Remilia shifted from one foot to the other, somewhat self-conscious.  “Can I just grab something and go eat?  I have to run after.”

“Sure, sure, let’s,” Angela said, grabbing a plate.

Kelly and Morticia reached the head of the line with their food and walked over to the huge table down the middle of the room’s left side, sitting down at the end.  Freya immediately dropped into the seat at Morticia’s side.  “Hey, Morticia, how’s your ticker?” she asked.

“Good as new, and it was the lung that got hit, not my heart,” Morticia said.  “Doctor says I’m up to 97%, and I’ll be healed to full by the end of August.”

“Great!” Freya proclaimed.  “It’s fantastic to see you better, you still had a crutch when we left.”

“Progenitor physiology, gotta love it,” Morticia remarked.

“How about you, Kelly?” Freya asked.

Kelly paused her chewing for a moment, not meeting her cousin’s eyes.  “I’m…better.  The guy at the hospital is really nice, and he’s helped a lot.”

“I’m glad,” Freya said.  “Have you decided whether or not to go to school?”

“I’ve had enough school,” Kelly said.  “I’m taking a year off to just relax and get my shit together.”

“That’s cool too,” Freya said, digging in to her biscuits and gravy.  “Breakfast buffets are the best thing in the world.”

“Aren’t they?” Morticia asked.  She turned her pale eyes on her lupine cousin, brushing lank grey hair out of her eyes as she did.  “Did you enjoy the trip home?”

“So much!” Freya said excitedly.  “It always feels so, so good to go home to the pack.”

Morticia smiled.  “That’s good.  Albiona was wild.  It’s a bit…artificial, in places, but fun.  It feels more tourist-y than Startseite, like they feel the need to conform to stereotypes to attract rich tourists, but it was still pretty cool.”

“I got the same feel from Carshim,” Miranda said, sitting beside Kelly.  “The whole planet is a beach resort, except a few floating towns over the jungles and a cabin getaway or two.  It felt very manufactured, and the casinos were gaudy as hell, but the water…wow.”

“The ocean was nice?” Kelly asked.

“Glorious.  I went swimming every day,” she said.  “Took in a few shows at the casino, but always with a falsehood on.  People just stared at my eye when I went without one.  Thought I was a Navigator or something,” Miranda grumbled.

“Really?  Wow.  Dicks,” Freya said.

“Eh.  I’m used to it by now.”  Miranda munched on some pancakes as the others marched up one by one.