a good old fashioned nightmare

[Jenny Holloway]

Jenny Holloway was panicking and no amount of chamomile tea and soothing breathing exercises had changed that. So she’d turned to the next option – baking. She wasn’t sure whether it was some kind of inbuilt motherly hormones taking over or what but she was currently energetically mixing cake batter around a bowl with a wooden spoon as Mason watched her leisurely from the sofa he was sprawled across, television blasting some house-hunting programme, and helpfully chipped in terribly witty comments about ‘buns in the oven’. She alternated between standing in their kitchen, which she had somewhat taken over in the last few weeks as her own cooker was broken, and pacing through to said living room as she worked the cake mix, already on her second cake and it was only 10 o’clock in the morning. Mostly she just needed something to occupy her time, hence why she’d taken to hanging out at Ben’s place when she wasn’t teaching because she was always sure of company there.

On this particular morning her hair, though it was carefully braided into a milkmaid braid and pinned back, betrayed her mental state as her fly-aways were getting crazier and crazier with every batch of cakes she made. Her cute kitschy apron was askew, her cardigan sleeves sloppily rolled up to free her arms, patches of flour dotted around her face and creeping into her hair - this plus the jittery, restless energy she had was not helping her to appear overall as a sane human being right now. But she still took the time to fix Mason with a sad pout as he continued to joke, a face that clearly made him feel bad because he went back to watching the television and mostly left her to her own devices. He had tried to calm her down, bless him for that, but his particular brand of ‘helping’ wasn’t to Jenny’s tastes so she’d rather he just generally be there and eat the finished cakes, which she was sure he’d be able to suffer through.

((ooc: Anyone who would conceivably visit Jenny and/or the Sam/Ben/Mason/Kevin etc. household in Hogsmeade come join me/Jenny?))

[Kevin Walsh]

(ooc: this is Kevin)

Kevin yawned loudly, shuffling through the house like a zombie, on a single-minded mission for anything edible to shove in his face before he had to leave for his Stealth and Tracking class. It... wasn't his forte. He was less subtle spy, more 'bull in a china shop'. If that bull also made non-stop dick jokes and constantly complained about being bored and hungry. At least he was small enough to hide in small spaces?

"Whooooa, how'd you know it's my birthday this weekend? Or did someone lose their virginity again?" Kevin asked while standing next to Jenny (probably too close; he was very interested in this cake situation). He then jammed his hand in a box of Coco Pops, pulling out a handful of cereal that he spilled on the floor slightly. "When are you going to pop, anyway? It feels like you've been preggo forevvvvver," he groaned. Of course, to Kevin, pretty much any length of time longer than your average Youtube video felt like a lifetime.

[Jenny Holloway]

((ooc: I love Kevin, that is all.))

Jenny looked up, her eyes wide in surprise, as Kevin shuffled into the kitchen having clearly just woken up. The wide-eyed look, on this occasion, might have looked less ‘doe-eyed Bambi’ more ‘slightly unhinged madwoman with a mixing bowl’. “Because I listen? And no, they didn’t. Well… I’m sure somebody somewhere probably did but they didn’t Owl me for a cake,” she replied quickly. The cake wasn’t for him, sure, but it did remind her that she could/should probably make him a birthday cake tomorrow and made a mental note to do so. She side-eyed him as he put his hand straight in a box of cereal, resulting in most of it spilling over the floor rather than actually making it to his mouth, and opened her mouth to protest, only just restraining herself then as she bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from saying anything. It was obviously a struggle.

As he talked of her being ‘prego forevvvvver’, Jenny let out a slightly strangled laugh at the thought and shook her head, “Let’s hope not, yes?” she attempted to joke, putting down the mixing bowl on the counter top to move over to the wire cooling rack (yes she’d brought her own cake-making equipment, there was no chance in hell the house would have had a cooling rack) where a batch of butterfly cakes were resting after she’d finished making them. “Here, help yourself,” she picked one up and pushed it across to Kevin, resuming her mixing again with (if possible) more frantic energy, “You did realise pregnancy is nine months? I’m due July. So… make sure you keep your distance then…?” she trailed off, not entirely sure herself is she was joking or not, so she merely smiled tightly and moved away.

[Kevin Walsh]

Kevin pulled out a chair from the kitchen table and sat backwards, half-watching Mason's TV show from the other room while he chomped on cereal. "Aw, that's sort of a beautiful thought yeah? Millions of people are probably getting laid right now. Millions? Does that sound right? I'm shit at maths," he explained. "And I like chocolate," he piped up innocently, deciding to get his cake request in early. He'd been feeling a little more positively about letting other people celebrate his birthday, lately. Actually, he'd been feeling more positively about most things. It wasn't a total personality shift, but it was almost like the dark cloud that had always hung over him had thinned out a little to let his real personality shine through: the honest, fearless, admittedly kind of idiotic one. Kevin still had his cynical and self-destructive moments, but you could almost see the harmless party animal he might have grown into if, say, he and his cousin Rhys had swapped upbringings. Plus, he was turning twenty this year, and he held on to some vain hope that it would put a stop to the whole 'angsty teen' assumption everyone made about him.

He took the cake and took a large bite (still chewing his cereal simultaneously). "July? So you and Ben did it unprotected-like back in..." he counted on his fingers, "October? No, November. September?" Kevin really wasn't kidding about being bad at maths. "Do you know where you guys are gonna live? Not that I don't want you here but like... Ben's room is the biggest by far and I'm literally in a closet sharing a bunk bed with my best mate. The irony has not been lost on me."

[Jenny Holloway]

“Beautiful? Yes… I suppose…” the redhead trailed off quietly, clearly unconvinced. To be fair to her, she was a person who deeply required her own personal space so sex was a tricky issue for her. It was all fine and dandy with Ben, clearly, because he understood and respected that and evidently she’d been able to control that particular anxiety enough to be close to him, otherwise it really would have been a miraculous conception. The point is, she was getting better with it, if Kevin had seen the girl she’d been at 20 he really would have understood why she couldn’t grasp the concept of ‘people getting laid’ being seen as beautiful in any way. “Chocolate, it is duly noted,” Jenny assured him with a good-natured chuckle and firm nod of her head to confirm this.

Jenny fixed Kevin with an unimpressed look, however, as he tried to do the maths to work out when the baby had been conceived. “Kevin!” she protested, her voice rising an octave as she did so, “Let’s not talk about conception, hmm?” she suggested, turning away from him because she could feel her face flushing in embarrassment. Okay so she was still a little uncomfortable when it came to all things sexual and discussing it, even lightly so, with a 19-year old was not going to help at all. She moved to spoon the mixture into two round cake tins she’d prepared, looking up at him then as she scraped the last dregs out of the mixing bowl, “I’m not sure actually, we haven’t discussed it properly yet. But, thank you, your unwavering and selfless support for us to get a place so you can have Ben’s room is really just touching,” she commented coolly, cracking a sarcastic joke that was really most unlike her.

[Kevin Walsh]

Kevin suddenly pushed himself up so he was sitting on the table, swinging his legs idly. He liked Jenny. She was sweet and caring and motherly, and as much as he told himself that he didn't need that sort of thing in his life, when it came down to it he actually found it sort of nice. "My eighteenth birthday I got kicked out of my mum's house and then on my nineteenth I lost my virginity so like, what the fuck's going to happen this year to top that, you know?"

He picked at the side of his cake before raising his hands innocently. He'd always been obsessed with the idea of 'getting laid', mostly because he usually wasn't. "Uh, sorry, I forgot it was a secret apparently," he laughed. Kevin didn't care too much either way. Honestly, the fact that Ben had managed to lock it down with a hot girl gave skinny guys like Kevin a great deal of hope. "You're welcome," he replied, beaming, oddly pleased that Jenny had met him halfway when it came to sarcasm. "But also like... you wouldn't have to deal with our messes and shit. Ben's the cleanest dude I've ever met, I swear to god. All that shit lying around is like 99% mine and Mason's and Sam's."

[Jenny Holloway]

Jenny looked at Kevin and then couldn’t help but smile with a shake of her head, “Well. You haven’t seen the plans for the party, or your cake, yet so…” she trailed off jokingly.

“It’s hardly a secret just not something to discuss now,” she countered quietly, “Sorry. I know it must seem weird because there’s a pretty obvious sign that I’m cool enough with sex,” she broke off to gesture obviously at her growing baby bump before sighing, “I just don’t want to think about you know conception because that makes me think about foetuses growing and then that makes me think about the prospect of giving birth and I know that’s something that you don’t want in detail and I don’t want to think about until I well, until I have to, so… yeah… no,” she finished vaguely, shaking her head in embarrassment.

She laughed lightly at how delighted he seemed at her sarcastic response as she moved over to the oven to pop the two cake tins in. Straightening again she brushed her hands off on her apron and frowned slightly, “You do know I clean up after you lot because I want to? Because I like it even?” she pointed out, “I don’t like untidiness, sure, but come on… I’ve stayed over here after a big party, I can deal now,” the redhead reminded him.

[Kevin Walsh]

"Oh," Kevin said while scratching his nose. "That kid's half Ben, though, and that guy's thin as fuck. Like, thinner than me. I bet it'll shoot right out like a nerf gun," he added 'encouragingly' while performing a rather unhelpful mime. He was surprisingly cool when it came to talking about this stuff... it just seemed like another sort of gross bodily function, which he considered the pinnacle of hilarious conversation. He decided to give her a cheery thumbs-up.

"Seriously? Are you like, someone Ben ordered by mail so he wouldn't have to cook or clean? Blink twice for yes," Kevin said while leaning forward dramatically and squinting at her. "Ugh. Okay. Can I say something real fucking wanky, and you won't tell anyone? You guys should stay here. I don't care about the room or whatever. Just seems like... some of the people in this house don't have real sane families or anything and you an' Ben are all cool and stable and reliable and shit. I think, ah, I think Sam and Mason really need that. You know."

[Jenny Holloway]

Jenny’s facial expressions became 70% more horrified at Kevin’s words and 30% more embarrassed. “Can we… can we just not…?” she asked quietly, shaking her head softly, “I appreciate the sentiment, don’t get me wrong Kevin, you’ve been wonderful at being supportive but I just… I just don’t want to think about that, okay sweetie?” she explained, grimacing at his lovely mime.

She giggled lightly then and shook her head, “Sorry to disappoint but no, I’m not, I’m just a girlfriend with OCD, horrifically debilitating in some respects, useful in others,” she suggested with a shrug of her shoulders as she moved the used mixing bowl to the sink to wash it up whilst the cake was baking. “Umm… sure, of course, go ahead. Though I’m sure it won’t be wan- that at all,” she encouraged with a kind smile as she stopped what she was doing and turned to face him properly instead as he continued to speak. “Here? But, how? Oh honey,” Jenny frowned sadly as he noted the lack of ‘real sane families’. “Kevin, look I love you and all the guys and I love this house but there is no room for a baby here. You and Caleb have a bunk bed for goodness sake, you wouldn’t want another person, even a really tiny one, here,” she reasoned simply, wringing her hands together nervously. Then after a moment of silence she piped up tentatively, “I do really like it here, though” she admitted.