iselldrugstothecommunity | There Are Flowers in the Garbage [Musebox]

There Are Flowers in the Garbage [Musebox]

Expecting that school, both correspondence and not, was going to keep Howard and Diana busy was probably a vain hope. Howard's sleep schedule keeps him from usually having evenings free (either he's napping or he's zombified), but occasionally his and Diana's free time overlap. Tonight is one of those nights.

See, it's after Christmas, and the grocer down the street throws away most of the turkeys that weren't sold by that day. Some of them are well rotten by now, but some of them were frozen before they were tossed, and as such they're still more than edible. Howard told Diana about this heinous crime, and they spent the last night unable to really sleep without thinking of all the meat going to waste.

So tonight they're striking a blow for justice. Or for hunger. Whichever. Howard's donned black clothing to blend in with the background, and has brought his backpack and a shopping cart. At the very least they can get some emergency stores for the freezer. He waits outside Ian and Barbara's house for Diana, tapping his foot.

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"Pretty brave talk from a girl whose parents shipped her off to boarding school when they got sick of her," he sneers.

Despite Diana's issues with her parents, she still has the best poker face. "No. They shipped me off because I'm a terrible, horrible child, remember? At least get your facts right, Howie."

"We're still terrible, horrible children. Now we're just terrible, horrible children in jail." He bites at his fingernails. "Terrible, horrible children in jail who make phone calls at one in the morning."

"It's only one? Really? Huh, it feels later." Diana rolls her eyes at Howards chewing habit, hoping it won't trigger her own.

"Will you stop worrying? The worst we're going to get from the Happy Couple is a slap on the wrist and a talk. You should know that better than me."

He rolls his eyes back at her, knowing full well she chews things too. "No, I won't stop worrying. What do you think's going to happen to us if they give us the boot? It's not going to cushy, anymore. I mean, we've lived through worse, but..."

And yes, he is that worried that this will happen.

"They are not going to give us the boot, Howie." She sighs. "You really think Barb, of all people, is going to kick us out? No. I've know them much shorter than you have and I know at least that."

"You haven't had as much time to get on her nerves as I have." He moves from chewing his nails to chewing the drawstring of his jacket. "Even really loving people have a limit to how patient they can be, you know? Someday we're going to cross over that line."

"Stop it." Diana was trying to focus on how they were going to deal with the police, hoping they wouldn't have to ask too many awkward questions and Howards talking was distracting and getting her down. "Well, it's not going to be today. You're her 'golden boy', you'll be fine."

"Uh huh." Howard doesn't sound at all like he believes it. He lowers his voice. "So are we going to wait it out or make a run for it?"

He's in favor of waiting it out, in this case. They'll just get in more trouble if they run, with minimal chances of success. The rules here are different than in the FAYZ.

"Yeh. I don't think they'll be too pleased with 'resisting arrest'. And I don't want them adding it to the whole 'breaking and entering' thing. Better to just get there and call Ian so he can sort it out."

She pauses then looks at him, dropping her voice really low. "You don't still have your lock pick, do you?" Diana does not want them finding that, especially on Howard, but Howard, like her, didn't throw things away.

"I hate sitting still," he whines, loud enough that the police officer driving them can hear him. Better he think that they're just sitting in the back complaining and stressing about how mad their caretakers will be than possibly plan an escape.

And then, in a whisper:

"Up my sleeve. I'll stash them before we get to the jailhouse." They're small enough that he can slip them out and into the street and come find them later. That's probably the best course of action, unfortunately. "The bump key just looks like a house key."

"I knew we should have left earlier." She announces to the car. Maybe they'd have made it out with a couple of turkeys if they'd not been so greedy.

Back to the hushed voices. "What are we going to do about our bags?" She doubted the knife Howard carried with him everywhere was going to go down well if they found it.

Howard's been through this process with the sheriff back in California. Hopefully it'll be the same with the jailhouse here. "They'll confiscate them and give them back when Ian bails us out. We aren't trying to smuggle anything in. They can't ding us for carrying around legal things."

"Then we're fine. Not much else to do but wait until we get there and try to sound very sorry over the phone." She leans back in the chair, smirking at him. "So, do you want to give that a shot? Mr Favorite?"

"Why do you keep saying I'm the favorite?" He shakes his head. "You're the one with the doe eyes and the helpless little girl act."

"Because you so are, Howie." Diana chuckles and pinches his cheeks. "Look at you, with your wobbling puppy eyes that can't hide anything. You could resist that?"

He slaps her hand away. The officer glances back at them. "No roughhousing back there."

Howard glares at Diana. "I don't have wobbling puppy eyes. I have dark, cold beady eyes that are black as my soul. Duh."

"Sorry." Diana calls to the officer. "I just can't keep my hands off him."

"Oh, right, I forgot we're at a Hawthorne Heights concert." She winks at Howard. "Of course you do. Admit it, Howie, you're adorable. Barbara coddles you because you're her baby~"

"Give her three weeks and she'll coddle you too. If she lets us stay, that is." Howard runs a hand over his face. "Ugh, and Ian hates getting woken up late..."

The police car comes to a halt and the officer opens the door for them. "Alright, you two. Come in, get frisked, get your phone call. As long as someone posts a bond for you I won't even check to make sure it's her parents."

He acts like he's doing them a favor, and honestly it'll make things easier fro them. As they get out of the car, Howard slips his lockpicks onto the street.

"She already does, trust me." She rolls eyes and sighs in an expired manner. "It's a bit tiring."

"But like I said, you're the Golden Boy. She's known you much longer and wants to take care of you because you're her little adopted kiddy."

Diana smirks as she steps out of the car. "Ooo, frisked twice in one night. Aren't I a lucky girl?"

"That's not what it's like." His tone is angry, but he gets complacent once the police officer takes him inside. No point in making waves. "You call. You're better at that whole 'poor innocent me' act."

He stays very still, clearly uncomfortable while the officer frisks him and takes away his knife and backpack, then goes to sit on the bench in the cell and wait for Diana to be done.

She's very compliant as they search her and she tells them she'll be making the call. It takes her a moment, waiting for the 60's phone to finish each of its cycles back to the start, but eventually it starts ringing.

Diana's hoping it's Barbara who answers, for simplicities sake. Though to be fair, Ian wouldn't be as grumpy with her as he would Howard, as she's still new and female so he has that whole 'gentleman' thing to keep up.

She clears her throat in preparation for the right voice for whoever picks up.

When the phone rang and Ian merely grumbled and rolled over, pulling the blankets higher over his head, Barbara sighed and got out of bed. Her hand covered a yawn as she shuffled down the hall to where the telephone was ringing loudly.

"Yes? Hello?" Barbara said tiredly into the handset while rubbing sleep from her eye.

Oh, good, Barbara, time to appeal to that doting mother instinct.

Her tone was apologetic and voice was small as if being weighed down by guilt. "Barbara, it's Diana." She even remembered to make her words wobble a little as if on the verge of tears. "Me and Howard might have gotten ourselves into a little bit of trouble."

And for FAYZ kids, a little trouble usually meant big trouble.

She frowned at the wall, still trying to shake the fuzzies from having just been roused from sleep.

"What happened?" asked Barbara before covering the mouthpiece to stop the sound of her yawn reaching Diana. Because that would be rude.

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