Wakey, Wakey, Eggs and Bakey

[Jilly]

Desiree didn't get much sleep. Whether it was because she slept in a strange place or because she was forced to stay up all night because of her rowdy cellmates, she wasn't very sure. What was sure, though, was that you could never pass up free food, even if it was 7:30 in the morning and you were riding on two hours of sleep.

That was the time on her phone before she replaced it in her pants' pocket and entered the elevator, pressed the button for the first floor, and waited for what felt like minutes before disembarking and making her way to the dining area of the hotel.

An orderly arrangement of bagels, yogurt cups, fruit, Walmart brand cereals, and insulated tins of what look like scrambled eggs and sausage sat along the counter. It was a nice display; heck, they even had a waffle and pancake maker. That's how you knew it was really fancy.

The TV was left on a news station and was the only sound reverberating in the room. The weather report flashed for a second before cutting to some feel good story about a dog rescuing some kid that fell in a river.

The one other person in the dining area was an older man, maybe early 40s. Nose buried into his phone. Baseball hat with the mesh netting thing. Button down with a nametag saying something like "Jeff" or "Doug" probably. Jeans. Probably an electrician or something blue collar like that. His coffee cup was still full. He looked up and gave Desiree a polite but awkward smile. She returned the favor as he watched her for a minute before going back to the phone.

His name was Dustin.

Desiree stepped over to the breakfast arrangement, grabbed a plate, and piled it with eggs and sausage links and a banana. She looked at the waffle iron for a moment... maybe she'd wait to see how someone else operates it first. Instead she set the plate down at a table a bit farther away from the man, headed over to the juice dispenser, and got a cup of water and returned to the table after a detour for a yogurt cup and silverware.

Bon appetit.

[Primrosette]

Violet was feeling a bit hungry.

After being in a room with three girls whom she assumed have called it the 'Goth room' for the whole night; she had a very peaceful sleep and she had been glad to know that no one had been snoring. She was normally a light sleeper after all and she didn't like getting woken up so easily. She noticed that the hotel was still unfamiliar to her in some areas and she knew that that was understandable. She had been texting her parents about how things were going so far and she headed right into the dining area after she had tucked away her phone.

She noticed that there was just an older man and a girl - Desiree - in there and she felt a wave of relief go through her. She was actually somewhat happy to know that it was not crowded with so many people and she had wanted to have a quiet breakfast in the first place. She give a small nod and a wave in Desiree' direction before heading over to the food on the counter. It really did look so mouth-watering to her and she couldn't wait to dig in.

She picked up a plate, got some scrambled eggs, a bagel and a orange and she turned to look towards the tables. Did she want to ask Desiree if it was okay to sit with her? Or did she want to have her own private table? It shouldn't be that complicated for her. She knew that she was overthinking things for no good reason and she wished that she could get rid of unnecessary thoughts.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

[Meilin Zhou- TRIP 1]

The breakfast room was a delight, and everything available looked so tasty! As Meilin walked in and got a plate for herself, she found herself at a loss for what to get. Sure, she could theoretically get herself a bit of everything, but she didn't want to overstuff herself. Well... whether she could overstuff herself depended on how you thought of the trip to Washington. Perhaps if she saw it as less of a school trip and more of a vacation, she'd be more willing to knock herself out! Or would she? Because feeling super duper full to the point of feeling a little sick wasn't pleasant, regardless of whether you were on vacation.

Oh! And her roommate Desiree was here too. She seemed sleepy... Meilin wondered if she had kept her up, frowning at the thought.

Hey, didn't she have a plate to fill up?

In the end, Meilin arrived at a chair next to Desiree holding a plate in each hand. In one hand, she had given herself sausages, scrambled eggs, and a glass of orange juice balancing perilously. On the other hand... the plate held a teetering stack of pancakes doused in syrup and butter.

[Jilly]

The eggs sucked. There was some sort of weird slimy texture to them, like rubber. If Desiree was alone she would consider bouncing it off the floor, but that kind of thing would probably be looked down on by Dustin and whoever was running the kitchen. The sausage fared a little better; they had a weird funky aftertaste to them like most cheap breakfast meats, but honestly what could you expect from a place that was more or less a Best Western.

The next person to enter the dining room was Violet. No, not the witch one, the other one. The goth one. Nice girl if maybe 15 years late for that train, also a little weird. Goths were weird people in general.

Oh yeah, "witch" Violet. Desiree hadn't talked to her since prom night. Her name was listed when the room assignments were posted, so she probably went on the trip too. Maybe they could talk or meet up or something, though the thought of that made Desiree's stomach drop.

Anyway.

Violet gave her a small wave with a smile. Desiree was downing a spoonful of blueberry yogurt, so she just returned the gesture with a head nod before the other girl went to gather her own food.

Next came Meilin running into the dining area with her own breakfast agenda. Now her... oof. Loud. Repeated the same questions (three times, yes Desiree in fact counted). How much Desiree considered duct taping her mouth shut last night, her and Lizzie both. Maybe if Desiree timed it well she could take her out right here with a scrambled egg tennis ball.

Nah, too many witnesses; she'd have to finish the job later.

Meilin with her 5,000 things in her hands took a seat at the table next to Desiree, which was... well, fine; it was a free country, and Desiree was too tired to try and raise a stink about it if she really had that desire. Violet finished picking out what she wanted and looked like she was trying to figure out a place to sit. Desiree looked at her and opened her mouth to speak, but instead just shoved another sausage link in.

As if Violet wanted to sit with her; as if anyone would, for that matter.

[Primrosette]

Violet could feel Dustin's eyes on her and it was creeping her out a little. Maybe he was just thinking that she looked weird because of the way that she was dressed up and she was being a bit judgemental about it. She got Dustin out of her eyeline and she was now focusing her attention back on Desiree and she noticed that Meilin had joined Desiree at the table.

Violet felt her legs dragging her whole body over to their table without her thoughts getting any say in the matter. Well, it would be better than sitting on her own and maybe she could talk to them. Not like she talked to these two girls that much. She didn't really know them that well and now was a good chance to get to know them more.

"Um...."

She didn't want to come off as too nervous and she felt herself hesitate for a moment. She didn't need to feel like she was getting threatened by these girls and she powered through her next words.

"Is it okay if I can join you two?" She asked politely.

There you go, Violet. That wasn't too hard for you, was it?

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

The girl over there, Violet, it looked like she needed a place to sit, didn't she?

"Come on over!" she cheerily invited her. Everybody needed company! At least sometimes. Maybe Desiree didn't. She didn't look terribly pleased. Did she ever, though?

Meilin sampled the eggs, the sausage, and decided to leave the pancakes for a little bit later. Since she liked the sausage better, she decided to scarf down the eggs now and save the best for last! The eggs weren't terrible in Meilin's view, but they weren't the best. Her little brother could probably have made better eggs. (But he was a very good cook, too!) The sausage was better, though, and she was sure that after eating the pancakes and finishing her breakfast, the day would be off to a great start! Truly, the start of a great day was breakfast.

"How are you liking breakfast?" she nonchalantly turned and asked Desiree, before taking a big gulp of orange juice, followed by another mouthful of sausage. It was once that had gone down that she decided to start working on her pancake tower, bringing up her fork and knife to it, and cutting out pieces of it. Piece by piece, the tower would be devoured. Delicious!

[The Bearded One]

[Clayton Barber, Sr Trip start]


It felt early to Clay, and even after pulling himself out of bed and into his clothes, he couldn't fully stifle a yawn. He double checked to make sure all of his essentials were tucked away in the appropriate pockets of his duster, then he unfolded his cane and headed out of the hotel room and down the hall. They were nice, wide, well-lit halls which allowed Clay to spot where the carpeted floor ended and the wall began. He only needed his cane to make sure that there were no room-service trays left in the hallway as tripping hazards.

He made it to the elevator and found the 'down' button without much difficulty. When the lift arrived, he got in and had to scan the braille numbers before he found the lobby button. He listened for the 'dings' delineating each floor until the robotic but feminine voice said "Ground floor." He exited and followed his nose to the breakfast area.

There were a small handful of people there already; he recognized at least one voice as a girl, another senior from Hunter on the class trip. Unfortunately, either because of Clay's early morning languor or the girl's recently awakened vocal cords, he could not match a name to her voice yet. It will come to me, he thought.

He went to collect a couple of danishes, a half-dozen link sausages, and a glass of apple juice before finding a seat close enough to the girls to casually overhear whatever they might be saying. The danishes proved to be terrible, but at least the sausages were hot.

[The Bearded One]

The voices of the girls at the other table became more muted, probably in an attempt to obfuscate their conversation. Clay finished his mediocre breakfast, stood up and unfolded his cane again; he had already recognized the three girls' voices although he didn't know any of them well. Desiree Beck was on of those people who seemed to either be extremely shallow, or very good at keeping herself walled off from everyone at school; Violet Quinn was one of those quiet art students who keeps to herself and her art clique, but he had also heard other people refer to her as 'goth' or 'punk'; and Meilin Zhou was the most interesting of the three, a science nerd with both musical and sports interests.

Clay walked away from his table, leaving his soiled paper plate and plastic cup where they were. He slightly exaggerated the swing of his white cane so that it loudly whacked the table leg nearest to Violet's hip. Then he left the breakfast area without acknowledging any of the three or the other hotel staff or patrons.

His next stop was to the front desk of the hotel where he asked an employee to help guide him to a shuttle to the national mall. The woman was eager to be seen helping a blind patron, and Clay smirked to himself at the little ways that she was using her seemingly altruistic gesture to jockey for social status among the other staff at the hotel.

He boarded the shuttle bus, and after less than five minutes waiting, he was on his way to the heart of the nation's capital.



[Clayton Barber continued in Life Finds a Way]

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Seemingly forgetting her peers around her, Meilin chowed down on the rest of her pancakes, probably setting some kind of new world record in the process. But the pancakes were really good, the best part of this breakfast! Man, when was the last time her dad made pancakes? He ought to do that again, because pancakes were awesome! She bet with her dad's great cooking, he could make pancakes even better than these- somehow!

Finally, the pancakes were all gone. A shame. Meilin wiped a bit of syrup off her lips and took her plate away, with a big smile on her face.

This was going to be a great day!

[Meilin Zhou soon to be continued in The Best of You]

[Jilly]

Desiree focused on her own breakfast, giving meaningless nods and "yup"'s to Meilin and Violet's questions. For a bit it felt like just the three of them in the room, though she caught a glimpse of the big blind guy at the table next over. He left, Meilin left, and then it was just Desiree and Violet now.

Desiree left without another word, picking up her trash and throwing it in the waste bin before heading back up to the hotel room for whatever the day had in store.

Hopefully it would just be a lot of sleep.

((Desiree Beck to be continued))

[Primrosette]

Violet just concentrated on her food mostly as she sat down with the other girls and she said a few things here and there in a quiet tone of voice. It was a pretty relaxing breakfast and she was hoping that she could get through the trip without any problems arising. She had heard about some things happening with a group of boys from a gossiper and she did not want to run into anything that could turn into an argument.

It wasn't that long until she was the final girl to leave and she was hoping to take some lovely photos of the scenery. Today was looking to be a good day ahead for her.

((Violet Quinn continued elsewhere))