Family dinner - Andy, Ben, Noah, Daria?

[theworldwithin.insanejournal.com]

Ben so often looked at Andy when she entered a room and said, in a voice that sounded surprised each time, "you're so tall." When he said it he sounded impressed, but it didn't feel impressive to Andy. In the last year she'd gained almost four and a half inches, which had been impossible to miss. She wasn't even the tallest girl in her class and yet someone had once called her Bigfoot and managed to make it stick just enough to drive Andy crazy.

If she got taller than Noah, she might have to kill herself. Andy didn't want to be a freaking giant. How was she ever going to get a boyfriend then?

In the social stratosphere that was London College, Andy floated somewhere near the top-middle. She wasn't part of the popular cliques, but she was peripherally friends with people who were. (Like Lydia Kemp, who was her cousin and was super amazingly cool, but none of Lydia's friends really put up with Andy, so she certainly wasn't one of them. Andy was careful to stay on Lydia's good side most of the time, because she was aware that Lydia could destroy her socially if she ever cared to. Andy didn't want that.)

And of course Andy wanted to be right at the top, but that wasn't just something you could make happen. But she had two more years left to make it happen if it was going to. And then there was uni, but that was so far away it was hard to really focus on as a real thing.

And tonight she was probably going to have to field questions about how her exams went, because tonight was Family Dinner Night. She couldn't just hide out in her room listening to One Direction on Family Dinner Night, more the pity.

So she came clumping down the stairs, her mass of freshly washed damp hair making its way into looking mad. Before school tomorrow she'd spend an hour (at least) taming it, but that was easier if she let it dry by itself usually.

Ben was already in the kitchen and (okay, yeah) whatever he was making smelled pretty good. No sign of Noah yet, and no sign of Daria and the kids if they were coming. Sometimes they did and sometimes they didn't. It was hard for Andy to predict who was going to make an appearance.

"Hello, love," Ben said as she entered the kitchen. "Want to set the table?"

Want to set the table? Why didn't parents even put that want there? It was stupid. Of course she didn't want to, but she'd do it anyway. "What are we having?"

"Lamb tagine," Ben said, wafting it towards her with a hand. Andy smiled. She was pretty glad she gave up on that vegetarian thing. Lamb was the best.

The doorbell rang and Andy said, "I'll get it!" before making her way out to open it and greet her brother and possible girlfriend.