blackout? pfttt. no big deal. {matthew}

[wendy]

{this takes place in addison's dorm at baum academy!}

Addison had made her fair share of pillow forts. She could remember when they’d fail miserably; falling apart before they were finished and caving in on them once they’d gotten comfy inside. Her and her brothers had eventually learned the art of pillow-fort-making and since then, she had yet to have one collapse on her and whoever she was with. It was usually her brothers or her roommate. Telling stories was that much more fun when you were huddled together, nibbling on snacks and sharing secrets. Addison simply loved making pillow forts. Nothing bad ever came from them. Well, unless of course your parents didn’t know to look for you in your pillow fort. That led to tearing the room apart until your sleepy children poked their heads out from inside their pillow fort, asking what the matter was. Pillow forts had been banned for a little while after that (not that that kept them from making them; they were just much sneakier about it).

Her roommate didn’t mind the pillow forts. But along with her weak immune system, obsession with ice cream, and mismatching socks, she hated small spaces. She could only handle so much time in the pillow fort, especially since they didn’t have enough pillows and blankets and chairs to make a very big pillow fort. Matthew however. She was quite sure he was all for building pillow forts. The one time they had tried to build one, they got so far as setting up the chairs when the idea of tree climbing came to mind. Pillow forts hardly compared to tree climbing. Today, though, they’d be building a pillow fort without the distractions of the outside! It was a cloudy sort of day and it had tried to rain a few times already. Besides, Matthew’s roommate had kicked him out so he was heading over here anyway.

Addison had started to collect all the pillows and blankets they had in the dorm. Not only that, but she had a few quilts from home. Her mother worried that the dorms could get chilly at night so she always made sure Addison had extra blankets, just in case. There was a knock at the door and she skipped over. Opening it ever so slightly, she peeked out at Matthew. “Password?” She asked, completely serious.

notes; i can change it so that he's already over if you want.
i just wanted to do that whole 'password' thing x:

[MATTHEW PETERSON]

Matt loved pillow forts. More than ice cream (except that special kind) or stories or tree houses, even. Well...maybe not that much...Actually, he didn't have the slightest clue as to just how great pillow forts were, having never built one in his entire life. Not that Addie knew that. According to the spiel he'd given her last time they'd almost built one, he was an expert at all things invovled in their construction. Why, she thought he'd built about three hundered of these things before. He was a very good convincer, if he did say so himself.

Well, except maybe when his roommate was involved. Matt had been trying to get him to build a nice big Lego castle with him when the blockhead and suddenly gone crazy and told him to do something along the lines of "grow up." Naturally, Matt had gotten up and left right then with his dignity in tact. There had certainly been no challenging him to a clothes hanger duel. Or a strong desire to dump all the ice cream in the freezer on his head while he slept. Or a Godzilla-like rampage of the Lego set before being forcibly removed from the premises by several compliments that were apparently supposed to be insults ("immature" being the number one word of the entirely hypothetical conversation).

No, Matt had done exactly what Addie had told him to do a few days ago when he'd almost kicked that homeless man for wearing a pirate hat; taken a deep breath and walked away. Which was exactly why he was holding two slightly-bent wire hangers when he showed up outside his best friend's door. He gave the secret-knock-of-the-day (two sharp raps, a pause, three slow knocks) and waited. Soon enough, there was a slight creak, and Matt took a step forward only to find his way barred by something as devilishly simple as a password. He narrowed his eyes at the sliver of Addison's face visible through the crack. "Ummm..." he paused, clearly trying to figure out the answer via telepathy of some sort. "Boogers? Turnips? Story? Antelope? Oh! Platypus!" Matt jumped a bit as realization struck him. He crossed his arms over his chest--smacking his face with one of the hangers as he did so--and nodded, cocky smile on his face. "It's 'Platypus,' isn't it? Lemme in!"

[wendy]

Why did he have two clothes hangers with him? Addison gave him a confused look, wondering as to what they were for. Deciding she’d ask later, Addison waited patiently for the password. She hadn’t exactly thought of one; that was usually how it worked. She sometimes didn’t think things over before she did them. It was usually asking for passwords or sarcastically suggesting something to someone who would take it seriously. Addison shook her head to Matthew’s guesses before deciding on Antelope. Before she could confirm this, however, he seemed to be quite sure that it was platypus.

Addison gave him a short stare before shrugging and opening the door all the way. “It was actually antelope.” She closed the door behind him, “I suppose platypus is close enough. They’re both… animals.” She finished lamely, shrugging again. Addison gestured to the pile of pillows and blankets. “This is all we have.” Noticing again the hangers, Addison tilted her head, more curious than before. What could he possibly have been doing with those wire hangers, much less when they were bent like that? “What are those for?” She asked, pointing to the hangers.

Addison, struck with a sudden idea, hurried over to the couch they had but rarely used. Grabbing the cushions, she added them to the pile of pillow fort building materials. “We have chairs, of course.” Addison smiled at Matthew, excited to be building a pillow fort with him. Especially since this one would certainly be finished unlike last time. Addison glanced out the window to see that the weather was worse than it had been moments ago. In the short time she’d looked over, it had started to rain. It wasn’t a drizzle or a downpour, but it was bad enough to keep you inside. “Nasty weather,” she commented off-handedly.

[MATTHEW PETERSON]

“I know they’re both animals!” Matt snapped, face suddenly cross. “And I knew it was antelope, too. Knew it right away. I was just…testing your security,” he nodded in what he clearly thought to be an important sort of manner and gave the door a sharp, apparently equally important-seeming rap with the clothes hanger in his left hand whilst brandishing the other a bit closer to Addison’s nose. Not nearly close enough to be dangerous, however; he couldn’t very well assault an unarmed lady just because she wouldn’t let him in.

He entered the room with authority, puffing his chest out and smacking the hangers against his knees as he surveyed the area. After two loops around the perimeter of their pile of supplies, his stoic façade dropped like an amusement park ride. “Why, Addie, this is brilliant!” he could see it already; they wouldn’t build a pillow fort. It’d be a pillow castle by the time they were through with it! And a wonderful pillow castle at that. Complete with arrow-shooting holes and a drawbridge and a dragon and a crow’s nest, if he had his way. All good castles needed crow’s nests, in Matt’s opinion. He couldn’t understand why no one had ever thought of that a bagillion years ago when they’d first started growing castles in the first place.

At Addison’s question about the clothes hangers, Matt found himself caught somewhere between a grin and a blush. It was quite the uncomfortable place to be stuck. “Oh, these?” he decided to go with grinning. Before asking if she was ready, Matt tossed one of the hangers in her direction, not particularly caring if it ended up anywhere near her. It’d be her fault if she didn’t catch it, anyway. “These,” he continued, brilliant as ever at making things up on the spot, “Are for defending against pirates, of course,” he then proceeded to snarl in the most pirate-y fashion he could imagine (it was quite a good impression) as if to demonstrate just how much they might need their weapons. Immediately, the-potential-sword-duel-with-his-roommate-that-never-was was forgotten.

“It’s downright drippy, is what it is,” Matt declared as he walked over to the window, not quite sure what he meant by the statement, but liking it quite a lot nonetheless. Just as he spoke, however, there was a rather loud boom of thunder. He jumped so near out of his skin that he hardly even noticed the lights flickering, at least until they went out completely. Suddenly, it was so dark he couldn’t see the hand in front of him. Just the rain as it hit the window.

Eyes wide, he wheeled around to face Addison. “It’s a black hole,” he whispered excitedly, grin growing wider and wider with each second that passed. He didn’t bother to let the thought that such an idea was utterly ridiculous cross his mind. Such things certainly didn’t make for fun.

[wendy]

Addison held her hands up in the typical defensive whoa calm down, I didn’t mean it way and laughed. “Okay, okay. I’m going to assume I passed.” She stood around, watching as he inspected the pile of sheets and pillows. He seemed displeased and she wondered just how she could fix that; it wasn’t like she could go around to her dorm neighbors and ask to borrow their blankets. Well, could she? It wasn’t li—no, no, no. That would just be silly. When he finally spoke, she grinned and shrugged. “Great! It’ll be the best pillow fort ever. It’ll be so good, it’ll be better than a pillow fort.”

She’d been paying a little less than normal attention and because of it, the bent hanger he threw at her almost hit her. Addison stumbled back before catching it rather clumsily, almost dropping it twice. Once she had a secure grip on it, Addison looked it over. A regular old clothes hanger though she was sure, with a little bit of imagination, it could easily become whatever she needed when it came to defending against pirates. “Perfect!” she exclaimed, brandishing it like a weapon, “there’s no way we’ll lose with these.” Addison swung it around some more before watching Matthew as he went to the window. Downright drippy… well, that wasn’t something she heard every rainy day. Downright drippy. She liked it.

And, quite suddenly, the lights were off. Addison cringed at the thunder and then prayed for the lights to stay on, or at least to continue flickering. When it finally went dark, she groaned. Fantastic. That was the last thing she’d been expecting. Addison had been ready to say something along the lines of how are we to build in the dark? but Matthew’s imagination was one step ahead of her. She could hardly see him, much less her hand in front of her face, but she knew he was facing her by the way his voice carried. “Right,” she agreed, only a little nervously.

Without another word, she turned and made her way to the kitchen. She walked almost blindly, holding her hands out in front of her. Addison had long since memorized her own dorm room, but things were just that much more difficult in the dark. She searched through the kitchen, in drawers and cabinets, for candles or a flashlight. She found both eventually and clicked the flashlight on. Ahh, much better. “I’ve never built in the dark,” she commented, shining the light on the pile of pillow fort materials.

[MATTHEW PETERSON]

“’Course you passed,” Matt remarked with a lopsided grin, “If you hadn’t, I’d’ve killed yuh.” He shrugged, feeling very nonchalant about the whole thing; it wasn’t as though she’d had anything to worry about, as he’d hardly been concerned about her passing inspection from the beginning (Matt had now convinced himself that he was indeed planning on testing the security of Addie’s dorm room from the get-go, if only to avoid personal embarrassment).

Nodding sagely at Addison’s words, Matt moved his arms behind his back, bouncing a bit on the balls of his feet in a poor attempt to conceal his excitement. “Of course it will be! I’m building it,” he was, as usual, unable to resist even the slightest opportunity to confirm his apparently innumerable fantastic abilities. Still, he felt there were some things which needed to be asked. Eyes growing wide and round (just in case Addie was feeling in a stupid mood today) Matt pleaded his next case with all the innocence of a five year old.
”And when we’re all finished, you can tell me stories inside it, right?” Oh, he hoped she would. Knew she would.

Matt was just about to point out that not only would they achieve victory because of their newfound weapons, but because of their fearless, unstoppable leader (himself, obviously) when the lights went out, taking the thought with them. Now, he had bigger problems. How were they supposed to build a pillow fort-castle-tower-palace-hideout in the dark, when neither of them had ever attempted even a meager pillow fort under such conditions? The answer was, of course, simple. Pretend. Matt put on his bravest, most confident face even though Addison couldn’t see it, being in the kitchen and all, and answered smoothly, “Well don’t be dumb, Addie. I’ve done it loads of times. ‘S easy as…truffles,” he nodded, having never quite liked the cake metaphor and finding this one to be much more suited for the task at hand.

The minute his companion had returned with her torch, Matt practically bounded over to her side. Not that he was scared of the dark or thunderstorms or anything even remotely like that—Matt wasn’t scared of anything—he just liked flashlights. A lot. And Addie’s shirt, apparently, as he found himself clutching her sleeve after taking the time to glance down and figure out what exactly his left hand was holding on to. Instantly, the fabric was dropped. He cleared his throat, glanced around as though nothing had happened, and promptly proceeded to give out his orders.

“First, we hafta set up the chairs,” he nodded, making his way straight over the haphazard pile of sheets and blankets in order to reach the kitchen chair that would become the center of their pillow fort, was all to go to plan.

[wendy]

Addison’s eyebrows shot up, surprised by his casual comment. “Killed me, huh?” She repeated before grinning almost mischievously. “Who would read you stories then, hmm?” Addison wouldn’t put it past him to find somebody else who was almost as good as she was. She thought almost because Addison had her moments of believing she had innumerable fantastic abilities and reading out loud was definitely one of those. In fact, she was quite sure she was the very best storyteller in the world. Nobody was better at it than she was. So, surely he wouldn’t have killed her anyway because then he’d be out of a best friend and a wonderful teller of tales.

Addison managed to keep quiet when he claimed that the fort would be more than a fort because he was building it. She didn’t mind letting him take the credit this time around. Addison had to think about how they’d be doing this. Neither of them had really attempted building a pillow fort before (not really, anyway). Never mind that they wouldn’t be able to do this in the first place if it weren’t for the pillows and blankets in her dorm. She could take credit for that, at least. Addison glanced at her best friend and almost laughed. Even if she had been able to say no to those eyes, she wouldn’t have. One of the main points of pillow forts was to tell stories inside it. “Of course I will,” she said pointedly, “what else would we do?”

Addison realized then that her hands were now quite full. She had the flashlight in one and the clothes hanger in the other. She’d have to set one down to help with the fort. It would be dangerous to set her clothes hanger down; how was she to defend against bad guys if she didn’t have it with her? However, without her torch, she wouldn’t be able to see. It was quite a dilemma. Addison could still hardly see, even with the flashlight. She was almost thankful that Matthew couldn’t see her because she was rolling her eyes at him. Of course he’d built pillow forts in the dark loads of times. Never mind that truffles really weren’t the easiest of chocolates to make. “Well, thank goodness you’ve got experience in building in the dark.” Addison had no qualms about speaking sarcastically; she was sure Matthew wouldn’t notice anyway.

Before Addison could think much on the fact that he’d taken hold of her sleeve, he’d let go. Again, she was glad he couldn’t see her in the dark because it felt like she was blushing. She dismissed the brief flurry of butterflies in her stomach and followed Matthew to the pile of pillow fort supplies. Chairs. Right. That made sense. How else were they to set everything else up? Letting her clothes hanger slide to the crook of her arm, Addison used one hand to right the chairs as she thought they should be set up. It wasn’t easy using one hand but she wasn’t going to let Matthew do all the work. If she could just set the flashlight down somewhere where it’d still be of use to them… “Maybe I should light some candles,” Addison pondered out loud, figuring any light was better than no light.

[MATTHEW PETERSON]

Matt couldn’t help himself. He rolled his eyes, sighing loudly at her idiocy. “Well, your ghost, of course. Duuuhh,” he shook his head. “You think I’d let you out of a promise like that so easy? You told me you’d read me stories forever. And forever means forever, and you can’t never stop, not even if you’re dead or I’m dead or we’re both dead. You know that, right?”

The words came out in an jumbled mess of a singular breath. He watched her carefully, assessing whether or not she understood the gravity of that promise he’d made up on the spot. It was definitely something he’d quite like, though, her stories being read forever. Why, it’d almost be better than having adventures of his own. But only almost. Still, if she were dead and ghostly, then wouldn’t talking to her always be an adventure, anyhow? Even if it all just ended up listening. Which wouldn’t happen anyway, as Matt very firmly believed that he always had exactly the right thing to say and exactly the right moment was always right then, right now, no ifs ands or buts about it, but still, ghosts were cool and spooky and terrifying. Not that he was scared of anything. Especially not Addison ghosts.

Or the dark.

Definitely not the dark.

“Oh. Well, good.” he nodded, not that he’d been worried or anything. Of course she would read him stories. She knew he liked them far too much not to. Addie always did what Matt asked, after all, especially if he used his puppy eyes.

At least she was recognizing his expertise. And with so much admiration, too. Matt practically glowed. “Yeah, pretty good for both of us, huh? If it weren’t for me, we’d be easy targets,” he babbled as he bent down to pick up a couch cushion, stumbling a bit with the awkward bulk of the thing. He just wasn’t used to this sort of building material. Yes, that had to be it.

It was just his unfamiliarity which led him to trip over a chair leg as Addison rearranged the scenery. Certainly, it was only because he’d never lifted one of these couch cushions before that he topped to the ground in an awkward mix between a face plant and a somersault. His face squished rather uncomfortably into the cushion’s fabric while his legs flopped up and over him at an odd, haphazard sort of angle that really ought to have hurt much more than it did, and on to the seat of the chair Addison was currently moving. Instantly, of course, he began the necessary flailing. Kicking his legs this way and that, Matt somehow managed to dislodge himself from his accordion-like position in a matter of seconds, sitting upright with a groan and a scratch of his head, where his hair was now sticking up even more obnoxiously than usual.

Ornery as a disgruntled badger, Matt glared at Addison. “Well c’mon now, Dumbo. What’d ya trip me for? I had it all under control…” He began to stagger upright, balance dangerously unstable as he attempted to right himself amid this sea of fleece and fabrics. “How come you don’t have any candles or anything, anyway? You’ve gotta be able to see something.”
Or else she might just trip him again.