Room 43// An Inanimate Insanity College AU

36- Why Have Good Grades When You Could Have Foot-Tall Platforms, Am I Right??

"I can't believe we're getting our final grades in like... a day," Lightbulb said conversationally, skipping along the shopping isle that Paintbrush had found themselves in with their dormmates, pushing along the trolley with bigger portions of food than usual. It was their last two weeks at the dormitory before the summer holidays, and none of them wanted to go into another grocery shop for the rest of the school year if they could help it.

"You say that much too casually," Test Tube sighed with a shake of her head, cracking her knuckles loud enough that Paintbrush could hear it from where they were steering the shopping cart, the slightly rusted wheels making a horrible screeching noise. It had become apparent that Test Tube was stressing over both her end-of-year exam results (Paintbrush didn't have to take one of those; they just had to submit a final art piece. Fuck yeah) and her final grades overall.

Paintbrush wasn't all that worried, personally. It was no mystery that they weren't going to get a perfect mark, but at least they knew that they'd pass; Lightbulb seemed more concerned about trying to not-so-discreetly slip a chocolate bar into the trolley. Paintbrush hoped her attendance wouldn't mean being dragged down a year, both for her sake and their own.

...Maybe they were hoping the two of them would be in the same classes next year.

"Test Tube, if you don't stop trying to break your hands I will do it for you," Fan said. "If anyone's gonna get 100 percent scores across the board it's gonna be you! Well, and maybe Cabby, but... you too!"

"Fan?" Test Tube asked, taking a deep breath.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up, you're not helping."

Fan scoffed, blowing a strand of hair out his face. "Rude. I'm the most helpful person here."

"I'm the one pushing the trolley," Paintbrush said, smug. They batted away Lightbulb's hand once again, already knowing that they were just going to let her buy the chocolate at the end. It was fun, though. Everything felt like the start of the year all over again, even though it was ending in less than two weeks.

"Fan's not tall enough to push the trolley, that's not fair," Lightbulb giggled, placing her palm on Fan's head. The top of his head reached to about her eyes, but no higher. Fan immediately batted the hand away, scowling.

"I'll have you all know that over the holidays I'm going to have a huge growth spurt," He declared, hand over his heart. "If I don't come back six feet tall, I want one of you to shoot me."

Paintbrush snickered. "Only one of us gets to shoot you!? But how will we choose?"

Fan glared at them. Maybe that was warranted.

"I call dibs, I've known him longer," Test Tube said.

Fan glared at Test Tube. Maybe that was warranted, too.

"Do we get tomatoes?" Test Tube wondered aloud, walking past the fruits and veggies section, peering down at the contents of their cart which did not have anything remotely healthy in it. Paintbrush merely shrugged; they didn't really like tomatoes, but if anyone else did then they wouldn't mind-

"Yes," Fan said immediately, at the same time Lightbulb shouted No! in a disgusted tone. The two of them looked at each other, mouths slightly agape.

"I thought I could trust you," Fan said, after a few moments of silence. "How do you not like tomatoes? I've seen you eat Baxter's food!"

"I can't count the number of times there've been icky forgotten tomatoes in the fridge. It's because nobody likes them," Lightbulb defended. "Because they're icky. Right Painty?"