Dreamers

Clueless City Folk

"Longer! You have to-" Lisa laughed.

Jhon poked another hotdog on the grill. "This one?" He teased.

"No!" She laughed again, "Longer! It has to stay on to cook!"

"Oh, ok." He pulled away.

Lisa pulled a third one from the bag and carefully laid it an equal distance from the rest. She did back up the bag and put it to the side.

"Can I take it off now?" Jhon teased.

Lisa gave him a look.

"Well, you said 'longer'! It's been longer!"

She held back her giggle and gave him another look.

"Alright, alright! I won't touch it!" He put his hands up, showing he's given up.

She nodded, "Good." She turned around to the bucket on her other side, "Now go find something to drink."

Jhon checked out her butt for a minute before getting up off his chair and limping to another one of the unloaded boxes, "Yes, Ma'am."

Jemma and Amanda watched for a moment before Jemma walked into the clearing and whispered to Jhon, "She knows you made the solar grill, right?" She bent down next to him and pretended she was ruffling through the box as well.

He laughed, "She told me I didn't know anything about cooking." He shook his head.

Jemma snorted, "As if a city girl knows shit about making food. They get it delivered to their doorstep."

"Now, now, Jemz. Be nice with the clueless city folk." He stood up carefully, apparently finding what he wanted from the box. He laughed, "Let her do breakfast. No mean comments."

Jemma sighed and rolled her eyes, "You know I love her, too, right? It's the job of one friend to correct another." She nodded her head resolutely. When she straightened up, following Jhon, she saw Lisa and Amanda shoulder-to-shoulder by the grill. She walked over.

"Ya, it you turn it you cook it in more places than one." Her sister had beat her to it. And had done it in such a way that Lisa didn't feel upset about being corrected. Inwardly, she clapped ecstatically for her sister.

"Oh, how confusing. I never thought food might not cook evenly." She turned over a hotdog, finding one side had already been charred in her search for buns.

The sisters glanced at each other as Jemma joined them. They realized what each other had been thinking with the look.

"It's burnt." Lisa pressed her lips together, "I'll get new ones." She picked up the hotdogs with the fork, intending to throw them to the wolves. Not literally.

"No!" Jemma jumped forward to stop her from tossing them on the ground.

"Wait!" Amanda grabbed her arm.

Lisa stopped, a sister on each side, "What? They're black."

The sisters sighed in relief. they'd saved the food.

Jemma slapped her over the head, "You idiot! We're on rations! Even more so because we have to go around! Do you know how long it'll take? Do you want to starve?" She screamed.

"Rations?" She looked to Amanda.

Amanda glanced at her, "Well, you can't eat the toxic animals like we can. You'll have a hard enough time as it is, with the air. We will do what we can but..." He carefully took the hotdog back, "It's dark, but not burnt. I like it this way." She put it back on the grill, lighter side down, to allow it to cook longer. "You can take the other ones off now." He began taking control of the cooking, pulling the other ones off as they lightly browned on the lighter side and turning off the grill.

She continued getting food together. Lisa stood to the side and huffed, tossing her hip out to the side, "You guys do know I have immunity to all that stuff, right?" Her lips tilted up and she looked at Jemma and Jhon through the corner of her eye, "Us clueless city folk all get one at birth. Smart enough to think about what might happen to one of us that far ahead, it's not like I didn't know about the food." She walked off.

Jemma pursed her lips. Lisa had been messing with them, she wasn't really going to toss out the food. Suggesting it was revenge. Scaring them for talking behind her back. Jemma suddenly felt like curling up in her best friend's arms like she had so many times before. Comfortable enough to drift off... But that wasn't possible for almost another month. She took a deep breath to calm herself and grabbed a slightly burnt hotdog for herself.