Chapter 12

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When Gabe headed back out into the living room, both of the girls were in the kitchen and Sophie was lifting a tray out of the oven.

"You hungry, Gabe?" Sophie asked. "We made a classic Sunday roast."

"It's not Sunday," Gabe pointed out.

Bee started gathering up plates and cutlery. "In this household, we like to skirt the law in small ways but never quite break it so that the cops are always on our tail but can never nail us for anything."

Sophie nodded her agreement. "Sometimes I eat an entire party sized packet of corn chips on my own when I'm not even having a party."

"Oooh," Bee said. "Well, sometimes in the shower I use Trist's body wash even though it says 'for men' on the bottle. I'm not a man. I'm not even a boy!"

"I'm about to carve this chicken with a steak knife," Sophie added. "Just watch me."

Gabe had made his way into the kitchen by now, and Bee held out a plate to him with a fork and a steak knife of his own on it. "Do you want to join us in our degeneracy, Gabe?"

Gabe shrugged and accepted the plate. "Well, when in Rome..."

"Ha! But you're not in Rome!"

"That's the spirit!" Sophie said. "Come get some food."

When they all had their dinner and had sat down in the living room, Alice turned the TV off. "So, Gabe, I feel like we don't know one another very well. What's your favourite sport?"

"Uhh... Minecraft?" Gabe offered. "Yeah, definitely Minecraft."

"Now hold on," Sophie said. "We're all about skirting the fine line of legality in this household, but I am pretty sure Minecraft is not a sport."

"Yeah, I'm sorry Gabe, but I think she's right," Bee agreed.

Gabe nodded as he chewed and swallowed a mouthful of chicken. "Yes, you would think that Minecraft is not a sport, but you can find articles about it in the sports news sections of some websites. So either Minecraft is a sport or those sports reporting professionals are wrong about what a sports is, and I wouldn't dare malign them like that."

Bee pressed her lips together in thought and tapped her chin with her knuckles. "Is it... an esport, perhaps?"

"Maybe," Sophie said. "Minecraft is many things. It might possibly be an esport."

"Good work, Gabe," Bee said. "That's exactly the kind of fine line of legality we like to walk here in this household."

"I guess I don't need to ask what your favourite video game is, then," Alice said.

"Oh, no, I don't play Minecraft," Gabe said. "My favourite video game is FreeCell."

"Huh." Sophie stabbed a potato with her fork. "FreeCell? Really?"

"Well, I mean, I'm pretty sure I've technically sunk more hours into it than any other game."

"Hmm, okay," Sophie said. "Favourite animal?"

"Probably dogs."

"Huh," Sophie said. "I expected some smartass answer like humans or something."

"That would be a damn lie. Humans aren't anyone's favourite animal."

"Hey, I'm a human!"

"Well, some humans are good. But collectively... eh. I've met way more dogs that I liked. And way more who liked me, frankly."

"Yeah, dogs are great." Sophie tossed Sadie a piece of carrot and she gobbled it down gratefully.

"Don't feed her while we're eating," Alice said.

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