(ix.)

"So, you're just going on a road trip?" Dax asked, as he pulled open the microwave.
"Yeah, something like that," Midge replied, nonchalantly.

Lorelei chimed in with, "We don't have a real plan, or anything. We're just driving around in my car, for as long as we can."

"How can you possibly live like that?" inquired Dax's cute, frilly, Martha-Stewart-like wife.

"She's getting a paycheck, so--"
"How can you get a paycheck if you've been on the road for... what, two weeks?"

Lorelei shrugged. "The company I work for gives you a month off during the summer and two weeks in the winter. In the six years that I've worked for this company, I've only ever taken four weeks of vacation -- total. So I can technically take the next... thirty weeks off."

The others just stared at her.

"Is this one of those 'Linen-closet' things?"
"Yes, Midge. It is."
"What happened to the 'all-expenses-paid trip to the Bahamas'?"
"Something about Customs; and how they didn't want to send me anywhere that required a passport."
"You need a passport for the Bahamas?"
"Well, yeah. They have a permanent mission to the U.N. And before that, they were British."

Midge nodded complaicenlty.

"Now, see, if you had a friend like her in High School," Dax began, "you might have actually passed."
"Why are you always making fun of me, huh? What, 'cause I'm not fucking perfect?"

"Don't feel bad, Midge. I never even went to high school."
"You-- I thought you went to School with... with that mechanic?"
"He's a liar. Don't listen to him."

Dax cocked his head to one side. "You never went to High School?"
"No," Lorelei explained, calmly, "I decided the entire mess wasn't worth it. I just skipped ahead to college. I'm one of those obnoxious child prodigies."

The other three stared at her.

"What?"

"You. Skipped. Ahead. To. College." Dax mumbled, through gritted teeth.
"Yeah..."

Midge suddenly blurted out, "hey, Ashleigh, you want help setting the table?"
"I think the table can wait, I don't see why--"

Ashleigh didn't get the chance to finish, because Midge was trying as hard as she could to grab plates out of the dish-drainer.

"You didn't go to high school? It was just, eigth grade, then, Freshman in College?"
"Well, actually, I got into Cambridge, two weeks into the seventh grade--"
"How?"

"Hey, Ash, do you want seperate forks for the salad and the meat?"

"Well, I just showed up on the doorstep, and said, 'hi. My name's Lorelei, I don't want to go to middle school anymore. Do you guys want me?'"
"That can't be it."

"Soup spoons, or tea spoons?"

"Yeah, that was it. All I had to do was pay my part of the tuition, and--"
"Your part? You got a fucking scholarship, too?"
"Why do I get the sudden feeling that this is a point of contention?"
"Well, for a prodigy, it sure takes you a while, doesn't it?"

"Which glasses do you want to put out?"

"Both of you, stop it!" Ashleigh screamed out. "Just because it took you a lot of time and effort to get into College, that doesn't mean you should be bitter about it. Maybe she had to work at it once she got there. Hmm?"

She turned to Midge. "And you. Get your filthy hands off my china."

[Chapter x]