Chester sat on the couch and put my leg into his lap, with the pillow so that my leg was bent at the knee, he looked over at me to double check that it was okay, and it felt better this way, so I wasn’t complaining. He gave a goofy grin and then looked over to Sam who was looking at the movie case, his hands on his hips and his back was facing us.

“Hey, slow poke, put in Mulan or something,” Chester grunted at him.

Sam turned around to give Chester a playful glare, “Shut up,” his cheerful green eyes met mine and he grinned, “What do you want to watch, Debby?”

I sucked in a breath, it wasn’t that I hadn’t watched movies growing up, because I did. It was just.. not often. Mulan was one of those I hadn’t seen yet and so I just nodded my agreement, Chester grinned and patted my shin, “See, she’s on my side. No Hercules for you!”

Sam gave a pout but I could tell he was teasing with the way his lips still seemed to quirk up with a tiny smile.

I sat up a little, “We can watch that next, and then we can watch Titanic Tip and Daring Dash.”

Both boys gave me weird looks, Chester sat forward and pressed his hand to my forehead, “She doesn’t appear to have a fever, she really must be insane.”

I heard a deep laugh from somewhere towards the kitchen, behind me, and when I tried to twist to find out I was blocked by all the blankets. Beck walked into view with a guy by his side. The guy had a little more muscle than Beck but he was shorter, his expression was gloomy, like Beck’s was when he wasn’t relaxed. I had a feeling this was the infamous Cody.

He had sandy blonde hair and a grumpy look about him, it made me want to smile because it reminded me a lot of Beck, but while Beck’s eyes had a happy glint in it, Cody’s light blue eyes just looked grumpy. He looked me over with interest, “You’re Mabel, or Debby?”

I was confused for a moment, he knew about me?

“She’s Debby, Mabel’s upstairs in her room. Are either of you going to the banquet?” Sam asked.

Beck looked over at us, his eyes roaming over out set up while Sam sat next to Chester, “Well,” he said, raking his hands through his hair and making it look messy, “I was planning on it… are you guys going?”

Chester shook his head, “Naw, Doc said she isn’t allowed to move for the next day or so, so we’re doing a disney marathon.”

Cody raised an eyebrow and looked right at me, his eyes intense, “Did you come up with that?”

“Nope! I did! Why is there a problem with that?” Chester demanded, I looked over at him and it was clear he was kidding with the way his lips were in a half smile.

Cody grunted and Beck looked uncertain, he had changed into a baby blue fitted shirt and a dark leather jacket with some dark jeans and biker boots, “Should I stay then?” his eyes were on me and I assumed this question was also directed at me.

Sam kicked off his shoes and put them neatly by his feet on the floor before propping his feet on the coffee table, “Well I mean you certainly don’t have to, but if you want to watch movies instead of going you can.”

“Hey!,” Chester butted in, “If you stay you have to bring us back food from the banquet so we don’t starve.. did someone make something to contribute to the banquet?” he added the last part as an afterthought.

Cody nodded, “Yeah, we made some chili and cornbread,” he looked at me, looking irritated, “Can you cook?”

“Cody,” Chester scolded, “You can’t just ask her if she can cook, that’s rude-”

I cut him off, “Guys,” I said, my voice making Chester shut up. Him and Sam both looked at me, “I can speak for myself,” I said, my voice dropping down a notch from the sharp tone I had started with.

Sam’s cheeks went a little pink, “Right, sorry, we didn’t mean to talk for you.”

Chester just grinned at me, “Awh, Cupcake, you shoulda said something sooner.”

I rolled my eyes at Chester and looked over at Cody, “I can cook,” I looked over at Beck, “And if you want to watch movies with us you can, but you don’t have to.”

Beck smiled and swung his keys around on his finger, “I’ll bring some food back for you guys and sit and watch movies, how about you Cody?”

I blinked, wondering why he was asking me if I wanted to go with when he knew I had to stay here.

“I’m going to stay, besides someone has to make sure Mabel gets back here alright,” Cody said, and shrugged on a blue jacket.

Right. His name is Cody.

Nobody seemed to notice me almost replying, and when I met eyes with Cody again he was staring at me. It wasn’t a creepy stare but an almost approving stare. Like me speaking up for myself had earned some brownie points in his book.

mmmm brownies…

Cody walked out to the car and Beck grabbed a dish from the kitchen and followed, stopping at the stairs to yell for Mabel. She came thumping down the stairs in a jean skirt and a too big shirt so the shirt nearly gave the illusion that that was all she was wearing. I sat up to tell her only to have Chester move into my line of sight.

He shook his head at me and I frowned, but remembered our earlier conversation. If I told Mabel she should change she might yell at me and then the guys would all know we didn’t exactly get along. I didn’t want them all to be aware of it and so I sat back into the blankets and pillows. I’m not sure that that was what Chester meant when he shook his head but that’s what I took it as.

Beck waved to us before shutting the door and then Sam pressed play and the movie was starting. I watched it and it was at the part where Mulan is kneeling with all the other soon to be brides, when Sam spoke up, “So, Debby, what was the Titanic Dip and Tash? Thing about?”

I couldn’t help but let out a laugh, “It’s Titanic Tip and Daring Dash. From the second little mermaid? Where Ariel’s daughter Melody gets a fin from Ursula's sister?”

“Ursula has a sister?”

“Ariel has a kid?”

They said at the same time. I nodded slowly, wondering if I was somehow mistaken when Chester suddenly nodded.

“That’s right. I remember that one a little bit, huh. I don’t think we have it, but we’ll try to find it, alright Cupcake?” he looked at me, smiling.

I smiled at his offer, “Speaking of going out, when can I?”

Sam pressed pause and looked over, “Well I guess when your leg is healed enough that it doesn’t hurt and it’s not putting out any more discharge.”

I wrinkled my nose, “Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” I mumbled, wondering just how long that would take.

Sam chuckled and pressed play as Beck walked in the front door, his arms weighed down with three of those cloth grocery bags, “I brought food!”

It smelled really really good, and I could imagine just how greedy my eyes were, Beck grinned at me and walked over, “Here,” he offered me one of the bags and I snatched it away.

“Hey you have to get plates and-” Sam stopped talking quickly, catching my eye and I realized I was glaring, while eating some really yummy, actual meat.

The fact that I was eating meat was enough to get me to glare at Chester when he went to try and touch the bag that Beck had given me. They all stared at me with wide eyes.

“What?” I mumbled, licking my fingers.

Beck cleared his throat, “Nothing, when was the last time you ate?”

The question threw me off and I swallowed, looking at them all. It didn’t throw me off enough that I wasn’t grabbing for something, anything else in the bag. I had to think about it. No I hadn’t eaten all day today, but.. right!

“Last night,” I said, finding a dish of some kind of noodle stuff, it even had a cute little plastic fork.

Chester tilted his head, “Okay what did you eat Cupcake?”

I took another bite before swallowing, loving the taste of real food, real cooked food. I think this topped the warm water.. almost, “I had a half off a can of peach halves,” I said, taking another bite.

“Wait, like one of those small cans or the bigger cans?” Beck asked, frowning.

“One of the bigger ones,” I replied, covering my mouth so they couldn’t see the food.

This whole eating and talking at the same time was hard business. Sam was staring at me and I raised an eyebrow at him. Something about the food and the way they treated me like I was one of them had me relaxing in ways I had never relaxed before. I would have never eaten like this in front of my step mother, or anyone at school.. then again I had never really been this hungry before.

“Debby,” Beck shook his head, “That’s like two or three peach halves.”

I nodded slowly, confirming that thats about as much as I had had. I was confused, they knew I didn’t have a lot of food, why were they being weird?

Beck looked at me, frowning, “What did you eat before that?”

I paused my eating this time. What? It took a second for his question to really hit me and I thought about it. Last night I ate peaches.. the day before that I had been trying to sneak out, and the day before that I had been punished. The day before that I had three stale crackers and a the leftover beef stew from a can that my step mother hadn’t eaten.

I lowered my fork and kept my eyes away from them all.

“Debby?” Beck asked.

I shook my head, and Chester seemed to get it because he diverted the attention from me, albeit not very well.

“Beck, man, I want food too! We don’t have to eat on plates, Cupcakes grounded to the couch so we can’t eat at the table either,” he grumbled.

Sam cleared his throat and pressed play, while Beck passed out food. I ate until I was full. Full for the first time in what had to be a week and a half, at least. Through the rest of Mulan and into Hercules I felt at least one of them looking at me at all times.

Cody came home with Mabel and I used that as my cue of going to bed. Beck carried me up the stairs and tucked me into bed, Mabel surprisingly didn’t comment. Beck said goodnight to us both and once he was gone Mabel spun around, her hands on her hips and glared at me. I quickly scrambled off the bed and slipped into my makeshift bed in the corner.

Mabel changed in the bathroom and I used the opportunity to carefully pull on some light blue sleeping shorts and a faded black Mickey Mouse shirt. Mabel crawled into her bed and she rolled so that her back was facing me. I watched her breathe as I tried to press my face as close to the floor as possible as to listen in to the boys’ conversation downstairs.

It didn’t work as the movie drowned out their words, I rolled over with a sigh and closed my eyes, pulling the blanket up to my chin. I closed my eyes thinking of all of the things they could be talking about before sleep pulled me under.