GET A FUNKY LIFE! [matt]

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

For all the stupid little things they disagreed on -- which, okay, was mainly whether or not Sandra should be allowed to see such-and-such male friend, or why she never did her stupid homework -- Sandra had to say that she and Matthew got along really well, in fact. Okay, no, they weren't best friends or anything (which would just be weird, at least in her opinion), but all things considered, they had pretty few problems. Sandra did love her brother, anyway, when she wasn't too busy annoying him or ignoring him when he tried to get her to do things. It was all part of a delicate system or something, and she didn't know why it worked, she just liked that it was going just fine -- so by the time February the second had rolled around, she'd already gone and bought Matthew's birthday present. She knew that he was normally out of the house much later than she was on weekdays, and usually they made and had dinner whenever he got back, but this all worked to her advantage.

Sandra took the bus home as per usual, stopping by the cupcake store on the way for a box of birthday cupcakes. She resisted the urge to just get all the flavours that she liked, instead picking out a few that she knew he usually got, and as the shop was fairly empty and the employee there seemed so nice, she even managed to convince them to throw the number candles ("19", for obvious reasons) onto two of them at no charge. After profuse "thank you"s and "you're the best"s, she was on another bus ride back home. She had plans to make dinner and everything too, things that should hopefully all be done by the time Matt got back, and if he wasn't surprised then Sandra would just... eat her left shoe or something. She was pretty sure she'd done a pretty good job of feigning ignorance this morning, even though she'd felt a little bad for not wishing him a happy birthday earlier. Sandra just wanted to do this properly, honestly -- it had been a few months now that she'd been living there and he'd been driving her around and dealing with her idiocy and just... taking care of her, really, in their strange sibling ways. She therefore couldn't help but be a little bit excited when she heard the front door opening a few hours later, and she hurried out from the kitchen -- where she'd been cooking, and yes, she'd even managed not to burn or otherwise ruin anything -- to present to him a pretty large, vividly pink gift bag. "Mattiiiiiie! Happy birthday!" Inside the bag was, obviously, his present: a Captain America collectible glass set. Hopefully he liked it.

[MATTHEW FUYU CHANG]

His second semester of college had started just around the same time as the Academy started a new year, which was pretty lucky, he thought, as there would be little overlap on when he would have to come back and when he would have to start prying Sandra out of bed for her classes. Really, otherwise he'd just forget and she'd probably be late all the time. Regardless, January came and went, February blowing in a harsh and brutal winter, and Matthew began his second semester buried in textbooks and paints, much like how he ended his first semester. It seemed that very little would change in his life semester to semester, and this meant working on the rare day he had off and weekends, and staying at the campus until late to study and get work done. The commute back to the apartment took about half an hour on a good day, and so by the time he rolled back to Maple Hollow, it was almost eight, nine o'clock. He felt bad that Sandra usually waited up for him for dinner -- he had told her it was okay to just eat by herself and he'd take care of himself when he got back, but maybe it was because back at home, and for as long as either of them probably remembered, dinner was always a family affair. Always. Regardless of what time their father came home from work or if their mom had to stay late at the office, it was always like that. Habits died hard, he supposed.

In the case of his birthday, Matt never really treated it as anything too special, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't appreciate the attention. Being at a new school meant that no one really knew what his birthday was except for those friends he had become rather close with, including the now infamous Shakespeare Girl (Claire, he berated himself, her name is Claire), and besides a few friendly hugs and an impromptu coffee and slice of cheesecake downtown from Claire on his way to get coffee to begin with, his birthday was pretty low-key. Maybe it was a little lame, but given that it was on some random ass day in the middle of the week and he had an early class the next day, he really didn't have many options left to him. He pulled into his designated parking spot in the apartment building's lot and turned the engine off. After grabbing his backpack and large art folio, he locked his car doors and began the trek to the elevator, patiently waiting for it to take him to his apartment. He knew Sandra was home by the way her shoes were strewn right in front of the door -- he had gotten used to taking a big step once he opened the door to go inside at this point -- and had barely called out a, 'I'm home!' before Sandra was coming at him with a frilly, bright pink thing in her hands. Her words finally registered in his mind, however, and even he had to admit that it was pretty sweet of his sister. (Especially when he saw the box of cupcakes on the counter. Hot damn, cupcakes!) "Is this for me?"

Matt asked, though it was pointless because there was no one else celebrating a birthday in the near vicinity (he didn't think). He put his art folio down on the ground, taking the pink bag from her. "Dude, like...you didn't have to do any of this you know, we totally could have just postponed it until the weekend,"

[/color] Matt said, even though he was actually really surprised (and touched) about the whole thing.[/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

On another day, Sandra would have probably responded with something along the lines of, no, it's for the other Mattie celebrating a birthday across the hall, but considering the fact that it was after all his birthday, she decided that she would just let it be. Plus, he'd obviously figured out the answer for himself, since he'd taken the bag from her. It had been fairly obvious, after all. She just grinned, brightly as ever, because at this point she was pretty good at reading her brother -- and whatever he said, she was pretty sure he was... pleased or something. Okay, she wasn't that good at reading him, but that was close enough! "Open it!" she urged, mostly eager to see his reaction when he saw the gift. She was pretty sure he didn't have anything like a glass set -- she'd poked around in his room a few times just to make sure, but then again she didn't know where Matthew kept things like that.

She dragged him along by the sleeve into the kitchen proper, though, where the timer on the oven told her that the pasta baking still had a few minutes left to go. Sandra didn't honestly have too vast of a culinary repertoire, but she'd tried her best -- and the internet was good for recipes and that kind of thing, and most of the ingredients they'd already had. She'd just had to sneakily buy a small number of extra things. Everything else had been relatively easy, except for the part where she almost (almost!) cut her finger open with a knife. "And it's not special anymore on the weekend," she said as if explaining something very obvious. "So..." She waved her hands around in the air like this would actually help. It didn't. "Oh but, but, but, I bought cupcakes!" The box full of most of them was still sitting there on the counter, but she'd set aside the two with candles on a plate, and now she showed them to him like a kid showing off her latest accomplishment. "Only... I couldn't light them." She blinked. Oops. She wasn't even sure she had anything to light them with.

[MATTHEW FUYU CHANG]

Usually, Matt would have already been in his room, putting his things in their proper place, and he would never consider tossing his backpack onto the couch because couches were for people, but Sandra had looked so excited about him opening his gift and his backpack was friggin' heavy, so just once, he put it on the couch. Oh shock, oh horror! Matt rifled through the jungle of tissue paper in the bag -- also pink, he noted, and was about to ask Sandra why she had decided on an abundance of pink for his birthday when he figured that he probably wouldn't like the answer, so he just kept soldiering on. Finally, after sheets of tissue paper, his fingers reached a solid box at the bottom. Matt's face wrinkled in confusion, wondering what it was, as he grasped the edges and pulled the box out of the bag, eyes adjusting to the sudden blue of the box, not used to it after all the horrendous pink. (At least it could have been pink leopard print. Did Sandra even know him at all?)

Well, actually, she clearly did know him, at least somewhat, because in his hands was a Captain America glass set. He had seen the set online, an email from Marvel in his email, no doubt, but hadn't really considered getting it though he did want it, but it had been really nice in the email -- carefully etched with Captain America's shield on one, the main stars and stripes part of the hero's costume on the other. It wasn't too 'in your face' overall, which suited Matt just fine -- he was a little too old for Captain America's face on everything. The shield was telltale enough as it is, but at least it gave off the impression of some maturity. (Some...but probably still not a lot.) "Whaaaat, where did you even find this?"

Matthew asked; he was pretty sure that it was online only, unless Sandra had the hook up somewhere...somewhere. But Matt doubted that. Actually, now that he thought about it, the comic shop in the mall probably got a few in stock. "This is awesome, though, seriously -- thanks,"

[/color] Matt said, breaking into a smile and holding the box closer so he could inspect it carefully. Before he could do much else with it (like open the box), Sandra dragged him along by his sleeve, where he finally noticed and smelt food cooking -- or baking, if the timer on the oven was anything to go by. There were cupcakes on a plate set aside, two of them, one with each number of his age on them, and she waved them around and showed them to him -- his favorite maple bacon. Man, she really pulled out all the stops. As much as she could have, anyway. "Dummy, we have one of those oven lighter things in this drawer,"[/color] Matt said, opening the drawer in question and digging around through the various culinary utensils in there before holding up the clicky light thing -- he never knew the technical term for it. "...maybe we should eat dinner first, though. You went to all the trouble to make..."[/color] Matt paused. "...uh, what did you make?"[/color][/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

She took his surprised expression and tone as just a good thing. It wasn't like Matthew never showed emotion or anything, but he probably wasn't as forthcoming with it or anything as other people (herself included) could be. The girl had known him for sixteen (going on seventeen, innocent as a rose...) years now, though, and she was pretty sure that this reaction was a good one. She just gave him a wide and cheeky grin before she started pulling him along, saying as she did so, "You'll never know my sources!" She cackled like a maniac, then calmed down a little, saying, "I may or may not have bribed my friend whose uncle is a manager at the comic store. But you didn't hear it from me." That just didn't make sense, because who else would have told him, but seriously, Matt didn't need to know the details! Sandra was just kind of glad he liked it.

There wasn't much that she could have done for his birthday, honestly -- Sandra wasn't about to go organize a marching band and huge crowd of people to go marching through his campus or anything, and as it was a random day in the middle of the week... well, there was no chance of a party or anything like that. Well, she'd have to beg people really hard, and that was just too much work. "I don't even know what that thing is called," she said once he'd resurfaced with the little lighter... clicker... thing. Actually, she didn't even know what it was used for. Sandra was not good at this type of thing. She had at least managed to make what she hoped was a half-decent dinner -- there were things she could make no problem, but she didn't usually try to expand past the things that she already knew how to do. "Uh, it's some kind of baked pasta thing... kind of." Just on time, the timer dinged. "I hope you like it! I swear I didn't make it up on the spot or anything, so you're not going to die, I promise!" Even so, she was sure she saw skepticism on his face, but she ignored this as she fetched the oven gloves to take out the pasta -- see, it didn't look half bad, even if it was no culinary masterpiece or anything. At least she'd tried!

[MATTHEW FUYU CHANG]

Actually, he really shouldn't be surprised that Sandra knew someone who knew someone who sort of knew someone because really, as a water student, that was kind of the way of life. It was like trying to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, but more like Six Degrees of Your Fellow Water Student. Chances were that whoever he knew, some other Water student knew as well, and he didn't doubt that Sandra would have used her connections. Still, the set was a rather special item, so she must have done her research or something. He set the box down on the kitchen counter and tugged the flap open, the cardboard giving way easily to his strong manly hands -- or, well, it was just cardboard, how difficult could it be, honestly. He cautiously pulled out the cups inside and they were exactly what they looked like on the pixels of his computer screen -- except even more awesome. The edges had even more etchings engraved on it, stars and famous taglines used for the Captain America series throughout the universe, but not cluttered and garish. Dang. Marvel really knew who they were targeting with this set. "You really did your research,"

Matt said happily, pulling both cups free from their cardboard entrapments and rinsed them out to get the inevitable gross cardboard flavor off the glass first before using it. He knew a lot of his fellow comic book geeks would probably gasp in terror and horror to see him actually use something limited edition, but Matthew figured that this wasn't something he was going to ever get rid of, so he might as well get some use out of it. Besides, his baby sister got it for him. What kind of show of gratitude would that be if he just kept it around, collecting dust?

As for the food, well, pasta was his favorite so really, Sandra could have put all the things he hated in it and he'd still probably eat it for the pasta. Unless there were anchovies in it, which he sincerely hoped not, but when Sandra took the pan of pasta out of the oven, he was relatively relieved that one, the oven hadn't exploded, and two, that it looked cheesey and red and simple, all of which sat with Matthew very well. "I must say, you look like you've upgraded from just the toaster to the oven!"

[/color] Matt joked -- all right, Sandra wasn't only adept with the toaster. She could operate the microwave pretty well, too. He walked past her and opened the fridge door, looking for something to drink. "What do you want to drink? We haaaaave...ginger ale, Pepsi, some milk, and apple juice,"[/color] Matthew listed off, sifting through the various items on their shelves, noting that the fridge seemed to be running pretty low. He'd have to make a grocery store trip pretty soon. "How long did it take for you to do all of this, anyway?"[/color] Matthew asked, peeking his head up and over the refridgerator door.[/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

Sandra watched with mild (or not so mild, whatever) excitement as he took the cups out of the box. He sounded happy when he finally spoke after taking them out, and she grinned, actually seriously glad that he liked them and that he wasn't about to spout some nonsense like that he was over Marvel or that he'd actually gone and bought the exact same set yesterday or something. She didn't know how many of these things existed in the world or the country or anything, just knew that it was apparently pretty special from what her friend's uncle said. Sandra didn't really get all this comic stuff, honestly, but she did know that it was something Matthew had devoted lots of his life to. "I tried! I hope you like it!" she said, though that was probably unnecessary because she kind of knew what her brother looked like when he was pleased or something, and it was pretty much like that. "This just means you have to get me something extra special though, you know," she said, nodding and grinning, but it was a joke. It was Matthew's day today.

"Ha ha, very funny," she said, rolling her eyes a little at him, but she grinned. Sandra wasn't as bad at everything as people thought she was. At least she could make a meal anyway, even if it wasn't, like... something she'd pay for or anything. If it tasted okay and nobody got sick, that was all fine by her! "I'll have you know I can even boil water." See, she wasn't as bad as some people. Admittedly though, she probably didn't cook as much as Matt did even now, except when she made lunch or dinner or something for herself because he wasn't home. "Oh! Uh... apple juice, please." She fetched plates for their cabinet while he was busy on the fridge, setting them on the table with utensils and things. They didn't really need a totally properly made table or anything -- neither of them were overly complicated or needlessly fancy shmancy people, probably because neither of their parents really were either. "And... I dunno, actually! A while? I mean the glasses I got a while ago and I just hid them, cupcakes I just picked up on the way home. Not that long." She shrugged a little. The pasta had probably been what took the longest, but it wasn't that bad... and Sandra wouldn't really tell him that anyway, sheesh. She complained about having to do things all the time, but this was definitely a different story. With a spatula... thing, she served each of them to start. Okay, so there was also probably more pasta than there needed to be... but nobody should underestimate the amount they (and the various friends they had over sometimes, assuming they had leftovers) could eat.

[MATTHEW FUYU CHANG]

In actuality, Matthew already had a couple of ideas on what to do for Sandra's birthday, which wasn't until June, but he liked being prepared. And, at the very least, he hope that they would have the time to do something -- her birthday was right around the time where school was just about to let out for the summer, at least Academy-wise. His summers started in the middle of May, so there was a possibility that Matt might not even be around for it, having either gone home to Vancouver or heading back to his ancestral land a few weeks earlier than Sandra. He wasn't entirely sure what their mom's plans for them were, but either way, he'd have to get her present ahead of time, just in case. And, if everything went according to plan, then things would work out brilliantly. And okay, extra special-like.

"Next thing I know, you'll be making souffles!"

Matt joked, raising an eyebrow at him. Granted, she really wasn't horrible -- he remembered vaguely that she took home ec at the Academy sometime or another, so she must have picked up some skills along the way, and really, all Matt could ask for was that he doesn't come back to an apartment burnt down because she tried to scramble some eggs. That would suck. "Still, though...it was pretty awesome of you. And a total surprise, though then again, I guess I'm not here nearly long enough to be able to figure out that you were planning something."

[/color] This was true. The times he was home, Matthew just wanted to lay around and eat and watch TV and maybe do the tiny bit of homework he had leftover from his days at school. He figured that this would work out for everyone -- Sandra wouldn't be too annoying, he couldn't cramp her style too much, either, and it all worked out for all! Maybe that was why he found their living situation a lot more easy-going than he had expected. If anything, their parents would probably prefer Matthew being harder on her, but it seemed kind of pointless to keep leashes on the most well-behaved. He didn't understand parenting logic.

He poured them both glasses of apple juice, too lazy to get something different and finding it easier to just our from one pitcher, then put it back in the fridge and shut the door. He placed her glass in front of her and inspected the pasta on his plate -- it didn't seem like it was going to crawl off the table, so it had to be pretty okay. "Got enough cheese?"[/color] Matt mumbled, taking a bite, pulling back a little and stretching the cheese out, a little irritated that it wouldn't just cut, more amused and curious to see just how far he could stretch it back. Not too far, though, as mere moments after that, the strand broke. Bummer.[/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

She gave him her best "judging you so hard" look when he brought up souffles. Okay, considering she had been in Logan's class for Home Ec, most of her expertise was in the field of pancake-making, and then there were of course whatever things she had to make whenever Matthew wasn't home and she was forced to cook or something. Souffles, however, were definitely uncharted waters. "Maybe next year when you're turning twenty and getting old," she said, quirking a brow at him. Hey, who knew. Maybe all of that time she spent watching the Food Network would actually provide her with some skills in the kitchen... Pfft, right. She was sure it would have sunk in by now if that were the case. Sandra just grinned and waved it off. "I dunno how you would have noticed unless you actually set up cameras or something. And that's just creepy," she pointed out, shaking her head. Nah, she didn't think that her brother was actually the type to do something weird like that. He could be a little overbearing when it came to the little things -- doing her homework, having guys around the apartment depending on who they were -- but for the most part she was pretty sure that they knew each other well enough by now that it was just live and let live. It also helped that he really wasn't home all that often and that she didn't do much that would actually constitute getting in trouble.

She just rolled her eyes a little, taking a sip of juice before she dug into the pasta with a fork. "Whatever, you love cheese," she said. The ample supply of string cheese that was always in their fridge was proof of that -- Sandra snacked all the time but Matthew and his string cheese were an entirely different story, okay. "Plus I think I win," she added, managing to stretch the cheese off of her own plate at least a foot up before it snapped and she was able to actually eat. Yeah, she totally won that. "Anyway! How was your day, did you get anything?" She didn't know if any of Matthew's college friends actually knew that it was his birthday, considering he wasn't an obnoxious enough guy to tell everyone all the time, but maybe they did!

[MATTHEW FUYU CHANG]

"Yeah, old. Might as well start buying me eye cream or something."

Matthew rolled his eyes at how ludicrous the idea was that twenty was old. It was a little scary to think about, sure -- it always seems like just yesterday when one is fifteen and thinking about the vast, bright future ahead, about all their dreams coming true and being a functioning member of society. Four years later and Matthew can honestly say that he's a little unimpressed. College was nothing like he watched on TV. He felt a little cheated. "Or whatever the equivalent for guys is. Hair plugs, or something."

[/color] Okay, that part he was straight up terrified about. Matthew spent a lot of time on his hair, all right, to think about balding now was just scary. "Gross, Sandra. I mean...there's a line, and that thought alone crossed it by like, two kilometres,"[/color] Matthew said, disgust written all over his face. Not only did he not have the money to set up a surveillance system in his sister's room, but that was just...gross. He didn't need constant footage of her drooling in her sleep or gossiping about boys or whatever. And it's not like he actually thought she was some rebellious troublemaker. To be perfectly honest, sometimes his and Sandra's complete normalness in the face of living on their own without parental supervision at all struck him as weird. Most people would go crazy and party hard, disco pogo all night long, but no...not them two! All they do is stock the fridge with more unhealthy stuff and leave the dishes to do every other day. Oh yeah. Totally living on the wild side.

To say that Matthew loved cheese was a bit of a gross understatement, and in all sense of the phrase, too. Matthew's daily consumption of string cheese was just necessary for him to survive, okay? It was hard to find the time to actually sit down and eat something during the day, but lunch was an important meal, so oftentimes he'd just toss a pack of Pop Tarts and a few things of string cheese into his backpack and be off for the day. Couple that with a big cup of coffee from his campus' Tim Horton's and there -- lunch of champions. "Cheese is important,"[/color] Matt retorted, eating a little more of the pasta. And he was about to compliment her on it, too. "More important than hot sauce."[/color] Matt took a sip to wash his bite of pasta down, chewing thoughtfully. What had happened throughout the day? He had a phone call from his parents, a greeting from his adviser and art teacher, some friendly pats on the back from a group of guys he played soccer with in between classes, and then cheesecake. That was pretty much it. "Not anything material, but a lot of well wishes. There was also a piece of cheesecake,"[/color] Matthew replied. "Oh, but you know mom and dad are probably sending money in the mail, as usual."[/color][/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

He didn't seem to take the idea very seriously, and Sandra couldn't blame him. Matthew was, like... two and a half years older than she was. If he was getting old, that meant that she was going to get old too, and oh god Sandra wasn't sure she would be able to even deal with that, honestly. "Hey, two decades! That's pretty old," she pointed out, rolling her eyes at him. "Before you know it you'll be out of college and working and then you'll be maybe married and maybe with kids and then you'll be old and then you'll look back on these days and tell your grandkids stories about all those good times." Then again, it was weird -- at thirteen, she'd thought that she might have some kind of idea of where her life was going by the time she reached seventeen. Now, at seventeen, the prospect of just making the little decisions -- whether or not to go to the Academy for college, if she wanted to return to Vancouver full-time or not, etc. -- was just something she wanted to put off forever. She was pretty good at putting things off, luckily. The panic hadn't set in yet. "Yeah, so I guess we're both lucky that you're not that crazy," she said, nodding and taking all of this in stride. He was right, though -- the idea was just... ew. It was also totally uncalled for too, because the worst things she did were like... falling asleep in the middle of the day, and "forgetting" to do homework -- and Matthew even already knew that she did that, so that would be pointless.

Sandra shot her brother a look. "Did you really just say cheese is more important than hot sauce?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him. It reminded her what she was missing though -- duh, she'd known this meal wasn't quite complete -- and she hopped up out of her chair to grab hot sauce out of the fridge. It was a process choosing one -- all were spicy, each one was different -- but in the end she settled for one and then made a show of dumping it all over the cheese, just to show him up. "Hot sauce is good on everything. Cheese," she said, "is not." Okay, well, she wouldn't put either of them on like... chocolate ice cream or something, but pfft -- details, details. "Oh? Anything from Shakespeare girl?" She waggled her eyebrows at him. "But oh yeah... Remind me to go check the mail before you do, then," Sandra joked, making as if about to get up and actually go check -- but she wouldn't really do that.

[MATTHEW FUYU CHANG]

"Like living with you could be considered 'a good time',"

Matthew mumbled underneath his breath, but the long ramble Sandra went on did make him stop and think for a few moments about his life and how...it really wasn't anything that he thought it would be. He knew that it couldn't be all that it was on television -- clearly there were no huge frat parties being thrown and certainly no bar in the area that actually was okay with giving alcohol to underage kids, and he hadn't even experienced one of those school-wide house parties that a whole bunch of teen movies thrived on. It was strange -- he knew there was a vast difference between reality and something scripted for entertainment, but generally speaking, he thought his life would be a little more...exciting than what it was now. Then again, even when he was 18 and considering all his options for college, it wasn't like he imagined he'd be here, either. He didn't know where he would end up, actually. There was always the possibility of not knowing whether or not his school was going to accept him, and then where would he even have ended up? He was glad that his life was going at least kind of like planned, but part of him just thought that maybe he was getting old -- getting old and not even able to experience being young while he still could. Maybe he should go out more...

He regrets the day he ever told Sandra about Shakespeare Girl. Then again, he blames himself for only calling her Shakespeare Girl in front of her and not her real name -- Claire -- and...well, he didn't know why. Probably so it wasn't as personal as his little sister knowing the name of his girlfriend. He likes keeping some sort of privacy, even though they're...well, they're pretty close as far as being siblings goes. And for that he's grateful. Just...he probably shouldn't be that grateful. "Not that it is any of your business, but no, I didn't really get anything from Shakespeare Girl. She treated me to coffee and cheesecake, but today's our busiest day of our weeks so we didn't get to spend that much time together."

[/color] Maybe if he lived on campus, it would be a different story, but then again, getting a girlfriend wasn't exactly in the plan when he was drafting his future. It was hard just to make time out of the day to see each other -- she had class from 9 in the morning straight to 9 at night, and while Matt only had class until 5 in the afternoon, he needed to clock those studio hours. Hell, if she was even in the same major as him then it would be easier to see each other. "We did make plans for this weekend, though. A formal celebration and such."[/color] She said it was a surprise...he didn't know whether to be excited or a little apprehensive. Not that he didn't trust her, but the thought of surprises always makes him jumpy since that one surprise party when he was 12. "Please, you know as well as I do that mom would have sent another envelope of money for you since she worries."[/color] Every so often, their mom would send them money or care packages and he felt kind of bad for it, but it wasn't like they were in a position to turn away her kindness. He was looking for some way to make it up, though -- he'd have to discuss that with Sandra at a later date. "What cupcake do you want?"[/color] Matt asked, getting up from the table and going straight for the gold -- the box of dense, sugary cupcakes.[/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

If she weren't used to her brother, Sandra might have been offended... okay, not really though, because she just wasn't easily offended, not by things like that. She was pretty well aware that she was a little weird, actually, thanks very much, and she was okay with it! At least she had fun... and okay, at least she got to annoy her brother. That was an upside to everything. "It could be a lot worse. I haven't trashed the house or thrown a rave yet," she pointed out pretty frankly, deciding to give him a break this time rather than go off on another long tangent. "Plus your kids are going to love hearing all about Auntie Sandra, so shhh." That was if Matthew had kids. She also supposed that this would be a moot point if she and Matt wound up having some kind of earth-shattering fight in the next few years and never spoke to each other again, because that did happen in families, but she didn't think that with the two of them specifically it was very likely to happen. Apart from little things like that, however, Sandra wasn't very good at or very fond of looking at the future and what it might hold, so she was pretty content to leave it there. The future was a frightening place.

She wouldn't have even known about Shakespeare Girl if it weren't for Nell and the time she and Matthew -- so old, those two, so old... she was mostly kidding though -- had "crashed" prom. Really though, now that Matthew and Claire were dating, she was pretty sure that she would have found out at some point or another soon after that anyway, since prom had only been like, two months ago or something. Sandra wasn't going to be that much of a nuisance though, at least not until she got to meet Claire in person and decide how much she liked the girl. "Boo, that sucks. Maaaaatt, that's such boring gossip. Who would want to listen to that?" She wouldn't really spread the details of her brother's love life around, though -- and not only because it really would make for boring gossip considering nobody she knew actually knew Claire, to the best of her knowledge. "But ooh, ooh, have fun with your giiiiiiirlfriend." She stretched out the word, grinning like a goof. Okay... she was allowed to be a little bit of a nuisance, right? It wasn't even like she'd given Shakespeare Girl the shotgun talk or anything, not that she would have been able to. She hadn't even met the girl yet! "I know... and she can't really send one here on my birthday," she added, frowning a little. They'd be in Japan for her birthday, actually, so Sandra was pretty sure that if anything, her mom would just give her whatever it was when they returned, or she'd just sneak it into her luggage or something. "Oh, oh, uh... that really really chocolatey one," she said, momentarily forgetting the name in her excitement or something. Cupcakes were always worth getting excited about.