Chapter 19 #2
Ally hops off her stool, long red hair swaying. “Thank you so much for doing these movies with us, Danny. Not only because I really wanted to meet you, but because these are two of my favorite movies. I probably would have Selected both of them eventually.”
“Something to know about Ally,” Reese interjects from his stool. “Every movie is her favorite.”
She gasps dramatically. “Not true!”
“Okay, not entirely true,” he concedes. “A movie is either her favorite, or not-her-favorite. Those are the only two levels of description available.”
“I thought we solved that,” Ally says. “We’ve got Favorite A, Favorite B, Favorite C, and Favorite D.”
Reese grins indulgently at her. “Yeah, but any favorite gets put into the Favorite A category.”
“This is slander.”
“Hey, Ally,” K calls as they mix waffle batter. “What category are these two movies in?”
She bites the inside of her cheek and mumbles, “Favorite A.”
They all laugh.
“Now, Danny,” K says. “Christina usually gets a free pass on doing too much cooking because she’s got this whole Sunday trauma thing that we would do quite literally anything in this world to ease.”
“And because she can’t cook for shit,” Runzhou adds.
“That too. But we heard word you might be able to make up for her totally-justified-but-still-technically-a-lack of contribution.”
Christina nods at me like go on.
“I did bring ingredients to make from-scratch biscuits and chocolate gravy.”
“Heavens, child!” K throws a hand on their heart. “I didn’t know you were gonna come out the gate swingin’ like that!”
“Chocolate gravy?” Runzhou’s eyebrows are sky-high.
Ally rolls her eyes. “You’ll have to excuse Runzhou; he’s not a tried-and-true Southerner like the rest of us.”
“It’s such a strange turn that Hilltop brought you all together,” I say, still sketching the puzzle of this group. “Did you and Reese come here for the fundamentalism of it all?”
Christina snorts before Ally can answer. “No way. Ally hated me when we were suitemates. Her secret nickname for me was C-Word.”
Reese laughs at my no doubt appalled expression.
“That’s because I thought you were a die-hard Hilltopper!” Ally exclaims. “And you and our other two suitemates, whose names also started with C, seemed like little Hilltop clones.”
“Clone is not the C-word you were referring to, Ally dear,” K says.
“Alright, K baby, you wanna play that game?” Ally turns back to Christina. “K’s the one who came up with the nickname in the first place.”
Christina gasps dramatically at them.
K stares Ally down. “You were dragged ten blocks by this city bus and decided I should be right there draggin’ with you.”
“To be fair,” Christina smiles a bit sadly, “I was a die-hard Hilltopper. The nickname was appropriate.”
“Maybe your nickname for Ally should be A-Word, then,” I offer. Every face swings to me. “Standing for Ally, of course, and not any other word that comes to mind.”
The group explodes in hollers and whooping.
“Danny just dragged your ass ten more blocks,” Runzhou says.
Ally stares at me in awe. “You’re a right Sloppy Bitch like the rest of us, aren’t you?”
I nod. “Excluding Runzhou, of course.”
He winks at me. This is … new. I’ve never slipped into an existing group of people so easily before.
But with Christina here, I don’t feel pressured, or misunderstood, or distracted like usual.
I want to be here instead of in my studio or behind my camera, especially because there are echoes of Christina in each of her friends.
And I am drawn to every facet of that woman.
Ally tries to get us back on track. “The short answer of why Reese and I are at Hilltop is that we both have full scholarships based on our standardized test scores.”
“The long answer for me,” Reese adds, “has a lot to do with growing up in this county and taking the path of least resistance because I didn’t know what I wanted for a long time.”
“Ooh,” Ally cuts in. “That ‘didn’t know what I wanted’ comment applies to me too.”
Reese covers her hand on the counter. “Thankfully, we’ve still gotten a decent education here.
One of my professors who is decidedly anti-Hilltop told me that it’s so hard to land an academic job that many faculty take positions here even when they don’t agree with the backward policies.
Honestly, academia and fundamentalism don’t really gel.
Every professor may be required to start their class with prayer, but then they go on to teach their subject like most any other college classroom. ”
“Although you do get the odd assignment here and there,” Christina grins.
“I once had to write a paper called That’ll Preach, which required me to relate themes from ancient literature to Biblical scripture.
But Reese is right: That professor still taught Gilgamesh and just ignored the shit out of the fact that it presents a pre-Biblical flood narrative. ”
“Ah,” I nod. “More cognitive dissonance.”
“The fucking cognitive dissonance!” K exclaims. “We can’t wear shorts to class, but we can wear skin-tight leggings.”
Runzhou picks up the thread. “Harassment and prejudice are banned by the Community Covenant, but homosexuality is cause for expulsion.”
“Honestly,” Ally says, “I love that we’ve got full scholarships here. They are paying for our education while we sin our way behind their backs as much as possible. Joke’s on Hilltop.”
Christina snorts a laugh. “Can we get that printed on T-shirts for after graduation?”
They laugh as brunch prep continues.
“So have we settled on the viewing order for today?” Reese asks.
Christina taps her chin. “Oof, so much to consider on that.”
“Wait!” I throw my hands up. “It’s killing me not to be getting all of this on camera.”
Christina gives me her sweetest smile. “Pause everyone! No more talking until the cameras are up.” She cuts a reprimanding look across the island. “That means you, Runzhou. Chatterbox.”
Christina suggests locations and angles for the cameras based on the usual flow of Movie Church between the adjoined kitchen and living space. I’m once again struck by what an eye she has for this work.
“Viewing order,” I declare once everything’s ready and the group agrees I should wait to make the biscuits and chocolate gravy between films. “Go.”
Christina hands me a cup of coffee doctored to my preferences.
I dip to kiss her without deciding to. Thank god she’s on board with kissing on camera; it’s the most natural thing in the world, to kiss her in gratitude for bringing me this coffee.
When I pull back, we linger in each other’s space for a long breath.