Morningstar Manor

Casey had gotten off work around five, which meant it was straight into the Mocha with her ass. The one problem with being a chronic overachiever was that if you weren't working, you were studying and sleep rarely factored in. That was why God had invented caffeine, though. Yummy, yummy caffeine.

And all that studying meant that at the end of the second summer session (which was coming up, ugh), she'd be one class shy of junior status. Not bad at all. And as a reward, she was reading a couple chapters of the trashy romance novel she'd picked up before going back to writing her final paper for the Shakespeare class she was taking.

Gavin was drinking slowly but surely, and pondering the state of life.

He was in love with his brother's wife; he knew this for sure.

He was possibly crazy; that had never been in dispute.

His brother was an asshole -- that he'd never questioned, but he loved his brother, too.

Heavy sigh.

Another drink.

( Offer up best defense, but this the end, this is the end of the innocence )

Fall was finally here, meaning there were only a finite number of pleasant days left in the year. Bridget had decided to take advantage of this while she could, so after work she got dressed in some more casual clothes and took the kids to play at the park.

By the time the outing was over and Bridget brought them back to the Manor, both Penny and Jeth were all tuckered out and dozing in their double stroller. This was yet another opportunity that needed to be milked, so she stopped in the Mocha for a latte. She wasn't planning on being down there too long (there was still dinner that needed to be prepared), but a little break in the cafe while the kids were asleep wasn't a bad thing at all. She picked a table away from the main walking area so the stroller didn't get in the way and sat back to watch the customers as she sipped her drink.

Casey had come to the conclusion that the Lucas family mailbox hated her. Or else it just liked screwing with her. Either one was incredibly likely, judging by the fact that her key stuck a good fifty percent of the time. It was probably a problem with the key, since her dad's worked just fine, but she didn't really care enough to actually find out.

Besides, it was more fun to swear at the little door.

"Come on, you son of a mother -- oh, there we go," she said with a little cheer as the door popped open and mail came cascading out into her hands.

Casey had come to the rapid conclusion that the day was out to get her. First she'd banged her shin on the coffee table -- how she'd done that, she wasn't quite certain -- and then she'd tripped over easily half a dozen boxes in various stages of unpacked in the bookstore's storeroom. Oh, and then she'd nearly sliced herself with a boxcutter. Yeah, that'd been fun.

She was now sitting behind the registers, putting a band-aid on the palm of her right hand and feeling grateful she'd only nicked herself instead of doing worse.

She was damn near praying to for the day to get better.

Deadlines! How did they always manage to surprise you?

Emily had made time for writing her column on Sunday afternoon and settled in the garden of the Mocha with her laptop. She put Fiona Apple on her iTunes, the plugs to her ears, opened her column drafts and started reading them with a big coffee mug between her hands.

She spent nearly two hours quietly alone writing - only sounds of the soft clicks of the keyboard could be heard from her direction as she concentrated solely on the column with peaceful music playing in her ears.

Originally, Gilly was supposed to return home in the evening on July 31st, but after some flight delays, she'd cabbed it back to the Manor from the airport in late night/early morning of August first. She had spent a good amount of time unpacking, napping, and hanging with Max on the second during the day and hanging with Bailey and trying not to nod off at night. She'd returned to the Manor this morning, still exhausted but too restless to sleep.

She'd dragged her laundry to the basement and loaded two washers and then she went to the mocha and got some caffeine and a mountain of cookies. Now she was set up in the lobby in a cushy chair, sitting indian style and her laptop across her lap, headphones on and reviewing some of the film she had.

Summer meant more time to work and more time to work meant more money. And Casey was definitely a fan of more money, especially with college coming up. (Okay, so Daniel was helping pay for college, and there were scholarships, but it'd be nice to actually have money to buy, y'know, stuff.)

So it was a cheerful Casey that was behind the register, tapping her fingers along to a song that'd been stuck in her head for most of the day so far.

Summer was officially boring.

Therefore, Casey was sitting at a table in the Mocha and people-watching. And drinking coffee. You couldn't people-watch in the Mocha properly if you didn't have a cup of warm, yummy coffee in your hands.

Such was Casey's opinion, anyway.

Casey was in a cheerful mood. Graduation was looming but school was going well, so she figured things were about even. Plus she was on her way back from shopping. She'd found the cutest pair of shoes and an absolutely adorable dress, and honestly, what girl didn't love finding clothes she adored?

She might've been cheerful as she walked through the lobby, but she was also distracted, hence her bumping into J. "Whoa, pregnant lady!" she said, hands instinctively going out to catch J. "No impressions of a bowling pin, okay?"

Casey had spent most of the evening sitting in the Mocha and doing her homework; after a while, she'd relocated out to the lobby. She'd been sure to take up as little space as possible. After all, she hadn't wanted to get in anybody's way.

And now she was done with her homework and pondering whether or not she could just sleep in the chair all night. Wait, Jason and his people probably wouldn't let her. Plus she'd have to shower in the morning, anyway. Getting her ass up and out of the chair it was, then.

Stifling a yawn, she started gathering everything together and putting her books back in her backpack.

Gilly settled in after returning some quick messages people had left while she was in the hospital thanks to the damn news. She was lounging out in the living room, unable to make herself sleep even though she felt exhausted. She picked up her phone and sent a text to Casey to let her know she was home.

Home now. Bored as hell. Can't sleep. Come waste time with me even though there's school tomorrow?

OMGWTF are you okay?

This was Casey, bustling around and being productive. In an hour and a half, she'd managed to tidy most of the shelves. She'd also scouted the shelves in search of anything that looked remotely interesting because she was in one of her "I need new books" phases.

She'd made a mental list and was now wandering up front to take her position at the register.