Audrey shrugged softly and ran her hand through her hair. "People need things like this, in places like this. They need normalcy and tradition and routine to make it feel less like a prison. It makes the bad times easier, knowing you have a place to come back to that feels almost comfortable."
She gestured around the room at all the things she and Jughead and now Betty had collected. The others had their own rooms, sure, but they almost always all piled into hers and so much of their things had migrated into her room as well. It had become the coziest of the three, the most home-like. "We can hole up in here and close the door and forget the outside for a little while. It's sort of a healthy coping mechanism. But what makes it work is that I've forced my personality on this space, I've made it a bit warmer and more like home. It helps deal with things when I have to step out of this room and look at a bunch of people who don't fucking get me or even take the time to get me. And fucking bless Regina for warding it too, so no one can get into my space unless I want them to. It's safe. We all need to feel safe. Especially when we're not."
Audrey reached over for her coffee now that it had cooled a bit and took a long drink before she held her hand out to Carl for the knife, giving it a look, flipping it open, then back closed again. "These are good," she said. "I kept something like this in the arm console in my car. Couldn't bring it into school, but I liked having it close. Had a stun-gun too. Dad insisted." She handed the knife back and reached for a marker, then handed that to Carl as well.
"Okay, mark who everyone's gifts go to on the box and put them in piles. While you're doing that, I'll see if I have any more paper to dye for Amos and River and then we'll wrap the others while that's drying. How's that work?"