Who: Finn & Anna Where: Anna’s house What: Having dinner and banging drums When: backdated to Sunday, December 5th Rating: SFW
After letting Burt know that he was going out, Finn pulled on his shoes and jacket and ran out to his car to drive to Anna’s. Her directions were simple enough and soon enough he was squinting up at the houses looking for number 470. Naturally he forgot to text Anna, alerting her of his arrival, plus he wasn’t coordinated to do the whole driving and texting thing, so he just parked in front of her house, shut the engine off and walked up to her front door, giving it a few hard knocks.
Anna had her phone in her pocket for when Finn would text her, and when she heard the knocks at the door, immediately pulled out her phone to make sure she didn’t miss her cue. Seeing her inbox empty, she slipped her phone back into her pocket and headed to the door, opening it and seeing Finn there. “Hey there,” she greeted. The girl peered out the door past him and saw his car, chuckling lightly. “That’s a pretty awesome car you have.”
Not detecting any sarcasm in Anna’s voice, Finn turned around to look at his car then faced forward again with a proud grin. “It is awesome,” he agreed. “Uh, so yeah. Hi. What’s up?” He asked, still standing outside. He didn’t want to be rude and push his way in her house though.
She stepped to the side, wordlessly inviting him in. “Not a lot. I saw all that shit on the journals and then saw your post so I figured you could use some company that won’t pressure you into talking about it. Unless you want to, then be my guest.” She pursed her lips together, not wanting to ramble. Anna was a little nervous about hanging out with him because this was the first time she really made a move to hang out with someone besides Quinn, which she didn’t count because Quinn mostly made the move to hang out with her. “Is there anything specific you want for dinner?”
Finn frowned slightly as he walked through the door and took his jacket and shoes off, making sure to step carefully so he didn’t drag snow all over or accidentally step on snow in just his socks. That was the worst feeling ever. “Uh. No. I don’t know. I’m just sick of everyone. This is kind of worse than last year, which is a weird thing to say since I found out I wasn’t about to--” He cut himself off abruptly and shrugged. “Never mind. I don’t want to talk about it. Um, food though. I don’t know. What can you make?”
She listened to him silently, letting him say what he wanted to (or didn’t want to) say. When he stopped himself, she didn’t make any move to question it. “I can make a lot,” Anna replied, closing the door behind him before leading them down the hall and into the kitchen. “I can make chicken quesadillas, or just chicken, or just quesadillas... I can heat up soup, or Ramen. I could make some spaghetti and sauce, but no meatballs because that takes a while.” The girl chuckled before turning to him. “Whatever you want. As lame as this sounds, this dinner is about you and getting you to unwind. So whatever you want to have, I’ll make it.”
“My specialty is a grilled cheese,” Finn said with a chuckle. “I really like chicken though. What kind of chicken would it be? Do you have shake and bake? I like putting the chicken in the bag and then you shake it around and like it’s magically breaded. Isn’t that cool?” He really liked food.
“Shake and what?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “I’ve never even heard of that.” Anna chuckled at his enthusiasm about it all. “If you want, we could go to the store and buy shake and bake. Or I could make you dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets, because we have those and they’re magically breaded too... kind of. And they’re in the shape of a dinosaur. What could be better?”
“Nah, I don’t want to be a trouble or anything. Dinosaur chicken nuggets sound really awesome though. So we should definitely have those,” Finn said, grinning at her. “So, uh, yeah, let’s go do that!”
“Alright,” she said with a grin, heading over to the fridge and opening the freezer. “What’s your favorite dinosaur?” Anna asked as she set the bag of chicken nuggets on the counter and grabbing a cookie sheet. She preheated the oven to the suggested degree as she poured the pieces of chicken onto the sheet.
“Um, I don’t know. I would say T-Rex but that seems so unoriginal. Plus it was weird how little their arms were. Like... How could they grab anything? I guess they used their mouth or whatever, but still their little arms kind of freak me out. So, I guess like, the one that had a spiny back? Stegosaurus?” He babbled on in a serious manner before looking over at Anna. “What’s your favorite?”
“That’s my favorite,” she replied proudly, though she didn’t know why she was proud of the fact that was her favorite dinosaur. “Stegosaurus or triceratops. I guess I like them because they’re little. Like, low to the ground? I dunno.” She chuckled, leaning against the counter next to the stove as she waited for the oven to preheat. “T-Rex is cliche. Yeah they can like rip things apart but other dinosaurs can do that too. At least, I would assume so.”
“Awesome!” Finn said with a huge grin. “And I like triceratops too. Their horns were pretty badass. I mean it was cool that the T-Rex could bite a bunch of stuff but a triceratops and a stegosaurus could actually, like, fight. And had weapons besides their teeth. And those back spike things were like armor and stuff. Plus they just looked cooler. You know?”
She grinned back, happy that his mind was off the drama, or at least it seemed that way. “Yeah. I like the dinosaur with the really long neck too. The brontosaurus or something like that?” The oven beeped and she moved, slipping the cookie sheet of chicken nuggets in the oven and setting the timer. “Thanks for coming over, by the way.”
“Yeah those ones are cool too. Because they can see everything that happens from way up there. And they can like eat all the plants and stuff. I bet their heads are so small though because it would probably be really heavy with such a long neck,” Finn rambled some more and leaned against the counter.
She pictured a brontosaurus having a large, heavy head with such a long neck and chuckled lightly to herself when said mental image made the dinosaur face-plant. “You can sit, you know. Chair or counter.” That being said, she hoisted herself up onto the counter, facing him. “Name another favorite of yours.”
Finn followed suit and jumped up slightly to sit on the counter, swinging his legs back and forth. “Um, well I like pepperoni pizza and rocky road ice cream and apples. Sorry, I’m hungry so I keep thinking about food.”
Anna glanced at the timer on the oven. “Only a couple minutes left,” she assured before looking back at him. “Rocky road ice cream is the chocolate ice cream with marshmallows right? ‘Cause if it is, it’s so good. I like cheese pizza. Or if I order from Domino’s, I like making weird combination pizzas. My favorite fruit is kiwi. Um... I like the color red. I prefer waffles over pancakes, especially blueberry waffles from Eggo.” She smiled at him, tucking some stray hair behind her ear.
“Yeah it has chocolate and marshmallow and--” Finn cut himself off before his eyes went wide and he grinned again. “Wait, did you just say waffles are better than pancakes? I think you’re my new favorite person on the planet.”
“I mean, I like pancakes too but waffles are delicious and it holds the syrup instead of just soaks it up like a sponge. They’re just amazing,” she explained with a laugh. “But, um. Thanks. I’m glad I could be your new favorite person on the planet because of my love for waffles. Hopefully you’ll like me for more reasons than that, though.” Anna smiled as the timer went off. She slipped gracefully off the counter, grabbing potholders and opening the oven. After setting everything up, getting plates, turning off the oven, and serving the chicken nuggets, the girl went to the fridge. “Anything to drink? And any sort of dipping... stuff?”
“Yeah pancakes get too soggy,” Finn agreed as he slid off the counter as well and stood up. “I just think it’s really cool that you like waffles as much as I do. So, you’re really cool. And um... just ketchup,” he said, trying not to look too eager at the prospects of food.
She grabbed the ketchup and slid it across the counter to him, and then got a couple cans of Pepsi before sitting down besides him, plates of food in front of them. “Dig in,” she prompted, though she could guess he needed no cue to start eating. Making sure he got first dibs with the ketchup, she waited until he was done using it before using it and starting her own food.
After he had enough ketchup, he picked up the first dinosaur nugget and grinned at it. “I almost feel bad for eating them. But it’s like the same thing as animal crackers. Cool looking but even better tasting,” he said, and emphasized the point by dipping the nugget and biting off the dinosaur’s head.
“I love animal crackers. But only the frosted ones... regular ones taste too plain,” she said after she swallowed her food. “But I know what you mean. At least dinosaurs don’t exist anymore so it’s not like they’re around still, which is the difference between eating dino-shaped chicken nuggets and animal crackers. If... that makes sense.” She paused, laughing lightly at herself for once again rambling. “I’m sorry. I ramble when I’m nervous.”
“But you can dip the plain ones in a bunch of different things,” Finn argued, then thought for a moment. “Like... frosting or that chocolate stuff... uh, nutella? And jelly and jam and yogurt and peanut butter and... I don’t know. Lot’s of stuff. The frosted animal crackers are limited with already having a flavor,” he concluded with a firm nod before eating another chicken nugget. “And, uh, it’s okay. I think I just talk a lot.”
“You can talk enough for the both of us,” she chuckled. “I’m a good listener.” She remained quiet as she ate the rest of her food, allowing him to talk if he wanted to. When she was done, she stood and rinsed her plate off in the sink before putting it in the dishwasher.
He was a little self conscious at first just talking so much, but Anna didn’t seemed too bored by his constant talk of food. And once he was less hungry, and thus less food obsessed, he transitioned into talking about music since they were both drummers after all. Polishing off his last dino-nugged, he stood up as well and followed her to the dishwasher. “Thanks again for dinner. And distracting me and stuff.”
“Any time,” she said, smiling up at him. Carefully taking the plate from his hands, she rinsed it off and put it in the dishwasher for him. “I don’t know you that well, but I have a feeling you’d do the same. Or at least think of doing the same, and I guess it’s the thought that counts.” Anna closed the door of the dishwasher. “What now?”
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t like when people are sad. So if you’re ever sad I’ll try and cheer you up,” he promised and smiled at her before asking, “You have a drum set, right? Think we could go bang on them?” Not even picking up on the innuendo.
Anna knew he meant nothing by the whole ‘bang’ comment, so she tried really hard not to laugh; the best she could do was smile. “Thanks, Finn. I plan on holding you to that,” she said before continuing. “Yeah, they’re in the basement. It’s not a creepy basement... one of those furnished ones.” The girl led him down the hall and around the corner to the door leading to the basement, opening it and heading downstairs.
Finn followed her down silently, looking around and taking in his surrounding until he was in front of the drum set. “Awesome,” he said, though more to himself, and navigated around the bass drum until he reached the seat. “What’s your favorite kind of stuff to play?” He asked as he started drumming out a steady rhythm as background noise.
“I can honestly say I don’t have a preference,” she said. “I just like playing. I get lost no matter how fast or slow the song is. Though I guess I like playing faster songs; it’s more of a challenge. I like a challenge.” She smirked slightly, sitting down on one of the couches that were down there. “Go ahead, bang it out.”
“Yeah, I like fast stuff too. It gets out your frustration better,” he said as he switched to tapping out the rhythm for the Immigrant Song. “Classic rock is always good to play. Before they got all computerized and stuff when bands actually had drummers.”
“Right?” she agreed with a laugh. “I like playing Queen and The Beatles and the Stones.” To be honest, she’d only played a couple Rolling Stones songs because it’s the band she’s focusing on as of now. She learns her music by band; the first stuff she learned was The Beatles. “What are your favorite bands?”
“My favorite band is Journey. But Queen and The Beatles are really awesome too,” Finn said, drumming the beat of Don’t Stop Believing as he hummed along with the melody. “That was the first song I ever did in Glee Club.”
“Journey is pretty good too,” she said with a smile. When he started drumming, should could automatically tell it was Don’t Stop Believing, which was her go-to jam-out song when it came to road trips of any kind. She went to start singing and then stop, pursing her lips together as she realized that she wasn’t the only one in the room. It had been weird enough singing a couple lines of Valerie for Santana when Anna had helped her practice. Instead, she opted for drumming her fingers on the arm of the couch, watching his technique.
Anna had this weird look on her face like she wanted to do something but was holding back so Finn stopped drumming and looked at her curiously. “What are you doing? I mean, not doing. Since it looked like you wanted to be doing something but then you weren’t and... I don’t now what I’m saying.”
The girl could feel her face heat up slightly in embarrassment, unable to believe he took the time to notice. “Oh, uh. I was gunna sing but I don’t generally sing for the public,” Anna explained. “Keep drumming, I didn’t mean to have you stop.”
“Oh,” Finn said with a chuckle. “Well that’s okay. Maybe another time.” Then at her insistence he went back to drumming, glad that he had this distraction to make him feel better.