A TV School (Breakfast at the Thistles)

This story starts here.

Penny carefully folded up the fold-out couch while Niko rolled out of his bunk in the alcove. He quickly drew the curtain so that Helia wouldn't notice his unmade bed. Quade's bunk would have passed military inspection. He'd gotten up early in order to maximize his time eating Oatey Toe Cereal. He was up to thirteen boxes in a week and a half, but he'd heard another boy brag that he'd eaten twenty already. Oatey Toes was a complete failure as a cereal due to the unnecessary realism of its flavor--the cereal was inspired by pirate toes from a movie. The cereal tasted so awful that the overstock store was selling it for a quarter a box, but even that price wouldn't move it. The manager had finally resorted to offering a working spy glass to the person who could eat the most Oatey Toes by the third of next month. Quade was desperate to own the spy glass and so had invested his entire allowance ($7.00) in Oatey Toe Cereal. Helia had nearly made him return it all due to the storage problem such abundance would create, but Quade had offered to store his horde in his bunk. Currently he was eating and sleeping Oatey Toes.
Alistaire Thistle folded down his newspaper as Demetra and Dolores erupted into the living room. Each had a hold on a green hair ribbon. Demetra wanted it because it matched her eyes, and Dolores wanted it because it matched her name.
Alistaire said sternly, "Girls, settle it amongst yourselves or you can move out onto the fold out, and Penny can have a week of richly deserved privacy."
This threat was not new and it usually meant that Demetra lost the argument. Demetra was seven, and Dolores was five. Dolores found sleeping on the fold-out a grand adventure and a great way to stay up past bedtime.
Demetra relinquished the ribbon and tried to make peace with the blue one. Dolores paraded around the room waving her prize like a gymnast in the Olympics. She was caught completely off-guard when Helia snagged it and began brushing Dolores' unruly black hair.
Alistaire put down his paper and began scrounging for something better than Oatey Toes to eat.
"Why is it that there is never anything good to eat for Saturday breakfast?" he wondered aloud.
Helia smiled. "I know where we can get some wonderful baklava."
All the young Thistles began chanting--"Hera's!, Hera's!, Hera's!"
Yaya's bakery was a few neighborhoods over, but by no means a hard trip. The Thistles were out the door faster than Quade could choke down his last bite of cereal.

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