On the town (Slate, any NPC JD and K.C.)

[Les W.]

Slate had taken his brother and sister out for the day while their folks worked on their house. It was nothing extensive but the fewer people in the house the better. He thought for a fun time to go see the hand and foot prints by Grauman's Chinese Theaters. It meant going to L.A. but one had to have a sense of adventure.

JD was excited to go and bounded out to the car, K.C. rolled her eyes. "Gahhhh this is so stupid!" She complained. "You two always embarrass me!"

"Keep that up and it'll get worse!" Slate teased her as they got into the Jeep Wrangler that the folks owned. "Besides this is a part of history that actually has some appeal for me!"

She sighed and rested her head on the window, this was going to be a long day for her.

Once they arrived at the theaters and got parked the three embarked. JD pointed out John Wayne's prints and even put his shoe in the boot print 'The Duke' had left behind. K.C. even found herself laughing at the size of her brothers foot to John Wayne's. She had to admit she was having fun.

Slate was snapping pics for memories of all of them together and not fighting when he saw a familiar police box. "Hey its like Doctor Who, c'mon!" the two kids followed behind him.

All three were admiring it, when Slate saw someone walk by. "Excuse me, sorry but would you mind taking a picture of us here?" He offered his camera to the person.

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar was thrilled that Tae had agreed to go anywhere with him at all on Saturday, especially when he was sure she must have more exciting things to do than hang around as he tried to draw discrete caricatures of everyone they passed. Not that he thought their activities were unexciting, of course, he was more than happy to drag her around with him, keeping up a steady stream of chatter as he did so. "Man, look at that guy's nose, that's so awesome, not everyday you see a nose like that, I wish I had a cool nose, even better if you could smell really well with it, like a dog, but, maybe that wouldn't be so good, there are lots of things I wouldn't want to smell, but it's still fun to draw, don't you think, I love a good nose, and man is that one distinctive, should keep me entertained for weeks. Or maybe a whole day, I dunno."

As lunch time approached he began to keep an eye out for someplace to sneak off to for a bite, and maybe some wait staff to doodle. "Gettin' a bit hungry, what about you?" He asked, scanning the surrounding area. His attention was temporarily diverted from his food search, however, as he saw a perfect picture standing near a telephone booth.

"This is so much fun!" He beamed, whipping out his pencil to try and sketch out that guy with the two younger kids, siblings he assumed, recognizing the exasperated look on the girls face as it was a look he had seen many times on Daja. He was a little surprised, however, when the older guy asked him to take their picture. Sometimes he forgot that his subjects could actually see him, and honestly it was a little annoying to take a picture when he could be trying to draw it; he wished briefly that Connor were there, the curly-haired Irish boy would have leapt at the chance to take someone's picture, but then Sunar had to admit that having his wingman with him on a date (if that's what he was doing) would have been quite annoying.

"Sure! Of course!" Was what he actually replied, taking the camera and hovering it before his face for a moment before asking, "Umm, which button do I press?"

[Taegan Buckles]

When Sunar had asked Tae to join him on an outting on Saturday, Tae did not have to give it a second thought before she agreed. There wasn't much to think about. She enjoyed his company and she had fun when she was around him. Sure, they had just meet recently. This would be only their third social outting together. The first being the dance, then coffee, and finally today's outting. One thing with Sunar she did not have to worry about having to keep the conversation going, to keep it lively. He was quite capable of doing that on his own. Which she appreciated, she just chimed in from time to time when he would pause to take a breath.

The day still young. It was just barely lunch time. And already Tae had been having a blast. She laughed till her sides hurt. Sunar's little commentaries he made while he was drawing people they passed on the streets were hilarious. When they passed the guy with the *amazing* nose she finally had to stop and stand in front of him. Putting her hands on his shoulders and looking him in the eye. "Ok, stop...take a deep breath and relax." she smiled. "I don't need you getting so excited you hyperventilate on me." she teased.

That taken care of, they resumed their journery. Food? Did he suggest food? "I never turn down food. This girl likes to eat." she laughed. "Now...just where to go?" she asked, more to herself than to him. She started looking around, keeping an eye out as they walked. She got so caught up in her quest for an eatting establishment she did not reaize he had stopped to take someone's picture until she heard him ask "Which button?" She turned to look at him.."Button..." that's when she saw the camera and the guy with the two kids standing with him. "OH.." she took a step back so as not to be in the way.

[Slate Cummings]

"Its the silver button on the top there then just make sure we're all in the screen there." Slate pointed out, it was always easier to explain the digital camera operation over the older load the film style cameras. "I'll get Tom and Jerry there set up and make sure the frame is set."

He had JD kneel down and K.C. just behind him at the door opening so they'd look like a totem pole. "Is this going to take long?" K.C. complained. "Keep it up and it will take forever." Slate replied smiling slightly. He was the oldest so he had the most pull.

He headed back to the guy holding the camera. "Ok just make sure everything is lined up, with the two in center." He eyed how things looked. "Ok once I'm set, just press the button and we'll be done!" He quickly went back to the siblings, one who had an ear to ear grin and the other smiling because she was supposed to do that. "Ok one, two, three!" He smiled and gave a thumbs up to the photographer. Once the photo was taken the three went over to him and to see how the picture looked. "Not bad, at least we aren't at one side like when mom takes pictures!" K.C. joked.

JD saw the drawing and pointed. "Is that us?"

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar listened with interest as Slate explained how to operate the camera. "Ah, of course. The silver one on top. That does look the most official." He agreed, attempting to aim the camera properly, getting all three siblings in the film. "I think that worked." He told the oldest of the three, handing the camera back to him. It seemed that his photography skills passed inspection, to his relief, he was half afraid that he would accidently chop their heads off. "It is a good photo," He admitted to the girl, "Now that I've discovered hitherto unknown camera skills, I think I'll go into photography, be a professional. I already know photoshop, too, I think that's all you need to know to take pictures for newspapers, right?"

The Hindi boy relinquished the notebook to the youngest boy, "Yes, actually, you shouldn't talk to me, see, I'm one of those creepy strangers who draws people in the subway." He laughed, "You were in such dynamic poses there for a minute, I had to attempt a quick sketch. May try and fill in the details later, I'm impressed you recognized yourself, I can't say that the likeness is that good, myself, but I suppose you stare at your reflection enough you know what you look like even in crappy sketch mode."

He glanced behind him, to check that Tae was still there. Good, she hadn't ditched him when the family had asked for a picture. Not that he could think of any reason she would, she seemed to be enjoying herself. "Ah, you wouldn't happen to know of any good lunch places?" He directed this question at Slate, "We," and he indicated Tae, "were just looking for something lunch-tastic."

[Slate Cummings]

Slate gently put the camera back in its case. "There's a lot to taking photos than a good eye." Slate had said, as K.C. had wandered back looking at more prints in the cement. "Keep working at the drawings and you could be a court room artist! If I tried that everyone would look like stick people with sad faces." He sat down on a nearby bench to tie his shoes.

JD scrunched his face up when Sunar talked about what he did. "But why would you do that? That would just be weird!" He had a point but Slate laughed at his brothers reasoning. "He's just joking buddy, its like that drawing I had done back at the fair in Savannah where they drew me with the duck head floatie around me." JD's face lit up, he hadn't thought of it that way.

"We haven't come out this way before, so I have no idea whats out this was. The rugrats have been wanting a big juicy burger from some place other than McDonalds. There has to be something around here that would satisfy them."

JD danced around. "And I don't want no veggies on it! That makes them icky!"

[Taegan Buckles]

Tae was still there. She hadn't run off, and she had no intentions of running off. She was merely just trying to stay out of the way. She did not t think the group of siblings wanted the odd random hand or arm or something popping up in their photo. So, she just stayed on the sidelines until the picture had been taken.

When it seemed that the little photo shoot was over and the picture seemed satisfactory Tae stepped forward again. Standing near Sunar. She glanced at the sketch he had done before he showed it to one of the younger kids. It was good work. She was impressed by anyone who could draw. She felt she could relate to the older boy. If she drew they would all be stick people. Probably crooked. She could not draw a straight line with a ruler.

"Big juicy burgers?" she looked up at the group they had just met. "There's bound to be a place around here. Sometimes you gotta look in the least obvious place to find the best food." The sort of hole in the wall kind of places. The ones that don't like much usually had the best food.

[Slate Cummings]

Slate noticed the girl had been quiet the whole time. Either she was uncomfortable around a group like this or else she was just very shy. He hoped it was the latter one.

He did admire the drawing that JD had pointed out thinking it would make a nice present for their folks on their anniversary or even Christmas. Slate laughed as his brother wiggled around like a worm. "Ok no veggies for you, we'll put a fried egg on top instead." He teased. JD's eyes went wide. "You'd better not!"

"What are you gonna do little man?" Slate egged him on. JD had to think. "I'll come over and tickle you!" he dashed over and got a couple of good tickles in before Slate grabbed him and tickled back.

K.C. rolled her eyes again, coming back to them. "You two are so immature!" She groaned.

Once the two had settled down and were breathing normally due in part to the wet blanket sister, Slate had an idea.

"Why not make an adventure of this? We'll go along a couple blocks to find some place. If nothing turns up I'll track some place down with my phone."