Cali Crew- Up a Creek

Nike glowered at Nikita who rolled her eyes in return. “What? Go on, say it, it wasn’t nice? I know that, but then we’d end up having to leave here, too. And it’s not like you’re one to talk, the only one of the three of us not using their Jennie gene all the time is me.”

"In fairness, Nike’s Jennie doesn't exactly show." Bishop pointed out before slowly stepping back with his hand up. "Also in fairness. I'm adopted and have zero experience with siblings."

“In fairness, I don’t want her ending up in some detention or jail like Klaus,” Nikita grumbled, opening up the dark fridge to grab the juice. “Which is exactly what’s going to happen.”

“Nikka’s power isn’t like yours or mine, it’s something she needs to learn to control,” Nike defended.

“I’m sure when the Jaggs knock at the door they’ll take that into consideration.” Nikita reminded as she drank straight from the carton. “But go on and keep encouraging it. Maybe we can move yet again.”

“What you’re doing is not helping,” Nike all but snapped, looking towards the slammed door.

“Neither is what you’re doing.” Nikita said hotly. Truth be told, she didn’t know how to help Nikka either, but her trying to snap electricity back on in a crowded building seemed like a half-assed idea. “But you know what? Do what you want, Nike, because that’s gonna be what happens anyway. What you want.” She grabbed her green sweatshirt from the hook in the hallway and left the condo to seethe on her own.

"Honestly … " Bishop said once Nikita was out and fine. " … it could have been worse."

Nike picked up the juice and placed it back in the fridge.

"And I agree … drinking out of the carton was uncalled for." Bishop said helping clean up in the dark.

That made Nike chuckle. “They’ll cool off,” she promised. Nikita will go sit at the beach, Nikka will hole up in her room for a bit, they’ll make up by morning.”

"They will, they always do. We'll figure it out. Just because we're no in Cali doesn't mean we're not being haunted, you know? We can do barbeque if you want. No power needed." Bishop suggested.

“Best suggestion yet,” Nike agreed, sliding her hands around his shoulders. “But what are we going to do without coffee?”

"Drink like soulless heathens and use the blasphemous stovetop percolator the barbeque grill." Bishop suggested.

“Or, I take a walk to Starbucks. Pick your poison,” she teased.

"Well the way I see it we can have bad coffee at home or … pay for bad coffee." Bishop chuckled.

“Bad coffee at home,” Nike decided. “Besides, we need to use up that milk I just brought home.”

"We'll leave an offering in front of Nikka's door and wait for Nikita to cool off enough to come back home. In the meantime we are going to need a way to charge and power our devices." Bishop said.

“Car for phones,” Nike suggested, “There’s a lot of public places around the city to charge up. Maybe the Skye’s wouldn’t mind us borrowing some electricity. Besides, Klaus’ lawyer said she’s working on it. Hopefully it’s straightened out soon. Within the next 28 days at least."

"Here's hoping. In the meantime, what do you want to do? Get ready to head back? Scrap some cash together and work something out with an electric company?" Bishop suggested. "Might need to find work just to keep us afloat, to get us back if we're paying bills here. I mean the total bill can't be too bad no one has been living here for how long now?"

“If this is frozen,” Nike said lowering her voice, “Cali is frozen. And with what happened, where are the odds of us finding jobs better? I mean, preferably the beach, the Skye’s are the only good thing about here, but practically… I don’t know which is better.” It was nice. Amazing actually to have someone to talk to about it, rather than shouldering everything solo to protect Nikita and Nikka. One more reason in the why I love this guy column, she rationalized.

"Neither is better but the only added benefit here is it's a fresher start and away from what happened in Cali. The problem is not matter what you, we, decided to do? It's back rock and a hard place. Sink money to go back to the beach and the cost drains what little you have left in your pocket and you are still in a bad spot. Or pay the electric here, definitely not able to get back to the beach, and be in the same spot we were in Cali financially." Bishop explained. "There is no better choice right now. Just where do you wanna stay for next month or so is really what you should be asking."

“You don’t have to stay,” she offered. “I mean… you have everything in Cali. Your parents. A job. School. This… this is on us and Klaus. We’ll be fine as soon as everything is cleared up.”

"One, not everything I care about is in Cali. Two, my parents are adults I'm sure they'll be fine taking care of themselves for a bit." Bishop joked. "Seriously though. I'm here. You're stuck with me and I definitely am not leaving you high and dry with those two. Have you met them they're kind of sketchy."

“Nikka and Nikita?” Nike giggled, raising her eyebrows. “I’ve been introduced once or twice.”

"Yea? Sketchy right?" Bishop laughed and paused for a moment. "We'll make it work no matter where we are. Could be in Alaska and we would make it work."

“We always do,” Nike admitted, smiling gratefully at him. “But we’ll make it work.”

"There's always a market for good baristas, get some gigs doing that too. Already been thinking about it." Bishop explained. "I Google fast."

“What would I do without you?” Nike asked, shaking her head. “Tomorrow I’ll check around, maybe find another diner to work in. I mean, this is Arkangel. I’ll find a counter job. And Nikita, she can help out too.”

"Screw that the Arknet message board has some great gig jobs and you have a good resume, you might find some decent offers out there, why work at a diner when you can be hostess at some soiree for some rich mucky muck and get paid a mint for it." Bishop pointed out.

“What about you? Roof top bartender, maybe? You’d get killer tips.” She said with a grin. “Outdoor job, great views.”

"Apparently there is a demand for latte artists. I blame TikTok." Bishop shrugged. "See? We got this. We'll be fine."

“We got this,” Nike agreed.

Bishop grilled up a lot of what was in the fridge, setting a pot on the grill to make coffee, which somehow he managed to make palatable. As he suggested, she left a plate for Nikka for when she got hungry, and another for Nikita, for when she stopped sulking.