(night before)
Storyteller: (standing on edge of Erin's desk) Beige. Go get a mug of hot cocoa and two cookies.
(Beige does so)
Beige: Okay, got them...now what?
Storyteller: Give them to me. You pull her head up off the book and force her mouth open, and I'll pour the cocoa in.
Erin: (still in zombie trance) Study...study...study...
Beige: (scrambling up on desk) Okay...here we go. (yanks Erin back by her hair and opens her mouth) Go!
(Storyteller pours cocoa in)
Erin: (glug, glug, choke) I can only tell you name, rank and serial number...(pause) What happened?
Storyteller: (sternly) You went into an academically-induced trance. It's like I warned you...
Beige: Come on, let's go tackle Nora and Scooter. Erin, eat some of those cookies, they'll wake you up.
(next door, Nora is sitting bolt upright, staring at a chart of the various French verb tenses)
Storyteller: Uh-oh, the subjunctive. She's going to need a double dose of cocoa. (opens Nora's mouth) Open wide, dearie. (Beige pours in first mug of cocoa)
Nora: (gulp, swallow) Que je sois, que tu sois, qu'il soit...wait, where am I?
(in his room, Scooter has collapsed on the floor, covered in biology notes)
Beige: (moving a notebook off of Scooter's face and forcing Scooter's mouth open) Looks like me after I crammed for the security Fraggle exam.
Storyteller: Beige, did that old hag really make you take an exam? (pours cocoa into Scooter's mouth)
Beige: She's not an old hag, she's the Cave's Oldest Fraggle.
Scooter: (cough, choke) Auntie Em...Auntie Em...there's no place like home...there's no place like home...
(tonight)
Erin: Finally...I have some of those infernal papers done and out of the way.
Scooter: And my big bio project's done - I just need to let it dry overnight.
Nora: And my French test is tomorrow, so it'll be over with soon.
Storyteller: I'm glad - it won't do to have three-fifths of this suite's population turning into zombies.
Beige: Yeah, it's dead depressing. (chuckles at joke) Are there any of those peppermint cookies left?