No Time

A new day in a strange environment.

Oh, it's Shane's home.

Not too strange then.

Everyone was sleeping still.

I guess after binging more shows and movies, everyone sprawled in the living room.

I got tired early yesterday, so I grabbed a blanket to wrap myself in and got comfortable on the sofa.

'Twas not the same for the others...

Andrei was asleep on the recliner but didn't set it back, so was having trouble sleeping sitting up.

Shane's posture looked horrible, with all his legs and arms somehow tangled into the rug. But at least he was keeping warm?

And Jing Shao was leaning on the sofa I was on. The only thing I could think of was that he looked the most uncomfortable.

I mean. His neck was bent so that his chin touched his chest. That gives you wrinkles you know, I NEVER do that. And his butt must hurt sitting on the wooden floor for so long. And he was kinda shivering.

Shane and Andrei liked colder temperatures. Apparently, American schools turned on their air conditioning like it was the hottest day recorded. Basically, it was like a blizzard temperature for them. I asked Yu Ge later and he did shiver a little at that mention.

He would later tell me, "That is one of the things I didn't get used to at the school."

Anyways.

The AC was on full blast. Shane and Andrei slept well even in this cold temperature. I had a blanket. And Jing Shao was shivering and maybe even rattling his teeth.

I got up and was reluctant to get out of the warmth, but put the blanket around the kid.

It made me really uncomfortable to see him in such an uncomfortable position, so I lifted him and placed him on the spot I just left. Good for him, it was still warm.

I headed to the kitchen to grab breakfast and ended up looking at the clock on the wall.

11:04 AM

Uhh, I guess brunch then!

So Shane has this really nice Panini grill. And he stocks up on the bread and all his usual ingredients too. He usually lets us never touch it, saying that while Andrei is the master of the meat grill, he's the master of the Panini grill.

How could I not take it upon myself to use it while the "Master" was asleep?

I began to prepare the precise amount of food that we would probably eat. The panini bread, meats, fried onions, all sorts of veggies, and of course the cheese.

One by one, starting with Shane, the slumbering teenagers woke up.

Shane's first comment was, "Panini? Mmm... PANINI?! Who's using my grill?!"

"Chill dude. I'm no "master" but I can still handle this. Just sit at the table and wait."

Shane glared at me for a bit and resignedly went to sit down to wait for the food.

Andrei woke up and saw the situation.

He asked, "Do you need any help? I'll do the dishes afterward."

"Well, no- never mind, please do."

I don't like doing the dishes. Even if you use rubber gloves, my hands feel a bit pruny after. I've got delicate skin, I do my best to keep myself the best I can be.

Or.

He could've just used the dishwasher.

Wait, they don't have one.

"What century are you guys living in?! Go get a dishwasher! How did this apartment, condo, whatever even forget having a dishwasher?!"

"Oh... We don't know how to use it, so we sold it. I mean, we bought Tales of Linx 7 and more game devices with the money! I think it was a good deal..." Shane made an excuse.

"I don't know how to use it, since I never had one before. Poor neighborhood you can say. And Shane doesn't know, because he had maids do the dishes for him."

I smacked my forehead in... wonder at their weird stupidity.

"You guys are rich now. Washing dishes is so much work. Just go buy a dishwasher! Alright, tell you what. I'll even buy you a dishwasher! And teach you! So just freaking stop having dishes piled up sometimes!"

"Ok..." they both replied sheepishly.

As I was about to continue my teaching of how useful dishwashers were, how I used to hate washing the dishes, and more tales of how house chores were cleared out by machines, making life much easier, a groan came from the living room.

Albeit a small groan, but we all had good hearing.

"Jing Shao woke up. You guys set the table. We're not washing the dishes until we get a dishwasher installed. Shane, go check on the paninis after setting tableware."

After ordering the two around, I went to the groaning creature on the sofa.

"...Ge?" Jing Shao asked in a tired voice.

"You woke up? I made some food. Go wash up first. I'll get you some clothes."

"...Thank you," he slowly drawled out and ended with a yawn.

"Mhm. Go go. I'll save enough food so that they don't steal everything."

The kid laughed a little and unsteadily headed towards the bathroom.

Shane commented, "Dang. he looks like he's having a hangover."

We tired him out with playing all night, and after the adrenaline wore off, of course, he was tired.

I put on some music and headed back to the kitchen to rummage the fridge.

Some fruits. Some leafy greens. And the salad sauce I put in the fridge the last time I came. I also spied a bad of croutons that Shane's been snacking on.

I sliced the fruits and made an easy light salad. 

The boys started eating, so I joined in too but kept enough food as promised.

After we all finished, I grabbed my wallet and dragged all three of them out with me.

Off to buy a dishwasher!

We went to Home D. Poe the store and looked all around. All of us kinda got distracted by the robot section, but we eventually reached the dishwasher section.

I told the sales staff, "I don't care about the price. What's the best one that's easiest to use?"

They were really efficient and brought me straight towards the most expensive one.

"I'll take it."

Shane wanted to pay for it, but I stopped him.

"Dude, just let me. It's enough that you buy food all the time for us."

"If that's what you want then. Thanks, bro."

It was a bit expensive of course, but considering all the other stuff I usually bought, this was nothing.

I actually needed to get some other stuff for the teachers since some of them requested supplies.

We held the dishwasher from the bottom, all four of us. The height difference made it kind of unbalanced, but we had fun moving it back home.

The installing was a bit of a problem, and we ended up having some trouble with the pipes. Water exploded everywhere... Even with our water abilities, holding back the water while concentrating on setting up the dishwasher.

"Uh... Shane Ge, I found a video on setting it up. Maybe it's better than the instructions manual?" Jing Shao spoke up.

"What instructions manual?" Shane asked in wonder.

"You... you aren't looking at the directions in the instructions manual?"

"I'm sure we don't need it. I've fixed up a lot of stuff in my short 19 years of life!"

"If you say so..."

I yelled at Shane for ignoring it, "There was an instructions manual?? Of course, there is! And the only things you've fixed up are some prank machines!"

Andrei voiced out as well, "It's true. One of the school janitors wears a wig. And Shane made a spray can machine that targets his wig to spray it a weird color every morning from above as soon as the janitor walks out of his room."

He continued, "I mean who gives an old man polka dot hair?"

"..." Jing Shao seemed to have an appalled look on his face.

I heard him whisper, "Poor grandpa janitor..." and snickered at his thinking.

Anyways, this time with the help of the video and the manual, we were safely able to establish the dishwasher.

And thus came the time to wash the dishes without washing them.

You get what I mean.

To use the dishwasher!

1. Load the top and bottom racks of the dishwasher

2. Load the dishwasher detergent

3. Select a wash cycle

4. Start the dishwasher

That easy peasy!

Just in case, I wrote the instructions down if they forgot.

Now it was time to rest and let the machine do its work while we ate dinner and the rest finish their binge watching.

Ah, it sure was nice to hang out like this.

...I dread going back to work tomorrow already.