Tiny Dancer

1.10 Rex Dies

Beck and Tori are on the stage in Sikowitz' room. They're sat at a little dining table setup performing a scene and Jesse really wishes he could focus on it.

Unfortunately, his focus keeps drifting to the rather colorful man who is continuously shaking a glass jar of some kind.

Tori (in character) snaps at Beck about the pasta they're 'eating'. He slams his utensils down but, before he can snap back, is interrupted by Sikowitz.

"Done!" he declares, looking at his jar in triumph.

"We're done?" Beck asks in confusion.

"But we still have a few more lines," Tori adds.

"No. I meant this is done," he clarifies, holding his jar up.

Jesse sighs. "Okay. I can't take it anymore. Sikowitz, what is that?" he asks.

"Well, my freckled friend, it was a jar of cream," Sikowitz explains. "But now that I've shaken it vigorously for an hour, it's butter."

Jesse nods to himself, somehow not surprised. "I regret asking," he says simply.

Jade narrows her eyes slightly. "You make your own butter?"

"Indeed."

"Is it good?" Robbie asks with a smile.

"I don't know," Sikowitz tells him. "I refuse to eat dairy." With that, he carelessly drops the jar into the trash can before he turns to the stage. "Tori, Beck, take your seats."

Beck's brow furrows in confusion as they walk back to their seats. "If he doesn't eat dairy then why would he...?"

"I don't know," Tori says, hands held up defensively. "I don't get it."

Beck takes the empty seat beside Jesse and immediately turns to his boyfriend. "Babe?"

"Hm?"

"Explain."

"Explain what?" Jesse asks.

Beck gestures at their teacher. "Why he makes his own butter if he doesn't eat dairy."

Jesse looks at him in confusion. "Why would I know?"

"You understand that weirdo better than any of us," Jade chimes in from Jesse's other side. She pauses and gives him a considering look. "It's worrisome," she adds seriously.

"That doesn't mean I know why he does the things he does," he says with a scoff.

Beck gives him a pointed look. "Jesse..."

He sighs. "He makes his own butter because it's a way to stick it to the big corporations that run the dairy industry," he mutters. "It's also why he doesn't eat dairy."

The entire class turns to Sikowitz to see if he's right. The man absolutely beams as he points at Jesse.

"You," he says happily. "You get me."

Jesse sighs again even as he smiles back. He looks at Beck. "The day I start drinking coconut milk through a bendy straw..."

"That's when I can worry," Beck says with a nod.

"Now," Sikowitz says, "for the last few minutes of class, let's talk about the one-act play I'm directing."

Silence fills the room as they all look at him expectantly while he just stands there, apparently content to say nothing.

"Well?" Andre finally asks.

"Well, what?"

"You wanna talk about the one-act play you're directing," he prompts.