Odder Than Ever

Fifteen: Slumber Party

 Dalila first escorted the two boys to their room, where Oscar instantly pulled out a sleeping-bag-inator. Pointing it at the bed, he zapped twice. Two sleeping bags appeared on the bed, one red and one green. "I claim green!"

"Cool! Do you have some snacks or something, Dalila?" Dalila smiled. "Obviously. Take a look in the cabinets, and if you don't find what you want we can make a quick trip to the grocery store. Just don't eat everything, okay?" Otto bounced down the stairs excitedly. Dalila sighed, then bolted up. "Oh, no. That boy is going to be on a sugar high all night."

"Relax, it's not that bad... is it?" Olive raised an eyebrow and looked at Dalila, who facepalmed. "I forgot that we were stockpiling for a party next week. We have candy, cookies, chips... basically every type of junk food in existence."

A slightly muffled cheer came from downstairs. "WHOA! This is awesome! Oscar, check this out!"

"Oh." Olive watched Oscar hurry down and sighed. Walking down the stairs after them, she called, "OSCAR! OTTO! We are guests here, and we are going to act like guests. Okay?"

Otto looked up, a huge ring of chocolate surrounding his mouth. "But- but- we were acting like guests, Olive-" Oscar turned around, staring guiltily at the bag of candy in his hands. "Sorry..."

"It's fine, Olive." Dalila showed up in the kitchen. "I suppose the party was postponed, like everything else was after the oddness started. We can eat some of it.  You are staying over, after all." Otto and Oscar fist-bumped, while Olive looked skeptically at Dalila. "Are you sure about this, Dalila?"

Dalila nodded. "BUT! We are going to start with the healthy-ish food, okay?" She whisked away the desserts. Otto whimpered, and Dalila sighed. "I'll ask Mom to order a pizza or something. You can have the candy and stuff after dinner." Otto still looked reluctant, so she decided to sweeten the pot. "And I'll bake cookies. Deal?" Otto looked up at her. "Can you make double chocolate chip? Please?"

Smiling, Dalila gently removed the package of M&Ms from his hands. "I'll see what I can do. Why don't you two make yourselves busy? Olive, you can set up in my room." Olive dutifully followed her upstairs to the next room.

The moment she entered the room, Dalila flopped onto her bed. "Oh, my gosh. I have literally no idea how you put up with them, Olive."

Olive sighed in agreement, whipping out her sleeping-bag-inator. "It takes a lot of patience. Oh, and bribery. Lots and lots of bribery."