>>5972255Arabiota's hands can be read, but it doesn't necessarily mean she's
<span class="mu-r">red-handed.</span> This means nothing, it's just a pun.---
"Take back what you said at the school, broseph," Peppa says, looking down her nose at her baby broseph.
Gohan whips his head up in shock, then his eyes shift into a glare. He spits, and smirks. "You deserved it."
Unimpressed with his blockheadedness, Peppa points it out for him. <span class="mu-i">"Did Izzy deserve it? After today? You really gotta read the room."</span>
He winces, so there's some decency in him. <span class="mu-i">"Okay, point. But I apologized to her already."</span>
The playful mood having flipped to earnestness, Peppa offers her brother a hand, and helps him to his feet. <span class="mu-i">"So, did she tell you after I left?"</span>
Gohan closes his eyes. <span class="mu-i">"She told me you spilled some paint on her."</span> They open again, his eyes looking down. <span class="mu-i">"Why can't you two trust me? How am I supposed to back you up when you go and do the things that make you look bad and I can't know why?"</span>
... <span class="mu-i">"It's not a secret she wanted me to know about either. For now, just trust in me that..."</span> Peppa grimaces. <span class="mu-i">"That we can't trust you with it."</span>
He turns away. "Get out of my room then."
"Hm?" the new girl tilts her head.
Peppa takes in a deep breath through her nostrils, and counts backward from five.
...
She lets it out, and forms a grin. She waves a hand and tells Arabiota, whose teeth are shining, "Just kidding, you don't have to."
The girl looks disappointed. "You're bailing on the wager?"
"Yeah?" Peppa says, backing out of the room with the juice in hand.
"But I'm thirsty," she says, looking down. To the side, Gohan facepalms.
Peppa quickly hands her the juice, and in a voice of strained cheer, gets out, "Okay, here ya go, nice meeting you, bye!"
She steps out into the hall, closing the door behind her. She grumbles out, "One thing, is there gonna be one thing today where I don't step in it?"
Behind her, she hears an "ACK" and a "why" from Gohan's room.
Peppa laments on all the ephemeral beauty in the world kept from her gaze, and determines that she needs another outlet, i.e. a person to vent her problems at. Videl's mad at her, Gohan banished her, Izumi has her own situation, her therapist is on vacation, and Cocoa's still in school...
Ah, there is one person left!
Peppa goes back to the kitchen, which was once a smoking pit of sparks and scrap metal and runoff the day prior, but thanks to the technician working to fix it, all that rubble has been put outside in a pile. The monkeygirl's tail twitches from the feel of a cool autumn breeze, which makes sense seeing as how a good portion of the kitchen wall has been taken down and put in the pile.
She opens the battle-scarred fridge and pulls out some spicy veggie juice, and closes the door to see