Lineage Code password: Tea

Silversmith: Baby Butler

Pairing(s): None

Warning(s): Corny jokes

It was the middle of the summer vacation and the heat had gone up another notch or two since the last summer season. Everyone around the country was irritably bothered by the weather as of late, although occasional rain had come, thank God. Change of season, as others call it. From morning until noon, the sun would beat its angry rays at the world bringing prickly heat to people, then from afternoon until sunset, the rain comes to bring cool and refreshing atmosphere and the night would be less warm but comfortable.

This day was just another day of summer in the three-person family of Emerald. It was nearly noon and the heat is taking its hold of every person in the household, especially their daughter Luna, who had assumed the role of the lazy one of the house. She had been snatched from a dreamless, yet comfortable, sleep by none other than the heat of the weather. Yes, it was a sunny day. The young girl of nineteen groaned at the feeling of dried sweat and sticky skin, and immediately tried to take comfort in her trusty security pillow by burying her face into the soft pink fabric. A few minutes later, she opened her laptop that was sleeping above her head and continued her Harvest Moon game that she left last night. She did not feel the need to eat breakfast for the sun was high, meaning if she would eat at around this time she cannot eat lunch properly. No one disturbed her nor called her attention until she felt something amiss. Being a future nurse, seeing as she was a year away from graduation, Luna immediately recognized it as thirst and went out of her room for a drink of cold water.

It was ten in the morning but she can hear the sound of sizzling food and the smell of fresh vegetables being cooked coming from the dirty kitchen of the house. Luna knew that it was still early to cook food as either her father or her mother would prepare food by eleven. She immediately dismissed the thought as she saw through the kitchen door screen her father cooking.

"What's for lunch?" Luna asked.

"Stewed vegetable." Her father answered, glancing at her and back at the food he is currently busy cooking.

"Okay."

Getting back at her task, she located the refrigerator and opened it to find a cold water gallon. Being lazy this day, Luna had a thought of drinking water immediately from the source. It is fine for the three of them to drink directly from the gallon but for manner's sake, it is improper. Seeing as she is crouched in front of the refrigerator and the door is completely blocking her father's view of her, also her mother was nowhere to be found, she chugged in precious and cool water from the container. But it seems Jesus and His Father decided that the action was being inappropriate and let her be caught be her mother, who was apparently inside the library next to the dining area she was in. Luna nearly choked.

"What do you think you're doing, drinking from the container?" Her mother asked while walking by to the dirty kitchen. Busted…

"Sorry, really thirsty." She gasped, returning the gallon and immediately went inside her room.

Continuing her game from where she left, her character, named liked her, was inside the spring mine at level twenty-something below ground. Her goal was to get to the bottom of the mine, which is the two hundred and fifty-fifth level below ground, in order to find the teleport stone which can help her solve traveling and time problems in the game. There is still a long way to go though. Luna pressed the arrow keys of her laptop to maneuver her character and pressed some more keys to dig the ground in order to find a golden stair and some black grass to keep her character's energy at its maximum.

A few moments later, she could hear her mother and father talking and she decided to interject between their conversations. She cutely meowed out loud, hoping they would hear.

"What do mean by 'meow'?" Her mother heard her. Luna snickered.

More talking was heard until she heard her mother asked her father if it was time to prepare the table. Her father said yes and, before they bellowed out to call her from her room to set the table, Luna bolted out of the room and took three plates and three spoons and forks, then three glasses.

When she went to get the rice, her father went in the dining room and set a bowl of vegetable stew with Spam Lite as the meat. Her mother was behind him fanning herself with her hand as much as she could.

"Luna, how about some iced tea?" Her mother asked, her face shows irritation to the heat.

"Okay." She said as she scraped the rice to make if fluffy and soft, and also for the heat to be released. She doesn't want to have a burned tongue when chewing the rice, now, does she?

Her mother got a pitcher and a small pack of Nestle Iced Tea. She poured the whole pack of powder into the pitcher before adding water.

Luna's father sat of her usual seat near the refrigerator and not at the head of the table. Their family did not follow usual sitting arrangements, only in front of the guests, as it was their comfortable place.

"Do we have some ice?" Her father asked while opening the refrigerator to look for ice in the freezer section.

"I think we don't have ice." He mother answered, stirring the juice.

Then, something popped in Luna's head, her little mind working quite fast.

No ice.

Tea + Ice = Iced Tea

Therefore:

Iced Tea – Ice = Tea

That's too bad, since the iced tea would not be that cold after a few minutes being left out of the refrigerator for so long. They would not enjoy the coolness of the juice in this kind of heat. Her mother will be disappointed. No ice means that there would be no iced-cold tea. Oh, boy.

Then, suddenly, another equation came into mind and there was an important element that she had forgotten that was not in the previous equation. That element happens to be the reason why Iced Tea is enjoyable by all.

Water.

Of course. Without water, Iced Tea will not become Iced Tea at all. Without water, Luna was sure everyone in the world would not appreciate eating the sweetened powder of tea sealed inside the plastic pack.

To do the equation:

Tea + Water + Ice = Iced Tea

Much better. Therefore:

(Tea + Water) – Ice = ?

Huh?

Where did this one come from? Luna was sure this would be another similar moment if she can pull this joke off. At the corner of her mind, she began to see two pictures of similar moments. One, of a certain classmate who likes to tell corny jokes, and the other, of her telling her set of friends what the certain classmate joked her about when they were sometimes alone.

She got it. Her little fuzzy mind got it. Oh, boy, they would flip if they heard this one. Especially her father. He loved corny jokes. He makes some of them after all.

A second after her mother told them that they had no ice, Luna commented.

"Then, it's not iced tea." Not tea, either.

"What is it, then?" Her mother inquired.

Luna sat on her seat and felt her parent's attention on her. Without much further ado, she let the bomb slipped past her mouth.

"It's water tea."

† ^.^ †

From Baby Butler,

Created 7th of May, 2010 at night. Hours before I wrote and typed this, the real thing happened. Yes, you guessed it. It's really me and my parents in the story. Endless laughing at my father's part. And my mother saying something about me getting a 'sore bed'? What in the world is a 'sore bed'? I know bedsore, but 'sore bed'?

I was laughing the moment I was done and I kept re-reading the equation parts as if there was a presentation where the equations are typed with typing sounds. Haha! Water tea, indeed!

Noli Me Tangere!

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