Empathy No. 106
ALLISON: Roderick, just who we were looking for.
RODERICK: Is something wrong?
ALLISON: No, but Dad and Ellie are heading out again tonight, so we've got to decide on dinner and Brooke is being difficult.
BROOKE: What? I'm sick of pizza. It's all these two ever want.
ALLISON: Please don't say you're good with anything, we really need another opinion.
RODERICK: How about Chinese?
BROOKE: Cool, that's good with me.
ALLISON: Let me check, we've probably got a menu...hold on. We're not about to find out that you're, like, fluent in-
RODERICK: No, I'm really not.
ALLISON: That's right, the one thing you're supposedly not great at. Or did you just say that to Carlie so she'd "tutor" you?
JASON: Come on, you know he's not like that.
ALLISON: You'd be the only guy I've ever met who's not like that.
JASON: Hey, when's Dad putting up the tree?
ALLISON: Shit, I guess he hasn't yet. So busy around here, I didn't even notice. He'll probably get it out this weekend.
BROOKE: Roderick, did your Mom have a tree at your old place?
RODERICK: Just a small one. All we had room for.
BROOKE: Bet it's gonna be a lot different this year now that you're not poor.
ALLISON: Brooke, goddamn it! You're not supposed to say things like that!
BROOKE: You're not supposed to curse so much in front of me, either!
RODERICK: Don't worry, it's all right. I'm not offended.
ALLISON: Someone else will be one of these days.
JASON: Yeah, she really needs to stop doing that. Uh, what do you want for Christmas?
RODERICK: I don't need anything.
JASON: I know you don't need anything, but what do you want?
ALLISON: He wants you to say that you want a PS2. This little creep has been trying to convince Dad that a video game system would help him bond with his stepbrother.
JASON: I never said that to Dad! And I was just kidding around.
BROOKE: Quit lying, I heard you say that, too.
JASON: ...As a joke.
ALLISON: Please. Roderick has better things to do than waste time with video games.
RODERICK: I bought a Game Boy once. This other kid sold it to me for cheap because he thought it was broken. I was gonna tell him that he was wrong, but then he said twenty bucks, so I took it.
JASON: Nice! See, Allie? You don't know anything.
ALLISON: Yeah, yeah.
JASON: For serious, you have to want something.
RODERICK: Uh...what I want, you can't buy.
JASON: Do you want to see your Dad?
ALLISON: Jason, that is totally not appropriate.
RODERICK: It's okay. It, uh...it would be nice, but that's not really what I was thinking of.
ALLISON: Let's get back to something less dramatic. I found a menu. Roderick, you get first choice.
RODERICK: Okay. Do you mind if I go out there while I think it over?
ALLISON: Go ahead, it's still early.
RODERICK: Thanks.
ALLISON: You two are awful, you know that? We shouldn't be trying to make him feel weird.
BROOKE: You did the same thing!
JASON: Hold on, hold...Allie, how much did you get?
ALLISON: What I promised.
JASON: Twenty people?
ALLISON: More. Carlie's in for twenty bucks, so we're gonna have at least a hundred to play with. Gonna get Carlie to take him somewhere, Gary will give us a ride, and I hope you actually know what you're doing.
JASON: You're really good at this.
ALLISON: I know.