Strawberry Crepe Cookie had been juggled through many households in their lifetime; and without a doubt they could say that they didn't fit into a single one. The one bedroom apartment that the Cookies of Darkness had was way too crowded, and Mansions Madeleine had too much going on in one place, and Strawberry Crepe was not about to settle for the... tension from the Ancient Cookies' household.
Also they weren't planning on spending their time in a retirement home with a bunch of old cookies.
A bell rang. It was the end of school.
At the head of the classroom, Espresso Cookie slammed a hand down on his desk, "Well, that ends today's lesson." He watched as the class packed their backpacks, some cookies simply taking their textbooks and leaving the room. He loudly stated a reminder, "Don't forget to do the even questions on page 49!"
As Strawberry Crepe grabbed their backpack and tried to race out of the door, they were stopped by Espresso.
He looked too tired to be mad; but when they looked up at him, they could tell he wasn't feeling anything remotely close to 'bouncing-off-the-walls happy'.
"You left your textbook on your desk."
Strawberry Crepe looked behind themself. The textbook was indeed there, sat atop the second desk of the back row.
They looked back to Espresso, "So what?"
"You do know that any late assignments will be losing points, yes?"
"Is that why you take so long to grade them?"
The teacher had an insulted look on his face. Though being a cookie that had an incredible amount of caffeine in his system and WAY less hours of sleep than any other cookie could function with DID give him a lack of restraint, "Is that why you don't have a home to live in?"
Strawberry Crepe was NOT about to get insulted like that, "You're acting like you don't live in the bathroom of your boyfriend's mansion."
"He's not my boyfriend."
"Oh, I'm sorry, 'acquaintance'," Strawberry Crepe made quotations with their hands.
Espresso glared at them, "If school didn't just get dismissed I would send you to the principal's office."
Strawberry Crepe laughed at him, "Too bad."
They slipped past Espresso and ran down the hall.
Espresso didn't have the energy to yell at them, so he simply closed the door to his classroom and sat back down at his desk. There was a stack of papers in front of him. Yeah, it was gonna be a long day.
Strawberry Crepe zoomed out of the school's front double doors. Parked out in the front was Dark Enchantress Cookie who had a scowl on her face. The car was rumbling in place and was blaring what was supposed to be 'Fireball' but it was hard to make out with the amount of radio static.
It was presumably waiting for Poison Mushroom Cookie to exit the building.
Strawberry Crepe didn't quite know why it was parked at the school, though, considering that the Cookies of Darkness' apartment was on the same street. Maybe they were going shopping? Who knew.
They slowed to a walk as they reached the side of the road. Now that they thought about it, there wasn't really much distance from anything. The apartment complex was next to the ancient's house and Mansion Madeleine was in front of that. Not only did the houses themselves seem crowded on the inside, but also they seemed to be close to each other in general. That's how housing worked, they supposed.
Now, Strawberry Crepe didn't have a solution to their housing problem, as was so violently alluded to by Espresso's comeback, but they did think of one thing. If they were gonna be homeless, they might as well make some clout.
They turned on their phone which was, of course, brand new. Just because they were homeless didn't mean that they couldn't have luxury.
They opened TikTok and started filming the next day of their homeless adventures, a series which had surprising traction.
"Welcome to day 39 of being homeless! The budget for today is a grand total of... well... nothing I guess." They scratched the back of their head.
"Anyways, let's go to the department store!"
After making a whole timelapse of the walk to the store, Strawberry Crepe flipped the camera to face themself and started an explanation while going to a specific aisle.
"Now, in all 39 days of this series, I've never shared this simple lifehack." They paused to open a freezer door.
"All you gotta do is grab what you want," They grabbed something from the freezer and pulled it out, "and pretend like it belongs to you."
It was a box of Bagel Bites.
The footage cut to them outside of the store, still with the box of Bagel Bites, "Anyways, that's how you get stuff! Uhh, do note that this doesn't work for getting a house."
Wasn't that the truth. No house, no home to go and eat dinner everyday, no comfy mattress to fall asleep on, and certainly no time to do homework.
"Wait..." Strawberry Crepe thought aloud, still outside the store, "Why do I even go to school if I'm homeless? I could just... not go. Who's gonna stop me?"
Someone cleared their throat behind them. Strawberry Crepe turned around.
It was Red Velvet Cookie with a not-so-happy look on his face and a bag of applesauce from the department store. Clearly he paid for it.
"Schooling and education is very important to young cookies!" He sounded maybe a bit too invested in the topic.
Strawberry Crepe bounced back, "What are you gonna do if I don't go? Call my parents?"
Being homeless for around 39-ish days certainly gave them an attitude. Well, more of an attitude than before.
Red Velvet felt like facepalming, "So let me get this straight: you have no parents, no home, and now you're planning to quit school, too?"
Strawberry Crepe nodded along as he listed everything off, looking proud of themself.
It takes a couple of disappointed seconds for Red Velvet to even respond.
"Alright. You," He picks up Strawberry Crepe with his cake arm, "Are coming with me."
He starts walking along the sidewalk.
They struggle, still tightly gripping the box of Bagel Bites, "You can't just kidnap me!"
"From what home?"
Damn, he had a point. They stopped trying to fight.
"Sooooooooooo, what's the living situation?" If they were going to be forced out of homelessness they might as well figure out what was next on the conveyor belt of living conditions.
Red Velvet stopped by a bike rack and shoved the bag of applesauce into the back basket of a white bike. He slowly put Strawberry Crepe back down.
"It's not too bad," He grabbed onto the handles of the bike and pulled it out, "You won't have any problems when the weather gets cold, though."
"What?"
"Oh, you'll see."
Strawberry Crepe was worried to say the least. Every household, while having plenty of good things, has had its own unique feature that made it absolutely unlivable. They just knew that even in the best case scenario, there would at least be one thing to tick them off.
So there they were, standing in front of an apartment complex while Red Velvet parked his bicycle by a nearby post and locked it in place.
He walked in and they followed.
Now, apartments weren't the worst of places, but they certainly weren't the best. Strawberry Crepe learned that from living with the Cookies of Darkness. Sure, playing Just Dance 3 with your roommates is cool and all, but it's completely offset by trying to fall asleep in that household. The air conditioner would constantly make noises that it shouldn't and that wasn't even mentioning the snoring they had to deal with. Living there was like being in an extended sleepover, but in the worst way possible.
Red Velvet made it to his room and fished out the keys from his pocket. They jingled as he unlocked the door.
He paused for a moment, turning back to Strawberry Crepe, "You might wanna brace yourself."
They were confused, "Brace myself for wha-"
The door opened and they were tackled by a hoard of cake hounds.
Strawberry Crepe was not, in fact, prepared.
Red Velvet held his arms out and one of the hounds hopped onto him. "I'm home, Chiffon!"
Chiffon's tail wagged as he was pet vigorously.
Red Velvet shifted the weight of Chiffon onto one arm while holding up the bag of applesauce with the other, "I got your favorite!"
The rest of the cake hounds stopped at the noise of the bag rustling. Strawberry Crepe burst out of the pile with the box of bagel bites still in their arms, breathing hard, "HOW... HOW DO SO MANY DOGS FIT IN ONE APARTMENT?"
It didn't take too long to figure out the quirk in that household. Though, household didn't seem like the right word since it was just Red Velvet and his many dogs; and even though there were so many dogs, they seemed happy to be there. There weren't any cookies complaining about being overworked, there weren't a bunch of old cookies trying to get along, and there certainly wasn't anything close to whatever the hell went on in Mansion Madeleine.
Well, they could always give it a shot. Though they did have to come up with another name for their TikTok series. Life with a Copious Amount of Dogs? Surprise Home Acquisition? Accidental Adoption?
"Oh yeah," Red Velvet interrupted while all of the cake hounds crowded around him, "Did you have any homework today?"
Strawberry Crepe recalled leaving the day's homework on their desk while running out of the classroom.
"Nope."
They hoped it sounded convincing.