Chapter Text
Grian walked into the cafeteria surprisingly hungry after all of that. He figured it was the fresh air and maybe the additional excerise Mumbo was making him do… Not that he was complaining. It could have been all the delicious food out. It looked like it was wraps! Grian never had eaten so good in his life before. He grabbed his tray and got to work assembling a massive chicken wrap, with cheese and chilli mayo… Until he spotted both Mumbo and Pearl looking at him, and Grian sighed. He only lasted a couple seconds before he muttered softly under his breath and began adding lots of salad and greens to his plate.
Mumbo was more like him, but skipped the wrap in favour of lettuce slices which didn’t look nearly as tasty or easy to eat as a big old wrap, but each to their own. Grian was happy with his food, even if there was now leaves included. But he did want to feel better, and keep up with Mumbo. The man was just so energetic. Grian would hate to not be able to keep up.
Until he was healthier at least there was coffee. He grabbed himself a big mug full and sat down at their table. It was silly but the place was becoming so familiar to him, that he had a table he liked to sit at. He sipped his coffee as the others were finishing up on their own lunches. Grian looked over fondly at Pearl and Mumbo discussing the health benefits of chilli. He shook his head fondly at the pair of nerds and took a big bite of his spicy chicken.
Debate finally ended when the pair finally made their selections and came to sit with him. Grian chewed and swallowed to try to change the topic to something he could add something to. “So… what we learning next?” He asked between hungry bites.
Pearl hummed to herself and sipped her water. “Well you two are working hard and you are flying through the course content. It helps with the smaller class size and you two being so engaged, that we are ahead of where we are supposed to be.” She told them, and Grian felt damn proud of himself. He wasn’t super smart like them but he was keeping up! In fact he was doing more than keeping up, he was exceeding expectations!
Grian was pretty much preening proudly as he rewarded himself with more bites of his chicken wrap. He even forced some salad down him because he was doing so good, the salad couldn’t bring him down… it did but it was only a little bit and the spicy mayo hid the bitter leaf taste. “So… we gunna finish early?” He asked, with sauce all up his cheeks.
Pearl nodded. “Maybe we should be done by tomorrow evening? I should have known you two would take this so serious and Mumbo having good medical knowledge already. But I would imagine that if we continue at this pace tomorrow, we should be all done nice and early.” She told them.
Mumbo cheered and Scar looked up from his own salad to applaud them. “Excellent to hear that! Once you all have done your training, I have something for all of you!” He told them, and Grian wondered if he ever spoke without such excitement. It seemed like everything Scar said ended with an exclamation point.
Pearl reconfirmed it before turning to Grian. “We are covering choking and suffocation injuries next.” She told him and Grian wondered if he had more bruises on his throat. “Of course we wouldn’t expect injuries like crushed larynx and chest… more like what to do if someone feels like they are choking.”
Grian was in small panic spiral… what if Pearl’s look meant that Scar would look too… and see the non-existent bruises and in his brain there would be like a scene from every detective super genius program where all the maths would flash and Scar would realise that Mumbo did it and they were together. Grian tried to say anything to cover it up. Anything… Only his brain did the thing where it tried to score a hoop only the ball bounced back and hit him in the balls. “You mean if someone has pressure applied to their carotid artery, cutting off their oxygen… you know then their brain does the thing where it gives off the happy hormones?” He asked before he realised what he said.
Scar turned to him looking curious. “I didn’t know you had medical training!” He grinned at the shocked trio, who looked at each other in panic mode. “Say where did you learn all of that?” He asked Grian.
Grian wished he didn’t change the topic and focused on just chowing down on his burrito. He desperately tried to figure out something that made sense other than Mumbo choked him smarter. “Um… the internet?”