Morgane walks from her now former room and into the kitchen that was in the midst of being packed up for her parents' move to a smaller home, oddly enough the apartment right above their restaurant had an availability and they were moving there. Morgane had some happy memories of the house she had grown up in, but that's all they were memories; she knew her parents were happy to have a place closer to their business. Which means they would have more free time, especially since they specialize in evening meals; there are no five star restaurants in Oceana. There are popular ones however and her parents had a very popular one, which considering from what she knew of the “surface world” what her parents had was a “home cooking” restaurant; Morgane had read that on the surface they were not popular.

Morgane chuckled to herself thinking about how once a “5-star” restaurant tried opening when she was a child. This was when the original city council had thought tourism would be a good thing for the city, both ended in disaster. The restaurant closed because the locals didn't like the inflated prices, also the owners (a couple of surfacers); had trouble finding the ingredients they wanted for the foods they wanted to serve. The concept of making Oceana a vacation spot ended almost as quickly as it started, the first group of “tourists” that arrived in the city weren't happy that they had to spend hours in a submarine after a couple days on a ship. Then complained about the fact they didn't have “first class” (whatever that was) accommodations, then they wanted to know what was so interesting about the city that they should spend their money there. It was such a harrowing experience for everyone involved that after the first group left the city voted out the council and voted in one who was more concerned with the health of the city.

Morgane walked over to her mother who was holding out a plate loaded with fresh eggs bread and some fruit. “So kiddo all set to be off on your own?” Morgane smiled at her mother as she set her bags down then taking the plate sat at the table and answered her. “Very much so mom, I know you and dad did a lot for me over the years; but I am excited to investigate the site.”

Morgane's father pokes his head into the kitchen while walking past with some boxes, “well she should be excited dear. I think she is the only student to get a position at the site, by the way Morgane do you have your boxes ready for the storage crew to pick up?” Morgane looked over to her father just in time to see their cat Seafoam attempt to jump onto the pile of boxes while nodding to her father. He tips the boxes against the wall and swats at the cat, “good they'll be by sometime before we head into downtown for work. Seafoam get down these aren't a tower for climbing.” He then readjusts the boxes and heads back down the hallways toward the front door and the truck they borrowed for their move. “We should be moved into the new place by the weekend Morgane, I hope you stop by the restaurant then and take part in the family dinner, we can have Triton and his whole family come by. It would be nice to get everyone together before you two are off on your own.” Mom sits down with a coffee looking intently at me, I ate some eggs and ignored the look. When mom gets that look it is always before she tries to make me and Triton a couple, we're just good friends; though sometimes it seems he likes books more than people. Morgan thought to herself trying to come up with some kind of answer her mother might accept.

Dad walks back into the kitchen just then, “now dear the two of them are still children based on how we grew up and you know that. They're friends, let it go for now; but a nice group dinner would be fun. Let me talk to the Spinners and I'll see what I can arrange with them and then we'll check the kids' schedules against that.” Gotta love dad's perchance at entering a conversation at just the right time, Morgane thought as she picked up a slice of melon. Even fruit down here on the ocean bottom doesn't quite look the same as it does on the surface world, the outer skins tend to be more colorful but in the green shades; one of the farmers said it had to do with light levels. Someone tried to export some of the produce grown down here to the surface but apparently it doesn't take well to the ascent, and most of the fruits and vegetables exploded in transit. It was thought they would sell well to the “organic” crowd on the surface as somehow the crops grown within the dome seem to have extra nutrients.

Dad looked over to my plate, “got enough to eat there hun? I can whip you up something extra if you have time, I also,” dad winks; “set you up a lunch surface knows what you'll get for meals there. A nice piece of tuna steak from last night on some of our home grown bread, yes I made sure to give you the acorn and wheat flour; it's interesting how you youngsters prefer the acorn flour to the wheat but we still need wheat to make it rise.” I did recall hearing about how the semi-surfacers don't like the acorn flour as much as those of us born here, but that is probably just a factor in the fact that we grew up with it. We had so many oak trees growing around the domes that one of the people who had originally joined the city suggested the city collect them and after removing the tannin's we could dry them and grind them into flour which would be a nice way to extend our wheat crop. The oak trees took less space per pound of flour than wheat did, interesting though that the children born in the dome tended to crave the acorn flour more than those who were born on the surface. So wheat production went down, as it wasn't as needed; to about half the starting fields. The wheat was still needed to make leaven bread, and now there was a career field that was for arborists who only ensured the care of the oak trees.

I grinned at my father, “thanks dad but this was plenty for me; I'm not going to the surface just across town to the youth dorms. Also I am sure they'll feed us just fine, but thank you for the lunch; I'll pick up some fruit on my way over to add to it if it'll make you happy.” My father just nodded and rubbed my head then went back to moving boxes out of the house. I finished up my last few bites of fruit then I picked up the plate and walked into the back yard to give the rinds to the chickens in the yard, it was determined when the city was planned that any home with a backyard would have chickens in it. This way every family had fresh eggs on hand, and left the farms the ability to only produce eggs for those living in apartments. Chickens were rarely killed, generally when they were old and then again generally made into soups. Sometimes the farms would slaughter some young birds if they had too many and there was a rush in the meat market for people wanting fried chicken or oven roasted.

After tossing the leftovers to the chickens I took the plate back inside and gave it a short rinse then set it upside down in the sink for when my mother was ready to wash the dishes. Morgane had heard that on the surface individual homes had dish washing machines, which seemed an awful waste of resourses to Morgane. She knew how much water the dishwasher in the restaurant used, which to her was a great deal. Kind of how she is shocked at the idea of homes having private bathtubs, their community had showers in the houses and community bath houses; she heard it was a Japanese thing. Baths in Oceana were used just for soaking tired muscles in or relaxing with friends, there was the communal baths where it was restricted by gender; females on one side and male on the other. There was also the ability for couples to rent private ones, Morgane had heard they cost a great deal more than the standard bath as they were always washed out afterwards.