"Oh ha ha." Ellie rebuffs his jab by twisting away from the lazy elbow throw, but to his credit she does catch the stair railing and pull herself up the first few steps. She pauses though, knuckles knocking back and forth on the bannister, and turns back-- opens her mouth, wrinkles her nose and rethinks whatever it was that had been threatening to creep out past her teeth:

"But seriously though, you look weird in shorts."