Dagger, Nutty, and the girls were at a local Lazy Lizard. Dagger, more hungry than usual, was eating pretty quickly. He peered over at Nutty who had barely touched his food. “Is something wrong, Nutty?” “Food. The main cause of fatness, which leads to laziness, which leads to more fattening, which leads to death. Fast food. Worse than real food.” Dagger raised an eyebrow. “Since when have you ever cared about how long you live?” “I don’t. The sooner I die, the sooner I can be gone from this cruel world.” “So eat then.” “If I’m to endure my time here, I want to do it at a manageable weight.” Dagger picked up Nutty’s burger and shoved it into his mouth. “Chew.” Reluctantly, Nutty began to chew on his burger. Dagger backed off, and Nutty remembered how much he liked to eat. Dagger picked up his Goat Cheese Chicken Wrap and took another bite. The girls were sharing a 24 slice pizza 25 wings combo. They had pulled up half their chairs from other tables, and all the food barely fit on the table. Lots of eyes were in their direction. “So,” Dagger said, “how’s the pizza?” “Amazing!” Harper replied. “My compliments to the cheff!” The other girls stated their agreement. Dagger took another bite of his wrap. “How much was that again? $50?” “$55.99,” Hazel said. “You sure we can afford this?” “Yep,” Zoey replied. “Lucy and I have the money.” A waiter walked up to the table. “That will be $97.71.” Zoey and Lucy rummaged through their bags and came up with the cash. The waiter took the crumpled bills with a frown and left the table. Dagger looked at the amount in his hands, then at the food on the table. He shrugged, then took another bite. Nutty let out a burp as he finished his burger. Nutty looked at Dagger. “No,” Dagger said, “you’re not getting seconds.” “I wouldn’t dream of it. I was going to ask if we could get out of this sucky place.” “Oh. You guys ready to head out?” Aurora picked up the almost empty pizza box, stood up, and nodded. The other stood, and they all filled out the door. Dagger, who was last in the line, shut the door behind them. The large group walked to the park, which was large and full of nature. Raelyn sat down on a bench with Nutty while Dagger and the others walked along one of the paths. “So,” Nutty asked, “what’s your taste in music?” “I’ll listen to basically anything,” Raelyn replied. “Except country. I find that bland.” Nutty nodded. “Country. The music for the old that are waiting to be taken out of this world.” Raelyn eyed him suspiciously. “Sure, whatever you say. What kind of music do you like?” “Rock and the blues. They reflect how disappointing and enraging this world can be.” “You know, not everything in this world is bad. There’s all sorts of beautiful things and kind people.” “Agree to disagree.” A Canary tweeted in a nearby tree. Raelyn gestured to it as it took off and flew above them. Nutty watched as the bird flew down and landed on Raelyn’s finger. Nutty’s act broke at the sight of it. “Wow, that’s really cool! Can I— I mean, what a lame bird, the reminder that… uh…” Raelyn smiled. “I knew you weren’t the type to be so negative. Why pretend to be someone you’re not?” Nutty shrugged. “People are unique. I want to see what it’s like to have certain personality traits to see why people pick them up. Today, I went with emmo pessimist.” “How was it?” “It’s kind of hard to keep coming up with reasons why everything is negative. Especially since I’m usually more of an optimist.” Raelyn stood up. “We’d better catch up with the others. My friends are probably driving Dagger crazy by now.” Nutty stood. “Hey, is there any reason you don’t like Dagger?” Raelyn heistated. “When we first met, I thought he was saving me to get something back. I thought that he liked me, and was just trying to get my attention. That, and he tackled me.” Nutty laughed. “Fair enough. Now that you know he isn’t that kind of guy, has your opinion changed?” “Really, I pity him. It can’t be easy to be on the receiving end of all that attention. I figure I’ll do him a favour and not add to his admirers.” “Again, fair enough. Now, let’s get moving.” Raelyn and Nutty started down the path in the direction the others went. They jogged down, laughing at their speculations of what the girls had been saying to Dagger. (continue to N & C)
. . . Dagger watched as yet again the person he was talking to was pulled back into the crowd. Dagger had insisted that they wouldn’t take up the entire path, and he was beginning to regret it. Most of his focus was on the scenery surrounding the path rather than his conversations. The shrubbery of the park was beautiful, and he wasn’t going to miss out on it.” Zoey slid up to Dagger’s side. “Hey, cute stuff! Enjoying the walk?” “First off, I have a name. Second, yeah. The scenery is really breathtaking here. I can see why Nutty came over this way yesterday. That, and the traffic noise is quieter.” “Not a city fan, huh?” “Not really. How about you?” “I’m good with country or city. They both have pros and cons. Like you could argue, the country is lonely because there’s less people, but the city can feel lonely because you’re surrounded by people you don’t know.” “Never thought of it that way.” Dagger noticed that Zoey had grabbed his hand. He looked her in the eyes. “Seriously?” Zoey let go. “Sorry. I just kind of thought we were having a moment.” Dagger sighed. “It’s fine. Say, it’s getting late. Probably a good time to draw straws again.” Nutty and Raelyn came up from behind. Nutty stopped everyone and got them to each take a straw. Raelyn refused to take one, but Dagger didn’t mind all that much. Grace ended up with the longest straw, so Dagger and Nutty headed to her place. Grace, much unlike Aurora, had 9 sisters. Grace was the youngest in the family, so Dagger’s jaw hung wide when he stepped into the house and was beeing stared down by 9 pairs of eyes belonging to older girls. Grace led Dagger over to the guest room and told Nutty to get in bed. Dagger was about to put his airmatress in there, when Grace stopped him. “You’re sleeping in my room,” she told him. Dagger shrugged. “Sure,” he replied as he walked through the opposite doorway. He set down the mattress and inflated it. He flopped down on the inflated mattress and fell asleep almost instantly. Grace got into bed and fell asleep almost as quickly. After 20 minutes, Grace’s oldest sister, Ellie, gave a thumbs up to her siblings behind her. She cleared the doorway, and four of them went in and took the mattress off the ground. They got it through the doorway and set it down in the living room. There, they each had a sleeping bag. Dagger turned over, still asleep and unaware that he’d been moved. To Be Continued... Song: Tropical Resort Act 1 from Sonic Generations 3DS
