Marriage
Daze
Chapter
17: Party of Five
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Notes: From Fred’s point of view.
Fred’s assignment was to work at a local restaurant. It wasn’t too bad, actually. He’d been making dinner for his younger brothers when he lived at home, so he knew a little about cooking. The worst part about this was that the rest of his friends had talked him into treating them for a meal. Ms. Adams had over-heard their begging, and thought it was a great idea.
He got out of today’s practice, even though they used to go through important information on Tuesday’s. Maybe they considered this project as more important? Or it might just have been the fact that they liked the thought of the First Line doing ‘volunteer’ work. It wasn’t really voluntary, because Ms. Adams had forced them.
After a day of serving tables and dealing with rude guests, he couldn’t be more sick of the thought of making dinner for the rest of the people in his ‘special project’ group. Maybe he could food-poison them all, so they didn’t have to continue working on the project?
The head-chef on the restaurant he worked at suggested that he should cook something easy. Why argue with that? He had two hours to prepare the food before the others showed up. Those two hours were very required for him; he was still struggling with peeling carrots when Adam showed up.
“How’s it going?”
“Besides from the fact that I’m mostly peeling the skin off my own fingers? Just great,” Fred muttered. “I hope you’re not too hungry, because I’m not done yet.”
Adam jumped up on the counter and looked around. “What have you been doing today?” he asked.
“Being yelled at, mostly. I’m glad I just have to work here today. I feel bad for anyone who works with this full-time.”
“Like Cecilia?”
Fred almost cut his finger again. He hadn’t meant to make it sound like an insult. It wasn’t his fault that he’d never been working. Sometimes those comments just went flying out of his mouth before he could think them through.
“No,” he replied. “I mean if you’re rich and spoiled like I am.”
“I now what you mean,” Adam smiled. “This is like a whole other world for people like us, right?”
“Hey, I’ve served on rich, spoiled people all day. It’s not so different from my own world, I must say. The same amount of yelling, but the tip is better. Maybe I should get a job here?”
“Like you would need more money?” Connie said, walking up to them. “I like this restaurant. Why don’t we eat here?”
“They charge twenty bucks for a glass of water,” Adam pointed out.
“Actually, it’s eighteen, but the bread is free,” Fred joked. Connie shrugged, taking his word for it. “I was kidding, Con.”
“How should I know? I’ve never eaten on a restaurant with more then two stars after the name. I saw five stars outside on the sign. This is so cool! I have to explore this place more. Adam, you can show me around.”
“Why do you figure me to now this place? Fred’s the one working here.”
“You’re rich, you’ve been to places like this before,” Connie concluded. Adam rolled his eyes and jumped down from the counter.
“I won’t give a lecture about prejudiced thoughts about rich-people. Maybe you can show me around ‘Chuck E. Cheese’ later?” Adam shot back.
Connie grabbed his arm and they left in a hurry. Fred went back to the carrots. He was hoping Cecilia would show up soon. He hadn’t have time to speak to her at all because of the project. If she wasn’t out house searching all day long with Charlie, she was in class half-sleeping. Fred had been busy too, trying to mediate between Guy and Connie. He was planning on telling Cecilia what that ‘sleeping in strange places’ comment had been about, because she was beginning to act suspicious. Now when he thought about it, it didn’t sound all that bad as it had sounded last Thursday.
An hour later, he was beginning to think that she wouldn’t show up at all. The others were there, and the food was almost ready. It’d taken some extra time, because he’d accidentally dropped a bowl of sauce on the stove, which he had to clean up.
“I wonder where Cecilia and Charlie are?” Connie said. “I thought they were coming too.”
“Maybe they’re stuck somewhere,” Guy answered, glaring at Sarah. Sarah stared back, until Adam got tired and waved his hand between them.
“You’re out again now, aren’t you?”
“Just barely,” Sarah muttered and threw a piece of bread into her mouth.
Fred cleared his throat. “Behave now, please. I don’t need to be yelled at more today.”
“I think that request won’t be fulfilled. I see Cecilia over there, and she looks pissed,” Adam told him. Fred turned around, looking for Cecilia. She seemed a bit annoyed, but it wouldn’t necessarily have to be directed towards him. Maybe she’d been having another row with Charlie?
Cecilia walked up to them, gave him an angry stare and pushed Adam aside so she could sit down. Adam moved over.
“How’s it going? You look like you’re gonna kill someone,” Adam said. “Maybe I should move.”
“Don’t worry about it, she’s just angry because I said something stupid,” Charlie explained. “You’d think she’d be grateful for yesterday, but no.”
“What happened yesterday?” Fred asked curiously.
Cecilia got up from the chair and looked up at him. “You’re so busy that you don’t even know what I’ve been up to for the last few days?”
Fred shook his head. “No, I just don’t know what happened yesterday. You’d like to tell me, I guess? Because you’re always so talkative and social.”
“You’re not even concerned?” she asked.
“How can I be when I don’t know what you’ve been doing?” he answered.
Cecilia pressed her lips together and gave him a warningly gaze. “You think I wear this plaster on my forehead just because it’s fun?”
Fred grabbed her face and pulled her closer. Yes, she was right, she had a plaster stuck to her forehead. “I didn’t see that. What happened?”
“Like I would tell you, you’re only lying and deceiving people. And I’m not even hungry!”
She left in a hurry and Fred just stared after her. That horrible headache he got sometimes was increasing. Why did he only get it when Cecilia was around?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~*~*~
~*~*~