Willa and Philby wandered the streets of Disney's Hollywood Studios purposefully. It was a bit strange to them now to be going for pleasure purposes in the day time hours. They almost could feel their DHI selves all around them as they toured families around the park. They weren't stopped by any crazed fan or body guard during the whole walk.
It was rather obvious as to where they were heading. Star Tours. The ultimate Star Wars adventure. The Endor Express. Either way you put it, it's pretty epic. Especially to a certain pair of teenagers.
It was noon, which meant that the mini parade would begin soon and the main street would be crowded with tourists and young children. They figured this would be the perfect time to hit their favorite rides before the crowd went back. The speakers began blaring with all kinds of show tunes and movie themes and Mickey's voice could be heard on all the mega phones.
Willa began to pick up the pace, and they both made a visible sigh of relief when the giant model AT- AT walker could be seen towering over the trees. Next to the walker the whip bearing Indiana Jones from the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular grinned at them. Philby and Willa waved to the cutout and made a right into the Star Wars section.
The Endor bunker teased them with its velvet 'do not go any farther from this point' ropes, the Endor trees and Ewok huts made the teens want to climb the plastic trees to see if any furry bear like creatures lived in them, the Lars Homestead filled with merchandise made their wallets ache and the speeder where kids frequently took pictures on made them want to reach for the stars.
But they were not there to travel the galaxy; they were in Disney to relax. The thought was foreign to them, but they continued on.
"Thanks for taking me here," Willa grinned up at him. Philby had grown pretty tall recently and Willa enjoyed that fact that she had to look up at him.
"No problem. What do you want to do?"
"It's around noon right? We should go somewhere to eat," Willa suggested.
Philby was grateful that he was such good friends with a girl that knew how to eat, because his stomach had been grumbling unhappily for the past half hour. "Sure, sounds great! Do you want to grab a pretzel off a vender or go somewhere?"
Willa moaned. "It's far too hot to have something on the streets. Let's go somewhere with air conditioning."
"The 50's Prime Time café?" Philby suggested.
"Sounds good," Willa agreed happily.
The café was close to the Star Wars part of the park so it wasn't a very long walk. They only ran into a bit of a problem with all the people camping out on the streets in preparation for the parade. The café was somewhat busy but it was only a ten minute wait until they could get a table.
The place was decorated in bright colors and lived up to its reputation as a 50's diner. Both teenagers slid into the booth easy and their waitress handed them their menus.
"Hello kids, I'm mama Georgina and I'll be waiting on you today," she smiled, her red lips parting to show white teeth. Willa was a bit dazzled by the big hair for a moment and almost missed what she said. "Now, I expect you to take your hat off, dearest," she scolded Philby. "And if I catch either of your little elbows on the table they'll be some trouble," she teased. It was a requirement of the diner for the waiters and waitresses to scold their customers, and Georgina was in character perfectly.
"Yes ma'am," Willa replied somberly, putting both hands on the table. Philby grinned at her, and Willa smiled happily back.
"That's a good girl," Mama Georgiana encouraged. "Now what are your names?"
"I'm Philby, and this is Willa ma'am."
"Call me mama dear, there isn't any shame. Now, I know I've seen your faces somewhere before," she winked at them, pointing her pencil at Philby. "You two grasshoppers can't be from that ol' digital dohicker machine that has been taking people everywhere, now can you?"
"Yes, er, Mama, we're DHI's," Philby replied proudly.
Mama nodded. "That's what I thought. Now you two just go on and read your menus, I'll be back to take your orders in a little while, and remember… no elbows!"
Once their waitress left, the two teens burst out in fits of laughter. "Oh wow, she's great! If I wasn't a DHI, that would be my job right there," Willa giggled approvingly.
"Yeah, looks fun," Philby commented, gazing over at a Papa that was scolding a recently married couple for sitting too close to one another.
They settled down and were quiet so that they could study their menus. It wasn't long before Willa knew what she wanted, but there was something else that kept her quiet. She stared at a picture of a hamburger as she thought, her brow furrowing without her notice.
Philby noticed that she had spaced. "That must be a very interesting hamburger," he commented. Willa blushed and lowered her menu.
"I was just- eh, looking at the hamburger."
Philby lowered his menu as well and smiled, his eyes not teasing. "Yeah, I saw. What's wrong?"
Willa frowned casually. "Nothing."
"It's just that my mom makes the same face whenever something's bothering her."
Willa sighed and took a sip of the water on their table. "I was just wondering what this is?"
Philby raised his eyebrow. "What, er, what is?"
"Like, is this a friend outing, or a date?" Willa asked, the color rising up to her cheeks.
"Hmm…" Philby was caught off guard for once, and was finally met with a question he couldn't answer right away. 'Alright, analyze the situation Philby,' he thought to himself. 'You asked her to, er, what was it? Oh yes, "hang out" in Hollywood Studios. And now you're going out to lunch. You're buying. You didn't ask anyone else to go. You like Willa. That's a definite positive. The negative is that if you and Willa are dating it could make group meetings sufficiently awkward. Eh, is that it? Just say it's a date!' "Yes, it's a date," Philby answered confidently.
Willa got redder and took another sip of water, but choked on it. "Sounds good," she choked.
"You okay?" he asked, concerned. She nodded, coughing on her arm away from him.
Their waitress came back and asked for their orders. They just talked about everything and anything, only stopping for a brief moment when their food finally came. There was a small argument over who should pay, but Philby finally won.
They caught the latter end of the parade and watched as the characters waved to them, some pausing to rake their eyes across their faces in astonishment at seeing the DHI's. The two were careful enough to wear the costumes their DHI's wore when they toured people. Because of this, when they walked the streets talking to each other they were only approached my curious kids only a handful of times.
It was easy enough to go on rides using their passes. Willa liked the lazy way they walked about the park like they had all the time in the world, window shopping, waiting on rides or just simply strolling about.
The day went much too fast and it was before she knew it that it was almost six o'clock.
"Oh shoot, I have homework," Willa groaned.
Philby sighed. "Yeah I do too, I just wanted to put it off as long as possible. I like doing it, I just like being here more."
"Yeah," she agreed. They stopped at the gates of the park.
"We should take the monorail back, we'll call our parents on the way," Philby said, finally accepting the fact that it was time to go home.
"Okay," Willa replied, and turned to go through the gates.
"Hope to see you back soon," the lady at the gate said with a smile.
"Thank you," Philby answered politely, then turned to Willa. "What she doesn't know is that we'll be back tonight."
Willa giggled. "It's a bit hard to believe that this happens every night."
"Mhm," Philby agreed. They waited for the monorail and called their parents. They both lived fairly close to the park so their parents would be there by the time the train came in the station.
"So, uh, thank you. For, uh, taking me out to lunch," Willa told him awkwardly.
"It's a problem not," he answered, then realized what he did. "No I meant it's not a problem. We should do it again sometime."
Willa laughed at his mistake. "Well, I guess I'll see you tonight."
"Yeah, see you."
With that, Willa ran to her mother who was waiting on the outsides of the parking lot.
"Stupid, stupid!" Philby cursed himself. "Why can't you be more eloquent?" His mother's car horn knocked him out of his revere. "See you tonight, Willa," he whispered to himself before he jogged away.