Disclaimer: The world of the Ever Afters series belongs to thefantastic Ms. Shelby Bach
It had the makings of a wonderful night. We were going with Chase and Rory to dinner and a movie, which would be a welcome break from all the work I'd been doing. I was excited just to spend a night out, no inventions needing fixing or problems needing solving. Unfortunately, life had other plans.
At eight o'clock, I was rudely awaken by my M3 going off. "Got time to lose, please just snooze," I mumbled in Fey, thinking I'd left my alarm on. When it kept ringing, though, I knew something was up. Groaning, I forced myself to sit up and answer. It was Ellie.
"Hello?" I asked, rubbing my eyes and yawning.
"Lena, oh thank gumdrops!" she exclaimed. Her hair was frazzled and- were those mushrooms?
"What's wrong?" I was much more alert now.
"The Table of Never-ending Refills is on the fritz, food is literally flying out of it!" Guess those WERE mushrooms then.
"I'll be there in..." I checked the time. "Ten minutes, fifteen tops."
She gave a relieved nod and signed off. Sighing, I climbed out of bed. So much for a relaxing Saturday.
I got ready in record time, practically ran to EAS, and fixed the table. I barely had time to wipe the gravy off of my glasses, though, before one of the fifth graders burst in, babbling about a rogue training dummy. The rest of the day was much the same. I'd fix a problem, then another one would crop up in its place. Everything you could think of was breaking or acting up. I barely even had time to tell Rory, Chase, and Kyle I couldn't go to dinner. They said we'd just do it another day, but I still felt bad about it.
It was close to ten when I finally got home, and I all but collapsed onto the couch, completely exhausted. Boy, I couldn't wait to get to sleep. Of course, that's when the doorbell rang. Seriously? I just want to go bed! I all but stomped over to the door and flung it open, fully expecting an EASer with some technical problem. Instead, I found Rory, Chase, and Kyle waiting on the doorstep.
"Surprise!" they shouted, all grinning madly.
"Uh...hello, you guys," I replied, still a little unsure of what was going on.
"Since you were so busy today, we decided that, if you'd like, we could just watch a movie here!" Rory explained.
"And we brought pizza!" Chase waved the box around like a trophy.
"What kind is it?"
"Chicken, onion, and pineapple," Kyle answered, "With extra cheese of course." He winked at me and a huge smile spread across my face. I hopped off the doorstep and gave them all a hug, which was a little awkward with the pizza box.
"You guys are the best friends."
