I woke up and stretched, yawning loudly and wanting nothing more than to sink back in my bed. Its warmth was calling me back, summoning me into its sweet, procrastination-inducing embrace. I didn't let myself be seduced by the thought of "five more minutes", and instead got myself ready for work. I took a shower, washed my hands, applied my cream, applied my makeup, dried and tied up my hair, got dressed, the works. I looked like the perfect waitress, ready to take orders and serve up some smiles, as Pop liked to say. As I donned my short, white, short sleeved dress with my small white apron, I built up my tolerance for the day's customers. It usually wasn't very bad, to be honest. It was mainly when Disco Bear came in, or when Cub was in a bad mood. Otherwise, work was usually pretty tolerable.
Well, if you cut out the vast number of deaths looming over Happy Tree Town like some omnious figure, then it's really not too bad. With a sigh, and shake the thought out of my head and slip on my necklace, as well as putting my flower clip in my ponytail. I make a quick bowl of cereal and clean it up as fast as possible, not wanting to be late for work. I was already late twice this week, and I really didn't want to lose my job. It paid pretty good money, and I couldn't afford to work anywhere else long term.
I walked to work, deciding on walking after realizing that the amount of time it normally takes me to walk compared to the amount of time I had to get there before I was late was puny. There wasn't much going on that early in the morning, I saw and passed by Lammy with a wave. She looked at me and smiled, but didn't wave, instead putting her gaze to the ground she walked on, clutching her pickle tightly. I honestly felt bad for her, she was finding it so hard to make new friends. I felt especially bad because she'd been around for at least a month or two, and she was still struggling socially. I needed to invite her out sometime, maybe for lunch or something. Maybe try to ease her up a little bit.
Everything else was normal. Mime was out, which wasn't new, warming up for some kind of act he was involved in later that day. I heard that it was actually Cub's second birthday that day, so he may have been practicing for that party. I smiled and had a passing hope that nothing went wrong at that party, but I also knew not to keep my hopes up too high. No one around actually did, they just liked the small glimpses of hope. It was what kept everyone so happy, after all. Just those small chances of life.
Then I pushed those thoughts out of my head, not wanting to be depressed when I got to work. Naturally, I got myself cheered up by time I reached the doors. I was fifteen minutes early, which seemed to please Pop. I actually hadn't been expecting Pop to really be there, mainly because he almost never went to his own restaurant. He was always spending time with Cub (no matter how disastrous that normally ended up being), which made him usually forget he owned the place other than the bills he had to pay for it to function. I thought about how good it was that the place was never really empty. There was always at least four tables filled every day, which was apparently more than enough to keep the place running.
I turned to Pop, snapping out of my own reverie, and asked what he was doing there, since it was Cub's birthday and all. He smiled and responded as fatherly as ever.
"Well, I just wanted to check up on the diner. You know, make sure you guys are taking care of it well enough," he replied. I smirked, knowing that he knew full well that we wouldn't let the diner go under in any aspect. He seemed to read my mind. "You've all done a fine good job of keeping the place goin'. Good job."
He walked over and patted my shoulder before walking behind me and towards the doors, not saying another word. I knew he would be quiet that morning, because he was the type of man that didn't need many words. I figured that the place was already pretty much open, so I didn't bother checking to see if the doors were unlocked. I knew Pop had left them open, anyways. The doors made a weird clicking sound when they locked, and were silent every other time, like when Pop left.
Instead of flipping the sign to "Open", though, I kept it on its "Closed" side and used the time to polish up a bit before opening up for real. I wiped down the tables, checked and cleaned the seats, cleared out the bottoms of the tables, and cleaned anything else that needed it. It didn't take too long, just two or three minutes after the actual opening time. Not a big deal, especially since we only needed Toothy and Cuddles to show up to wait tables with me. I knew I'd need them soon, because more people were coming in, but I kept my cool as I led customers to their tables and took their drink orders.
They finally got there by time I was at my fifth table, and they took over three of those tables to make up for being late. They didn't give me a reason why they hadn't been there, so I didn't asked. I assumed that they had just overslept or something. They'd done it before, so it wasn't too strange. Just as I was about to take another table, Cuddles took it for me and let me have the next. I was a little annoyed about that until I saw that Giggles and Flaky were waiting to be seated. I beamed at my friends and grabbed their menus, leading them to our usual booth. I wished that I could join them, but I continued working, getting their drinks and orders. They got what they always got, three pancakes with maple syrup with a side of two sunny-side-up eggs for Giggles, and a kids' sized plate of silver dollars and hash browns for Flaky.
By the time they got their food, it was time for me to go on break. I had fifteen minutes, and I only got it because the customers had slowed down, and I knew Cuddles and Toothy could handle it. I plopped into the booth with Giggles and Flaky, sitting next to Giggles, and inserting myself into their conversation.
"So, what's the topic of the day?" I asked, eager to join in on a fun conversation with my girls.
Giggles grinned almost manically. "Boyfriends. I just got myself a new man, and Flaky here just started going steady with Flippy."
Flaky blushed and grinned to herself, her hands on her cheeks. "Shh, someone's gonna hear you!" she giggled softly.
"Aw, Flaky, good for you!" I said happily. "It's about time you two made yourselves an official item. You guys were practically married anyways."
Flaky blushed even harder, this time covering her entire face and squealing softly. I smiled at her and turned to Giggles, who I knew wouldn't react quite the same at the attention.
"So, who's this 'new man' you mentioned?" I asked, leaning an elbow on the table and resting on my cheek.
Giggles started as soon as I asked. "Well, he's that superhero, you know, Splendid?" she said, sipping her soda with pride.
I nearly fell out of my seat. "Woah, woah, woah. You're dating Splendid? Isn't he kind of a loner?"
The chipmunk beside me chuckled, her cockiness nearly bursting. "Well, he was."
I laughed and shook my head. "So, how did you guys actually end up talking?"
I watched as Giggles got in story mode. Flaky looked up again, interested in the story she'd probably already heard three times that morning.
"Okay, so, there was this car coming at me yesterday for no reason. I hadn't even jaywalked or anything! The driver was apparently sleeping or something, I'm not sure. Anyways, I started screaming and I felt like I couldn't move – I swear, I turned to stone. So, again, I was screaming my head off, calling for help, and bam, there he was. He scooped me out of the way and carefully flew into the air. And when I mean carefully, I mean carefully. Other than getting me out of the way, he went oddly slowly, which I can't really complain about since what happened the last time when he wasn't so careful." She left that to the imaginations of me and Flaky. We both cringed at the similar ideas we had. "Alright, so, when he put me down, he tried to fly away, but he was really cute, and I had already been saved by him more than once before with no chance to say thank you or anything. So, I got him to stay long with me long enough to get him to come home with me." I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively, which made her laugh. "No, we didn't do anything. We just baked for a while and talked about some books. Turns out, he's into a lot of the stuff I'm into. We just kinda...clicked, you know?"
I laughed. "Ah, yes, and soon that whatever you two baked yesterday will form into a bun in your oven." Giggles laughed at that, while Flaky was confused for a minute before she got it, responding by blushing and giggling. Then I turned over to Flaky. "So, what made the mighty soldier want to start being official?"
"Oh, well, a-actually..." she smiled and grinned to herself again before taking a deep breath and looking up at us. "It was the other Flippy that suggested it."
She let that sink in. It took a few moments for me and Giggles to process it, then we shrieked and held back our laughter. It was funny to think that that psycho could want a stable relationship with someone like Flaky, as sweet and lovable as she was. Giggles seemed to think like me, because she was sitting there holding her sides and mumbling something about a rose.
"Aw, you guys, don't laugh," Flaky said. We tried to stop but we couldn't. She just looked down at her hands, which were intertwined by now. "You should have seen him...he was so frustrated and he didn't know what to say, so he just kind of...blurted it out. It was really sweet and, well, scary..."
I watched her face glow with lovesickness and the blush painting her face an adorable shade of dark red. She was too precious. I wished for her type of excitement when it came to my love life, but, unfortunately, I wasn't so lucky. Giggles remembered this as well and looked at me with her brows raised a smirk on her face.
"What?" I asked. "Is there something on my dress?" I looked myself over, looking for an imaginary stain.
Giggles laughed to herself. "No, I was just wondering what your situation is like nowadays."
"My situation? Giggles, what are you talking about?" I said, trying to laugh it off. It obviously didn't work, because her stare just got slightly more intense. I sighed. "I haven't found anyone since Handy, and even then I don't think I want someone like him." That last bit wasn't meant to come out, so I regretted it as soon as I said it. Damn my big mouth!
"What would you want then?" Giggles asked, an unbelieving grin on her face. "I mean, Handy was pretty much perfect. He was nice to you, took you on dates, and helped you cope without having hands that one time. What else could you want?"
"Well, besides the whole helping thing – that was really nice – I want something more, well, intense. Actually, that's probably not the best word. It's...it's hard to put in words." I was struggling on my line and no one was merciful enough to help me out until Flaky spoke up.
"You mean like Fliqpy?" she asked, trying to be helpful.
"Not...not exactly, but not wrong, either," I said, still trying to figure it out. Once you try to explain, though, it's hard to even think about it altogether.
Meanwhile, Giggles was staring at me like I had just sprouted giant wings from my back. It was like she couldn't even comprehend that I wanted something less...less...
"Traditional!" I shouted happily, completing my thoughts verbally, earning a stare or three. I coughed, attempting to calm down. "I-I mean, I want something less traditional. Everything with Handy felt like it was mapped out, like we were supposed to be the way we had been, as if we were supervised or something."
Giggles made a noise that told me she didn't understand, but would be willing to try anyways. Flaky seemed to brighten a bit though, immediately agreeing with me and telling me that I didn't need to be a normal girlfriend in a normal relationship to be happy with it. I smiled at her, thinking about how odd her situation actually was. She had two boyfriends in the same body, and none of them qualified it as cheating. Well, Flippy was a little hurt by it at first, but when Flaky proved she didn't love one over the other, he became more relaxed and okay with it.
Giggles, though...it was pretty easy to see that she was a different kind of traditional. She was the type to jump from guy to guy, especially when she got bored with one or something just-so-happened to ruin her feelings for them. Cuddles had been her longest boyfriend (if you combined all the times they were on as opposed to when they broke up for a while), but I couldn't help but wonder if she felt the way I did, if at least a little.
I would have asked her if my break wasn't over and I was being called back in. I told my friends goodbye and reminded Giggles of our monthly shopping day being tomorrow. She just waved me away and assured me that I shouldn't worry about it. I turned to Flaky yet again, disappointment tugging at my features ever-so-slightly.
"Are you sure you can't come along? You loved it so much last time," I asked.
"Yeah, I did, but Flippy and I made plans before I realized it was so soon. I promise I'll make it next month, though."
I said okay, and that I would hold her to it, which made her laugh. They paid for their meals and I got back to work. I served a lot of tables that night and even went a little farther into my shift than I probably should have. Ah, well, the overtime will make it worth it. I clock out and say my goodbyes to the chef and Toothy, as Cuddles left as soon as his shift ended, and the other two still needed to man the night shift.
As I walked home, I thought about my conversation with Giggles and Flaky. It had been so hard for me to understand what the hell I was thinking, so I could only imagine what they thought of me. As I physically sighed, I rubbed my eyes, feeling the creeping sensation of exhaustion overwhelm me. I needed to take a shower and go to bed. I smiled yet again then, thinking about how I was lucky to survive that day, and that I didn't have to go through the refresh.
The refresh was always annoying because you don't remember anything when you wake up until hours later, when all of your memories of the previous day smack you in the face, and that's pretty much only when you die. No one (not even Sniffles!) had been able to explain that certain event. I didn't like thinking about it any other time, though, so I deemed it okay to push it away from my mind for the moment.
As I walked up to my door, I heard something strange, like rustling and poorly hushed shouting. Panic filled my mind as I figured out that someone else was in my home, which had been completely locked. I slowly unlocked and opened the door as quietly as I could, which seemed to work, because the people inside didn't notice.
As my door opened, I looked around. It was too dark to see anything, so I fully opened the door to let in the light. I saw Lifty and Shifty, who I had nothing but bad experiences with before, stealing and bagging pretty much everything I owned. They froze as they saw me, their eyes the sizes of dinner plates. I could see them wanting to run away, but they knew they had to finish their job. But before I could handle them, I looked everywhere else. It was the messiest my home had ever been. I could feel my heartbeat increase significantly and my breathing quicken. I tried to take deep breaths but I ended up breathing too quickly and not getting enough air, so I fainted.
End of Chapter