Max didn't look up from his lunch. Three of the extras (bit players, backgrounders, cameo characters, whatever you wanted to call them) were trying engage in friendly conversion with him, something that was not on the agenda today.
And he know all too well why.
Mary looked at her two fallow buddies, Peach Cat, and Marcia Martian with a tinge of concern for her unlikely friend. Normally, a situation like this called for the good old dollar bait, but this time was different. She had a job to do.
"Mr. Max," Mary began, a bit nervous about unleashing his trademark rage.
"What do you want?" replied Max, still not looking up from his lunch. "If it's about Elmyra..."
"Please, Mr. Max. This is not about publicity, it's about tragedy. Your...associate, Elmyra Duff, was in a horrible situation yesterday and..."
"THAT'S HER OWN FAULT!" Max snapped back. "Has it even OCCURRED to you that I DON'T know what happened because, you know, I WASN'T EVEN THERE!?
"Mr. Max, I know that," Mary clarified, thanking God that Max had his lunch so late and no one was staring them down. "The question is if you're going to support Elmyra during her recovery."
Max perked up at that last sentence.
"I thought you know that already, Max said in a sly tone.
Mary decide that this would be a good time to shut up and end her story.
"As you can see," said Mary as she turned to face the camera. "Montana Max has, more or less, declined our request for a interview. We will bring you more updates to this story as they occur. For K-Acme TV, this is Mary Melody.
Mary turned back to Max, but before spin-changing out of her news casting uniform into more casual attire, as casual as it could get for a rainy day, anyways.
"Max," said Mary all motherly like as she sat down next to him a give him a pat on the back. "I'm proud of you and Elmyra sticking together."
"Um... yeah."
"Come on let's go," Max sadly took Mary's hand and proceeded to walk with her out of the school and onto the school grounds outside.
The rain was coming down hard, but all of the extras present outside Le Trendy Desertary couldn't care less. A few of them had decided not to wait and had started to take study notes. Two human toons, a ponytailed platinum blonde with a lit cigarette and a strawberry blonde with a mullet cut stood out.Key Gladstone and Rhoda Queen, like the rest of the extras, had become fast friends for one reason. "They already, like, HIRED the stars they needed, they just need to fit in the blanks with all of us," Key gave a good smirk as she remembered. "I'd tell the story of how I came to be here but...""...It specks for all of us," Rhoda finished. "Really, it does." She puffed on her cigarette while collating her memories of her on her one and only moment of fame. "Although thrusting a "fake friend" scenario on top of Elmyra wasn't the best of ideas. She only got crushed by it.""Did she get back up on her feet?" A basset hound holding a sign with barely legible handwriting with his teeth walked between Key's legs."Yes Byron, she did. The things an air-head will do in the pursuit of cute critters," Rhoda did not show any emotion.Yep , like, that's true. But don't get me started on her sympathy card moments. In the prom episode, my episode, that Elmyra And Max Recipe For Disaster should have STAYED a disaster."Oh, and speaking of..." Byron surveyed the sounding streets. "Where's Mary? You'd think she be here by now being the leader and all""Byron, there's, like, nothing to worry about," Key knelt down and give Byron a nice pat on the head. "On the one coin, it will definitely be a first if Mary arrives late. Oh the other coin..." she looked up at the ongoing traffic. "...It may be that she has some private business to attend to. And that private business may be a lot important than a simple meet-up with friends." At the sound of that strung paragraph, a young dog(in dogs years, at least) pondered young thoughts. Maybe today would be a good day to just sit down and relax and try to think about the present rather than the future.