Chapter 3:Sore from Soaring
A couple hours later my wings felt like lead blocks. We'd never flown for more than a couple minutes at a time before and never higher than a hundred feet; it was exhilarating. Regardless, I was about to drop out of the sky, which would be horrible considering we were thousands of feet in the air. I absolutely hated having less endurance than Flobie, but I was starving and there wasn't much I could do about it, being the wimpy bird kid that burns calories at the speed of light that I am.
"Flobie! I need to land, I can't take it anymore!" I yelled over the rush of the wind.
"Great, I almost gave you that satisfaction of winning myself." she smiled weakly, angling her wings to start descending.
After circling to check for danger, we landed with wobbly legs in a small clump of trees to avoid being seen by humans. We seemed to be in an unpopulated area. There were still plenty of trees around, but I could tell it was becoming more barren each mile we traveled.
"Seems like all the food is out," I whined as Flobie stuffed the last of her share in her mouth. She blinked in acknowledgement, her cheeks puffed out like a chipmunks. "We'll have to go to the nearest town and stock up. Is there anything else in the bag?"
"Besides the jackets that we're wearing to hide our wings and this green paper, I think its called money, there's nothing in here." Flobie reported.
After a couple hours of sleeping that afternoon we forced our exhausted selves into the air and kept flying east. Soon we could see paved roads and city lights. Finally, I'd get to see my first human that's not a scientist and wanting to experiment on me!
"Well, this is exciting." Flobie said nervously. We were standing outside the cities limits fidgeting with our jackets. It's a good thing those hikers were big; we needed baggy clothes to cover our wings. Our wings, even though they were 14 feet across, could still be folded neatly against our backs. You could hardly tell that we were different besides the fact that it was boiling hot outside and we were wearing the only ones wearing jackets.
"We'll be fine." I whispered, stepping onto the cement side walk past a sign that said "Welcome to Alpine, Texas!"
First we went inside a casual diner. It wasn't the cleanest place in town and not the busiest, which suited me just fine. We hopped into a booth, waiting for something to eat to just appear right in front of us. Instead a lady walked slowly over with two menus under her arm, a notepad and pen in her apron pockets.
"What can I get you girls?" she asked, her blonde hair getting in her eyes as she handed us the menus and gave us a minute to decide. She looked up from her now open notepad and smiled at us encouragingly, probably wanting a big tip. Ah, our first non-scientist human interaction!
"Um, I'll have a cheeseburger with fries, a quarter-chicken with mashed potatoes, and two shakes- one vanilla and one chocolate." I looked up at her as she stopped writing my order because I had listed so many things off the menu. She raised an eyebrow. "We're waiting for some friends to come meet us here. I hope they make it soon." I peered through the glass walls, pretending to search for our friends. The only 'friends' I was on the lookout for were Erasers.
"I guess I'll just have the same as her. I bet Brittany would love that too. Don't you think so, Abby?" Flobie directed towards me, knowing I would have no idea that she was talking to me. She continued to have an innocent expression on her face.
"Sure does." I answered after a slight pause. The waitress was busy writing our huge list down. We sat as still as statues, having no idea how to act like normal humans.
"I'll have it all out as soon as I can." She gave one last fleeting glance back at us before heading to the kitchen to put in our order.
I gave a sigh of relief. We didn't know much about human behavior, but we did know humans didn't eat as much food as we did. Since we have such a fast metabolism; we have to eat about 5,000 calories a day. At the School they never fed us normal food. Well, normal for Americans. We had fruits, vegetables, bread, and meat. I think I've had ice cream once a couple Christmases ago when a whitecoat had decided to spread the joy of the season instead of being a Scrooge.
Flobie and I sat in silence, watching the street outside. Every shadow seemed to hold a threat. The diner was silent besides the occasional noises from the kitchen. Despite how calm it seemed, it still made me antsy. The only things making me feel better was Flobie's mind reading for potential threats and that food was on its way.
About ten minutes later Flobie saw the waitress coming back with the food and decided we should put on a show. When she was nearing our table Flobie exclaimed. "Awe, Brittany and Tom can't make it! They just sent me a text saying that their parents grounded them for not coming straight home today after lunch."
"That's too bad. Well, I guess we'll just have to try and eat all their food." I replied as glumly as I could, trying not to smile. I looked up to see the waitress setting a tray of savory goodness down right in front of us. Ah, I could practically see a shining ray from Heaven lighting the food, making it look even more delectable.
She placed the plates in front of us and commented "It's too bad your friends couldn't make it. I hope you enjoy all this food. Good luck eating it all!"
I couldn't even say thank you because my mouth was being stuffed with everything I could get my hands on. I hadn't ever been able to eat whatever I wanted to before. It was amazing! I could tell Flobie was trying to remain as mannerly as possibly but failing. The food was just too good to let it sit there.
In the next couple minutes we finished our burgers and moved on to the chicken. It's a good thing the waitress wasn't checking up on us because we would have grossed her out. We looked like Great White sharks in a feeding frenzy.
With bones being the only thing left on the plate, we moved onto the shakes. I have to say they were my favorite part. Flobie looked like she was drinking pure bliss, closing her eyes and sucking it down like there was no tomorrow. Maybe because there wouldn't be.
We set down the tall glasses and wiped our mouths on the napkins, finally full. We leaned back in the booth, sighing contently. The waitress returned, coming to a standstill a couple feet away from our table.
"Did you really eat all that food?" she quickly questioned before clearing her throat and saying nicely. "Is that all for you, ladies?"
"That's all." Flobie stated, sitting up to look more presentable. I stayed leaned back, not caring.
"Here's the bill then. Enjoy your night." She said, smiling again. It didn't reach her eyes; the mystery of the disappearing food still bothered her as she hurried back to the kitchen.
"What's the damage?" I questioned, waving my hand for the bill.
Flobie's eyes had widened, not comprehending the number. "It was thirty five dollars for all that food!" She looked around, trying to find the waitress. As if it were going to be the wrong bill or something, I thought, looking around at all the empty tables surrounding us.
Flobie decided to rummage through our packs, looking to see how much money we had. She placed every bill she had on the table as well as the coins. I decided to count it all up.
"It adds up to be a total of $36.53." I announced. Flobie sighed. "I guess we're all out of money now. The rest is a tip." She nodded, putting it all in the little folder and standing up to gather our bags. We both made sure our jackets were secure and headed out the door.
We walked along the sidewalk by the glass windows, passing the waitress getting the booklet where we sat. Flobie sent me a thought She thinks we're lousy tippers.