Once Again, It's Jackle

Chapter 4

Claris received some mix CDs and sheet music from Beat to learn the songs she'll sing for their next gig at a Bar Mitzvah. Some of the songs were known, while others Claris never heard of before. Beat said that he works with Madison to write some songs. Beat does the music while Madison does the lyrics.

When Claris first went to their practice, she was nervous. She has the songs down to a T, but how good were the other members? Would Claris like the other members? She was about to know when a woman with purple hair and a suit was tuning her guitar. "Oh, hi, you must be Claris. You're cuter than the photo."

Cute? Claris was in sweats and a Les Miserable T-shirt. Yet this woman still thought she was appealing. Claris smiled, "Thanks, you look pretty dapper yourself."

The woman laughed, "Oh, I have to work after this so I have to look my best."

"Where do you work that's so late and needs a suit?"

"Oh, I work at Bean Grinders, a Café that's downtown."

Lucky. Claris often liked pouring coffee at McDonalds and wished she could do that for her entire job. "I'm still in high school, but I also work at McDonalds."

"I worked at Burger King when I was in high school. It really sucked," Madison put down hir guitar, "Grinders is better, but I still deal with idiots."

Suddenly, Beat went into the garage with his drumsticks, "Where Sonia?"

Madison answered that one, "She's in the car doing her makeup. I don't get it, we're only practicing."

Beat himself was in pajama pants and a tank top. His green hair was in a ponytail but unkempt.

"I'm here!" A woman with short styled hair wearing a miniskirt and fashion tank top came into the garage. She was carrying a guitar case. Her face looked the best out of the four, probably because of the makeup. This must be Sonia.

"So has Claris met Madison yet?" Sonia asked.

Claris nodded her head.

"Isn't ze great?" Sonia giggled, "I'd totally date hir if I didn't have a girlfriend."

Claris looked at Madison for a moment, then at Sonia, "you used gender neutral pronouns. Is Madison neither male nor female?"

Madison eyes grew wide, "you're the first person I didn't have to explain most of it to. I'm actually both rather than neither."

Claris nodded her head, "I have a friend who's neither gender." Then Claris paused for a second. "Actually, I have two friends who are neither gender."

Claris found herself in a playroom like setting. This was Jackle's location again. Claris looked around not to find Jackle. She bet that Jackle was trying to scare her again. It was the anticipation that scared her more than Jackle actually scaring her.

Jackle suddenly appeared in a poof of smoke. "Hi!"

That wasn't scary at all.

Jackle got out hir tarot deck and set them on a table. "Draw three cards."

Claris did so.

"Hmm…" Jackle looked at the cards, "looks like you're going to lose something but that will come to a new change."

Claris looked around as she bit her lip, "can you specify what?"

"If these cards weren't open to interpretation, then they wouldn't work now would they?" Jackle began to cackle, fly up and threw the cards everywhere.

"So I joined a band," Claris called out, "so I guess I will be a singer."

More cackling came out of Jackle's mouth, "you're taking steps! Soon enough you're going to be famous."

Claris rolled her eyes, "why do you want me to be so successful anyway?"

Jackle eyes looked directly at Claris, hir smiled turned upside down, "Claris, you know I was created to scare you out of your five ideya."

Claris nodded her head, "so wouldn't myself failing in life make you successful?"

Jackle shook hir head, "nothing would have mattered, since you defeated Wizeman so your Ideya wouldn't be able to be taken."

Claris looked down. She now kind of felt bad for defeating Wizeman.

"I wanted you to succeed," Jackle mentioned, "but my job doesn't allow me to make dreamers successful. That's nightopian work."

"So why don't you rebel like NiGHTS?" Claris suggested to Jackle. This might be first steps for more nightmaren to rebel.

Jackle smiled again, "you were my first Dreamer; I made my mistake in being too invested in you and your life. Now I stay away from my emotional bounds and be as insane as I can. It's more of a joy to scare kids when you don't know them too well."

"Oh," Claris looked down, "must be hard to be a nightmaren."

"Not at all," Jackle spun around in circles, "Once you get used to it, it's fun!"

Claris laughed, "Guess it is, guess it is."

Claris was working at the counter at McDonalds. Claris was pretty good at listing the orders and making change. She still had the headset on her for the drive through, but she was getting more walk ins that night than drive ins.

That was when Beat, Sonia and Madison walked in.

"Oh my gosh," Sonia cried as she ran over to the counter, "we finally found her!" Sonia leaned over the counter to give Claris a hug, "she looks so cute in the uniform."

Madison laughed, "don't get too personable, managers hate it when friends go to restaurants and talk to the employees."

"Okay, you meanie," Sonia frowned as she let Claris go; "I sure talk to people when I do my job."

"I think people want tattoo artists to talk to them. This isn't the case with food servers," Beat said, the stood in front of the counter and played customer, "I'll have the number 1 meal."

"Oh, I'll have the six chicken Nuggets," said Sonia.

"I'll just have a hamburger and fries," Madison said.

Claris typed down the items and Beat gave Claris some money.

"Oh, right, we need to tell you something about our next gig," Beat said, "it's at a bar, and we know you're a teenager. So I can pay for a fake ID and take it out of your portion, you just need to find a way to get it."

Claris' pupils grew. She had to keep her feelings in, so she could keep professional. Is this the thing she was going to lose? That is, unless if she could find a way to get a fake ID.