HEEEEY THIS IS PATTY THE PARROT! Griffin is not heeere right now, and Sam the sloth is too lazy to answer the phone, so leave a message, bawk! ...haha I'm totally kidding. This is Griffin - leave a message!

Beeep.

"Griffin, son, it's Dad. Just calling to check on you and to tell you I love ya! So how have you been? I'm not doing so well. You remember how the restaurant has enchilada nights on Wednesdays, right? Well, T-bo called and said that he had to go back to his home planet, or something. I think that's in Michigan - So good news bud, you're filling in for him! Alright, be careful when you clean the bathroom, and don't forget to bring gloves, or I might fire ya! Haha. Actually, you've been doing pretty lousy these days, hm… You're fired! Haha, just kidding, heh. But, seriously, bring gloves."

Beeep.

"Hey, it's Gibby! I'm just calling to confirm our dancing lessons. Remember to be at the dancing peacock by seven! Also, you might wanna read up on the dress code I just emailed to you before you get there. Cheers!"

Beeep.

"Hey Griffin, this is Spencer – I meant to call earlier, but, uh, something came up. Anyways, I'm just calling to tell you that Sam dropped by and she said that her phone got dipped in radioactive waste so it might spontaneously combust if you ever call it, text it, or even think of the number in your head. So don't! And – and her – I mean your – apartment is, uh…flooded! Before you ask, your peewee babies are fine. But don't visit! There are…otters swimming all over the place and beavers and pairs of majestic swans pecking and making a heart. But Sam said not to worry; she's making an endangered animal casserole right now, and stuffing the rest into hotdogs. Hee, hot…dogs. Did you ever notice how weird that word is? Anyways, my point was, don't text Sam, don't call Sam, and definitely do not –

Beeep!

"Crap - this thing cut me off! Anyways, DON'T VISIT SAM AT CARLY'S. You know Shane, right? He's a nudist. So really, don't visit unless you call first…which you can't! Do not call! Cuz, er… Shane is fond of video chat. Oh! This reminds me! I had this VIP spot booked at this peewee-babies convention in Manitoba, but I realized I couldn't go because Sadie had her piano recital that day, so it's yours if you want it. Anyways, that's mostly it, how do you stop- "

Beeep.

"GODDAMMIT I CAN'T SHUT THIS FU-"

Beeep.

"I got it."

--

Oh man, a peewee babies convention? I hang up excitedly, resisting the urge to squeal, because squealing isn't manly. Clearing my throat (in case any urge to squeal reoccurs); I pick up my phone automatically, already typing Sam's speed dial number to tell her, but I stop myself when I remember. Oops. If I wanna go to the convention, I better not piss off the man (that is, Spencer. Spencer is the man).

So I pocket my phone and sigh, looking at the clock. I was at the restaurant at that moment, finishing up my shift in the back of the kitchen with Paolo. The rest of the guy's already left and the night shift people already came in, but I wanted to finish this order before I leave. Given that I will one day own this restaurant, I want people to know that I'm hard working, determined, and ready to serve them in the best way 24/7. That's 7 in the morning to 12 PM at night, right?

Noticing that I was drifting off to my culinary fantasies again (no wonder Sam wants to marry me), I pull myself back to earth and sprinkle some rosemary onto the chicken, then handing the dish to Paolo. "All yours, Paolo," I tip my imaginary hat.

"My name's Steve." He looked at me.

I shrug and move to the door. He looks like a Paolo to me. "Bye Paolo!"

"IT'S STEVE!"

But I was already halfway out the door. Too bad for Steve.

--

Coming out of the kitchen to the dining room, I head towards the register, telling my mom I'll be heading off. She seemed to have not heard me, busy with the customer's orders, so I clear my throat.

"Oh! Sorry, son," my mom says, noticing me for the first time. The costumer nudges her impolitely and she turns back to them, giving them their change," here you go." She looks exhausted. "Have a nice night!"

"Lucille isn't here yet?" I ask, leaning on the counters.

"No," she sighs. "She told me that she had to go to the doctors today, but truthfully," she leans in to whisper, "I think that she and T-bo eloped."

I chuckle at that. My mom is known for being the eyes and ears of the joint, but she must be way off on this one. Lucille's like forty at least, and last I heard T-bo was too focused on mass marketing his pickle smoothies to date seriously.

"Don't laugh, it could be true." My mom nudges me. "Table five's open."

"Oh, actually, I was just coming here to tell you that I'm leaving. My shift's over." I point to my wrist.

"You don't have a watch," my mom tells me.

"No, I know."

"Well, have fun," she sighs. "While I'm dealing with all these relentless costumers who want this and that and never gives me a break..."

"Alright mom, you can stop with the guilt trip," I chuckle. "I'll wait on number five."

She winks at me and gives me their order. "Risotto and cream and cheese pasta with salads on the side. And, apparently, no cheese in the cream and cheese pasta." she frowns.

"Probably teenagers." I say, taking the plates. "What about the drinks?"

"Just water," she shakes her head.

I nod. "Definitely teenagers."

She laughs and gives me a small container of pudding. "For luck," she explains.

--

Heading off to table five, which was in one of the booths in the back, I mentally ask myself where I'd sleep tonight. My apartment was definitely out of the question, since it was flooded. Mom and Dad's house was a maybe, but Gabe was in his terrible-twos, and if I wanted to be nice and rested for the convention, I should probably stay away. That leaves Caydo's house. Okay, I shrug, unaware of the people who was watching me shrug out of nowhere.

Opening the door to the booth, I see in the dim light that some teenagers were holding hands. Glad that they weren't doing anything else, I call out, "excuse me, could I open the light for a sec so I could put the plate down?" It wasn't so much that I couldn't see where the table was (because I could perfectly) as it was that I swear the girl looked familiar...

"Griffin?!" Yep, it was Natalie.

"Hey sis!" I grin, setting the plate down, "who's your friend?"

Nat gives me an I-thought-you-couldn't-see-the-table look, and I remembered to turn on the lights. Then I picked up the dish and put it back down. "There," I say. "It was crooked."

"I thought your shift was over?" Natalie asked in an I-don't-want-you-to-be-here kind of way.

"It was. Then mom guilt me into this."

"Oh, well, why don't you leave now?" She suggests in a you-should-really-leave kind of way (waay expressive with her body language, was my little sister). Her little boyfriend looked between us, not sure what to do.

"I will." I put up my hands, "as soon as I get to know your little friend here." I grin, remembering to show all my teeth. "What's your name?"

"MyKynnzyye, sir." He says a bit unsurely.

"Oh, that's nice, Mackenzie."

"Actually, you can just call me Mac," he offers. "And it's not Mackenzie, it's MyKynnzyye. There's a slight difference in the way you pronounce the 'e'. It's hard to tell sometimes, but it's really distinct once you use it in a sentence. Like, 'finish your homework, MyKynnzyye,' and 'take out the garbage, MyKynnzyye,' see? My mom and dad had that argument when I was born, too. My dad was gonna call me Mac, but then mom said that oh no, there are like million's of Mac's in the world, so dad told her to do whatever she wants but I was gonna be named Mac, so my mom became creative and decided on this for -"

I looked at Natalie, "is this guy for real?" I mouth. She shrugs, but I could tell she was trying not to laugh.

"- and now my dad calls me Renesme!" he finishes cheerfully.

I pause. "Yeah, okay, Renesme. What are you doing with my baby sister?"

Natalie spoke up, suddenly furious, "I'm not a baby anymore! And we're on a date. A date, Griffin. That means you should be leaving."

I throw up my hands, "okay, okay I'm going." I stood up, knowing that I don't need to ruin that guy's chances anymore. He's kind of doing fine on his own.

Natalie suddenly looked serious, "wait, where are you heading? I heard the apartment was flooded."

"Wow, news travel fast."

"Yeah. Spencer called me, which is weird, because I don't even know the guy that much and I had no idea he had my number. I heard he called mom and dad too, which is weird too because I didn't know this guy was so thorough. I mean, he did blow up that stay-puft marshmallow man that time we were invited to his art gallery because a peanut burst into flames." she looked amazed. "Wow, it doesn't even make sense when you say it out loud."

"That's Spencer for ya," I scratch my head. "And I'm kind of thinking I'll just stay at Caydo's."

Natalie snorted, "Elyssa will be happy to have you." I gave her a questioning look. "And Caydo, too, of course." she nods, forking her Risotto.

"Well, this has been fun," I ruffle her hair, "but I gotta jet before Caydo heads to a strip club. I'll send Laura over to pick up the checks."

"I'm a Roy," she protests. "Why do I have to pay?"

"Dad goes through the customer log every night." I remind her. "Do you really want him to know you were with a guy?"

"No," she sighs. "He'll probably tell me I can't date until I'm married. I'll pay."

"Oh, thanks! This pasta's really good, by the way," MyKynnzyye cuts in, mouthful of food.

Natalie slaps her hand on her forehead and I grin at her, ruffling her hair again and telling her to have fun. Then I open the door to the booth and left the restaurant, chuckling to myself.

"Keeper."

--

Caydo's house is 20 minutes away from the restaurant. A distance of which he moans about all the time, since Roy's is his favorite place to pick up chicks. After parking my motorcycle, I went up to their door and knocked, hoping they were home.

Elyssa answered the door. "Oh, hey Griffin," she looked surprised. She's Caydo's twin sister. A quiet girl, but very fun once you get to know her. I'd like to think I have, but she always seemed shy around me.

"Sup," I nod my head. "Is Caydo here?"

"Oh, yeah," she nods lightly and turned back. "Caydo! Griffin's here!"

In a second, my best friend appeared at the door. "Yo, dude, what are you doing here? I was just about to leave."

I shrug, "I had to. I have no place to stay tonight."

"Why?" Caydo asks. Elyssa gives him a look, "oh, yeah, come on in."

I walked through the door and plopped myself down on Caydo's couch, the twins followed.

"So what happened?" Elyssa asked me, "Did you and Sam have a fight?"

"Nah, she just destroyed the apartment, so she's staying at Carly's, and I didn't wanna babysit Gabe all night so I wanted to come here and ask if I could stay tonight," I explained.

Elyssa nodded, "of course you can stay here. My - I mean our - door is always open to you."

I grin and moves over to high five Caydo. "Suh-weet! It'll be like a sleepover!"

"Dude, sleepovers are for chicks," Caydo says, "we'll have a..."

"A man-over?" I suggested. Caydo laughs, "Alright!" and we high five again.

Elyssa smiles and stands up, "well, I gotta go back upstairs. Got essays to finish," she explains.

We nod and laugh at this typical Elyssa behavior. She's studying psych at University of Washington and comes back once a week or so to the fam so that Caydo doesn't destroy the whole house. Their folks moved to Vancouver for their golden age, so the house and all the assets are theirs to use while their pa and ma are playing bridge with old Canadians.

Excited to start planning our "man-over", I turn to Caydo. "Dude, this is gonna be so awesome."

"Totally," he bobs his head enthusiastically, and we high-five again.

Then we sat there for five minutes. "...So, what now?" I scratch my head.

"How long are you staying again?" Caydo asks.

Not catching the insult, I answer the question. "Just tonight, man. Tomorrow I'm heading out to Canada."

"Sweet, you gonna go visit my folks?" Caydo asks.

"Nah, there's this pee-wee baby convention in Manitoba I gotta get to," I say.

"Awesome!" and we high-five again.

This was gonna be a long night.

--

OH GRIFFIN.

And the next round of POVs began!

Say ELEPHANTS HAVE VERY LARGE TEAS if you enjoyed the chapter and FOR ALL THE TEA IN ELEPHANTS if you didn't.

P.S. also, I photoshopped a picture of the future-gang (before the old gang replaced them)'s Facebook. It's a nice little complimentary thing to go with the fic.

http :// i535. photobucket. com/ albums / ee357/ PinkJelly_520 / fb4copy. png, OR, you can check our profile!

Remove the spaces and tell me what you think!

DO-DAH, DO-DAH!