The start of the second semester has been Hades, and I'm sure many of you will agree. Of course, it's partially my fault. I signed up for several national science competitions and I recently turned the bulk of them in (DuPont, ExploraVision, eCyberMission). Anyhow. To make up for lack of updates (I apologize for that), I've written this chapter, and I have to say, I'm actually quite proud of it. I thoroughly enjoyed writing this chapter, and hope you guys will like it, too :) Thanks for all the support!

Lu Mia

Yes, I know. I have a weird name. You would think it's "Mia Lu", wouldn't you? But it so happens to be the twenty-first century, and since all that prim and posh of "proper names" and etiquette is so nineteenth and twentieth centuries, my parents decided to have some liberty and name me... something different, shall we say?

But the thing is, I'm not here to talk about my name, or how strange it is, or behold, how strange my parents are, I'm here to talk about this girl... and this guy. No. The guy can't be called a "guy". He's much to scrawny. I'll call him "kid" for now. You're probably tired of my blabbering.

It all started on a sunny Sunday morning...

"And this," a scrawny kid with curly black hair swept his arm majestically over a silver utensil, "is a fork!" The girl across from him chuckled and rolled her eyes. She looked refreshed, decked out in a pair of blue jeans and a white blouse.

"Leo, I already know what a fork is," she said, a smile lighting up her face radiantly. The kid, Leo, did not seem to be in any way fazed by that comment. Instead, he quickly waved to me, gesturing for me to come to their table.

"Yes," I asked. "Is there anything I need to get for you?" The couple seemed fine; there were no spills, and they had ordered five minutes ago. Their food wouldn't be ready for at least another five minutes.

"Oh, no," the boy quickly assured me and then turned toward the girl and asked her, "So Calypso, do you know who she is?" He nodded toward me, to show who he was indicating.

Calypso frowned for a second before answering. "Um. She's a girl, is she not?" Leo then frowned too.

"Well... I was thinking more along the lines of a waitress..." Calypso quickly shook out of her frown and slapped Leo on the hand.

"Leo! I already know exactly what a waitress is, and you shouldn't be rude!" She exclaimed before turning to me to give me an apology with her eyes.

"It's fine," I said before turning away, but still staying close enough to hear what they were saying. There were only two other occupied tables in the restaurant anyway.

"Oh, Calypso! I'm trying to teach you the twenty-first century!" Leo said, a ridiculous grin spreading. "Say, do you know what a chicken nugget is? Hazel didn't know it, and I'm guessing you don't either!"

Calypso furrowed her brows. "Say that again? A chicken... nugget?! Is that a gold nugget shaped like a chicken?"

Leo's head suddenly disappeared as he fell onto the booth seats in laughter. Calypso raised an eyebrow at his behavior, but didn't say anything, and merely smiled.

After about a minute, Leo popped back up again, his face red and the edges of his eyes tinged with what looked like tears.

"Well then, grasshopper, a chicken nugget (here, he held up one finger to seem sophisticated) is—" He cut off. Leo suddenly lifted his head and closed his eyes, sniffing the air. And then, lowering his arm, he pointed toward the plate being carried out by another waitress, Elizabeth, my co-worker. "THAT! THAT. IS A CHICKEN NUGGET!"

What little conversation in the restaurant froze as everyone turned to look at Leo, and Elizabeth stopped walking. Leo leapt out of his booth, and sped toward Elizabeth, who was so startled, she nearly upset the plate. But Leo was seemingly on a roll. He swished the plate, almost gracefully, from Elizabeth, did a pirouette (which looked awkward), and did a split in mid-air before collapsing back on the bench across from Calypso, the plate held aloft in the air with his right hand.

Quickly, his left hand swiped the cover of the plate off.

"This," he huffed, "this is a chicken nugget."

SeaSpree~