Lori drove her younger sister over to Meatheads, one of the seldom non-themed restaurants in all of Royal Woods. Lynn joined along because she had nothing better to do that night and Lori was stuck watching over her. Lynn Jr. didn't want to go on this excursion but she had no choice and played with a baseball during the entire ride. She also didn't really care much for the icky feelings of romance. Leni was nervous because this was her first date that she had in a while and her prior dates with boys have not gone over very well. Whether it was forgetting the date's name or not really being sure what a "parasol" was, there was always some way for the outing to go sour. Thankfully, Chaz's name was short so it was easier to remember, and she thought she knew at least a little bit of what a parasol was.
Leni did her hair up real nice for this date, in a style that was similar to her usual style, but excluded her signature sunglasses that she always forgets to actually wear. She was also adorned with blue hoop earrings and a sapphire necklace, the same colour as the dress she picked out and her black heels, which thankfully weren't stalletos. Leni hated wearing stalletos. She also had her purse on her and sat in the back on the opposite side of Vanzilla that Lynn was. Leni did eventually get her drivers' license, but was still not used to driving on her own and preferred to be driven usually, and thankfully Lori obliged.
All she was able to do during the ride was stare out at the night and watch as the street lights seem to move as the van drove past them. She also saw a couple of other couples out on their various excursions and she wished that that could be her. Leni was pretty sure that she would have a good time, especially since she knew Chaz pretty well already, something that wasn't the case for her prior recent dates. It was always very easy for her to talk to him, after all. But she still was nervous and unsure of how this evening was going to go down.
Soon enough, Lori drove into the parking lot of the restaurant and nabbed a spot nearby the entrance.
"Okay, Leni! Are you ready?" She said as she turned her head to face Leni in the seat behind her. Lori's smile melted away when she saw her sister looking out the window with a melancholy expression. "Hey, Leni. What's wrong?"
She looked towards her sister and explained, "Oh, I just... don't know if... Chaz is gonna like me."
"What?" Lori replied, "What are you talking about? Of course Chaz likes you!"
"No, I mean," Leni said meekly, "I mean, what if I make a fool of myself tonight and... and he doesn't want to spend time with me after that?"
"Oh." Lori took a moment to think, "tell you what, how about Lynn and I come into the restaurant with you, sit at a separate table, and be there with you for emotional support. If we see that everything is going fine, then we'll leave."
Leni's gloom started to dissipate, and a smile returned to her face. "Okay, I think that would be good."
"Alright then." Lori then turned towards the other side of the seats, "Lynn, we're going in the restaurant with Leni."
Lynn had completely tuned out the conversation from her mind, "Aw, man," she said, "why?"
"Because Leni might literally need some emotional support while she's on her date."
"Yeah, well hard pass. It's gonna be so lame and boring in there. I'll just stay in the car."
"Oh really," Lori said enticingly, "well Bobby told me when he was working here that there's a sports bar in here and they show all the big games happening right now."
That peaked Lynn's interest. She had wanted to know how the big game between the Royal Woods Wildcats and the Hazeltucky Herons was going to pan out.
"Well, why didn't you say so!" Lynn said with a big smile. She then made a beeline to the doors of the restaurant, impatiently waiting for the two girls exit the van.
Lori chuckled. She knew her siblings so well.
"Well, c'mon Leni. We don't wanna keep Chaz... and Lynn waiting."
Lori and Leni exited the vehicle and entering into the restaurant. They told the waitress that was nearby the entrance that someone had reserved a table for Leni. Lori gave a loving hug to her younger sister and reminded her that if she ever wanted to, she could just contact her at any time. She and Lynn then walked over to the sports bar part of the restaurant, with Lynn immediately getting comfy, seating herself on a nearby barstool watching the big game with the usual sports-loving crowd.
Leni did not have to walk too far as nearby the east part of the restaurant sat Chaz, looking through his phone.
"Chaz!" Leni called out. He got off of his phone and looked towards Leni.
"Hello, Leni," he said as he got out of the seat, though it was a slight struggle since he was somewhat overweight. The two hugged.
"I'm so happy you could make it," the crumbs of breadsticks scattered across Chaz's face, which caused Leni to giggle.
"Me too." Leni noticed the dapper suit that he was wearing. It was very eye-catching. He also was not wearing his trademark blue baseball cap, which was a nice touch. "I totes love what you are wearing!"
"You clean up nice too. Chaz like!" he replied.
"Aww, thank you. But I am not sure what chores have to do with it?" Chaz chuckled. He thought it was extra cute when Leni forgot what certain expressions meant.
The two then took a seat in the adjacent booth. Chaz went back to checking his messages on his phone, all the while still chewing on the breadsticks. Leni looked around with a big smile. She always liked the restaurant atmosphere.
"Ooh," she noticed, moving the breadsticks over to the other side of the table, "you don't want to fill up on bread now."
Chaz noticed. "You're right about that." He then continued on his phone and Leni did likewise. She started to have a sinking feeling that something was on Chaz's mind, but she was unsure about it.
Just then, a bubbly waitress chewing gum came by to their table.
"Welcome to Meatheads Steakhouse," she began, "our special tonight is salisbury steak. Ooh, I am happy to see that your date made it. She's very beautiful," the waitress complimented, "shall I start you off with anything to drink?"
"May I please have a water?" Leni asked.
"You sure can! And what about you, good sir?"
"I'll have a water as well, thank you."
"Two waters," the waitress said as she wrote on her notepad, "those will be along shortly." She then walked away to service the other customers.
Leni took a look at the menu. There were loads of delicious items on the menu. Some of the stuff she was confused about what the items were because the restaurant, but thankfully there were loads of pictures that helped Leni out immensely.
The waters came swiftly and while she was parusing the menu, she quickly glanced over to Chaz and noticed that he had a pretty glum expression. Come to think of it, Chaz wasn't really himself for the whole date. The date had only just started, but Leni was good at picking up the emotions of her loved ones, even though she wasn't always sure why they were feeling those emotions.
"Hey Chaz, are you feeling alright?" Leni enquired softly.
"Huh?" He said after a few seconds.
But before the conversation could continue, the waitress popped up again.
"You two ready to order?" she asked as she popped another bubble.
"Yes! I just have one question," Leni asked with an inquisitive look on her face, "on this menu thingie, it says that you guys have butter chicken, but I don't know if I want to really eat a poor defenseless chicken. Feathers don't sound too tasty."
The waitress just took a few seconds to process Leni's statement. Chaz's blues slightly dissipated when he heard what Leni said as a smile broke through his glum demeanor.
"Uh..." the waitress slowly stated after a few seconds, "No. We cook our chickens."
"Oh. Well, I still don't like eating those cute little birds, but I will give it a try. I'd like one of them please." The waitress jotted down Leni's request.
"And how's about you?" she asked turning over to Chaz.
Chaz had a hard time finding the words. He looked visibly nervous and sweated profusely, only being able to mutter a few "uhs" and the occasional "I" here and there.
The longsuffering waitress quickly figured that he had troubles with his order. "How's about I come back in a few minutes?" Chaz nodded with his eyes clothes and the waitress left.
Afterwards, Leni continued her conversation, "what was that all about?"
Chaz took a deep breath. "Leni..." she started, "I want to tell you something. I am not sure if you will be able to grasp the entire meaning of my dilemma, but I trust that you will be a good listener and that you will help me out."
"Okay." Leni said, gently placing her menu to her left. She didn't understand a couple of the big words that he said, but she still want to help him not be so gloomy.
"Well, you see," he started, "my family has been really wanting me to lose some weight, and I agree with them. I've been eating super healthy and hitting the gym every day for about a month now."
"Aww, that must really hurt," Leni replied. Chaz's smile reappeared over her comment.
"I mean, I have been exercising a lot lately and I have already lost 20 pounds."
"Wow, that's great!" Leni happily congratulated, noticing that he looked a little leaner than usual, "just one quick question... where did they go?" Again, Chaz felt that Leni's comment was adorable.
"That's great," he said with a smile, "uh, anyways, my parents have been really hounding me about my weight. It's got to the point of where my parents got mad at me because I had a little bit of junk food at school a few days ago. But in my defense, I had been eating healthy all week and I only had that one candy bar, but they still found out about it and got all upset about it."
"Aww, that's awful."
"Yeah, I know. I mean, I see where they are coming from, but it still made Chaz sad."
"How did they know about you eating that junk food if you ate it at school?"
"From my credit card," Chaz mentioned holding up a card, "they monitor my purchases. They know what I buy and what I don't buy. So I am worried that once they know what I purchase for dinner tonight, they'll get even more mad. I intended it so that I would eat healthy all week and then treat myself tonight on the date. But now if I buy what I actually want tonight, they'll know and they'll get more mad and I don't want them to say..." Chaz looked on the verge of tears before attempting to shake it off, "never mind. I'll just order something healthy... again. Like always."
Chaz silently sulked and looked over the menu again for anything vegan, gluten-free or super healthy to eat. Leni looked on at her melancholy friend.
"How's about I purchase dinner for tonight?"
"Y-you would do that?" Chaz said with a slight whimper.
"Of course. I know how much you like food and I see all the healthy stuff that was in your lunch throughout the week. You deserve it."
"Aww, that's super swell. Thank you!" His happy demeanor returned, "besides it actually works out. You pay for dinner and I will pay for the movie."
"We're going to a movie?" Leni happily exclaimed.
"Yeah, I was going to surprise you, but I guess the cat's out of the bag now."
"He is? Where? I love cats!" Leni looked around with glee but was disappointed to find no feline friend around, "Aww, there's no cat." Chaz became even happier and signaled for the waitress.
In no time flat, the young waitress popped up.
"You guys ready to order now?"
"Yes. I would like the special, if you please." Chaz said with a huge smile.
"An excellent choice. And you had the butter chicken, right?"
"Yes... I mean, I think I did." Leni wondered inquisitively.
"Don't worry, Leni, you did." Chaz reassured.
"Great! Your meals will be ready in a few minutes." The waitress left and the two friends awaited in eager anticipation for their delectable meals.
Around this same time, Leni's phone went off and she checked her text messages. There was a message from Lori who was still sitting on the other side of the restaurant. The message read: "U ok?" and Leni swiftly replied, "Yes! We are totes havin a gr8 time :)" Leni liked texting because it didn't matter if she did not matter if she did not know how to spell a word and she liked the cute little smiley face. Lori replied, "you got this girl".
Lori was preparing to leave because she knew that Leni was doing well on her date and that she could hold down the fort. She looked around to try and find where Lynn had gone off to and found her nearby a large television with a bunch of the usual crowd, hyped and excited over the thrilling game being displayed. Lynn was right at home.
"Come on, McCormick! You can do it. You've stolen second, go for third!" Lynn cheered from her seat.
"Come on, Lynn, we gotta go." Lori said, being the party pooper.
"But McCormick's about to break the tie!"
"We need to leave though. You can catch the rest of the game at home"
"But someone might break McCormick's non-broken tie. The game!" Lynn whined as Lori dragged her out of the restaurant, almost causing a scene.