Eventually, after some time trying to plan things out more thoroughly, Crystal was able to enter the restaurant, with a 'Fake Date' by her side; but unfortunately, the person that she had selected to be her 'Fake Boyfriend' for tonight was...her ex-boyfriend, Derek. She really didn't want to pick him out of all the boys that she's neutral with, but after giving it some thought, she found her options were unfortunately limited; because she knew Goth Boy wouldn't want any part of this, Ray obviously wasn't available, Tim definitely wouldn't want any part of this considering he'd be ruining a date involving his best friend, and there was no way in hell that she was going to ask James to help her out on this; so, she had no other choice but to pick Derek for this. Hopefully, he doesn't take this as any sort of sign that they're going to get back together, which it isn't.
Now the only problem that was left was the whole 'formal-wear' policy that this restaurant has; but thankfully, and unfortunately too, she had all of that completely taken care of. Before he got here, Derek had received a dress from the rebel's bedroom that she had stored away in her closet for occasions such as these; thankfully, he had been passing by her house when she had previously called him, and he was still neutral with her parents in order to actually get it; and wouldn't she know it, he made it her, dress in hand, within only half an hour. Ironically enough, Derek was already dressed in formal-wear himself upon arriving here, or formally enough; he was just wearing a simply black button-down dress-shirt, dark gray dress-pants, and a dark blue necktie; and now it was time for Crystal to get dressed formally.
"Are you almost done in there, Crystal?!" Derek asked, leaning against the wall next to the woman's restroom. "I don't know any girl who takes this long to put on a simple dress!"
"Would you shut up?!" Crystal shouts from inside one of the bathroom stalls. "I haven't worn a dress since I was in middle-school; so, obviously, it's going to take me awhile to get this damn thing on!"
"Well, jeez, don't break your back trying to get yourself into it!"
"Screw you!" Crystal shouts back, before the sound of banging could be heard on one of the bathroom stalls, presumably hers; although, Derek doesn't know whether she's ramming into it while getting the dress on or punching it out of frustration, either way he wouldn't be surprised. "Gah...finally, got it on..." She muttered as she began to make her exit.
Derek turned to face the bathroom door so he can see how his ex-girlfriend looked, and when he saw her in the dress given to her, he was totally awestruck. Her hair was pretty much the same, but the dress really made the tomboy look rebellious, yet pretty at the same time; it was a black and purple thin-strap dress with a black corset that somewhat resembled her vest, while the skirt-part of it was wide, had visible ruffles, and reaches down to her knees; the only thing from her original outfit that she kept on were her black and white striped leggings, as well as her cleats. Needless to say, Derek had never been this attracted to Crystal before in his entire life, not even when they were dating.
"W-Would you quit looking at me like that?" Crystal asked, looking downward to hide her blush.
"How can I not?" Derek asked as a smile began to form on his face. "You look so damn beautiful in that dress, Montell."
"Speak for yourself, asshole..." The tomboy then muttered, still trying to hide her blush away from her ex-boyfriend. "I look like a fucking feather-duster in this thing."
"Well...then you look like a very beautiful feather-duster in that dress." This compliment made the rebel roll her eyes and shove Derek lightly on his shoulder; although, she was completely inexpressive, unlike him. "So, anyway, what do you have planned here, Montell? You haven't exactly told me why you were even here in the first place."
"Then why don't I show you..." Crystal said as she guides her ex-boyfriend over to the side of the receptionist desk, who thankfully had no one next to it in order for her to be mentioning any of this. She points over to the table where Chaz and Summer were sitting at, then continued explaining from there. "I'm going to finally break those two up, once and for all."
"Really? Three years after high-school and you're now deciding to get back at Summer?" The bully questions with an eyebrow raised. "What made you finally decide to take revenge?"
"It's a very long story that I rather not get into right now, but all I can tell you is that a majority of it involves Yuki."
"Okay; so, Summer probably called Yuki an idiot or a loser or something...what's the big deal?"
"It's more than that-" Crystal immediately stopped talking as soon as she saw the receptionist walk back to his desk. "Look, just drop the reason for all of this, okay? I'll talk to you more about it some other time; but for right now, we gotta get ourselves a table." She then turned her head towards the receptionist. "Are there any spare tables left?"
"Thankfully for you, there's plenty." The man said as he picked up two menus off of his desk. "Just follow me."
As instructed, Crystal and Derek followed the man over to their table, passing by Chaz and Summer's table in the proceed; but thankfully, since they were about a few feet away from where their path, neither of them got busted, especially by the former, as he'd most likely be pissed with her and prevent the revenge plan from succeeding. Despite that, they unfortunately weren't lucky enough to not get caught by Ray and Raven; the latter of whom was giving Crystal was a rather puzzled look upon noticing her, probably because of the fact that she was here with her own ex-boyfriend of all people. Ray, on the other hand, just stared at her with a look that says 'Don't you dare try anything stupid'; not that she's promising that something like that won't happen while she's here.
Eventually, the fake couple arrived at their table, which was located on the left side of the building; but this wasn't much of a detriment to Crystal's revenge plan, since they were still somewhere near Chaz and Summer's table, and there was a semi-large rectangular potted plant keeping the table hidden from their view. After they were seated, the receptionist handed them their menus and took off back to his desk; but rather than look through them to see what they wanted to eat, Crystal and Derek discarded them under the table, since neither of them were really planning on eating here anyway. Although, they did decide to order themselves some beer instead; but mainly because they were curious how the ones here taste compared to the bars that they both usually go to.
After peeking over the large potted bush, Crystal sat back down at their table and began a conversation with her ex-boyfriend. "So, it looks like Summer ordered a large salad to herself; and Chaz...I don't know, maybe his order's not ready yet." She stated as she glanced over to the plant one more time, before turning back to Derek. "Sadly, I can't seem to find any sort of way to ruin their date without being caught; so, do you have any ideas?"
"Let me take a look for myself." Derek said, before standing up out of his chair and heading over to the plant; and after about a few seconds, he came back to the table and sat down. "Looks like I got nothing too, Crystal..." He huffed. "If only Brandi Taylor was with us..."
"Brandi Taylor; that obnoxious prankster with the eyepatch?" The rebel then questioned, only to get a nod from her ex-boyfriend. "Now what the heck is she gonna in all of this, aside from fuck everything up?"
"Hey, I'm just saying that if she were here, she would've had this entire revenge scheme all figured out by now, and probably even done with it already." Derek then pointed at his ex-girlfriend. "You, on the other hand, came into this without any plan whatsoever."
"I do have a plan: I come in here, and then there, I improvise." Crystal stated.
"Also, if Brandi was here, she'd probably tell you that 'improvising' isn't much of a good idea when it comes to conducting plans; because that's like deciding to pull a prank on the cheerleading-squad by going to the school's football field, empty-handed mind you, and...just hope something happens that would result in some sort of plan coming to your head."
"Well, it's not like me 'improving' my plans hasn't completely backfired on me before..." Crystal's voice then trailed off as she soon noticed something unusual about the couple that was just passing their table; more specifically, the unusual thing that was sticking out of the woman's purse. Without any warning, it hopped right out of the purse and onto the fake couple's table, surprising them both. "What the hell?!" The rebel then exclaimed, catching the attention of the passing couple.
"Oh, I am terribly sorry, ma'am!" The pink-haired woman exclaimed, picking up the small creature from the table. "My royal-subjects tend to get super jumpy whenever they're hungry."
"Goddamn it, BeeBee; this is exactly why you should've just listened to what I had said and left that creature home!" The girl's boyfriend scolds in anger.
"Well, Prezzy, I did just found this found this little one out in the park twenty minutes ago, and there's no way that I'm going to let any of my royal-subjects outside alone during a hurricane; so, I have to bring him in here with us." The girl argued back, causing her boyfriend to roll his eyes with a groan.
"Oh, would you-"
"Hey, I don't mean to interrupt your little argument here, but do you mind taking it elsewhere?" Crystal asked the bickering couple. "In case you haven't noticed, we're kind of on a date of our own."
"Oh...right, sorry..." The boyfriend then said, before he and his girl began heading off to one of the nearby tables; but little did either of them know, Crystal was still watching them as they made their leave, as a mischievous smirk appeared on her face.
"I know that look, dude." Derek then commented as soon as his girlfriend turned back around. "An idea has finally came into your head, am I right?"
"Do you know if any of the meals has carrots in them?" Crystal then asked, as she pulled her menu out from underneath the table.
"There were a few, but I'm pretty sure rabbits usually go for any vegetables aside from carrots."
"Good point..." Crystal places the menu aside again, as a smile came to her face. "I think I know exactly how to ruin their date; but first, I'm going to need that rabbit."
"But how are we going to-"
Before Derek could finish his sentence, a waitress came by their table with two beer bottles and a plate of rolls in hand. "Alrighty...here's the drinks you order; and here's an appetizer to tide you over." The waitress says as she places the items down onto the table. "Are you guys ready to order yet?"
"I'm pretty sure we need a little more time." Crystal answered, before eyeing the plate of dinner-rolls that was placed in the middle of the table; or more specifically, what was underneath the rolls on the plate. "Say, what's this?" She asked as she reached for it.
"Oh, don't mind that, it's just leaves of lettuce." The waitress informed. "Recently, we've ran out of parsley; so, we had to make due of what we currently have and use lettuce instead. Hopefully, that's not a problem to you."
"No, no, it's totally fine." Crystal reassured the waitress. "We'll let you know when we've figured things out."
"Alright." After that was said, the waitress heads off back to the kitchen.
Once the waitress was gone, Crystal the turned around to see where the couple with the rabbit was sitting at, which was about two tables down from where they were; and the rabbit was still poking its head out of BeeBee's purse. The rebel waited until the pink-haired girl went off to the bathroom in order to attract her pet over with the lettuce now in her hand. Thankfully, she didn't have to worry about the boyfriend, since he was supposedly engrossed whatever he was doing on his phone.
After giving the lettuce leaves a bit of a shake, the rabbit escapes the pink purse and hops over to the fake couple's table. "Here you go, little guy..." Crystal said as she fed the rabbit. "Now, you gotta do me a favor for freeing you..." She then points to the bush they were sitting next to. "Behind that bush almost an entire buffet of veggies just for you, and all you have to do is dig in; so, feel free to enjoy it for all that it's worth." She then places the bunny back down onto the floor, allowing it to wander off to the area where Chaz and Summer were.
"Are you sure this is actually going to work?" Derek then asked with an eyebrow raised at his ex-girlfriend. Immediately after, a shriek was heard on the opposite side of the nearby plant. "I stand corrected..."
"SOMEBODY HELP!!! THERE'S A RABBIT UNDER MY TABLE!!!" One of the random customers yelled in horror, catching the attention of almost everyone in the restaurant.
"A rabbit?!" Chaz exclaimed as he looked towards the direction of where the scream had came from. He saw a couple standing at their table, where the man was trying to whack the floor with his blazer, while his girlfriend was standing on her chair in a complete panic. "What the hell's going on?!"
"I think I'm more curious about what Crystal has planned here...if she's even involved in this, I mean..." Ray then told Raven, before standing up from his seat, prepared to follow the biker to where the panicked couple was. "Stay right here, Raven; I'll be right back."
"WHERE DID IT GO?!! WHERE DID IT GO?!!!" The panicked woman shouts, as the two men walked up to them. "I'M NOT GETTING DOWN UNTIL THAT CREATURE'S OUT OF THIS BUILDING!!!"
"Hey, now calm down!" A random waiter said, holding his arms out in front of himself to ease the sudden tension here. "Whatever's going on here, we'll be able to fix it; but both of you need to just calm down before one of you starts a-"
"I'm sorry, but did I just hear that there's a rabbit on the loose?!" BeeBee's boyfriend then asked, coming out from behind one of the nearby columns.
"Obviously." Chaz answered. "Have you not been hearing anything that's been happening in the past minute or so?"
"God damn it!!" The blonde man then shouts, stomping his foot on the floor. "Be right back, I'm getting my girlfriend!"
"Well, what's she gonna-" Chaz stopped talking as soon as the man ran off to where the restrooms were. "Okay...bye to you too...dick..."
"But where even is this-" Ray began to ask, only to be interrupted by the panicked woman again.
"THERE IT IS!!!" The woman shrieked as the rabbit hopped out from under one of the tables and leapt up towards Chaz and Ray.
After the critter jumped at Chaz and Ray, the two men were then knocked into two different directions; the former was sent falling towards one of the random tables, which unfortunately had a candlestick on it, knocking it over in the process; the latter was sent falling towards a random cart carrying desserts on it, sending it off towards where their girlfriends were sitting at. Raven was quick to notice that the candle Chaz knocked over to accidentally set one of the curtains on fire; so, she immediately ran for the fire-extinguisher and tried her best to take out the flames as fast as she could. As for Summer...well, she was unfortunate enough to still be sitting at her table and watching everything happen; because without any sort of warning, one of the large cakes on the cart Ray bumped into flew off of it after hitting one of the tables, landing directly onto her; and to make matters worse, not only was she covered in cake batter, but she was also covered in her own salad...which led to the rabbit launching itself towards her.
As all of this was happening, Crystal and Derek just remained sitting where they were watching everything unfold in front of them. "Wow...I was not expecting all of this to be done by a rabbit..." The former confessed in awe, before noticing that the small critter was now attacking her worst enemy. "This wasn't exactly how I wanted things to play out; but hey, at least Summer's gotten her 'just desserts', both literately and metaphorically."
"You know...if Brandi was here, she'd say that now would probably be a good enough time to get out of here before someone starts connecting the dots." Derek informed the rebel.
"Good idea." Crystal then finished up her beer, picked up her backpack off of the ground, and took off with her ex-boyfriend.
The fake couple began to make a beeline for the front-exit; but right before they could leave the building, Summer finally managed to get the rabbit off of her, which was also when she noticed Crystal beginning to make her leave. "YOU!!!" She growls as she stood up from the floor, causing the rebel to stop dead in her tracks. "LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE!!!"
"Oh, I see it!" Crystal said without remorseful, pulling out her Smartphone and taking a picture of the now defeated former-cheerleader. "Everything comes full circle, Summer; and this is one of them!" She then flips her off before walking out of the building, now feeling completely victorious.
"THIS ISN'T-"
"Oh my gosh, there you are!" BeeBee shouts as she ran up to where Summer was, picking up her pet bunny. "Preston told me that you somehow escaped, are you okay?"
"Summer, are you...shit..." Chaz said as he approached his girlfriend, who was still furious and disheveled.
"This is the worst fucking date that I have ever been on in my entire life..." Summer said, trying to keep herself together while giving her boyfriend an irritates glare. "T-This is all Crystal Montell's fault...and I'm going home..." She then stormed towards the exit.
"H-Hey Summer!!!" Chaz then shouts while giving chase. "Wait!!!"
After Chaz and Summer left, Raven then went over to her fallen boyfriend and helped him back into his feet. "Are you okay, sweetie?" She asked him.
"Well, neither of us are burnt to a crisp, attacked by cakes, or mauled to death by supposedly cute forest animals; so...yeah, I'm okay." Ray answered while brushing the dust off of himself. "Are you okay, at least?"
"I just saved one of our school's former bullies from almost being set on fire. What do you think?"
"So...does that mean 'good'?"
Raven shrugged her shoulders, before replying to her boyfriend's question. "I guess..." She simply says before placing the fire-extinguisher aside on a nearby table. "So, since things are a bit...ruined here now, do you want to go back home, maybe watch a horror movie together like I said earlier?"
Ray then smiled at his girlfriend. "Sure." With that said, the two held hands and then exited the restaurant together, ending their date-night on a somewhat good note.
After the goth couple left, one of the waiters walked over to where Preston and BeeBee were, handing them a piece of paper. "Since that was your bunny, I'm afraid you're going to have to stay behind and clean all of this up." The waiter said as he pointed off to the heavily damaged side of the restaurant. "The mop's in the back closet." He stated before walking off to the kitchen.
"Oh, come on..." Preston then muttered in defeat.
Note: Well, here's where things finally get spicy; and by 'spicy', I mean that this is the part where the dates (or just Chaz and Summer's date, that is) goes from a typical average date to a complete utter disaster. To be fair, maybe the sentence-structuring in the third part might've been a bit clunky in my personal opinion; but in the end, I obviously love making that last section of this one. Now one's gotta wonder what'll become of Chaz and Summer's relationship after a situation like this.
Now, let's see those reviews...
lordgemini: I guess in hindsight, even if Crystal just gave up and went home, the outcome probably would've been the same. Also, I had a few other songs in mind for the flashback; but since the song chosen was around the time the six games came out, and coincidentally on the same year the last one was released, I felt like it was an easy pick; and you could say it's somewhat poetic for Ray and Stacy's storyline too.
Things may take a turn for the worst in the next chapter, as we begin to enter the storm. See you all next time.