"Jeez, I've never seen someone take so much interest in a snow globe."
Homestar looked up from his recently purchased prize and stared at the cheesy, dripping mass in his new friend's hand. "Gross." He remarked, making a face.
"Yeah, fast food breakfasts aren't exactly appealing to look at. But I'm hungry and broke enough not to care. Oh, I'm Alex by the way." Alex said, taking a bite out of her egg and cheese bagelwich.
"I'm Homestar." Homestar said. Alex burst out in a coughing fit.
"Don't do that! Not while I'm eating…" Alex wiped her mouth and struggled to hold back her laughter.
"Okay."
Alex quickly finished her sandwich and threw away the wrappings. "Now I need a drink. You don't have to leave soon, do you?" Alex asked.
"I guess not. But I'm in a hurry." Homestar replied.
"Oh… well which is it?" Alex wondered.
"Which is what?"
"… what?" Alex paused. "Okay, now you're just confusing me."
"Yeah. I guess." Homestar said blankly.
Alex stared at him incredulously, then got to her feet. "Well, if I'm gonna help you I better tell my boss I'm taking my hour instead of my fifteen."
They walked across the lobby to Starbucks. Alex pulled out a chair for Homestar at an empty table. "Do you want anything? I might as well take advantage of my employee discount while we're here." Alex asked.
"Sure." Homestar replied.
"Okay, what do you want? Can't be over… let's see… 3 bucks." Alex counted out some crinkled dollar bills she had pulled from her sweatshirt pockets.
"Anything."
"That makes it easy then. Be back in a sec." Alex went over to the counter and started talking to another employee. Homestar played with the snow globe until she returned with two insulated cups. "Okay, now let's get your ticket." She said, handing over one of the cups.
Homestar took the cup from her hesitantly. "It's hot!"
"That's generally the idea." Alex pointed out. "So… where are you heading?"
"I have to get to Cancun to find Mike and Matt so they can save the website." Homestar replied quickly.
Alex took a moment to absorb what he'd said. "Are you for real?" She finally asked.
"I think so. I just came through the portal yesterday with Pom Pom and Strong Bad and Marzipan, and they seemed to think I was."
"Uh huh. Where's your speech impediment then?" Alex responded.
"I dunno." Homestar shrugged. He set down the insulated cup and started wrapping napkins around it. "Doesn't this stuff ever cool off?"
"You're a very interesting person." Alex shook her head and couldn't help smiling. "If I didn't know better… well, let's get that ticket."
"Okay." Homestar gathered the wad of napkins around his cup and followed Alex again, this time to the ticket counters. A man in a blue uniform raised an eyebrow as they stepped up to his counter.
"How can I help you folks today." He inquired with rehearsed politeness.
"He needs a ticket for your soonest flight to Cancun." Alex replied.
The man behind the counter looked up the flight on his computer. "Is 3:00 this afternoon all right? I think we have two seats left."
Alex looked back at Homestar who was sticking his finger tentatively through the hole in the lid of his coffee cup, utterly oblivious. "Hey!" She shouted, making him jump and soak his napkins with coffee. "Is that when you want to leave?"
"What? Oh… sure."
"Well, then get up here so you can pay." Alex instructed.
Homestar walked up and took Alex's place at the counter. "I need a new one of these." He said, dropping the shredded remains of his last ticket on the counter.
"I already took care of that, hon. You just need to pay." Alex reminded him.
"Oh. Here's five hundred bucks. Can I have my ticket now?" Homestar dumped out Scott's wallet on the counter. Alex put her head in her hands.
"Come here a second." She said, yanking him away from the counter. "Are you going to be okay on that flight? Don't you have someone to travel with?"
Homestar paused. "No… should I?"
"I really think you should. You need to get a friend or something to go with you who can help you out like I did at the gift shop and with your ticket. Can you do that?"
"Sure." Homestar replied.
"All right. Well, I'm going to get back to work now. I need to save some break time for lunch. Good luck." Alex waved and walked back towards Starbucks.
"Bye! Thanks for the hot chocolate! Wish it had some marshmallows though." Homestar turned back to the ticket salesman. "Gimme two of those things." The man typed in the transaction and gave Homestar his change and a pair of tickets.
Homestar stuffed the tickets in his backpack and tried a sip of his coffee. "This hot chocolate tastes funny. I don't think there's enough sugar in it." He pulled out some sugar packets he'd grabbed off the table at Starbucks and poured them in. Homestar glanced around for something to stir it with and grabbed a pen off of an abandoned ticket counter.
"That's a little better." He remarked after tasting it again. He tossed the pen onto the floor and walked back to Starbucks.
Alex was wiping down tables, but she stopped when she spotted him approaching. "What are you doing here again?"
"I came to give you your ticket." Homestar responded.
"What? You didn't- I didn't say I was going." Alex stammered.
"I don't have anyone else to go with. They were already on the plane." Homestar explained.
Alex stared at him. "You seriously want me to go with you? Just on the plane, right? It's a round-trip ticket?"
"I guess so. Here, you can have it." Homestar handed it to her.
Alex took it and read it. "I've never been on a plane before…" She muttered. She looked up at Homestar. "All right. No funny business. Just a straight flight, there and back. Soon as we land, that's it. Okay?"
"You got a deal! By the way, I think they forgot to put chocolate in this hot chocolate."
"That's French Roast." Alex replied.
"They roasted it? No wonder it was so hot."
Wait 'till the caffeine kicks in...