A/N Our profiles have this nifty new feature where you can see how many hits a story has.
This story has had over 1000 hits and yet only 20 reviews, wow I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Chapter Seven: The Big Date.
No one worked that night, the district manager was scrambling to find us all placements at different restaurants and we'd know where we were going by the following Monday.
Jill seemed to take it hard after all there was no guarantee that we'd all be working together again.
I wasn't sure how I was taking it at all, but I still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong; I'd been a babysitting detective after all.
My list of subjects ranged from the manager of our rival restaurant to the crazy old lady who ordered apple pies and even Nick himself.
None of them however made much sense.
"Hey Dawn is it true that the guy from your restaurant went nuts and killed a bunch of people?" Jeff asked dumping his book bag onto his bed. Being thirteen meant that Jeff was an eighth grader at Vista, it was weird having him in the same building as me and we spent the majority of our time ignoring each other.
Except for when he wanted to borrow money off me to bet on the racing hamsters they kept in the detention room.
"Yes Jeff it's absolutely true, the guy from my restaurant decided today would be the perfect day to commit mass murder" I replied dryly.
"You're not fun when you're sarcastic, what really happened?" Jeff asked.
"Ok first things first I know you've been climbing around that house they're building two blocks away so I want you to get your slimy boots off my hand made Indian Tribal rug" I said pointing at his feet and he rolled his eyes reluctantly before tearing his boots off.
"It was a fire Jeff, the people died in a fire," I explained.
"Was it a terrorist fire?" Jeff asked hopefully.
"NO!"
"Well that's boring then" Jeff said sounding gravely injured and then he perked up.
"So have you been to the smoking building?" he asked and I rolled my eyes.
"Unlike you and your friends not every one is obsessed with climbing around dangerous falling apart buildings" I said wearily.
"What happened to you Dawn? You used to climb around secret passages in Stoneybrook! You used to be cool" Jeff sniffed.
"Oh yeah being dumb enough to think that a ghost happens to be haunting my house when it turned out to be Nicky Pike, real cool" I replied rolling my eyes.
"Oh come on you have to be curious! My friend Shaun says that the playground equipments like melted into this weird rainbow glob" Jeff said eagerly.
"Your friend Shaun happens to be an idiot" I snapped, this was after all a kid who was so dumb he mistook a telephone booth for a portable toilet.
"Dawn" he begged me and then I heard the ominous sound of Gracie getting out the tea party set my grandparents had bought me during the eighties.
"Jeff PLAY" a voice screamed from her bedroom and Jeff shot me a pleading look.
I thought of how many times my brother had been forced to play "pretty ladies" with Gracie, the first time had been funny but now it was just sad.
"Climb out the window and I'll meet you out front" I replied.
When you lived in a town like Stoneybrook a burning down restaurant was considered something of a novelty, the adults most likely would have called a town meeting about it.
Palo City however was only twenty minutes away from LA so generally speaking people had lives.
Twenty-four hours later the burnt remains of McDonalds were deserted, the only evidence that anyone even cared was a broken line of police tape blowing forlornly in the wind.
The playground equipment looked like a cross between a Dali painting and a melted cheeseburger, Claudia would have loved it.
"Cool! I'm going to see if there are any burned happy meal toys!" Jeff cried and before I could stop him he jumped over the police tap and ran into the burned out remains.
"Oh for the love of god" I replied running after him.
Inside the damage wasn't too bad, sure the walls were covered in thick oily black sludge and the oven was completely destroyed but oddly enough the menu was still in perfect condition.
"I wonder if their ghosts are here," Jeff muttered.
"Huh?"
"You know the people who died" he replied rolling his eyes and I shivered.
"Only one person died," I reminded him.
"Is this where you work? God it's so tiny" Jeff said jumping over the counter.
"Jeff get back here right now before the building collapses on top of us," I hissed fearfully.
"If it hasn't fallen apart by now it's not going to" Jeff called from the back room.
The back room smelled strongly like burnt hamburger meat and I felt like gagging. Our lockers that we were supposed to guard with our lives were all burned; the doors had been warped in the heat.
I could actually see Sunny's locker with contained a charred copy of "Advanced Yoga" and the remains of her favorite orange hot pants.
Jeff was pouring over a bag of partially burned toys when I felt my cell phone vibrate in my pocket.
"Hello?" I asked.
"I see you comb your hair and give me that grin, it's making me spin now I'm spinning within" a voice sang and I knew instantly who it was.
The song being sung was "How do you do?" by Roxette and it was a code word Ducky Sunny and I sat up, basically if they sung that it meant they had something private and important to tell us.
Sunny had come up with the code after her father started using a police radio to scan her cell phone calls.
"Jeff's here," I pointed out.
"I can't answer you unless you sing the code back," Ducky pointed out and I rolled my eyes.
"She's so mean but I don't care I love her eyes and her wild wild hair" I said back, reciting the chorus from the song Wild Wild West.
Ducky had an eighties fixation, every time I teased him about it he would then remind me that once upon a time I'd owned a Hanson CD.
" Hey Dawn I found your name tag!" I heard Jeff cry.
"Your name tag?" Ducky asked.
"I'm at work," I explained.
"And you took Jeff with you?" he asked and Jeff yanked open the fridge doors peering into the gloom.
"Is that Ducky? Tell him he owes me fifty dollars" Jeff said.
"You owe my brother fifty dollars?" I asked.
"I was stupid enough to play Quake against him in IRC" Ducky asked and I raised my eyebrows, I knew perfectly well that Quake was some kind of online video game but I had no idea my brother and my male best friend were gambling over it.
"Jeff stay away from those boxes! I'm not digging you out of a pile of burnt frozen French fries," I hissed.
"Burned what?" Ducky asked and I cursed myself, I'd forgotten to cover the mouthpiece.
"Ducky what do you want?" I asked and Jeff cried out as a box collapsed on top of him.
"How do you feel about performance artists?" he asked.
"As long as they're sending out an environmental message I'll support them" I said using my free hand to dig Jeff out, he was covered in slushy partially melted French fries.
"Well I know one who wants to go out with you, he says he met you at my campus last night" Ducky continued.
"You mean the guy in the Shrek mask?" I asked.
"That sounds about right, he's name is Malcolm Brady and he lives in my building" Ducky continued, normally I was firmly against setting anybody up because it went against free will and a woman's right to choose her own date.
However it had been over seven months since my last date (a guy from Palo City high who was a member of Peta, he dumped me when I ate cheese in front of him).
"Well he seemed ok when I met him" I admitted reluctantly.
"So you'll go out with him?" he asked and Jeff rolled to one side coughing up several French fries.
"Sure, why not?" I asked cheerfully and then I paused.
Something had been drawn in the ashes underneath where Jeff's head had been a second before, it was a little smudged but it still resembled a sun with a star drawn in the center.
For a second I was sure I could hear something move, but it might have just been Jeff.
"I have to go Ducky, email me the details," I said hanging up and I turned to Jeff.
The uneasy feeling that had started ever since I'd returned from the hospital had bloomed into a full-scale paranoid attack.
"Lets get out of here" I hissed.
I tried to forget about the creepy symbol and the mystery in general as I talked to Sunny about my upcoming date.
"Now no pressure Dawn but your chances of loosing your virginity before you turn forty rely entirely on this date" Sunny said somberly to me.
Sunny and I were in the autoshop waiting for Maggie to finish negotiating our down payment with Seth.
"Right good point" I admitted, I was hopeless when it came to dating and I always had been. It was funny how I could easily star in school musicals as Wendy or hold lectures about endangered baby seals but when it came to first dates I tended to fall apart.
"It's amazing that this guy wants to go out with you, I mean when he saw you your hair was a greasy mess and you were wearing that ugly hippy shirt" Sunny added.
"Thanks a lot" I growled.
"Oh come on we both looked pretty gross the other night and no offence Dawn but if you want to keep him interested I suggest you break out the big guns" Sunny said her eyes traveling down to my chest.
For two years I'd spent my life with a modest b-cup chest then suddenly when I turned fifteen my chest seemed to explode overnight.
Nobody noticed at first, generally because I tended to wear big loose peasant blouses because I thought that showing off my assets was disgusting and sexist.
Then Carol finally noticed I was straining in my yoga leotard and after a bra refitting it was discovered that when I wore the correct size I was a d-cup.
I'd been so humiliated; at Vista if you were a d-cup the student body assumed you'd had a boob job.
Only Sunny knew about my true cup size, it was hidden from the world under flowing tops and sundresses.
"The big guns?" I asked doubtfully my eyes traveling downwards.
"I'm thinking tight, sheer and you should probably wear a bra that actually lifts and separates," she said.
"You're not talking about the black push up bra are you?" I asked and Sunny grinned.
The black push up bra had a complicated story behind it, it had once belonged to Sunny who had fallen in love with but had never bothered to try it on.
Of course it didn't fit, and a stricken Sunny refused to return it because she couldn't imagine the worlds most perfect bra being worn by some "random skank" instead she'd given it to me.
I tried it on once stared at my reflection in the mirror and then firmly shoved it into the depths of my underwear drawer where I kept all the kitten print night gowns Mary Anne kept giving me for Christmas.
Now however it had resurfaced and I walked into the Fiesta Grill feeling as if I'd completely sold out.
My outfit was a Sunny and Maggie creation; I hadn't purchased any nice new clothes for myself in ages.
The clothes belonged to Maggie, Maggie's weight tended to change so rapidly she had entire guest rooms filled with clothes that were currently either too small or too big. I was currently wearing one of her "I'm confident with my curves and who I am outfits" that she'd fitted into when she was fifteen.
It consisted of a dark purple gauzy shirt and a pair of black tailored slacks. My make up and hair however had been done by Sunny, she'd curled my hair so it had a wavy classic Hollywood screen siren look to it, it had taken five hours to do and she'd gone through three tubes of barb wire sculpting gel.
She'd then painted my face with a huge amount of eyeliner and lip-gloss; I refused to put them on until she proved that they hadn't been tested on animals.
Needless to say that when I walked into the restaurant I felt incredibly self conscious, it was even worse when the waiter kept shooting me the sort of looks Sunny usually got. Then finally my self-confidence was completely shattered when I saw my date.
I had to admit that I had spent the past twenty-four hours fantasizing about what he might look like underneath the mask.
I already knew he wasn't fat so unless he had a serious case of acne or a gigantic nose I was sure that he'd be at least moderately attractive.
Besides none of that was important as long as he had a wonderful personality.
But I still wanted to know what he looked like.
Unfortunately he was still wearing the Shrek mask.
"Hello?" I asked.
"Hey! It's Dawn right? Ducky told me you were coming," he said gesturing to the seat.
"Haven't you managed to get the mask off yet?" I asked and he cocked his head to one side.
"What mask?"
"The one you're wearing" I pointed out slowly sitting in my seat.
"I'm not wearing a mask!" he said sounding confused.
"Yes you are, you're wearing a Shrek mask on your face" I said reaching towards the menu.
"Well of course this happens to be my face, I am Shrek after all," he said and my eyes slowly widened.
"Shrek is a fairy tale character," I pointed out.
"An Ogre actually, but don't let that put you off because I'm a fantastic cook" he continued.
Palo City had it's fair share of eccentric performance artists so although I was a little nervous I wasn't exactly afraid, for all I knew he could have been getting into character for some big production.
That was until I felt something cold and slimy touch my ankle.
I glanced underneath the table, and a small Jack Russell dog grinned back at me.
Some one had hung a sign around its neck saying " Donkey".
"You're not supposed to bring animals in here" I said my voice sounding very far away.
"He wont shut up if we leave him outside, won't you Donkey?" Malcolm asked sounding faintly annoyed.
"You called your dog Donkey?" I asked.
"No that's just his description, he's a Donkey so we all call him Donkey of course Fiona wanted to give him a real name but I personally thought that was stupid" he said and I rolled my eyes.
"Let me guess Fiona is your wife?" I asked gritting my teeth together.
"How did you know that?" he hissed and I grabbed onto my purse.
"This is really cute Malcolm but you need to cut the crap' I sneered.
"Whose Malcolm?" he asked innocently.
"Oh for the love of god!" I groaned.
"If your upset about Fiona you have to understand that our marriage means nothing now! We rushed into things! We only knew each other for three days before we tied the knot" he said trying to reach for my hand and I snatched it away.
"You're an idiot! In fact you're a delusional idiot and if you ever try to contact me or my friend Ducky again I'll slap a restraining order on you!" I yelled and as my lungs expanded I heard a button pop.
"If you really hate me that much then why did you just flash me your wee big titties then?" he asked in a Scottish accent and I glanced down.
Sunny's miraculous black bra had caused my breasts to burst out of the front of my blouse.
"Oh god" I whispered, suddenly I was aware that every one in the restaurant was staring at me and I heard the sound of several camera phones going off.
Mortified I did the only thing I could do, I ran away.
Twenty minutes later I realized that perhaps running out of the restaurant was a little unwise, instead of being trapped in a confined area with my chest on display I was now out and about on the streets of LA with my chest on display.
After being asked "how much" by a Japanese businessman I ended up ducking into the garbage alley between the restaurant and a bookstore still clutching desperately onto the front of my shirt.
I sat on the filthy pollution stained cement where I proceeded to tip out the contents of my pure searching for anything to hold my shirt together.
I was so busy trying to clip my shirt shut with Gracie's lady bug shaped barrette that it took me a few moments to realize I could hear some one else breathing.
The clip snapped shut and I grabbed onto the nail scissors I always kept in my portable manicure kit.
Some one else breathing in a deserted alley way could be perfectly innocent, but then again the breathing could also belong to a would be rapist.
I tried to be opening minded about such things.
Slowly I looked up, a woman was standing a few feet away from me, staring at me.
It was obvious that she was trying to hide her identity, the huge sunglasses and fake Charlie's angels wig hinted at that.
"Can I help you?" I asked and she walked swiftly towards me, her shoes were actually made out of cork platforms and seaweed.
"Your Dawn Schafer correct?" she asked and I glanced over my shoulder praying for a butch police officer to walk past.
"Who's asking?" I asked.
"Look I know that your either Dawn Schafer or Sunny Winslow, one of the blond air heads who worked at that McDonalds" she said and I raised my eye brows.
"Are you stalking me?" I asked and she moved even closer, I could now tell that her jacket was made out of one hundred percent recyclable fabrics.
I must say I approved.
"Hardly, lets just say I keep my eyes on traitors to the cause" she smirked her dry lips flickering into a creepy almost smile.
"How could I be a traitor when I have no idea what cause you're talking about?" I pointed out and she smiled again.
"You're lucky you weren't in the restaurant when it burned down Dawn Schafer" she said and then she tossed a piece of paper at my feet before walking away.
"Oh and I suggest you stop hanging around ruined buildings with your little brother, accidents can happen" she called over her shoulder.
I picked up the piece of paper and ran after her but the streets were too crowded and I lost her within a matter of seconds.
The cynical part of me realized she could have easily whipped her wig off and I frowned with frustration still clutching onto the piece of paper.
Slowly I unfolded it, it was just an ordinary piece of printing paper but some one had printed the symbol on it that I was beginning to dread.
A sun with a tiny star in the center of it.
I stared at the piece of paper feeling frustrated, exhausted and most of all skanky in my outfit.
It was a feeling I really hated.
To make matters worse I heard some one call out my name and I glanced over my shoulder praying it wasn't the psycho Shrek impersonator or the fright fest in the bad wig.
I gasped and my hand instantly dove to the front of my chest to make sure my ladybug barrette was still in place.
The last person I expected to see was Ducky, but there he was standing in the street wearing a nineteen forties style pin striped jacket over a baggy Doctor Who T-shirt.
So dorky yet oddly enough in a cool way, so Ducky.
And so not the person I wanted to see.