Chapter nine.
A/N Wow what can I say? When I first started this story it was going to be just a quick joke to join the many parodies here but then Dawn quickly took over my brain.
Now it's been nine chapters and it's turned into a real story, thanks to every one for your thoughts and encouragement.
And now the next chapter of Would You Like Fries With That.
All the former members of the We Love Kids Club were present in the girl's bathroom the next morning.
I had told Jill about Venice and Harris when she called me to give me my new working schedule, Jill and I had been sent to the McDonald's next to the local movie theatre. Sunny funnily enough ended up at McDonald's across the street from the Anglican all boys school, I wasn't sure if that was intentional or not.
Maggie had shown up in the bathroom in order to throw up, cut, or cry out her feelings.
It was hard to keep track of what depressing cycle she was currently on.
"I cant believe some one burned down McDonald's on purpose, I mean I know that sometimes people do get fat from eating our food but it's their responsibility to not shove rubbish in their mouths" Jill said putting on a layer of strawberry pink lip gloss.
"It's the organizations responsibility to promote healthy diets Jill!" I snapped back.
"Honestly who gives a crap?" Sunny cried.
"Actually my brother set fire to the McDonalds because his a complete and utter lunatic. He's also a cult member" a voice said cheerfully as the bathroom doors swung open.
Venice stood before us, glowing in hot pink carrying a shoulder bag that had a sheep dog in it.
"Why are you carrying a sheep dog?" asked Jill.
"Because Paris Hilton always carries her dog Tinkerbelle with her" Venice replied lowering her gigantic purple sunglasses.
"Yes but Tinkerbelle is the size of my fist, that thing is the size of a bus" Jill added.
"Well he seemed a lot smaller when he was a puppy and daddy wont let me give him up" sniffed Venice.
"Of course you shouldn't, it's disgraceful how many animals get abandoned in LA" a voice popped up from the nearest cubicle.
"Whose that?" Venice asked raising her perfectly plucked eyebrows.
"Maggie Blume" Sunny said looking very bored.
"Maggie Blume?" Venice asked, by this point Maggie had begun to sing the song she'd written about throw away pets years ago.
Vanish had hated it but the song ended up being used as a radio Jingle by the local vetinary hospital.
"Yes that's Maggie Blume, currently having an emotional crisis in the toilet" I sighed wearily.
"Maggie Blume is so awesome, she's like the Goth Paris" Venice said.
"She is?" Sunny asked.
"I once saw her in teen beat magazine standing next to Kelly Osborne" Venice said somberly.
"Kelly Osborne is a stupid try hard British skank," Maggie said coming out of the bathroom, her eyes fell on Venice.
"Oh god you Hollywood fakes are multiplying," she said with a roll of her eyes before moving to the sink.
"Look Venice you said you'd tell us about your brother" I said.
"Oh yeah, Harris was an eco terrorist" Venice said.
"You mean like Peta?" I asked.
"Hmm maybe? All I know is what I overheard mom talking to the police about it. Apparently he burned the McDonald's down by sticking petrol bombs in the garbage bins" Venice said.
"I was supposed to be working there that night," Sunny said her tanned face growing pale.
"Why didn't you end up working there anyway?" I asked.
"Because I left my uniform in the back of Seth's car, duh" Sunny replied.
"Sunny it's against company policy to engage in sexual intercourse while wearing your McDonald's uniform, what if some one saw you" Jill pointed out.
"It wasn't sexual intercourse! It was making out and at no point did his penis enter my hooha" Sunny said.
"Well I hope not because that would be gross, you'd get food poisoning that way" Jill grimaced.
"Hooha is slang for her vagina Jill" Maggie sighed wearily.
"Vagina?" Jill asked still looking confused.
"You know the thing downstairs Jill, we learned about it in health class" I said patiently.
"Oh I never went to those classes, mother said they were evil and refused to sign my permission form" Jill said and I realized perhaps it was best to leave some things unsaid.
I refused to guide Jill into the world of sexual education.
"Ok so your brother was an eco terrorist? For which group? Green peace? The right wing nationals for the release of agricultural slaves?" I asked, being an environmentalist I liked to keep myself informed on all eco terrorist groups incase I found myself accidentally joining one.
I didn't want a repeat of the incident during my freshmen year with the guy from Peta.
"Do you really think I care about what they're called? All I know is they used to have weird meetings in his bedroom and they all had that tattoo with the sun and a star on them" Venice said tiredly.
"But that isn't helpful at all" I grumbled.
"Well I never said I could give you any help, honestly don't you have the Internet? Paris Hilton does on her blackberry" said Venice smugly.
"Why would she have the internet on a piece of fruit?" asked Jill.
"How exactly are we supposed to find this on the internet, type in tattoo's with the words " sun that happens to have a little star in it?" I asked ignoring Jill.
"What ever! Now I have to go and do my mid morning wardrobe change before first period" Venice snarled flouncing off in a cloud of Paris Hilton perfume.
"Ok so now we have to find an available Internet server and look up a tattoo for some kind of cult," Sunny said.
"Have fun doing that, I'm going to be busy cutting my arms and using the blood to paint smiley faces all over my walls" Maggie replied.
Generally speaking Sunny and I avoided the internet, I avoided it after the third time I went online and some one thought it would be funny to send me the "true facts about chuck Norris" forward.
Sunny avoided it because computers tended to smoke and explode whenever she got near them.
Jeff however was an expert when it came to all things involving computers, which was why I decided to seek him out during biology class. Technically speaking I was supposed to be learning about photosynthesis but our teacher Mr Roberts had a nervous breakdown after Justin Vahama threw a bottle filled with coke at the fan spraying the entire room with sugary soda.
Mr Roberts had run out crying two lessons ago and because every one in my class hated biology nobody ever bothered to tell the principal we were currently without a teacher.
Jeff only ever seemed to go to the classes that mattered like math and English; he was very good at skipping things like drama and shop only to redo them during his summer vacation.
During those times it was best to look for him in the computer lab.
There were very few students at Vista High who would fit into the lower income or poverty line bracket, most students who did lived in a different area code and went to the public school Palo City High.
This meant that Vista was funded mostly by generous donations and this included the computer lab, every single time a single piece of software went out of date some ones rich father would replace it.
When this happened the old equipment was thrown out and it was a well-known fact that the geeks in Vista went "Dumpster Diving".
Jeff's entire complex computer system was made up entirely of recycled parts and they worked perfectly well as long as you ignored the lingering smell of cafeteria coleslaw.
"Shouldn't you be in Biology?" Jeff asked me as I strode into the computer lab with Sunny and Jill, Jill had a free period and I hadn't bothered to ask Sunny where she was supposed to be.
"Shouldn't you be in drama?" I shot back.
"Touché" he admitted reluctantly.
The computer lab was as per usual filled with skinny pale teenage boys chatting online and ambitious teenage girls who worked for the school paper.
The girls had given our group a dismissive look but the guys were staring at Sunny as if she was the Holy Grail.
"I heard she's that girl who flashed her boobs on that drunk teenagers with issues website" one of them whispered and Sunny glared at him.
"It was a newsletter actually and it only happened once and I'd drunk six wine coolers," she said to them coolly and they immediately called her over begging for her autograph.
"What are you doing here? I thought you hated computers," Jeff said to me suspiciously.
"I need you to find something for me online" I said and he narrowed his eyes.
"And what makes you think I can do that?" he asked.
"You managed to find out about Mary Anne's hidden karaoke career that way so I think you can handle this," I said referring to an incident six months ago when we'd discovered my stepsister had been secretly entering statewide karaoke contests.
"Please be a sweetie and do it for your big sis Jeffie!" smiled Jill leaning forward, completely oblivious to the fact that Jeff could easy see down her pink and Lavender striped shirt.
Jeff gulped and shot me a guilty look.
"What do you want me to find?" he asked and I handed him a piece of paper I'd written during English detailing everything I knew.
"I want you to find out what this means Jeff, I want to know everything about this tattoo and this group" I said and he glanced at the paper warily.
"Give me twenty four hours," he finally said after reading the entire list.
The next afternoon I found myself working in the new McDonald's with Jill, after months of working in the old one I'd assumed that all McDonalds were the same, I was wrong. This McDonald's was actually located in what had once been the really old part of the movie theatre. A chandelier hung from the ceiling and there were still gold painted balconies however some one had gotten rid of the stairs so reaching them would be impossible.
"It's a Mccafe" Jill said with a small squeal patting her hair.
"A Mc what?" I asked and Jill patting my hand patiently.
"A Mccafé, it's like a regular McDonalds accept it has a proper coffee bar and they do it up much fancier" Jill explained and she sighed a smile on her face.
"We're really moving up in the world" she added with a happy grin.
Moving up in the world seemed to involve dealing with a fast food restaurant that was under the delusion it was a five-start restaurant.
The place actually had leather stools for people to sit on and I had to clean them with furniture polish after closing.
This was after I'd been yelled at for not being perky enough and not knowing all the contents of the McCafé's smoothies.
"It used to be so much easier, we made crappy food and took fat peoples money," I groaned to Jill as I scrubbed at a Milkshake stain on the leather.
"Calling them fat is politically incorrect Dawnie" Jill said an exhausted expression on her face.
"Fine morbidly obese people, anyway it feels so weird working in a McDonalds that seems to think it's something else! Its like they're trying to be carob when all they are is disgusting sugar filled chocolate" I said tossing my soft cloth onto the floor.
"Well we're stuck here until they finish building the new McDonalds" Jill said.
"Correction you're stuck here, as soon as I earn enough to pay off my debts I'm quitting" I said and Jill of course looked upset.
"But if you leave it'll be like the way it was before" she cried.
"Jill I'm not going to dump you!" I said and she narrowed her eyes.
"You did before" she pointed out.
"Jill" I began and she cut me off with a wave of her hand.
"Five years! We were friends for five years and then you dropped me because of a t-shirt I was wearing" she said but oddly enough she didn't sound angry, rather resigned and a little sad.
"I'm sorry," I admitted.
"I know you are and it wasn't just you, I admit I was a bit angry by the way Sunny was acting" Jill said earnestly.
"And now?" I asked.
"Now I'm used to it" she smiled and I began scrubbing at the chair again, I think by that point in our lives every one was used to Sunny.
Five minutes later when I was about to turn the lights off Jeff entered the store, normally I wouldn't have been weirded out by this because he was my brother and I saw him every where.
But Jeff hardly ever entered fast food restaurants, a lifetime of healthy eating had made him allergic to processed fats.
"Jeff what are you doing here? Do dad and Carol know that you're out after ten?" I asked referring to his curfew.
"Do you think I'm stupid? I snuck out of a window and we have to leave right now," he said tugging on my hand.
"Leave? I still have another twenty minutes until my shift is over" I pointed out but he tugged harder, it was then I realized something was very wrong.
Jeff hadn't held my hand since he was six.
"Jeffie honey what are you doing here? We're not serving right now," Jill said standing behind me.
"Get your coats both of you, right now" he said, Jill shot me a puzzled look.
"Why?" she asked and Jeff hopped impatiently from foot to foot.
"Remember that thing you asked me to find out about? And remember that fire?" he asked and my eyes widened when I deciphered his expression, Jeff was terrified.
"Jill get your coat," I said running back inside, however instead of getting my coat I pulled the fire alarm.
"You're Dawn right? The girl from the last restaurant that burned down?" a fat guy in his mid twenties asked. I assumed he was in charge of the French fries so I was rather surprised when I found out he was the district manager.
"I'm sorry sir, Dawn didn't realize that she needed to make sure there was a fire before pulling the alarm. We've all been a bit on edge" simpered Jill next to me. We were sitting on the curb outside the restaurant waiting for Carol to pick us up; Jeff had fallen asleep long after the fire engines had shown up.
"Actually we owe Dawn a big thank you, the fire department uncovered a small home made explosive in the trash bin, hidden in a Big Mac wrapper" the manager said and some how this didn't surprise me at all.
"Why exactly did you pull the alarm Dawn?" he asked and I couldn't exactly say that my thirteen-year-old brother had freaked me out so badly I'd pulled it without thinking.
"Shouldn't I be talking to the police about this?" I shot back and Jill made an eeping sound.
"That's actually a pretty good idea, I'm Officer Vasquez will it be all right if we ask the two of you a couple of questions?" he asked.
"Only if it's a couple, my step mothers coming to pick us up soon" I replied and Jill made another terrified squeaking sound.
"So why did you pull the fire alarm?" he asked and I glanced at Jill, Jill never got in trouble with authority figures because of her sweet and innocent persona.
If Jill answered a cops question she'd answer it in her breathless tinkly sort of voice that suggested she spent half her time off with fairies and unicorns.
"Well I smelt smoke and I learned at training that you always have to pull the alarm if you smell smoke!" I said batting my eyes innocently and Jill shot me a surprised look.
"Smoke? And what of this?" he asked holding out a Big Mac Wrapper, assumingly the one used to wrap up the bomb.
Scrawled across it was the symbol.
"Oh it's so pretty! Isn't it Jill? I'd love to have it on a T-shirt" I smiled and the cop shook her head.
"Have you ever seen it then?" he asked quickly.
"Seen what?" I asked blinking my eyes rapidly and he sighed with frustration.
"We'll talk later" he said to the district manager.
"Why did you lie to the cop?" Jill asked as we drove home and Carol raised her eyebrow.
"Dawn I'm not going to tell your father about Jeff sneaking out or the bomb scare because I'm a cool step mom but I don't approve of you lying to the police" Carol said from behind the wheel.
" I didn't lie, I honestly have no idea how a bomb got in the rubbish bin," I said and Carol made a tutting sound under her breath.
"It most likely has to do with terrorists, everything's to do with terrorists these days" she said her voice echoing over the song "Fox on the run" that was playing on the radio.
"Jeff" I asked staring at him as he sat on his bed reading a piece of paper a distracted expression on his face.
"You want to know how I knew about the bomb" he began and I nodded.
"That symbol belongs to some kind of crazy cult called the summoning French fry," he said and I raised my eyebrows.
"Excuse me?" I asked and he rolled his eyes.
"They're featured on the urban legend codex, they're a group that takes out McDonald's restaurants Dawn," he said wearily and he jumped off his bed heading to his computer. Jeff never turned his computer off, when he had to sleep it went to screen saver mode.
I watched as he pulled up several web browsers, they were all newspaper articles some in foreign languages.
"No one knows much about them but rumor has it they come to a town and take out all the fast food restaurants in the area" Jeff said gesturing to an article in English.
"Why hasn't the FBI gotten involved in this?" I asked.
"They've never hit America before, all these articles are from Brazil Asia and Spain" Jeff explained.
"Yes but how did you know there would be a bomb?" I asked fearfully.
"I got two of my Quake buddies from Japan to look into it and they said that there was a pattern in the articles dates. The group comes to a town and every five days they take out a restaurant in a freak accident until all the McDonald's in the area have been taken out" Jeff said.
"So you didn't really know, you just wanted to make sure I was safe" I said feeling touched and Jeff pulled a face.
"Dad would be pissed if you died, and I'd have to baby-sit Gracie," he said and I hugged him.
"Quit your job Dawn, there are still four more restaurants left" he said hugging me back.
It turned out to be one of those nights where I couldn't sleep I found myself staring at the glow in the dark stars I'd stuck onto my ceiling when I was seven, usually I found them soothing but that night nothing happened.
At around midnight I reached for my phone to call Sunny, Sunny generally speaking never went to bed before the wee hours of the morning and she didn't mind chatting to me on her cell.
Sunny didn't answer and I sighed, she was with a guy.
I knew she was.
A few moments later my own cell vibrated and I stared at the number wondering why Ducky was calling me in the middle of the night.
"If you're looking for Sunny I don't know where she is ok?" I said immediately upon answering.
"I'm not looking for Sunny" I heard him reply sounding faintly affronted.
"Then why are you calling so late?" I asked.
"It's not late, for college guys four am is late" he chuckled.
"Yes well I'm still in high school and I have to wake up in seven hours" I replied wryly.
"You weren't asleep to begin with Jeff said he could see the light under your door" Ducky said.
"And why isn't Jeff asleep?" I snapped hopping off the bed.
"He's a thirteen year old guy with an Internet addiction, do you really expect him to sleep?" Ducky asked and I shrugged my shoulders, I guess he was telling the truth.
"Are you and Jeff talking while playing some sort of video game right now?" I asked peering out into the hallway where I could see Jeff's room.
"No I'm writing a paper on Post Modernism in the novel Generation X, Jeff saw me on Aim and pinged me. He seems pretty worried about you" Ducky said meaningfully.
"Yeah well Jeff's a worry wart," I said returning to my own room; from my window I could see a light in the upstairs floor of the Winslow house.
I sighed with relief at least Sunny was home.
"Is it true that some one really put a bomb in a Mcdonald's bin?" I heard Ducky ask.
"Well yes, but nobody was hurt" I reassured him.
"Dawn what's going on?" he sighed and I frowned as I realized the light coming from Sunny's house was a flashlight.
"Nothing" I answered.
"Don't give me that, you've been working non stop and you're constantly acting defensive," he said.
"I am not acting defensive!" I shot back distracted by the lights from Sunny's house.
"Dawn I can tell when something's bothering you" I heard him sounding graveling injured and I wanted to scream at him, I was tired of him constantly assuming he had to help me with my problems.
I was tired of him constantly being worried it was exhausting.
"You know what Ducky you cant tell when there is something wrong with me because guess what! YOU ALWAYS ASSUME THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH ME" I yelled into the phone not caring if I woke up Gracie next door.
The other end of the line was silent but I could still hear his breathing.
"I don't always think that" I finally heard him say in a tiny little whisper.
"Then why do you keep doing this?" I finally asked and part of my subconscious was screaming at me to stop.
You were never supposed to ask the male friend questions like this, you were supposed to joke about movies or bitch about people you hated.
This was crossing the line, when it came to what your male friends really thought about it was better not to know.
"I once rescued Sunny when she tried to run away from home" he said his voice sounding oddly sad.
"I remember" I replied sitting back down on my bed.
" But you've never asked me to rescue you, some times that worries me a lot" Ducky admitted.
"I'm a big girl, I can tie my own sandals," I said quoting Hercules; we'd watched it with Gracie many times before.
"That doesn't make the worry go away, there are some things you cant do alone Dawn" he said almost as if he was scolding me and I said nothing, staring at the glowing stars on my ceiling.
"And that's what worries me because I don't think you've realized that yet" he finished but some how it seemed like there was something he wasn't telling me.
"But it's not your job to protect me Ducky, you're not my father or my brother or my.." I began and I caught myself just in time.
"Or your what?" he asked.
"You're just my friend, I know you're worried but it's not like I'm a prostitute or addicted to cocaine. You have to trust me to make my own decisions" I replied and he sighed.
"Yeah, friend" he said in a tone of voice that made me wonder if he'd heard anything else I'd said.
" I should let you get back to your paper, night Ducky" I finished firmly, too tired to say anything else.
"Yeah night" he replied sounding disappointed and I hung up.
Above me the glow in the dark stars began to brighten a little as I switched off my desktop lamp, they never seemed to fade even after so many years.
Part of me was expecting something deeper from Ducky, something epic, something that reminded me of the movies Mary Anne loved.
But I knew I was stupid to expect that much, especially by the time I woke up in the harsh light of day the galaxy on my ceiling no longer glowing.
"Besides he doesn't like me that way," I said to myself as I wrote in my journal during breakfast.
"Who doesn't like you?" Carol asked and I glared at her reaching for the pile of grapes on my plate.
"No one" I said hastily popping a grape into my mouth. I shoved my journal into my knapsack and headed for Sunny's.
Suddenly I had an over whelming urge to see Sunny, an urge I hadn't felt since I was thirteen and Dad announced that he and Carol were getting married.
I'd often stopped by Sunny's before school, when we were kids it was because I felt like part of her family but after Mrs. Winslow died it was to make sure Sunny kept getting out of bed every morning.
The back door was unlocked; this wasn't unusual Mr Winslow was so absent-minded he constantly forgot to lock the doors.
Everything worth stealing like the television and the computer was kept in Sunny's room that she always kept locked when she wasn't home. I passed the kitchen with the sink filled with dirty dishes, and the pile of spilt laundry next to the stairs. Upstairs I saw the empty master bedroom; Mr Winslow must have fallen asleep at work again.
The bed however hadn't been made, it looked like it had been left like that for days and there was a fine layer of dust on the dressing table. The bathroom door was shut and I walked past it heading for Sunny's room.
The door was wide open.
Sunny always kept her door shut, after all she could never tell when her dad was going to be home and sometimes she had guests like the varsity lacrosse team who Mr Winslow wouldn't approve on.
Sunny's jewelry box lay broken on the floor, it had once belonged to Mrs. Winslow.
Sunny no matter how drunk would never damage it and something shimmered in the sunlight.
Amongst the beaded necklaces, mismatched earrings and her mothers gold bracelet there were pieces of broken glass.
The window was hanging open and it was broken.
Everything suddenly felt freezing and boiling hot at the exact same time and I clawed at the front of my purple peasant blouse unable to breathe.
I imagined Sunny sleeping in her bed, underneath the tie dyed bedspread her mother had made her but dressed in her favorite black lace teddy.
Everything would be quiet and she wouldn't stir from the noises outside, after all she was used to her father returning at odd hours.
And then the window would break.
I could see it all so clearly.
There were footsteps, high heels against polished wood and I turned grabbing onto a sliver of glass as a weapon.
It was the woman from the funeral and the alleyway, this time wearing a dark wig and sunglasses.
"Hello Dawn" she smiled.