ShoutOuts: none (again)

Chapter 37

*The next morning*

Zoe woke up at 8:40 a.m. to the sound of her alarm clock. She didn't want to get up, but she had to work at the pizzeria today, so she rolled out of bed and stumbled to her closet where her clean uniform hung. She tugged it off its hanger and sluggishly pulled it on. By the time she was dressed, she was just awake enough to run a comb through her hair and put on her yellow tie. She went downstairs for breakfast, where Charlie was already sitting, sipping at a cup of coffee and reading the morning newspaper.

She looked at Zoe's groggy, tired expression and grinned. "Not a morning person, are you?"

Zoe smiled back and shook her head. "Nope. I just have to get up early because I have work." She grabbed a piece of bread and tossed it onto a plate. Even though they'd only met the day before, she was already starting to feel like she and Charlie were getting to be good friends.

Charlie took a swig of her coffee. "Really? I thought you were a mechanic," she stated, looking at Zoe's clean, grease/oil-free outfit.

Zoe opened a drawer and grabbed a butter knife. "Well, I am, but a few months ago, I got a job at a local restaurant. Maybe you saw it on our way back here. Freddy Fazbear's Pizza?"

She looked back at Charlie. Her coffee cup was frozen halfway to her mouth, and she was staring at the counter with a stunned look on her face.

"Freddy Fazbear's..." she whispered. She set down her coffee cup. All of a sudden, she giggled. "Man, what a coincidence! I was just about to ask if you could drive me there!"

Zoe raised an eyebrow as she started buttering her bread. "Seriously? Why would you want to go there? It's a kids' restaurant."

Charlie shrugged. "I used to live here as a kid. I came back ten or so years ago to get a job as a security guard at Fazbear's Fright, but then I left to go to university. Anyway, I used to know the owners, Scott and William. Do they still work there?"

"Well, I don't know any 'William', but Scott's still there. The new owner is this guy named Vincent. He's pretty bossy, and he gets angry a lot, but he's not so bad once you get to know him."

"Vincent..." Charlie thought for a moment, then seemed to understand something. "Oh. So that's what he- Oh."

Zoe took a bite of her bread and looked at her curiously. "What? What is it?"

Charlie shook her head. "Doesn't matter. Anyway, there was also a guy named Michael. I remember him because he had the same name as my brother. I think he was Scott's son. Is he still there?"

Zoe shrugged, still wondering about Charlie's reaction to the name Vincent. "No. But there is a guy named Mike. I doubt it's the same person, though, because I've met Mike's parents, and neither of them are named Scott."

Charlie nodded and sipped her coffee. "Hmm. Well, at least I'll be able to see Scott."

Zoe shook her head. "Actually, he and Mike left yesterday after work. Scott has a funeral to go to, and Mike's accompanying him. Dunno why Mike's going. He probably just feels bad for him."

"Oh well." Charlie finished off her coffee and stood up. "I'll get to see him some other time, when I permanently move in somewhere." She glanced at the clock on the wall. "When do you have to be there?"

"At nine," Zoe answered, finishing off the last of her bread. "I'd better go brush my tee-"

DING DONG.

Zoe brushed the crumbs off her hands and walked over to the door. Who would be knocking at her door at 8:50 in the morning? She put a work schedule up on her door so people would know when she was available. They should know that she wasn't working today.

She opened the door and was about to tell the person that no, she was not working today, but stopped short when she saw Raina at the door.

"Hi Zoe!" Raina gave her a big smile. She was, as usual, wearing an outfit of her own creations. Bright blue leggings with olive-green knee-high boots, and a hot pink jacket with orange pockets.

Zoe couldn't help but smile back. "Hi, Raina. What brings you here?"

Raina's grin seemed to get even wider. "Well, I was just going to call you and ask, because it would be much easier, not to mention a lot faster, but I was going out to buy groceries anyway, so I figured I would just come here and ask you face to face." Her cheeks were blushing bright red, probably because of the brisk wind. "I was wondering if-" Then she stopped. Her smile wavered. "Oh. I... I didn't realize you had company."

Zoe turned around to see Charlie leaning against the counter, still skimming the newspaper. "Oh yeah. That's Charlie. You remember her, right?"

Raina nodded. "Yeah. She came to dinner with us. I didn't know she would be- ah- staying with you."

Zoe shrugged. The conversation suddenly felt really awkward. "Um, yeah. She doesn't have a place to stay yet, so I'm just letting her use the guest room. Plus her car needs a tune-up, so..." She gulped. "So, what was it you wanted to ask me?"

Raina glanced inside again, then shook her head. "Nevermind. It was nothing. Just- wondering if you- needed a ride to work. That's all."

Zoe shook her head. "No, I'm fine."

Raina nodded. "Okay. Bye, I guess." She turned and started back down the driveway to her car.

"I'll see you later," Zoe said hesitantly.

Raina didn't even look back. She got in her car and drove away, and Zoe wasn't even sure if she'd heard her through the whistling wind.

Zoe sighed and closed her door. She felt kinda sad, and she didn't know why.

Charlie glanced up from the newspaper. "Your face is all red."

"It is?" Zoe glanced at the mirror that hung just next to the door. Her cheeks were indeed blazing a bright pink. She shook her head. "Must be windburn."

Charlie raised an eyebrow. "You sure?"

Zoe shot her a glare. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Charlie shrugged and folded up the newspaper. "Nevermind. Should we head over to the pizzeria now? If your boss is as bad as you say he is, I don't think you want to be late."

xXx

Zoe and Charlie entered the pizzeria at 9:07. She was a few minutes late because of her encounter with Raina, but she didn't think Vincent would mind. The animatronics were already there, milling about and getting ready for work. Jeremy had probably gone to pick them up, or maybe they'd walked here on their own.

Jeremy glanced up from his phone and waved at Zoe. "Hey, Supernova! Who's your friend?" he asked, nodding at Charlie.

"Hey, Jerebear," Zoe said. "This is Charlie. Charlie, this is Jeremy, my friend."

"Hi," Charlie greeted him.

"She's staying at my place for now, until her car is fixed and she can get her own house," Zoe explained.

"Nice to meet you, Charlie." Jeremy said. He turned back to his phone and seemed to forget all about them.

Tia skipped up to them and beamed at Charlie. "Hi! I'm Tia! Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's! What's your name?"

Charlie smiled. "I'm Charlie. It's nice to meet you. Let me guess; you're the Toy Chica animatronic?"

"That's me!" Tia confirmed cheerfully. She began pointing out the different animatronics and telling Charlie their names. "The one eating cookies out of the jar is Tonnie, the Toy Bonnie animatronic, and that one above him on the ceiling is Mangle- you know, Toy Foxy- and the three that are spray-painting swear words on the walls are Foxy, Bonnie, and Toy Freddy, or Teddy as we like to call him, and those two ones in yellow who are sitting on the table and talking are my sister Chica and Goldie, and-"

As Tia introduced each of the robots to Charlie, who was listening very intently, Zoe took out her phone and tried to text Raina.

hey rainbow. i wanna talk. can you come over later?

She sent the message and pocketed her phone. Tia was still rambling. "-and the one drawing in the corner over there is Springtrap, and the one reading manga and ranting to Freddy is the Marionette, whom we renamed Mari, and Balloon Boy is that one over there, playing with a yoyo, and-" She looked around the restaurant. "I think that's it. Of course, there are a couple more employees, but they're not here right now."

Charlie nodded. "I think I remember all of the original animatronics. Especially Springtrap." She looked uncertainly over at said animatronic, who was still huddled in the Prize Corner, clutching her sketchbook.

Tia giggled at Charlie's nervousness. "Don't worry. We don't kill people anymore."

"But I think Freddy's about to," Zoe commented, looking at the animatronic. He was glaring across the room at Teddy, Bonnie, and Foxy, whom had just finished spray-painting a variety of insults about Freddy on the wall beside the stage. Almost every single insult on the wall contained a swear.

Tia sighed. "I'd better go tell them to wash that off the wall before the kids get here." She sauntered over to the three boys. Charlie sat down at one of the tables to see how this would play out.

Zoe glanced down at her phone. Raina hadn't replied yet, which was weird, because she always answered her texts within three minutes.

"Whatcha doin'?"

Zoe turned around to see Vincent standing there, a cigarette held in between two fingers. He was looking at her curiously, one eyebrow raised.

Zoe sighed and shoved her phone back into her pocket. "I ran into Raina this morning, and she seemed upset. I'm trying to text her, but she's not answering."

"Ah. Trouble in paradise?"

Zoe looked at him. "What?"

He stared at her for second, then sighed and shook his head. "Nevermind." Then he caught sight of Charlie, who was sitting in a chair, watching Tia bicker back and forth with Teddy, Foxy, and Bonnie. "Who's that? If they're looking for a job, we can't afford any more employees."

Zoe shook her head. "Nope. She's already going to get a job. I think she used to work at a Fazbear franchise, though. Her name's Charlie."

Vincent's eyes flashed with recognition. "Charlie?"

Charlie stood up from her chair and turned around to say something to Zoe, but then she caught sight of Vincent. She furrowed her eyebrows. "William?"

Vincent shook his head, but he shot Zoe a look, like he was saying "pay attention to this". Zoe remembered what he said a couple days ago, when she was caught snooping through his room: "Look, I would love to tell both you and Fritz what's going on, but they won't let me." Maybe the "they" he was talking about then weren't present right now, or maybe he'd found a loophole in the restrictions "they" had put on him; whatever the case, she knew he wanted her to know what he was about to say, and that he wanted her to tell Fritz, too.

He held out his hand for Charlie to shake. "No, my name is not William. I'm Vincent, the new owner. But I think I knew William. He was Scott's brother, wasn't he?"

Charlie reached out and shook his hand, looking at him curiously. She looked at Zoe, then at Vincent, then at the various animatronics wandering about, and she seemed to catch on to whatever Vincent was doing. "Oh, yeah. I remember that. Didn't Scott have a son? A boy named Michael?"

Vincent nodded and let go of her hand."Yes, but I think Michael prefers to go by 'Mike' now." They were emphasizing certain words, as though indirectly telling Zoe to pay special attention to those phrases.

Charlie nodded. "Ah. How old is he now? Do you know?"

"I'd say he's about forty years old, maybe older. Now, say, hypothetically, maybe three of his childhood friends thought that he was younger, like, about their age-"

"Maybe thirty-two, thirty-three?"

"Exactly."

"But they're childhood friends. Wouldn't his friends know how old he was? Wouldn't they remember?"

"Well, I don't know. Maybe, hypothetically, their memories were tampered with."

"And, hypothetically, if such a thing were possible-"

"Which it most certainly isn't."

"No, of course not. But if it were, then do you think, hypothetically, maybe Michael- er, Mike, would know how that happened?"

"I'd say he would know. And I think that, hypothetically, if one of these three friends wanted to know, then they could just go ask him."

"Hypothetically."

"Of course." Vincent smiled at Charlie. "Well, it was wonderful meeting you, Charlie." He nodded at Zoe. "Thanks for bringing her here, Nova." He turned and walked away.

Charlie smiled at her. "Yeah. Thanks. It was nice being here again. Anyway, I should get going to my job interview." She winked at her, then walked out of the pizzeria.

Zoe pulled out her phone. Maybe Raina wasn't speaking to her, but there was one person she could talk to. Vincent and Charlie had just given her a lot more information, and Fritz had to know.