Just as the day before, Tuesday morning started with the sound of Vanessa's alarm. Fortunately, this one was set an hour later.
"Good morning," said Sun after turning it off.
"Morning," Moon groaned. He expected Sun to say something else, but he just sat there. After a few moments of silence, Moon decided to get dressed first.
When he finished, Sun still hadn't moved. He was just sitting on the couch, staring into space.
"Hey, you ok?" Moon asked.
"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine."
"Great. Bathroom's free."
Their routine was the same as yesterday, eating the same cereal for breakfast. As they ate, Sun regained his natural cheeriness. Given Sun's odd response to waking up, Moon was skeptical about the authenticity of his smile, but they didn't have time to discuss it. He almost forgot his apron, but he slipped it on as they left. The bus ride was just as boring as yesterday, too. Sun tried to smile and wave hello to the bus driver, but he didn't respond.
When they got to the customer service desk, there was actually someone behind it. Once again, Sun did the talking.
"Hello! Is this where we pick up our I.D.s?
"Names?" asked the half-asleep employee.
"Samuel and Gabriel Aster."
He pulled the I.D. cards and a couple of new security badges out of a drawer and placed them on top of the counter. He also grabbed two colorful duffel bags from underneath.
"Here. Have a Fazerrific day."
"Thanks! You too!"
Moon glanced at his new I.D. card long enough to see that it was the signature Pizzaplex pink and quickly shoved it in his pocket. He tried to avoid looking at "his" face as much as possible. Sun, on the other hand, studied his I.D.
"Is my forehead really that big?" He asked.
"Who cares?" replied Moon. "You won't have it for much longer, anyway."
"I guess…"
Sun took one more look at the card, then put it in his pocket. When they got to the daycare, Elaine was there to "greet" them.
"You know you're not supposed to take those aprons home, right?"
"We didn't know, actually," Sun said. "Nobody told us."
"Well, now you do. Just remember to hang them up behind the counter before you leave today."
"Sure thing." Moon knew for sure that this smile was fake. Sun was probably trying his hardest not to snap, but past experience told them that sassing off to employees never ended well.
"See you tonight," said Moon, heading towards the slide.
"Wait!"
Sun ran over and gave him a hug. Moon gave a couple pats back.
"Ok, now you can go. Bye! See you after work!"
Moon slid down the slide into the ball pit below.
"Gabe? Is that you?" Ginger called. Apparently she had arrived before him today.
"Yeah," Moon replied, walking towards the desk. When it was in view, he saw that her bag was fuller than yesterday.
"Cool, just making sure. How are you doing?"
"Um, alright, I guess. You?"
"I'm doing pretty good, not gonna lie. I got an extra hour of sleep last night, all the lights were green on the way here, and now I get to talk to my favorite new coworker! You ready to face the horde again?"
"The horde?"
"Of kids. It's probably gonna be packed for the next week or two, so we might as well get used to it. I didn't see you eat anything yesterday, so I brought extra snacks just in case. Don't worry, they're all gluten-free, nut-free, etc., so you don't have to worry about any kids going into anaphylactic shock. I also picked up a bag of these things from the gift shop."
She pulled out a bag of Sunnydrops. It depicted a cartoony Sun holding one of the candies.
"Apparently, each one of these has 90 mg of caffeine. I have no idea why they sell these to kids, but they're a lot more portable than coffee. Taste better too. Lemon ginger flavor, wanna try one?"
Sun and Moon had always wondered what their candies tasted like. Moon had just eaten breakfast, but he wasn't going to pass up this opportunity.
"Uh, sure."
He grabbed one of the candies and ate it. It was soft and chewy, and it stung his tongue a little, but in a good way.
"If you need a little pick-me-up in a few hours, don't be afraid to ask for more. I've got plenty."
"Thanks."
"Of course. I don't know about you, but I really like them. I just got them today, and I've already had three of 'em, which might be too many. They're called 'energizing candies' for a reason. Probably should have read the bag first. The packaging is kinda cute, too. I just wish I got to see the actual animatronic instead of having to stare at a picture on a bag."
Moon was surprised that she knew who he and Sun were, let alone actually wanted to meet them. It would probably be weird if he told her that, though, so he decided to play dumb.
"What animatronic?"
"You don't know?"
"Uhh… no?"
Ginger's face lit up.
"Would you like to?!"
He had never seen an employee get this excited about anything. It frightened him a little, but his curiosity was piqued.
"…Sure."
"Ok, so, you know the sun and moon characters that are on all the posters and everything in the gift shop, and that big golden statue by the check-in counter, and that screen right there? Crazy story, those two characters were actually built into one animatronic."
"No way."
"Yes way! Normally, it would be on the Sun side, but when the lights turn off, it would change into the Moon side. I have no idea how they managed to pull it off, but it sounds really cool! Not that Freddy and the gang aren't cool. I love those guys as much as anyone else, but they all use the same basic endoskeleton, so this one was more interesting design-wise. Anyway, this animatronic used to do your job, y'know, watching the kids. Actually, the whole reason I wanted to work here instead of somewhere else in the Pizzaplex was so I could see it. Most of the animatronics are pretty easily accessible, but this one stayed in here, so the only people who got to see it were the employees and kids under the age of twelve. Of course, the second I apply, there's a huge storm that does so much damage, it closes down the entire daycare for a week and puts the Daycare Attendant out of commission."
"Out of commission? Why would you say that?"
"Because you're here. I love this place, but they probably wouldn't hire a human employee that they needed to pay if they had a functioning animatronic. I just wish I could have seen it when it was active. I don't think there are even videos of it online. All I could find are some pictures."
She pulled out her phone and showed Moon a few photos, all of them terrible quality. The first was him doing a handstand, the second was Sun standing on their balcony, and the third seemed to be of Sun holding something, but it was too blurry to tell what.
"Wow."
"Yep. These are the best photos I could find, which is crazy considering-"
Moon winced. He could still hear the children chanting from yesterday.
"Hey, I know the kids aren't here yet, but could we not say the c-word in the daycare anymore?"
"Of course! Sorry, I wasn't really thinking."
"It's fine. Go on."
"Right. Where was I? Oh, yeah. It's… that there aren't any good pictures, because there are loads of publicity photos for the Glamrocks, DJ Music Man, and even the S.T.A.F.F. bots. I guess that's the problem: publicity. They probably thought 'Hey, this one isn't going to be doing meet-n-greets, so we can save a few bucks on advertising.' Now, looking at it purely from a business perspective, I can't blame them, but from someone who wants to see a photo with more than five pixels… it kinda sucks."
"Well, you have access to the security cameras, right?" asked Moon, desperately hoping no one had heard her say that s-word in the daycare. She was new, it was probably an accident. "Couldn't you look at footage from before the storm?"
"I'm not sure if I have clearance for that, but it couldn't hurt to try. Let's see here…"
Ginger typed away at the keyboard. Soon, she found what she was looking for.
"Aha! Footage from last Sunday. Still not super great quality, but it's better than nothing. Wow, there he is! Come over here and take a look at this."
She waved him over. Sun and Moon weren't allowed behind the security desk, probably to provide a safe space if they ever went haywire. Or maybe Fazbear didn't want them messing with the computer. Whatever the reason, it was just another way to get a nice controlled shock. Or, it had been…
Moon cautiously stepped around the desk. Once again, no shock. He breathed a small sigh of relief before joining Ginger at the monitor. Sure enough, it showed Sun standing on the balcony. She gasped as he dove into the ball pit below.
"Whoa! Look at that flawless swan dive!"
"Almost," Moon replied, knowing that it was far from Sun's best dive. "A little short on his front entry, though."
"Do you dive?"
"No, but my brother used to."
"Cool. But considering this is an animatronic, the fact he can dive at all is impressive. And he looks like he's having so much fun!"
"Yeah, I guess he does. I gotta go get ready for the kids now."
"Of course! I wouldn't want to keep you from doing your job. That is kind of why you're here."
"Heh, yeah…"
First, Moon took stock of all the supplies. They were running low on snacks, and the cerise crayon was missing. Next, he started cleaning up all the spots the S.T.A.F.F. bots had missed. Thanks to the Sunnydrop boost, he was able to clean up slightly faster than usual. Then he checked the play structures, because the S.T.A.F.F. bots probably wouldn't be able to clean inside of them at all. He found the missing crayon on the top level of the green one.
When he was up there, he saw the first two kids slide into the ball pit. It was Helen Matthews and her little brother, David. He scrambled down to greet them.
"Good morning! How are you doing today?"
"Good!" answered Helen. David stayed quiet. He had always been shy.
Moon crouched down. "What about you, David? Are you doing good, too?"
David nodded.
"Great. Are you ready to have lots of fun today?"
"Yeah!" yelled Helen. David nodded again.
Helen ran towards the closest play structure, with David following close behind. Moon stepped in front of them.
"Hold on there, Starshines, aren't you forgetting something?"
They looked confused, so he continued.
"You need to take your shoes off first. We don't want to track dirt everywhere, do we?"
"No!" said Helen.
After Moon helped them put their shoes away in the cubby, they climbed to the top of the red structure (on the inside, thank goodness). He tried to keep track of them without climbing in himself.
More kids flooded in soon afterwards, just as they had the day before. Despite the mild chaos of watching "the hoard," the day was fairly calm. But while Moon was passing out animal crackers for snacktime, disaster struck. Halfway through serving the kids, he hit the bottom of the box.
"Hold on, Trusten, I'll be right back." He hurried over to the security desk, box in hand. "Hey, Ginger?"
"Yeah?"
"Did you bring enough snacks for, say, 25 hungry kids? We're all out."
"Wait, all out? How is that possible?"
"I guess they didn't expect this many kids."
That sure was true. The daycare hadn't been this busy for years. Usually, one jumbo box of animal crackers and a jug of apple juice could last a whole month.
"It's a good thing I brought extra, then."
They handed out fruit snacks, crackers, and energy bars to the rest of the kids until they were left with nothing but a single bag of chips and the Sunnydrops.
"Well, there goes dinner," Ginger sighed. She opened the bag of chips and lifted one up in the air. "Bon appétit."
"Tu parles français?"
"…No. Here."
She held out the bag towards him, but he pushed it away.
"No, thanks. I need to get back to the kids, anyway."
"Are you sure? I didn't see you eat lunch."
"I'll be fine. You need to eat."
"So do you, bro." she poured a few chips onto a paper towel. "Just take these. Please?"
Moon didn't want to take Ginger's food, but he was really hungry. He took the paper towel and stood where he could see all of the kids.
Seeing them all sitting around the tables reminded him of the party room from the last nightmare. It had been a week since then, and there were a lot of unanswered questions. What did the nightmares really mean? He had his suspicions, but if his interpretation was true, why did he and Sun both have them? And why had they stopped so suddenly? Did it have something to do with the rain? That didn't make much sense, but neither did anything else. The only thing he knew for certain was that they had to get down to Roxy Raceway. The answers had to be there.
"Mr. Gabe?" asked Helen, bringing him back to the present.
"Yes?"
"May I please have some more juice?"
"Of course, Helen."
He poured her the last of the apple juice. Ginger definitely didn't bring any of that.
"Thank you!"
"You're welcome."
Moon threw the empty jug in the trash. The next shipment wouldn't come in until at least next week. Hopefully, Ginger had a huge snack budget.
"Mr. Gabe?"
"Yes, Johnny?"
"I'm still hungry. Can I have more snack?"
"Um… of course. Here you go."
Moon handed over the rest of his chips.
"Thanks!"
"You're welcome."
So much for dinner. He looked over at Ginger, who had already finished the rest of the bag. She winced and mouthed out the word "Sorry." He smiled and shrugged back. It wasn't her fault they had run out of snacks. At least there was food back at the apartment. He just had to wait a few more hours…