(Let's pretend I didn't proofread this the moment before publishing it).

Hungry Like the Wolf: Part Eight

"Cress," Thorne states.

They just got in the car and Cress was asking him rapid-fire questions about metabolic reactions. He's still digesting his dinner and dessert and forgot about the fact that this was supposed to be a study date. Frankly, he thinks only she knew it was a study date because he came for the "date" part. And maybe she came for the "study" half.

"Cress, I don't know anything," Thorne tells her.

"But if you get it right, then you'll get this prize," Cress says before digging into her bag.

She stops rummaging and looks at him with a grin on her face. Slowly, she pulls out a cheese bun from The Rampion out of her purse wrapped in a napkin as if she was a magician pulling a rabbit from her hat. She gasps as if it's a surprise and if he didn't watch her shove them all inside like she was robbing the place of buns and doughnut holes. Even Scarlet was staring at them oddly (as if nothing stranger has ever happened in that place).

But he had to admit that he wasn't sure if she would pull out a bun or a doughnut hole, so there's a little surprise there.

Cress holds it in her palm as if she's waving a crystal ball. Thorne bets that if his future was read, it'd be saying that he'll fail his quiz on metabolic reactions.

"Scarlet gives us free refills," Cress explains. "I had to seize the opportunity. She knew what she was doing."

Cress pops the cheese bun in her mouth and Thorne laughs as he kisses her cheek.

-o-

Wolf drank about half of his pretzel cheesecake milkshake, staying at the bar on the stool which is the closest to the cash register. It's where Scarlet would pass him the most while on his feet, whether it was ringing up customers, giving them menus or spare cutlery, or giving and serving orders to the kitchen.

The next time Scarlet approaches him, she stops behind the counter in front of him. Wolf looks up from his milkshake, expecting her to give him some onion rings in a cute basket with checkered paper stained in oil. Sometimes, she'd give him a portion of those or fries when she "accidentally" wrote an extra side order for a table.

Other times he'd get a ramekin of coleslaw which wasn't desirable but he still ate because of free food. It'll go with his free milkshake. He's living tonight.

But this time, she's just looking at him with one eye closed and the other one squinting through a fork.

"Okay, I deserve that," Wolf confesses.

"Honestly, this is fun," Scarlet responds, lowering the fork. "So, you gonna order something or are you loitering?"

Wolf raises a brow. "I'm browsing the menu."

He grabs a menu from down the bar and opens it. His eyes don't look over the options but he pretends.

Scarlet nods, pursing her lips into a grin as she takes out her waitress notepad from her apron and clicks her pen. "So, what can I get for you, babe?"

Wolf closes the menu and leans in closer. "The waitress looks great."

Scarlet exhales a sharp laugh as the apples of her cheeks redden. "Sorry, babe, but she isn't on the menu."

"Yeah, she is."

Wolf opens his menu and Scarlet sees that he has his phone in there with a picture of her open. She isn't sure when that photo was taken but it looks like she's driving to or from school since she's in her uniform.

"Well, you'll have to wait a bit longer for her."

Scarlet leaps over the counter and holds on to the edge to kiss him quickly. When she lands on her heels, she spins around and picks up an order from the heating bar. She slides him a ramekin of coleslaw and the fork that was his temporary prison bars.

-o-

After Wolf dropped her off, Winter called Jacin back and spent the past thirty minutes tasting, commentating, and making a small row of the worst to best. It got to a point where she was so hazed on sugar and milkshakes that she forgot which end was the best and which end was the worst. It's a beautiful hue of browns, whites, and splashes of colours.

The countertop is drenched in condensation but she doesn't care. Forget her mouth being burned because it potentially has frostbite now. At least the ghost pepper situation has subsided.

"What do you think about a ghost pepper milkshake?" Winter asks, stirring a milkshake that she believes to be orange cream. She likes the sweet citrus taste so she'd put it near the top. "I think it'd have a kick and be this muted red colour that's an alarming shade you think is just chemicals."

Jacin Bae: I think it'd be right above the plain vanilla. At least ghost pepper is a flavour.

Winter laughs, thinking back to Jacin's rant on how boring vanilla is as a flavour and why it shouldn't be classified as its own flavour. She has never seen him speak so animatedly about how vanilla always needs something to make it worth the appetite.

He didn't shut up until she called him vanilla.

A white boy with blonde hair. He's as basic as vanilla.

But she has a soft spot for vanilla.

"We should make a ghost pepper milkshake and sell the idea to the Rampion," Winter suggests. "Only Wolf and I would drink it."

Jacin Bae: Wolf would?

"Brown kid things…" she picks up a bright pink doughnut-flavoured milkshake that's been muted with melting whipped cream and time. It tastes like a blended doughnut hole which she doesn't hate one bit. "And he likes the pretzel cheesecake flavour which is an odd one."

Jacin Bae: What the stars is a pretzel cheesecake?

"Think a cheesecake … with pretzels. I think."

-o-

Cinder scrapes her bowl of mac and cheese clean. When she looks and sees Skylar and Quinn stirring their bowls while slouched on their elbows with drooping eyes, she takes both of their bowls and finishes them off. Cinder knows (and hopes) that Kai doesn't finish what's left in the pot so she could take it.

"I'm tired," Skylar says with a yawn.

"I'm full," Quinn says.

"They have a point, but I got this," Cinder says. If the twins chimed in before Cinder took their bowls, Kai would've made them eat their food because he slaved away at a hot stove.

"You fed them chips before their dinner!" Kai exclaims.

Cinder shrugs as if it was her master plan to make the twins lose their appetite so she could get all the mac and cheese to herself. It wasn't, but the spades fell in her favour.

"I felt energized until I took a bite," Cinder says, staring right at Kai. "Now, I'm decimated."

"What's decimated mean?" Quinn asks.

"How much did you eat?" Skylar echoes.

"I ate until I died," Cinder states. "That's what decimated means."

Cinder winks at them staring at her in horror as she takes another bite. No money for the swear jar is needed.