The Exchange

Chapter 4

Lady's Cafe was a charming little place, similar to Panera, for the sake of a comparison. There were about ten tables with chairs for two or four spread across the dated parquet flooring, and the walls were covered in a light brown paint, just too dark to be considered beige. The aroma of cookies and cheese was an odd mix, but for some reason, I found it comforting. It almost reminded me of snack time in kindergarten.

Despite our frequent trips to the Mall, Arti, Blaine and I had never stopped in. The girl at the register, Eleanor Belladonna, went to our school. I had Spanish and English with her last year, but we never really had a conversation besides explaining what was due the next day or asking if one would watch the other's stuff as she went to the bathroom.

I didn't have anything against her, though, besides the fact that she seemed a little too uppity to be friends with someone like me.

"Amanda, Blaine! Nice to see you guys. How's your summer going?" She greeted us with a smile. She must have known Blaine too.

"Good, thank you." God, how I hated small talk. So I decided to make this a little less painful for myself. "Viktor, this is Eleanor. She goes to our school, and she's really good at everything. Eleanor, this is Viktor. He's a Swedish foreign exchange student."

"Oh, so you're the one everyone's been talking about. Nice to meet you," Eleanor said. She tossed her honey blonde hair over her pale shoulder, then offered her hand for him to shake.

Viktor shook it. "Nice to meet you too. I'm guessing you guys don't have many, um..." He hesitated. "What's the word for someone who isn't from here?"

"A goddamn disgrace to this world," Blaine said. Arti flicked him on the forehead.

"A foreigner," Matt said.

Viktor nodded. "I'm guessing you don't have many foreigners here."

"We have a few Canadians at our school, but mostly the exchange students go to Cornelius High in Minneapolis to play sports," Eleanor replied. She looked behind herself to check the clock. "God, we're still open for another two and a half hours. I just want to go to bed."

"You don't like working here?" Viktor asked.

"No, no. Well, actually, I do kinda hate it, but my mom owns the place, so I don't have much of a choice," Eleanor replied, rather candidly for having just met Viktor. She shook her head, then smiled. "At least it's just during the summer."

"If you want a break, you can sit down with us," Viktor offered.

"I've been standing behind this counter for four hours straight. You have no idea how much I need a break. My mom always gets mad if I leave my post, even though literally no one comes in after eight every single evening. Well, I guess except for you guys. Now, did you guys just stop in to chat, or did you want to order something?"

We all ordered our food, and I got a ham and cheese sandwich and tomato soup. Anything would have tasted good at that point, since I still hadn't really eaten during the day. So I shut up and ate my food in silence, while Viktor, Eleanor, Blaine, and Arti chatted about other activities around the Mall. Matt, like me, didn't talk much while eating. That's what the triplets were for.

Blaine talked about the arcade and his poor financial decisions there. He loved it, even though he was no good at games of any sort. I never went to the arcade with him, though, mostly because I knew that if I let myself get sucked into one of those games, I would end up like him. My name would need to top the high scores list, and I would become terribly paranoid and need to spend every penny there, defending my title.

But I refused to let that happen. I was already dedicating my life (at the moment) to astronomy documentaries.

Before that, it was Supernatural.