𝚈/𝚗'𝚜 𝙿𝙾𝚅
"Lovely morning, Norman." I greeted. Norman greeted me back as I sat down next to him to wait for the others.
"How are the meetings going? Is everything going well or are there minor setbacks?" I struck up a conversation.
"Just a few minor setbacks here and there, but nothing the Student Council can't handle." he reassured.
"Excuse me, our restaurant has a 25% discount for couples. Would you like to give it a go?" a person offered.
"No, thank you. We're not dating." I declined it.
"Oh, please forgive me then. It's just that you two looked so comfortable with each other that you could easily be mistaken as a couple." she reasoned.
"We get that a lot. We've been friends since Elementary days." Norman explained.
"That stings, Norman. We've been friends before we met Emma and Ray." I gasped, offended.
"Wait, really? The only thing I remember before Elementary was drowning in a pile of snow." Norman laughed.
"You two seem like wonderful people. If you'd like, you could pretend to be a couple to get a discount." she offered.
"Hold on, that makes no sense." I stopped her.
"Exactly. Despite not being a couple, why would you still give us a discount even after discovering that the two of us aren't in a relationship?" Norman agreed with me.
"Well, you see...our restaurant just opened up so we kinda need customers." she whispered.
"Oh, that's understandable. We'll make sure to drop by once we're done with what we have to do." I said.
"Thank you so much! We'll make you feel at home." she left us alone and headed back.
"Perfect. Now we have a place to eat instead of using a spinning wheel to decide for us." Norman laughed.
"Yo." Ray greeted. We greeted him back and our eyes landed on Emma dozing off.
"This blockhead forgot about the meet-up, so I had to wake her up." he groaned.
"Five more minutes." Emma whined. Instead of Ray being nice to her, he decided to not show her mercy.
"Wake up." Ray smacked her at the back of her head.
"Ray!" Norman scolded. Ray just acted like nothing happened. I put a piece of Emma's favorite candy in front of her, which immediately woke her up.
"Anyways, just like we planned last time, Ray and I will deal with the groceries while Norman and Emma deal with the outfits." I recalled.
"Yep! That's what we planned. So, I'll be going outfit shopping with Norman!" Emma hooked her arm around Norman's.
"Indeed. I'll go grocery shopping for ingredients with Ray." I grabbed Ray's hand in mine with a gentle smile.
The young men, who were going to go shopping with us, nearly passed out when we made contact with them.
The squad separated into two, with Emma and Norman heading to the clothing stores and Ray and I going to the grocery store.
He then took one of the grocery shopping carts since we'll be purchasing quite a lot of stuff.
Not only are we making crêpes, but we're making various flavors of it. Our budget should be enough, though.
"What's first on the list?" Ray inquired. I answered, saying that flour is what we should get first.
We then headed to where the flour was. I was familiar with the place since my mother lets me go grocery shopping.
"Ah, Ray. Could you get the flour? I'll go get us some sugar. They're quite nearby." I mentioned, leaving him to go get some sugar.
"I gotcha, don't worry." he reassured. Not long after I left, he gave me a call. He complained, asking why there were so many kinds of flour.
"Get the one that says 'All-purpose'. That's the one we need." I sighed.
"Oh, okay. Thanks." he ended the call. Goodness...
Hmm, I need to create a plan. Ten seconds is all I need to think.
Let's buy the dry ingredients first. So far, flour and sugar seem to be our only dry ingredients. We could get eggs later.
After that, the flavors, such as strawberries, syrups, chocolate chips, and many more.
Finally, while we're at the cashier, I'll go ahead and get the ingredients that have the possibility to melt.
"Ray, did you get them? We need around 5 packs of it. We're feeding the school and strangers." I reminded.
"Don't worry." he reassured, slowly getting more flour and putting it inside the cart.
"Wow." I shook my head disapprovingly. He chuckled at my reaction to his foolishness.
"Okay, let's get the flavors next. Let's get some syrup. Fruits will be saved for later. Chocolate chips might melt so let's do that after the fruits." I planned.
"I don't quite understand why we need to do that but okay." he gave me a thumbs-up.
"It's so that they stay as fresh as possible. I wouldn't want them to melt. It'll be troublesome to manage." I stated.
"Ah, I see." he nodded.
"Lovely. Now, we should get both chocolate and strawberry syrup. Be a dear and reach them for me." I requested.
He nodded and grabbed the syrup at the top of the shelf. Goodness, who in their right mind would put them up so high?
"I remember the next one. We're going to get strawberries now, right?" he questioned. I'm surprised he actually paid attention.
"Indeed." I replied, heading to the fruits section. I sent Ray to get strawberries and berries.
"Oh, I nearly forgot. We need bananas too. How silly of me." I chuckled. Ray came back with the stuff I asked for.
"Mama." someone tugged on my pants.
"Oh my." I looked down to see a child.
"I'm not your mother, sweetheart. Are you perhaps lost?" I inquired, bending down to match the child's height.
"Mama." he still called me that. He's still at that age where he can't properly speak, huh?
"Sweetheart, I'm not your mom. However, I'll be your temporary one until we find your actual mom." I declared.
"Hold on, shouldn't we just ask other people to handle the kid?" Ray retorted.
"I mean, we could but...he's too adorable!" I argued. This made Ray sweatdrop and he had no choice but to deal with it.
"Let's walk around the grocery store in hopes the child would spot his parents." Ray suggested.
"Let's continue while we're at it, too." I said. Now that we got all the fruits needed, we should go line up.
"I wanna get a drink for the child." I mentioned.
"We'll go out of budget if you do that. That'll be a hindrance. Don't bother." Ray retorted.
"Then, I shall use my own money." I argued, pushing the cart. Ray carried the child in his arms.
"Hold tight, buddy." Ray muttered, lifting the child and putting him on his shoulders. This made the child giggle.
"Ray!" I scolded.
"Don't worry, I got this." he reassured. That's what you said last time!
"If even one scratch gets on that lovely child, I will mur- no, kill you." I threatened.
"Anyways, go line up. I'll go get the rest." I instructed, leaving him.
While I was getting some butter, I received a call. I took out my phone and saw Ray's caller ID.
"What could he want this time?" a sigh escaped my lips as I answered the call.
"Y/n! Hurry up, it's almost our turn. The money's with you, too! Why'd you leave and keep the money if you're gonna take that long?!" he cried.
"Ray...stop crying. You don't have to call me if I can hear you from the other side of the grocery store." I groaned.
"Oh, okay." he ended the call. Oh, that's it? That was quick.
"Y/n! Are you done yet?! It's almost our turn!" Ray yelled from the other side of the grocery store.
"This son of a lovely woman!" my cheeks heated up in embarrassment. I quickly got the stuff needed, including chocolate milk, and ran back to the cashier.
When I got there, I saw people giving Ray weird looks. My eyes landed on his shirt to see that he was filled with vomit.
"Y/n! I got vomited on by the way!" Ray continued to yell. This made the customers and cashiers laugh.
"Ray, tone it down!" I pinched his arm, making him wince.
"I sincerely apologize. Please ignore us." I apologized to the customers, who only laughed it off and continued with what they were doing.
"Ray, aren't you supposed to be smart? Why did you yell like that? Don't you know how embarrassing that is?" I interrogated.
"Oh, uh well...no?" he shrugged. I can't with this young man.
"I'll just drop this topic. Let's hurry it up and get you changed." I suggested. We then left the grocery store.
"So, uh...what do we do about the baby vomit?" Ray asked.
"It's not vomit, it's spit-up. It happens after a burp." I corrected. It looked like vomit at first, I'm glad I inspected it.
I wiped the child's mouth with a spare handkerchief.
"Dang, if only you could do the same for my spit-up-filled shirt." Ray jokingly commented.
"You were born with two arms and two legs. You were raised to have the ability to do that yourself." I replied.
"Ugh, you care more about a random child than someone you've known since elementary." he pouted.
"Just go. I'll handle the child." I grunted.
"Fine, fine, I was just messing around." he chuckled, heading to the male's restroom after handing over the child.
"Why do you smell like orange despite having a spit-up?" I shrugged it off and continued to clean it up.
Just after a minute, Ray came back, telling me that he found a couple looking for a missing child. We immediately went to where they were.
"Is this the kid?" Ray asked, referring to the child in my arms.
"Indeed! Thank you so much!" the teenage girl thanked us. They look around the same age as us.
"You're not the parents, right?" I had a hunch.
"Yeah, we're j-" I cut the teenage boy.
"My hunch is that you two are siblings looking after your uncle and aunt's child since they're busy, correct?" I guessed.
"Surprising...yeah." the two both said at the same time.
"I'm Y/n. The person next to me is Ray. A pleasure to meet you." I introduced. Those names...
"I'm Rosaria. This is my older brother, Arthur. Nice to meet you too, Y/n, Ray." Rosaria introduced as well.
"Yo." Ray and Arthur both greeted. From afar, they look like guard dogs protecting their owners.
"Anyways, thank you for taking care of Grace. I hope we meet again!" Rosaria bid us farewell.
"Arthur and Rosaria are lovely names." I said to myself. If I were to have children, I would like to name them after those two.
"We got side-tracked. Let's go meet up with Emma and Norman." Ray reminded. Right.
We then proceeded to wait at the location we were instructed to meet at once we were done.
"Emma and Norman are taking a while." Ray mentioned, leaning against the bench.
"Indeed." I agreed. Once all of us are done with our tasks, we'll drop them off at my house.
Since I basically live above a bakery, we're going to use the kitchen to store our items. The clothes will be left in my room.
"Heyo!" Emma cheered, approaching us. They sure took their time.
"Took you long enough." Ray rolled his eyes.
"I now see the reason as to why you took longer than you should've." I sweatdropped. Behind Emma was Norman...carrying a bunch of shopping bags and shoe boxes.
"Emma, how rude of you. Despite knowing how much of an old man Norman is, you decided to torture him with your wrath." Ray insulted.
"Wr-Wrath?! Mind you, Norman insisted on carrying them!" Emma retorted. I just sighed at this.
"And yet, you allowed him to do that. He was trying to be a gentleman. Declining the offer would've been easier." Ray continued. He just wants to make Emma annoyed.
"Shut up! You'd do the same if it was Y/n!" Emma smirked.
"Why you!" an irk mark popped out of Ray's forehead.
"Wah! Y/n, Ray's being a meanie!" she rushed to hide behind me before Ray could pull out her antenna.
"Now, now, the groceries are going to melt if we continue this pointless argument. Let's just hurry and grab some lunch." I stopped the fight.
"Hmph! But I'm only doing it because you asked me to." Ray pointed out.
"Of course you would, simp." Emma muttered.
"You better shut your mouth before I pull out that weird string on your hair that looks like weed on a lawn!" Ray warned.
"I will chop off that hair of yours! You think you look cool with that? You look like a wannabe edgy, emo boy!" Emma stuck out her tongue.
"At least I look like the sunshine of the group! Norman looks similar to Sugawara, but you? You look like you were trying to cosplay Kuroo and then it ended up horribly." Emma offended.
I should probably stop this. I honestly don't care about the people staring at them, the groceries are my priority.
"Oh my, speaking of Norman, he hasn't said any-" I paused when we saw him on the floor.
Lying on the ground, face-flat, was Norman. He had collapsed from carrying that many items.
"That's what you get for making him carry four paper bags and two boxes of shoes." Ray scoffed, earning a punch from Emma.
This friend group of mine is indeed chaotic. I hope it stays that way, though. It's truly fun.
❛ ━━━━━━･❪ ❁ ❫ ･━━━━━━ ❜
"Oh yeah, where should we eat? Should we use the spinning wheel? I bet we'll be eating at Deez again." Emma mentioned.
"Deez?" Norman repeated, confused. Oh no.
"Deez nuts in your mouth." Emma cackled.
"Wow. So funny. So smart. So hilarious. You got the whole squad laughing." Ray sarcastically said.
"Emma, please don't drag Norman in these sort of jokes." I kindly requested.
"Okay, but seriously, where are we eating?" Ray brought up that topic once again.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, Y/n, but I believe someone approached us this morning?" Norman mentioned.
"Indeed. Someone offered a 25% discount to couples who eat at their restaurant." I nodded.
"A discount? So, our plan is to..." Emma paused.
"Pretend to go on a double date!" we all said at the same time, pointing at the center.
"It never gets old." I chuckled.
Ray and I were to pretend to be a couple, leaving Emma and Norman as the other couple.
We ended the day with our bellies full. The constant bickering between Emma and Ray filled the air.
I had to always calm down the two while Norman ordered for all of us.
What an interesting day it has been.
❛ ━━━━━━･❪ ❁ ❫ ･━━━━━━ ❜