Chapter 46: Order in the Court
After everyone placed their orders, the waitress nervously snatched up the menus and literally sprinted into the back kitchen.
The group stared at the swinging doors where she had disappeared.
Maya who had grabbed a booster seat while walking in broke the silence, crossing her arms. "She was weird."
Suki looked over at her deadpan. "Maya, we literally look like monsters to her."
Miss Marcy rested her head in her hands, letting out a long, exhausted sigh. "We look like we picked a fight with a garbage truck and barely won..."
Tom chuckled, leaning back in his booth. "That's one way of putting it, Luck."
The old callsign instantly triggered something deep inside Miss Marcy's subconscious. Without even thinking, she barked, "Attention!!"
SLAM!
Out of sheer, hardwired muscle memory, Tom, Ari, and Bianca instantly snapped up and stood perfectly at attention, their expressions blank. A second later, they blinked, looking around the diner in complete confusion.
Ari slowly slumped back into her seat, letting out a nervous chuckle. "Oh... I see. She still completely terrifies us."
For the first time all day, Miss Marcy’s face turned bright red. She quickly covered her face with her hands. "I'm sorry!! Please, just sit down..."
White looked over at her, a knowing, mischievous smile spreading across her lips. Miss Marcy felt the gaze, peeking through her fingers. "Oh no... don't you dare give me that look.
Where is the food?!
I desperately need a distraction!"
Right on cue, the waitress came running back out of the kitchen, huffing and puffing as if she had just fought a war with the line cook. She slammed down a few plates. "The burgers will be ready in a bit! Just... please don't destroy the store... I really need this job..."
As the waitress started to turn, Alice suddenly blinked, tapping her pockets. "Oh, no! I left my phone at home!"
Without a second thought, Alice reached into the empty air, sketching a tiny hole, and pulled her smartphone right out of it. Once she had it, she grabbed the bottom edge of the magical hole, rolled it up like a window blind, and let it vanish.
The waitress froze, her eyes wide. Without changing her expression or saying a single word, she simply turned around and waddled back to the kitchen, completely mentally exhausted by what she had just witnessed.
Alice watched her go, tilting her head. "She's... weird, right?"
Soon, the food arrived, and the table finally began to wind down. Maya was practically holding her own cheek in bliss from how delicious her chili fries were. Across the table, Riley was quietly breaking off small pieces of her meal to feed Pigeon Chad. Never in the history of fast food had a pigeon looked so incredibly sophisticated while swallowing whole french fry crumbs in a diner booth.
But the peace didn't last long.
Outside the diner window, something suddenly landed on the pavement with a soft thud.
It was a girl. She had tiny, shimmering wings fluttering on her back, her face flushed red from exertion, and a thoroughly annoyed expression plastered across her features. The most shocking part? She looked exactly like a traditional, textbook magical girl—frills, ribbons, small little wings on her side, and perfect styling.
Maya pressed her face against the glass. "Who is that tiny girl?!"
Suki glanced down at her. "Maya, you are literally sitting in a booster seat right now... yet you are calling her short?"
Maya’s face flushed with anger. "So what?!"
The bell above the diner door jingled as the winged girl walked inside. She let out a heavy sigh, looked around the room, and barked, "Is one of you named Tony?"
She paused, looking down at a piece of paper, then blinked. "Tony? That's not a girl's name. Usually, there would be an 'I' or an 'Ee' at the end of it, right?"
Everyone at the table instantly flashed back to Tony's incredibly poor attempts at naming his magical forms, and a collective, synchronized sigh rippled through the booth.
White’s cheeks flushed a bright, embarrassed pink as she defensively cleared her throat. "T-Toni with an 'I' is an exceptional name..."
Pink and Tony agreed.