4.01 – Red-handed
After her near-week stay with Mistral, despite the supervillain fight, Aurora came back very relaxed, which changed relatively quickly when she had to start backtracking on her homework.
Auntie Goonie wouldn’t let her leave the house until her schoolwork was completed. While she helped where she could, her job naturally kept her busy too. Despite the temptation to go out while Aunt Goonie was out, she managed to resist it and stayed at home. She was sidetracked oftentimes in texting with Sarah, making up for lost time and making up for how annoyed she seemed to be when she asked her to keep her work for her.
Nyavenger: I missed you, Leona. It was like you dropped off the
edge of the :world: if it was :pancake:
Aurora sweated a bit at how passive aggressive her words were, but she responded.
Superfan109: I missed you too. We’ll spend some time soon,
pinky promise!
They talked about things she’d done.
Nyavenger: My parents took me to the beach! i wish
u were there. ;_;
Superfan109: Sounds like it was way fun! <3 I didn’t
think your parents knew how to have fun! I’m sorry,
I get busy sometimes. =/
Nyavenger: don’t rip on my parents, plz. not
cool. O.O
Superfan 109: I’m sorry. I’m sure you had a lot of
fun. We’ll do it sometime if they don’t mind my tagging
along. ‘^^
Nyavenger: ….. we’re still working on that. I’ll do my best!
Nehow, how r u?
Superfan 109: Yeah… it was kind of tiring, but I had fun
Too.
Sarah asked for details Leona couldn’t share. Though she was tempted to be done with all the guilt and sadness over not trusting Sarah with this secret, she still hesitated.
Would telling her solve things?
Over the weekend, a message came from Quinn, who barely kept in touch with her mother and adopted sister.
She said she wanted to come for a visit in a month, and she wanted Leona to take a weekend to maybe come back with her to Los Angeles, since she could “catch a bargain and quick flight home”, which actually was more like a reminder that she could fly very very fast.
In other news, she mentioned a girl she was interested in whose name was Dani. They learned that this prospective girlfriend was involved in the electronic media program for business, or rather advertising specifically.
She’d heard about Aurora’s exploits up in Canada with her ‘super booty call’ and she complimented her for being mentioned alongside Mistral. She asked some embarrassing questions about her personal time with her that Leona would frankly rather not repeat. *blushes*
Leona finished her schoolwork and homework by Saturday night somehow. It helped that she was solar-powered. And Goonie offered her a chance to wait tables at Au Naturale to make a little extra money. The truth was, she was expecting a huge surge of customers since she’d started advertising that her cafe was ‘Angel Approved’.
Eager to be outside their home for a while, Leona agreed.
She put on the waitress costume Goonie had provided. It was a green and white spring dress tie dyed with a floral head garland. It was more of a “pretend to be a beatnik” for a while. She went barefoot.
The dress was cute, but Leona was embarrassed, and it only got more awkward when she got a surprise visit from Sarah.
The doorbell rang when she came in and Leona froze, blushing, holding the notepad in front, pensive. It became apparent soon why Sarah knew to find her there that day, because Derrick and Maria soon followed her. Her loudmouthed friend with his tuba-like voice had instantly called everyone when she saw Leona through the windows she was waiting tables in a really old-fashioned dress.
“Oh… hi…” Leona mumbled. Maria and Sarah exchanged grins.
“SO CUTE!” Derrick bellowed.
Leona cringed. Goonie left the kitchen and swooped in to save the damsel in distress that was her daughter. The girls giggled, but stopped when Goonie fixed them with a firm expression.
“You’re disrupting business. Wanna have a seat and a nice chai tea latte?” Goonie offered, smiling. “But then, we’re so busy…” She tapped her chin and eyed the room full of clientele. She smiled as something seemed to occur to her just then. “Why don’t you help out for the day? I’ll pay, of course. There’s a bit of beatnik holiday going on here, so everyone and anyone who was curious about the ambiance just kind of floated on in.” She laughed.
“I gotta wear one of those frilly sixties things?” Maria asked, tilting her head. The prospect of making a bit of pocket money had her attention, but the uniform wasn’t something Leona ever expected to see her wear. “... I’m in!” She grinned.
Sarah’s jaw dropped and she giggled. “Sure! Let’s do it! What about Derrick?” Her expression was very naughty and mischievous as she eyed the aforementioned and suddenly scared boy.
“It’d be a bit baggy, but,” Goonie suddenly rescued him too. “There’s an outfit I had my ex wear. He was happy to wear it though. He was a hippie through and through. What he had wasn’t anywhere near as fine as what I expect my people to wear.”
They worked all the rest of the day, making it a contest about who could be the most tree-huggy of all. Goonie was a little put out when she perceived it was a funny joke to them, but the giggling and smiles went a long way making the day extra fun for the temporary workers and the patrons.
Despite their collective inexperience working in service and cleaning a restaurant, they acquitted themselves well enough. They even got free food and drinks during their breaks, which actually was Goonie spoiling them rotten with her vegetarian appetizers and delicious lattes and tea.
Everything got done quickly and well enough.
“I’d love it if you’d come back and help out if we get slammed again like today.” Goonie grinned, satisfied with their help. Even if they weren’t the most efficient workers, it added to the festive mood and was nothing bad for her business.
They were crammed into her car and Goonie personally drove all her friends home individually, one by one. She saved Sarah for last.
At that time, Leona shared the backseat with Serah and they snuggled, which was exactly what Goonie was hoping they’d do. They held hands and this experience and Goonie’s treatment of them actually was the thing that broke the ice between them.
However, not all was well.
“SARAH!” Her mother yelped, in a state when they pulled into their driveway. Sarah stiffened and cringed, practically pleading Goonie with her eyes to get her to drive away very fast. Her mother was obviously in a state and this meant bad things. If her mother was like this, her father was probably going to be bad in a different and worse way.
Auntie Goonie stepped out calmly and intercepted her while the girls hid in the backseat. She expertly defused the situation and heaped praise on Sarah who had done an amazing job working that day. She gave her stories about their exploits and fumbles and soon her mother was laughing and smiling. She went from worried to appeased and everything was fine for now, but her father wasn’t anywhere to be seen yet. She mentioned that he was worried too, but she would do her best to smooth things over.
Sarah kissed Leona safely on her cheek and winked as she emerged from the car. Her mother instantly gave her a disapproving stare for how she was hiding and didn’t call home to let them know where she was. At that moment, her father stepped into the doorway and started screaming at the two to get inside. Leona stiffened and her heart dropped.
Sarah’s mother looked back with a reassuring smile and the happy family went inside. Goonie drove them home.
“I told her that I’d show them security videos if it helped to soothe hurt feelings. If they see she wasn’t doing anything but working and having a bit of fun at the same time, maybe they’d decide it was fine, right? Or so I hoped. She was so firm about dismissing the evidence, so I really think nothing we showed or told them would matter.” Goonie ranted softly under her breath. She eyed Leona who squirmed into the passenger seat.
“Leona… I’m serious here. I hope things are going to be okay. Let me know on Monday if there’s any problems and I’ll call Child Services at the drop of a hat, you know I will, right?” Her auntie’s expression was slightly worried.