Bad Days, Bad Moods, Bad Burgers

[CoreyImperia†]

JUNIPER COLTON: PREGAME START

Begrudgingly Juniper dragged her feet across the tiled floor in the hall leading into the school cafeteria, a place she generally avoided in favour of eating her lunch outside in the sunshine. Of all the days to forget your lunch Juniper, you pick today. Fab work girl, just fab, she thought, telling herself off. To dampen her usual plans further, the weather today had turned into something particularly unpleasant; lacking a jacket or anything to protect herself from the rain she scurried to reach the cafeteria's warm and dry interior.

She continued, opening the double doors that separated her, the corridor, and the cafeteria. Her eyes shifted from one side of the room to the other, slowly gazing over the rows and rows of circular tables, many full, leaving her little space to sit. Despite her generally social self, Juniper was feeling particularly blue today and just wanted to grab a quick bite to eat before returning to her regularly scheduled school day. She noticed a few faces among the crowd, but she was still early for lunch. To the other side, the queue to the food was relatively short; she noticed the sign, today was burger day apparently. Well, whoop, I'm sure vegetarian burgers are going to taste better than gloop, right?

Juniper set her sights on the end of the queue, weaving her way through the jungle of bags, chairs, and students. Paying little attention to any waves or motions that she encountered. She hurried her pace, causing her to stumble over someone's backpack. She quickly recovered, only turning to apologise before she continued on her quest for lunchtime sustenance.

Finally arriving and filing in at the back of the queue, she wondered what the rest of the day had in store for her, especially whether or not she'd get out of this mucky lump she found herself wallowing in. Lunch at the cafeteria usually sucked but getting a vegetarian lunch at it was a whole other mission. You were always sure they'd have something for their clientele with special dietary requirements, but you weren't always sure that it was edible. No offence to the cooks of course, not completely anyhow. At least burger day wasn't the worst Cochise had to offer her. Tofu tacos had to be the literal worst, literally.

Finally reaching the server, she spoke softly. "Vegetarian, please."

The lady smirked, placing a sloped-together burger containing shrivelled lettuce, bruised tomato, and what she thought must've been a combination of mashed pumpkin and potato pounded together into a misshapen patty. Juniper smiled back, well, sort of; she tried at least. Making a heavy walk to an empty seat beside a rain-splattered window, she perched herself in the chair, placing her books and iPhone on the table next to her tray. Curious, she opened the burger for closer inspection.

They always forget the fucking mayo...

[ViolentMedic]

((Lily Caldwell continued from Every day is great at your Junes.))

Lily had been sick for the last week due to a cold. But first off, there was only so long that knitting could amuse her for (and now she had a green scarf as long as she was tall, which she was currently wearing along with a particularly large yellow sweater and a yellow beanie because it had rained on her on the way there and she'd gotten too chilly) and, two, her parents had said 'Lily, you can't do that' so her immediate (internal) response had been 'screw you, I can definitely do that.' Externally, she'd said 'okay' and then snuck out of the house the moment her parents had left for work.

So currently she was still cold, still stuffed up and thinking that maybe her parents had been right, because she did not feel good at all. Not that she was going to admit it to anyone but herself. At least she hadn't sneezed on anyone yet. On the positive side, she probably wouldn't be able to taste the food today.

She would have sat by herself or with friends, but she didn't immediately see any friends and the place was getting steadily more packed. So once she'd gotten her burger and thanked the serving lady she settled for heading towards one of the emptier tables. Only girl currently sitting there was a girl called Juniper, who Lily mostly remembered in passing because it was an odd name.

"Excuse me? May I sit here?" It came out both croaky—the cough had gone, but it had left her with a very sore throat—and stuffed. Combined with looking generally on her deathbed—Lily swore that it looked and sounded less bad than it actually was—she wouldn't be surprised if the girl said no or called a priest to give the last rites.

[Yugikun]

((Alvaro Vacanti, continued from Havana Escapade))

Alvaro walked into the cafeteria, taking hurried steps as he pushed open the doors in front of him. It was his lunch period, a time in the day in which he stuffed his face with what his parents gave him this morning before rushing off to the library as fast as he could to study. Occasionally his lunch period lined up so that he didn't have any classes after it, which meant that he could go down to the cafe and start his shift a little early, but today wasn't one of those days. He grimaced a little. He had a massive day in front of him. Have Lunch. Study. Do a calc test. Study. Go to the cafe. Work there for four hours. Have Dinner. Go home. Study. Sleep. He didn't really have any free time today, which sucked, so hopefully there was something good going to happen to him. Maybe Lily would come to the cafe after school. Maybe Jasper or Asellio. Who knew? He didn't. The future wasn't something made up, so it was likely that there could be a little surprise for him.

He took a step into the center of the cafeteria, and looked around. He frowned, most of the tables were full. Was it always this packed? Well, it was raining today. That'd explain why there were so many full tables, at least. Which also meant that he couldn't sit at around half the tables in the cafeteria. If he did he'd probably get told by the people there that the table was obviously full and he couldn't sit there, which wouldn't be nice. He'd probably also be considered an idiot by the people on the table and they'd laugh at him and no it wasn't a good idea not at all. He looked around, seemed that all of the other tables he could see were empty. Which also sucked. He didn't want to have to eat lunch alone, that'd just be a super sad and lonely experience.

But then he noticed two people sitting at a table far away from the center. Juniper, someone who regularly went to the cafe with Oskar, and... Lily!!! Alvaro looked around the cafeteria. There was nobody else that he could really recognise at a first glance, so he decided to go off. Off to go to a place where he could quickly eat his lunch with people he knew. Well, knew and liked, although he thought that he'd probably go over to them regardless of his feelings towards Lily.

So he walked quickly towards the table where they were both at and... noticed that Lily had just asked Juniper if she could sit down. Well, this was somewhat awkward. He'd have to ask if he could sit with Juniper right after Lily asked the same thing. Still though, he figured that he was friends with Juniper so she'd let it go? Yeah, just go with that. If he was wrong then he'd have to deal with being wrong. He didn't really have to deal with being wrong but there wasn't really any other choice. He stepped forward.

"Um... mind if I sit here too?"

[CoreyImperia†]

Juniper's head shot up from staring blankly at the slab of 'food' on a tray in front of her. There was someone standing beside the table in a bright yellow sweater. Wrapped up in warm clothes, Juniper knew that she had made much better outfit choices today, but she wasn't jealous of whatever the girl had. Her voice was raspy and broken, so even if Juniper wasn't feeling it today and even if the weather blew massive chunks, at least she wasn't sick on top of it all.

Juniper opened her mouth to speak, but...nothing. At a loss, Juniper tried to collect herself, but in all honesty, she genuinely wasn't sure who was speaking to her. She found herself momentarily stunned. Shit gurl say something! You're looking like a total div!

Finally, after an elongated and super awkward pause, with an equally awkward stare to match, she managed two words. Two utterly prolific words. "Of course!"

Scratch that, you are a total div, Juniper.

Distracted by her internal monologuing, she continued to stare blankly and gawkily at Lily until she'd come back to her senses. After noticing her mind wandering off, Juniper knew she had to speak. And in the incredibly minute chance that she hadn't totally botched her chances of conversation and the girl was actually willing to stay and sit, she would love another companion right now. "So, um, I don't think we've really met? I'm Juniper. How're you? Everything chill?"

Another voice and body suddenly appeared behind the pair of them; Okay. At least I know this one, she told herself. Juniper turned to face Alvaro.

"Yaaas! More the merrier! Now it's like a party, except the food's shit and there's no music..."

[ViolentMedic]

The pause went long enough that Lily had been on the verge of backing away when Juniper finally gave her answer. Lily managed a small smile as she sat down.

"Thank you."

As Lily put her tray in front of her, she noticed that Alvaro had appeared. She smiled a little more at him. She noticed that Juniper sounded a little more enthusiastic about Alvaro sitting down. That was fair. Maybe they knew each other. Or Alvaro was just less dead-looking.

"Hello." She nodded at Alvaro before turning back to Juniper. "Sorry, no, we haven't met. I'm Lily. Lily Caldwell. I'd shake your hand but I don't want you to catch anything. And, uh... yes. Things are... chill?"

She fiddled around with the end of her scarf for a moment before looking between Alvaro and Juniper.

"Do you two know each other?"

[Yugikun]

Juniper let Alvaro sit down. That was good. It would have been awkward if she said no to him. He'd have to turn his back and leave the table behind to go someplace else. Well, he probably would have found someplace else but the first rejection would probably weigh on his mind for most of the day. Especially if her and Oskar came to the cafe today. Oh well, he was allowed to sit on the table so it didn't really matter in the long run.

Alvaro perched himself down on the seat next to Lily, giving her a small wave as he did so. She was wrapped up in all types of clothing. Yellow sweater, green scarf, yellow beanie. It certainly fit the season, at least! And, although he didn't really want to admit it, she looked cute bundled up like that. Maybe that was why he liked her. She was small and cute and he couldn't help but smile at some of the stuff she did. That was probably why. She asked him if him and Juniper knew each other, and he decided to answer.

"She's a regular customer at the cafe!" There really wasn't anything more to it than that, though. She made her orders, he gave her her orders, and there wasn't anything besides that. She normally talked to Oskar when she was there, for the most part.

[CoreyImperia†]

You asked a girl if she's chill when she looks like she's the feeling the wrong kind of chill and it's cold af outside? Get rekt Juniper, get rekt.

As Alvaro sat beside Lily, the small wave and shared smile stuck in Juniper's head. There's something there, isn't there? At risk of seeming more absentminded then she had been already, she tossed the fleeting thought aside for now, choosing to focus on the conversation that had arisen from three acquaintances, horrid rain, and negative-star quality grub.

Picking at the food on her tray, she responded to Lily's question by elaborating on Alvaro's observation. Juniper did enjoy visiting Vacnti's, and was very impressed at the efforts Alvaro made in remembering her super-elaborate orders. "Yeah! Oskar and I go there heaps; they do a really good coffee!" It began to come to her attention that she had been a touch less proactive in seeing and meeting people of late, and her feeling a little blue wasn't really an excuse. She needed to change that, Well, I might as well start now.

Reaching into her cat satchel, she revealed a small package wrapped in cellophane: a small punnet containing a white cream, though it had a slight green tinge to it. Juniper placed it in front of a sickly Lily and smiled excitably. "This is a tester pot of our new, currently unnamed, triple mint moisturiser," Juniper began. "The strong minty smell has a cleansing quality for sore muscles and blocked noses, so I think it'd help you out a bit in pushing past whatever you have! I've plenty at home, and no ones likes being sick."

She closed her satchel and pushed her tray away, not wanting to scavenge for edible parts through the gloop on it any longer. "What's everyone doing today?"

[ViolentMedic]

Lily shifted a little at the mention of the cafe. She'd been avoiding the place since last time, after realising that Caedyn worked there. She wasn't sure how she hadn't noticed before, but she preferred to minimize the risk of running into the physical embodiment of a headache. But that was hardly the sort of thing she should bring up. Insulting one of Alvaro's co-workers would just be rude. As would drawing attention to the fact that he hadn't been visiting the cafe as often lately. Pity. She really did like that cafe.

"Oh. Yeah. It's a nice cafe." When not infested with Caedyn and her dreadlocks.

Juniper put the little container of moisturizer in front of her. Lily didn't immediately process that it was being offered to her. She stared blankly at the cellophane-wrapped package for a moment before it clicked.

"...Oh! Um, uh..." She was caught off-guard by the kindness of that gesture. Lily fiddled with the end of her scarf again for a moment, going a little bit pink in the face, before smiling. "Thank you, that's... that's very nice of you. You said a tester pot, right? I'll make sure and tell you how it works." She reached out to pick up the little pot, turning it over to try and look at the ingredients.

Lily couldn't very well let the thoughtfulness of that pass without making some sort of return gesture. Okay, she could, but she'd prefer not to. And she had some watermelon straws in her bag. She usually had a couple of packets on her, and that went double for days when she had colds because the chili powder in them was one of the few things she could usually taste. As she checked her bag, she responded to Juniper's question.

"Catching up on schoolwork, primarily. I need to find notes for... everything." Then copy them out quickly, then look up any places where there were holes in the knowledge, then write them out again in a clearer and easy to reference manner. That would likely take up her entire evening, if not tomorrow as well.

She found an unopened packet of watermelon straws (there was an opened one, too, but she was afraid she might have diseased the contents of that one and it was nearly empty anyway), pulling it out and placing the packet neatly on the table.

"Would you like some watermelon straws? They have chili powder in them, though, just in case you aren't a fan of that." Lily looked between Juniper and Alvaro. "If either of you are interested, just... uh, yeah. Go for it."

[Yugikun]

Alvaro watched as Juniper took a container of moisturiser out of her bag and gave it to Lily. He almost raised his eyebrows, wondering why Juniper happened to have containers of those that she was just willing to give away to people, before he remembered. Didn't Juniper's family have a store filled with stuff like that? He guessed that the store allowed her to take stuff from there for free since she was the manager's daughter, a benefit that he shared. He wasn't allowed to take stuff from the cafe to school, though, which was a benefit Juniper had that she didn't share with him, apparently. Even knowing where the container came from, he... still had a couple of questions, but he brushed those aside when Juniper asked him what he was doing today.

"Today's pretty jam-packed for me, unfortunately. After I eat my lunch I have to study, do a calc test, go to the cafe... Basically I don't get to go home until 7 PM tonight, which sucks." Speaking of lunch, Alvaro reached back into his bag and took out his lunch. Sandwiches with turkish buns. He wrapped his fingers around them and started to remove the plastic wrapping around it. He needed to eat as quickly as he can, which meant that he couldn't really savour his apricot jam sandwich, but there wasn't really much he could do about it. He needed to do quick revision before the test so that he knew everything once the thing begun, and he knew that that was more important than his sandwich.

Lily then put some watermelon sticks on the table, and said that anyone could take them. Not hearing that there were traces of chili in them, Alvaro decided to take one for himself. He wanted to be nice, plus he wasn't really going to refuse free food from the girl he liked, so he took one from the pile; pausing on unwrapping his sandwich as he put it in his mouth.

The chili hit his tongue in a concentrated burn. Alvaro hissed as he quickly pulled it out of his mouth, almost dropping it on the floor. His left hand went behind his back in an attempt to get water from his bag.

[CoreyImperia†]

"All good, Lily!" Juniper noticed Lily's face glistening a rosy colour as she turned the container over. "Don't mention it! Oh, and the moisturiser is completely made from organic products, so yaaass environment!"

Working at the local body cosmetics store, Bodylicous, carried its perks certainly. Whenever new or limited edition products were introduced, the staff got to take home samples with them. They were also encouraged to share the products with friends to get as much feedback on the items as they possibly could, to see if they're ready and viable for sale. Of course, they weren't allowed to reveal certain details, but it didn't stop Juniper sharing: it promoted sales and she wanted to help Lily's ailment in any way she could. She was pleased to see her accept the gesture; Juniper knew it came out of practically nowhere, but hey, making nice makes friends.

Taking in the replies, Juniper nodded. "I won't be much help to either for any of that, soz." Juniper opted out of calculus specifically for her struggles with math in her junior year, and as a senior, she wouldn't have the right notes to provide Lily. "I've got a few hours at Bodylicous after school, but beyond that, I've probably gotta start some planning for yearbook articles. I'm really just looking forward to a nice warm tea when I finally get home."

There was still plenty of time in her lunch period before English to continue her conservation. She was taking a quick liking in Lily, despite it being based off nothing more than sharing gestures of kindness. It was also nice to Alvaro in a context other than the café too.

She both heard and saw a sudden adverse reaction to the Mexican candy Alvaro had attempted to ingest. Juniper found herself letting out a little giggle; she wasn't malicious about it, but found it humorous he'd eat them knowing full well about the chilli, unless of course he'd been paying attention to something other than her words. Little less staring and a little more listening, Alvaro.

"Yaaaass Lily! Thanks!" Juniper picked up one of the straws, took a quick whiff, and indulged. The chilli was quite intense at first but it calmed down quickly enough for her to enjoy the watermelon goodness. She didn't think she'd actively seek out the straws for herself anytime soon, but they were tasty enough for her to enjoy them.

"Where'd you get the scarf from, Lily? I've noticed you fiddling with it, and it's so gorgeous!"

[ViolentMedic]

"Always good to hear," Lily said, in response to the note about it being organic. Whether something was organic or not didn't really concern her, but it couldn't hurt. "And it's alright, I know who I can go to to get notes for—"

She cut off upon hearing Alvaro's reaction to eating the watermelon straw.

"Oh, uh... sorry," she said sheepishly. "I didn't... didn't think the chili was that intense." She'd have to make a note to not offer the straws to Alvaro in the future. She didn't want to burn his tongue off. Or waste more perfectly good salsagheti.

She'd been fiddling with the scarf again when Juniper asked about it, and let go of the end of the scarf like it had burned her.

"Thank you. I made it while I was sick."

She picked up her burger and took a bite, pausing after she did so to look at her food suspiciously. She couldn't taste it, but that was... not a good texture for a burger to have. After a moment of consideration, however, she shrugged and kept eating.

[Yugikun]

Alvaro grabbed his bottle of water and squirted it over his tongue, feeling the heat of the flames die down under the cool feel of the water. He sloshed the water with his tongue, spreading it out across his mouth a little. He swallowed it, placing the bottle back in his bag. He heard Lily say something about it having... chili powder? Oh nononononononono if he had something with peppers in it he'd have to get it out as soon as possible. He couldn't start having a rash right before a test! He already had to postpone it because of an excursion yesterday, he couldn't push it back more. If he did then he'd likely get a zero!

"Wait, did you say that there was chili powder in that?"

[CoreyImperia†]

Softly humming the tune to Love is an Open Door, Juniper watched the exchange between Lily and Alvaro about her spicy watermelon treats with an eye of amusement and adoration. It's kinda adorable when I think about. In some ways, the interaction, with its undertones of cuteness and concern, made her a little uneasy. Her idea of relationships was still very much tainted in her mind thanks to a certain someone, no doubt the root of her issues with today. I've changed my mind. I'm over it.

At first, Juniper couldn't believe Lily had made the scarf herself; Juniper didn't know the first thing about knitting, but knew it took time. She loved the colour about it the most, and it seemed to split up the yellow in Lily's outfit well, as well as standing out as its own accessory. "It looks fabulous, Lily. Anything I knitted would probably look more like that mangled 'thing' on my cafeteria tray." Juniper just glanced over at the vegetarian burger, briefly. Nope. I won't let it go this time. It would've at least been edible with the fucking mayonnaise.

Following her thought, Juniper noticed Lily bite into her burger. She mouth the word 'brave' to Lily, just as she noticed the slight pause after the first taste. Returning to the subject of clothing, Juniper asked, "Did you knit the beanie and sweater too?"

[ViolentMedic]

Lily made a brief face at Juniper to communicate her agreement with the mouthed 'brave.' She was hungry—she hadn't eaten properly over the last week—so she'd still probably eat it. What could she really do? Waste food? No. She didn't envy whatever Juniper had in her burger, though.

"Yes. I've had practice. My grandmother taught me pretty well."

Lily eyed Alvaro with mild concern. He hadn't realised there was chili powder in it? That... could be a problem.  Had she ever seen Alvaro eating spicy foods? Had he not been listening when she told them what was in it?

"Chili powder, yes. Um... not a fan, then? Sorry." Lily tugged the packet of watermelon straws back sheepishly, moving them away from Alvaro. She left them still in reach of Juniper, just in case. "Are you alright?"

[Yugikun]

Lily said that yes, there was chili powder in there, and then asked if he wasn't a fan of it or something like that. The answer of that question was that yes, he definately didn't like chili powder. More specifically, he didn't really like peppers in general. If they did so much as touch his tongue he could have hives all over his body for the next five hours or so. So no, he didn't really like chili powder, and he really didn't want to have some before an important test that he couldn't really postpone. He needed to get it off him, quickly, before the rash actually started.

"Um..." He stood up. This was going to be awkward to say out loud.  He looked like an idiot enough already for taking the watermelon sticks, and he didn't want to look like one again, lest Lily and Juniper actually think he was one. Oh man, if the girl he loved rejected him because she thought Alvaro wasn't smart enough for her tastes, he didn't know what he'd do. Oh, pleasedon'tbethatway pleasedon'tbethatway pleasedon'tbethatway. He felt his hand tremble on the desk a little bit. He stopped it.  Breathe in, breathe out. You can do this, Alvaro, just say that you have to go and they won't suspect a thing.

"I have to go do something super quick." He took a step out of the table, walking quickly to where he thought the toilets were. He left everything else on the table, though, he knew that he was going to come back.