Clouds Up

[Ruggahissy]

((Michelle Weschler continued from Somebody Once Told Me the World Was Gonna Roll Me))

Michelle walked into the Around the Clock Diner, dragging her feet and head tilted down towards the tiles. On top of her head sat a blue, red and yellow stripped hat with an ice cream cone afixed to the top by a spring. The happy ice cream cone juantily bobbed along with her steps, though it was at a downward angle now, tilted in the direction of her head.

Her ever-present friendship bracelets still adorned her wrists, a sign that even in the strange outfit, she was most certainly Michelle. She shuffled into the diner in her fluffy red, blue and yellow stripped dresss with a white apron tied around her waist, stained by a few colorful smudges. It was the uniform from the ice cream shop she worked at, "Nice Cream." It was a pretty humiliating outfit, but the job itself wasn't terrible. Michelle didn't even really mind the hat. The hat with the smiling, bouncing ice cream cone was sort of cute. She did however, hate the dress. She hated all dresses. This one was particularly awful.

She's just come off of her shift at Nice Cream. Michelle wasn't a huge fan of closing shift, but it paid a little more for the extra time she spend closing up shop. Michelle flopped down in a booth . Out of her apron pocket she fished out the bills and coins she'd gotten from the tip jar. She had enough for a veggie burger and a water or a grilled cheese and a soda. The waitress approached and greeted the exhausted Michelle as she set her bouncy hat on the table.

"Long day, hun?"

"Um, yeah. It's all money though, right?"

The waitress smiled at Michelle as she firmed her resolve and decided on the veggie burger and water.

Michelle sighed and leaned her head on her hand, staring out the window.

[Deamon]

(Yasmin Carrol continued from Flying Free)

Yaz carefully pushed the door to the diner open, ducking past a person who was exiting. She muttered a sorry before continuing towards the counter. She didn't visit the diner too often but she had been passing by and hadn't eaten yet. It had seemed like a good idea at the time but the diner did have quite a lot of people in and she was second guessing her decision. She had never liked crowds.

The fact that she rarely visited the diner also meant that her grasp of the menu was limited. As was her knowledge of the prices. A regular customer would probably know what they were ordering and would already know how much money it would cost. Yaz on the other hand only had 5 bucks and no idea what she wanted to order. The idea of turning around and leaving the diner did enter her head but her hunger won out.

As she approached the counter she noticed someone from Aurora High sitting in one of the booths. She couldn't quite tell who the person was from behind but she assumed it was a girl from the length of her hair. Then she spotted her friendship bracelets and realised that it was Michelle. Yaz knew Michelle by virtue of being in the same art class as her.

Dropping out her walk to the counter Yaz turned and carefully headed towards the booth where Michelle was sitting. She was nervous at the prospect of interrupting her and what her reaction would be but she was committed to her plan now.

"Hey Michelle, how are you?"

Her voice was almost painfully quiet and delicate. Sometimes Yaz wondered why she was so shy because it almost seemed to lead to awkward situations like the one she was in.

[Ruggahissy]

Michelle pushed around the salt and pepper shakers together with one finger while she waited for her meal. She pushed the salt in a circle around the pepper and imagined that they were dancing. She looked down and saw there was a red smudge on her collar. Did they serve any red ice creams? Michelle wasn't sure. They must, otherwise, why would that color be on her? What ice cream flavors are red though? Cherry? No, cherry is more pink. Did they serve a Hawaiin punch flavored ice cream? ........ Is that a flavor of ice cream that exists?

Michelle curiously brought the collar of her dress up and licked it to see if she could figure it out. As she did so, a girl called her name from the other side of the diner. She turned around, collar of her dress still in her mouth. Michelle spit it out and wiped her mouth, hoping if she ignored it, Yazmin might as well.


"Hey Yaz," she returned, waving quickly. "Ah, what's up? Here for dinner by your lonesome?"

[Deamon]

Had Michelle been licking her collar? Yaz stopped unsure how she should react but she didn't have time to think about it before Michelle turned and greeted her.

"Hey Yaz. Ah, what's up? Here for dinner by your lonesome?"

Well it wasn't exactly that...Ok that's exactly what it was but it didn't exactly sound too good when it was said like that.

"Err, yeah I was just passing by and realised I was-"

Yaz was cut off as someone pushed past her because she was still standing in the middle of the diner.

"Sorry," She muttered before moving to the booth Michelle was sitting in. "Ummm, oh! I realised I was hungry and came in. But I don't come here often so I'm not sure what they serve, or how much anything costs."

Well that sounded lame. Now instead of her being lonely Yaz just didn't know what a menu was. So she was stupid instead. Sometimes she dug herself these holes. This tended to be why she only really spoke to people she knew and was comfortable talking too. Since then she didn't worry about everything she said. Michelle was really friendly though so she wouldn't be judging her about what she said.

"Hey, Michelle could I sit there?"

Yaz almost mumbled the last part of the question as she made a small gesture towards the seat on the other side of the booth Michelle was in. Now she just had to hope Michelle didn't say no.

[Pippi]

((Enter Amy Bachelor!))


All things considered, Amy wasn't having the best possible day. The main problem was that she was bored. Seriously bored. Her laptop had decided that today was the best possible day to completely freeze up. It was a pretty regular occurrence; it was old, and Amy had an annoying tendency to drop it. But it was still annoying, and even more so today. She'd gone downstairs to see if there was anything on TV, or possibly a DVD she could watch. But as luck would have it, Dale and a couple of his equally annoying friends were sitting around it, playing Call of Duty, or whatever. Amy had tried texting Claire, but she hadn't replied, and Amy hadn't bothered to call anyone else.

So Amy had eventually decided to go out for a walk. She'd have much preferred to go with someone else, but what could she do? She hoped she'd meet someone on the way. Sirius had been asleep, so Amy decided not to wake him, and took her camera instead. Even if there was no-one else about, she could at least take photos of the scenery.

After about half an hour of aimless walking, Amy had reached the diner. She liked the place; the food was good, and she liked the whole atmosphere. As she looked up at the buzzing neon sign, Amy realised that she was actually pretty hungry. She dug around in the pockets of her jeans for some money. She was pretty sure that she had some money left in there from something, and sure enough, there was some change left over from when she'd bought a book last week. But was it enough to actually buy anything in the diner? Maybe for a drink, sure, but she'd still be sitting on her own, which was not a prospect Amy looked forward to.

Amy took one more look through the windows of the diner, and as she did so, she spotted a familiar figure through the glass. Yasmin Carroll. Thank God Yaz is here! Pretty sure I was literally about to die of boredom if I hadn't seen anyone. Hopefully she's not about to leave.

As Amy made her way inside the diner, she noticed that Yaz was talking to someone; in particular, Michelle Weschler. That was good too, Michelle was friendly, if a bit of a worrier. However, Amy was slightly concerned that she could be barging into some sort of meeting or something. After a moment, though, she decided to say hi anyway. If they had just met up by chance, and were cool with Amy joining them, then great! If not, then hey, she could go back out, take a couple of photos, get some sleep and hope that tomorrow would turn out better.

Amy walked up to the booth that Michelle was sitting at and Yaz was standing by. She waved at the two to try and catch their eye, and as she did so said "Hiya Yaz! Hey Michelle! I'm not interrupting anything, am I? Is it okay if I, like... stay here? Nice hat by the way, Michelle."

[Ruggahissy]

Michelle made a bit of a motion to warn Yaz but she was mowed down all the same by a patron walking into the restaurant. Michelle waved away the apology."

"Nothing to be sorry for! Of course you can sit here. Ummm, well, there's a menu here," she said picking up the plastic menu from behind the napkin dispenser.

"If you're short on money and you're hungry, you can have some of my fries and veggie burger. You can use whatever you've got to get a dessert and the two of us can share it," she said lightly.

"Oh, but nothing with ice cream, please. Maybe a slice of pie."

Michelle turned when she saw something approach them from the corner of her eye. It was Amy asking if she could sit with them.

"No, you can't. We don't want you," she said, staring sternly at the girl. About three seconds passed and she smiled.

"Kidding.Yeah sure," she said with a laugh.

Michelle poked the smiling ice cream cone and he swayed back and forth atop his platform.

"Uh hu. Soooooo stylish."

Michelle picked up the hat and put it on Amy.

"I can't believe it! It looks better on you. How can this thing look good on anyone? That's not fair."

[Deamon]

"Nothing to be sorry for! Of course you can sit here. Ummm, well, there's a menu here."

"Thanks," Said Yaz sitting down and taking the menu from Michelle. She looked over it as Michelle continued to talk.

"If you're short on money and you're hungry, you can have some of my fries and veggie burger. You can use whatever you've got to get a dessert and the two of us can share it, but nothing with ice cream, please. Maybe a slice of pie.

Yaz nodded from behind the menu. She didn't want to take any of Michelle's food but she also felt the need to buy a dessert for the two of them. In the end Yaz decided on purchasing some chicken nuggets and a slice of pie for the two of them to share.

As she put the menu down to tell Michelle her plan she heard a familiar voice call out to her from across the diner.

"Hiya Yaz!"

She turned to see Amy waving at her. She was good friends with Amy even though Amy had only been in Seattle for nearly two years, so she was happy to see her.

"Hey Michelle! I'm not interrupting anything, am I? Is it okay if I, like... stay here? Nice hat by the way, Michelle."

Yaz was about to say that Amy could stay but had only opened her mouth when Michelle spoke. She said she didn't want Amy at the table. Yaz shrank back into the cushions of the booth expecting something to happen, but Michelle smiled and said she was joking. Yaz sighed to herself and put her hand on the bead necklace that she wore constantly. Yaz instinctively moved closer to the window so that Amy could sit down if she wanted too as Michelle put the hat on Amy's head.

Yaz couldn't help but laugh. "It's so happy. It's like its just chilling on your head." Yaz then realised that she had accidently made a terrible pun. "I didn't mean to do that." She hastily added, hoping that she wasn't going too red. She hated accidently saying stupid things, which was unfortunate since it happened a lot.

[Pippi]

As Amy walked towards the booth, the two girls sitting there turned to look at her. Yaz looked as if she was going to say something, but Michelle spoke up first. And apparently, no. Amy could not sit with them. Amy's smile slowly turned into a frown at Michelle's comment. She wasn't entirely sure whether she was being serious; it wasn't the sort of thing Michelle would do, in Amy's knowledge, but she did have a seriously stern look about her.

After three seconds of awkward silence though, Michelle smiled and said she was joking. Amy realised that she'd been holding her breath, and let it out in a deep sigh, before grinning again. "Jeez, Michelle." Amy said, slightly adjusting the scarf around her neck. "I was wondering what exactly I'd done to deserve that sorta reception."

Amy noticed that Yaz had moved along one so that Amy could sit down, and she was just about to sit down when Michelle placed her hat atop Amy's head. She laughed at Michelle's mock-ish indignation, and flicked the ice cream cone too, more forcefully than Michelle had, sending it rocking rather violently to and fro.

"Hey, everything looks better on me. I'm just so amazingly beautiful that my radiance seeps into whatever I wear and makes it just as amazing." Amy said, still grinning broadly. "This hat, though, is so brilliant that it doesn't even need me to make it beautiful. It's just that cool."

Yaz was speaking now, making a pretty dreadful pun about the hat, which apparently hadn't been intentional. With anyone else, Amy might have suspected bullshit, but with Yaz? Yeah, that was the most likely explanation. "Wow, yeah, that was pretty terrible, Yaz." Amy said as she sat down next to the girl. "Don't worry though, I've heard plenty of terrible puns worse than that. Most of them my own, but let's not get into that..."

Amy picked up the menu as she spoke, looking through it for the drinks section. All of the prices that she saw as she skimmed the menu were, as she'd suspected, way more than she had in her pocket. "So, uh, I've only got enough money for a drink" Amy said, still behind the menu. "But I'm not too hungry, so that's cool. Of course, if you want to give me some food, that's even cooler."

[Ruggahissy]

Amy modeled the hat, the little ice cream bouncing from side to side. Michelle let out a tired sigh and rubbed her eyes, but made the effort to perk back up when attention was brought back to her.

"Aw, but you are pretty," she said earnestly in response to Amy's assessment of the enhancement she made to the hat.

Michelle waved to a waitress to come over and take the other two girls' orders.

"Sure of course you can have some of my fo- ....my....my foo-"

Michelle suddenly started snickering and giggling to herself. She covered her mouth and despite her best efforts, a snort was heard in between her hushed laughter.

"He- he's ch- chililng," she said, giggling.

She took a few deep breaths and tried to compose herself. Michelle wiped her eyes and looked at Yaz.

"I can't resist a pun," she said as she tugged on a piece of wavy hair. "They're my favorite, I have so many! Okay, I'll tell you my two favorites. You ready? Okay, okay, here goes. Ahem. What's brown and sticky?"

Michelle beamed and waited for a few moments, though not too long.

"A STICK! You get it?"

[Deamon]

The pair's reactions to Yaz's accidental pun were completely different. Amy agreed with Yaz's thoughts that the pun had been terrible and said as much as she sat down next to her. Michelle however seemed to think it was one of the funniest things she had ever heard. She had been waving for a waitress but had stopped to try and cover her mouth. She tried saying something but couldn't even talk properly through her giggling.

She eventually stopped laughing and got her breath back. As she did so Yaz wondered how something she found to be so lame and unfunny could be so hysterical to someone else. This was another reason why she was shy and rarely spoke to anyone she didn't know. She was never any good at gauging what they would find funny, interesting or exciting. Michelle's reaction showed that to it's fullest as Yaz didn't expect that reaction from her.

As Michelle explained how she was a sucker for puns Yaz realised she really didn't know much about humour and how you changed it based on what people found funny so she was happy for Michelle to try and bring some more humour.

What's brown and sticky?"

Yaz thought she knew where this one was going and while Michelle paused for effect she muttered something without even realising.

"A stick."

She quickly looked up after realising she had said it and was relived to see that Michelle hadn't noticed.

"A STICK! You get it?"

Yaz smiled a little bit because she had been right with her guess of what the punch line was.

"Yeah I think I get it." She said trying to hold back her grin.

[Pippi]

((Argh, apologies for the lateness of this. I really don't have any excuse for it.))

Amy was still looking over the menu, when she heard a rather odd sound. Glancing over the top of the menu, Amy saw that the sound was actually Michelle trying to suppress a bout of laughter. Amy guessed it was over Yaz's unintentional pun, because she couldn't see anything else worth laughing about, aside from the hat still on her head.

For a moment, Amy simply looked bemused at the whole thing. Michelle's laughter was infectious, however, and soon, Amy found herself struggling to keep a straight face. The whole thing was just ridiculously stupid, which was probably why Amy found it so amusing. After a short while, though, Michelle seemed to have composed herself, as she started talking to Yaz. Still smiling, Amy looked back over the menu, still undecided as to what she was going to actually buy.

"Ahem. What's brown and sticky?"

Oh god. My bad-pun-sense is tingling. Please tell me you're not gonna do that, Michelle... To her left, Amy noticed that Yaz also seemed to realise just what was going to happen, seeing as she'd said the punchline instead of Michelle. For a moment, Amy wondered whether Yaz had ruined the joke by saying it. But Michelle didn't seem to have heard her, and, beaming, said the punchline for a second time.

For a moment, Amy simply stared at her, face neutral. The pun was baad, even compared to some of Amy's incredible jokes. But the previous outburst of laughter, combined with the fact that the pun was just that bad, was just too much, and Amy found herself breaking into a grin, that quickly turned into actual laughter.

"Oh Jeez, Michelle..." Amy placed her hand on her forehead, still laughing. "That was just... wow..."

[Ruggahissy]

"Heee hee hee heee"

She sat giggling to herself. Michelle looked something of a spectacle, shaking and laughing her odd little laugh, interrupted every so often by a snort in her puffy, multicolored dress.

"Of course you get it! That's what's so great about it.!" she said to Yaz.

Amy was laughing too. She'd said it was wow. Michelle nodded happily.

"It's great right? Puns are the best. I have another one! What's green and has eight wheels?"


Another moment of pause.


"Grass! Just kidding about he eight wheels!"


Michelle was sent into another fit that was only stopped by the arrival of the waitress with her  food. Michelle was suddenly jolted by the waitress and turned to the other girls.

"Oh my gosh, I forgot. Did you guys order yet?"

[Deamon]

Michelle's laughing looked like it was about to devolve into snorting but she eventually got herself under control enough to speak again.

"It's great right? Puns are the best. I have another one! What's green and has eight wheels?"

Yaz had no idea what the answer to this one was so she decided it would be best if she just kept quiet and let Michelle tell the joke. At least this time there was no chance she could accidently spoil the punch line. She'd need to know what it was first. Amy also didn't say anything but Yaz assumed it was because she was being polite.

The punch line was grass and that Michelle was kidding about the eight wheels. Yaz didn't get the joke at all. Her face took on a confused expression as Michelle broke out into another fit of laughter, meaning she didn't notice Yaz.

She only stopped laughing when a waitress came over to the table with her food. This reminded Michelle as well as Yaz that she and Amy hadn't ordered.

"No I forgot to order." Said Yaz awkwardly, she turned to the waitress. "Would I be able to have some chicken nuggets please?"

The waitress nodded as she wrote the order down. Yaz spoke again this time addressing Michelle.

"I'll order a slice of pie like you wanted when I've finished my main, if that's alright with you?" Yaz thought that it was only polite to offer some to Michelle since she had said she would earlier but it also felt bad to leave Amy out. "Amy do you want some? I'm sure Michelle won't mind sharing some of the pie with you. I'm fine not having any."

[Pippi]

After a couple more moments of laughter, Amy was pretty sure she'd calmed down now. Still grinning, she shook her head and took one last look at the menu, before placing it back on the table. She hadn't had a proper chance of looking over it at all, but it wasn't the first time she'd been in here, after all. If all else failed, she could at least just ask for whatever Yaz or Michelle were having. Unless they have, like, pie or something. Ick.

Whilst Amy had gotten over her laughing, Michelle apparently hadn't. She was still giggling to herself. And then she launched right into another pun. Still grinning, Amy muttered a soft "Oh my...", before waiting for the answer.

"Grass! Just kidding about the eight wheels!"

It was bad. It was seriously bad. But the sheer badness of it, combined with Michelle's infectious laughter, was enough to make Amy start laughing again. She honestly tried to compose herself, force herself not to laugh, but it was almost impossible. Beside her, however, Amy saw that Yaz simply looked confused. Amy guessed she just didn't find it funny, which was fair enough. The joke was bad. But the situation, with Michelle's dress and her hat still perched on Amy's head, made it funny.

As Amy was calming down again, a waitress came over to their table with Michelle's food. Amy wasn't hungry, but the food did look tasty, and she wished she'd actually managed to order sooner. "Nah, I kinda got distracted by the hat and stuff." Amy replied. "I'm not too sure what I'm... uh, sorry, can you hold on just a sec?" Amy dug around in her pockets, searching for her money and any loose change that might be hiding there. As it turned out, she had just enough for some chicken nuggets as well. "Okay, awesome. I'll have some chicken nuggets too, please."

As the waitress noted down Amy's order, Yaz turned to Amy and asked whether she'd like some pie. Of course. The one sweet thing I don't want, they order. Sod's Law strikes again! Amy shook her head as she replied. "Nah, it's cool. Not too big a fan of pie, and I'm not really that hungry anyway."

[Ruggahissy]

"Oh yeah, sure. That's fine. Any sort of pie is cool. And thanks, I'm a little short right now. Took all the night's tip money to cover dinner. It's gettin' harder to work at the ice cream place. After school high school kids don't tip so well, ya know?" she said smiling nervously.

Michelle took a ketchup bottle and turned it upside down, however wasn't rewarded with much. She shook the bottle vigorously and pounded the bottle.

"S-sorry, Amy. I guess we could get something else. Uh, well, not ice cream....you don't like pie.....er.......ahh....brownie?"


She continued trying to yield ketchup out of the bottle. Michelle loved condiments. Any effort was worth getting sweet ketchup for her fries.


"I um, I was actually thinking of using some of my pay to take my girl to prom," she said quietly.


"Are you guys going?"