⛭ Chapter 4 ⛭

“Chelbie, is everything okay?” asked Cherry.

Snapping out of the emotions that had come over her, Chelbie looked back at the friend she knew with unease as it occurred to be that she had walked away without telling her anything.

“Fuckin’ nice… I spaced out like an idiot. What a time to be alive I guess.”

Feeling sympathetic for how Chelbie was feeling, Cherry grabbed her hand in an effort to soothe the inner turmoil she was going through.

“Hey… You are not an idiot. Remember what you told me about in fourth grade?”

“Uhhh, yeah? The only difference is I can’t just go ahead and achieve my dreams. I mean, I already tried that once and look where it got me. A visit to the hospital, years of regret, and no one to help me get back through the pain I felt all that time. And Lucila?! No one there even cared to believe me when I said it was her that did it!”

The silence that began to surround her made it apparent that what she said caused the entire restaurant to stare at her, except unlike her friends, they were somewhat bothered by what they viewed as an unnecessary commotion.

Annoyed at the fact that it felt like she was being shunned for how she was feeling, Chelbie started to approach the women’s bathroom when suddenly, a chiming noise came from within her pocket.

Taking out the phone from her pocket, she was slightly surprised to see who was calling her this early.

It was Styra.

Not only was she available, but someone else was coming along with her.

Amidst this small conversation, Styra came inside the restaurant, catching everyone’s attention with how sudden her cheery entrance was in light of the quietness that had filled the giant place. Right beside her, Kade Night walked in with a stoic yet focused expression.

However, while Kade wore his Dream Academy sweater disguise to not attract too much attention, Styra looked almost completely unrecognizable.

She had a special star-shaped top knot hair bun, red rosy lips, a dangling necklace with a crimson lace, and a small golden star symbol that was similar to the one on her original suit. Alongside that, she wore a dark crop top that had sleeves up to the middle of her forearm. It matched the color of her short skirt, leggings that were up at her knees, small socks, and shoes she had on.

“Hey you two! This place looks great. Mind if we get a seat somewhere right now? I have lots of news to share,” said Styra.

Cherry stared back over at Chelbie who gradually decided to come back and join them to find empty seats. When they finally found their desired spot which could fit all four of them in one booth, the restaurant went back to business as usual.

“So… Why are you here?” Chelbie asked Kade directly out of curiosity.

“I am here to keep an eye and be on the watch out for any suspicious activity surrounding us. Of course that is why we brought you both something important,” he responded.

“Yes. Eternika and Compass said they are working together right now to search for Voltaze. Compass invented new earpieces that can communicate across the Omniverse this time so that when they see him, they’ll report his whereabouts to us. In the meantime, we will get the chance to relax for awhile here on Animearth,” added Styra.

Immediately after this, Kade placed the new earpieces in Cherry’s and Chelbie’s hands. The moment these pair of tiny devices got inserted inside each of their ears, they turned invisible.

“Wowzers. I can’t even feel them in my ears. They did crazy good work on these things. Now, with that outta the way, are we ready to start this showdown?!” Chelbie exclaimed happily while slamming her left fist on the red table.

“Let’s check out what we will pay for first,” reminded Styra as she laid her right hand on Chelbie’s arm to calm her down.

Thinking through how to approach this competition, Chelbie decided on a certain condition that would make their match more fair.

“Since I was first to suggest this one-on-one, we’re both gonna go with my choice of the spiciest meal I’ve ever had. No one has beaten me so far with my world record clocking in under 45 seconds. On that note, here’s the goal. We have to finish the plate in that amount of time or under. If you give up fast or don’t finish, ya lose! Got it?”

“I’m up for that challenge,” remarked Styra with a load of confidence behind her smile.

“Are you sure you’re going to beat her Chelbie? Styra is from another planet and has billions of years experiencing potentially hotter conditions than a plate of spicy food,” warned Cherry.

“I agree. The results of this battle sound improbable at best for you to win,” mentioned Kade.

“Guys, guys! Come on now. Sheesh! You literally haven’t even seen how many times I’ve won. Talkin’ about experience, I know and have eaten every single type of spicy pepper on StarSpace. It’ll be easy. If anything, this could be my greatest achievement yet.”

With Kade and Cherry looking extremely concerned about how the contest would go, Chelbie used her account to pay for two mysteriously expensive dishes. When they finally reached the table, not even Styra could recognize the food being served to her.

“Let me start by saying that what we have here are seven teriyaki chicken quesadillas with ghost pepper salsa and mild giardiniera toppings. Then we have a side of spicy banana fries with the final addition of infinity chili pepper dip. Just so ya know the Scoville scale of this meal stretches into the millions. Of course, if it gets too hot for ya, you can always drink the glass of milk I gave you which is not part of finishing the meal. Fair warning though, if you start drinking that in under 45 seconds, ya also lose. Fair game?”

Styra sat on the opposite end of the booth, nodding yes at Chelbie with squinched eyes and a slight smirk on her face. The determination began to show as she put both elbows on the table and folded her hands underneath her chin.

Almost as if she already had some sort of intricate plan on how she was going to handle it.

Noticing this dead serious focus in her eyes as she grabbed her chopsticks, Chelbie leaned in closer with both arms on the table.

“Oh yeah, one more thing... No leaving the table at any time ever for anything else.”