She's Totally Mad...

June ended up buying a used car they had available for a pretty good price. It was the same Geep she had before, but an older model and a bit more beat up, like it was used on a lot of off road trips. That was one objective done for the day, but sadly we couldn’t get new phones, since the Horizon store got raided and destroyed.

No new cell phones for us, I guess.

So we decided that there’d been enough excitement for the day and that it was best to go home and relax the rest of the night. June was pretty quiet driving home though.

“June, are you mad?” I asked in a slow voice.

“No, Auri. I’m not mad at all.”

“I sense we are in grave danger…” Cal uttered from the backseat.

“You really aren’t mad?” I asked, regretting speaking again.

“No, not at all. I’m not mad that my car got eaten by a slime monster. I’m not mad that my cell phone was fried like an egg on the sidewalk and the Horizon store was raided and destroyed. And I’m certainly not mad that some random supervillain is tied up in the trunk of my brand new clunker like were mafia about to toss him into the river!”

“Actually, we’re imprisoning him in my bathtub.” I corrected.

“Whatever!” June yelled as we stopped at a red light, then she sighed. “You know what? I think I’m going to write a book about how crazy this day was. They’ll lock me up in the loony bin if I tell them It’s based on a true story.”

“I’m already way ahead of you on that one,” I proudly held up my notebook, which I’d been journaling our day down in.

“You better become rich and famous off this,” she grumbled. “I want pizza… Lot’s of pizza…”

“Can we get ham on it?” I asked immediately.

“I would love ham!” Cal cheered.

“No!” June denied. “We’ll just get peperoni at that point.”

“Aww, but pepperoni is so greasy. You know that’s bad for our skin.”

“Ugh…” June rolled her eyes. “Fine, we’ll get ham.” she adjusted her mirror so she could see Octo-bar in the trunk. “Hey, Slimy!” she announced. “Whata’ you want on a pizza?”

“Mmmmffffhammm…?” Octo replied, but his mouth was gagged with a cloth.

“Anchovies and liverwurst, got it,” June said.

Octo threw a thumbs up.

“June, how did you know that’s what he wanted?” I asked with a brow raised. “I’m not even sure if he or Cal know what pizza is.”

“I just thought of the most disgusting toppings and figured a slime lord would want those,” her fist tightened around the wheel. “Don’t think I’m letting him off the hook though. That jerks the reason my Geep was eaten by a monster.”

In a way, I guess we could blame him for that, since he did spawn these slime things.

“It sure is nice of you to feed him,” I said.

“Wouldn’t you feed a pet?” June spoke so coldly. “You’re not the only one coming out of today with a manservant. That guy is mine until he works off his debt.”

I turned back to notice Octo sweating bullets. Even Cal was a little afraid of June right now. He gave me a motion with his hands to cut off the conversation.

“O-oh…” I said, quietly looking out the window and seeing all the buildings pass us by. “I’ll pay for the pizza, okay?”

“That would be lovely,” June smiled. “But I have a coupon expiring today, so let me get this one.”

_(T.T)_

When we got back to my place, everyone settled in and started snacking on pizza. Octo had to eat in the bathroom though, since we had to keep him submerged in cold water at all times.

“I’m going to take a nap,” June said. “Please, don’t wreck anything while I’m out, okay, Auri?”

“Daijoubu, my friendo!” I gave her an OK hand sign. “I think I’m just going to start typing up my story onto the computer.

“Alright…” she yawned and laid over my couch. “Just keep things quiet…”

She conked out pretty quick, so I took Cal by the hand and ran to my computer. “Okay, you're going to help me write!”

“How may I be of assistance if I can’t even read your strange language?” Cal asked.

“I need you to stand here…” I positioned him behind my chair, “then place your hands on my shoulders… “I put his hands on me, “and use those big fingers to give me a massage!”

“Th-that’s it?” he blushed a little. “Well, I will give you the greatest massage ever, unlike any you’ve ever had!”

With even the slightest pinch, it felt like he was crushing my clavicles.

“Ouch!” I yelped. “You’re massaging my shoulder, not squeezing a stress ball.”

“S-sorry…” he suddenly started moving his hands with more gentler motions. “Is that better?”

“Much better!” I said, clicking open my Oogle Mocs page to type up my first chapter. As I was typing, I realized how terrible my grammar was as a teen. Like, I didn’t know the difference between ‘there’ ‘their’ and ‘they’re.’ It was also pretty wordy in some parts too, so it felt pretty hard to get through, at least it felt that way while I was rereading. I trimmed the fat, so to speak, and cut away a lot.

What was once a 7,000 word chapter suddenly got trimmed down to 5,000, and even after that I cut it in half, which left me with 2 chapters. For an extra pair of eyes on my progress, or ears, in this case since Cal can’t read English, I read the chapter to Cal.

“Why are you starting my story from the battle with the Elven Snobs of Dryadales?” Cal asked. “You should go back and describe my birth into the world.”

“Uh, no?” I shook my head and chuckled. “Cal, people want stories that start with action and suspense, with a little bit of purpose to where the story’s heading.”

“My birth was plenty action packed!” Cal argued. “They weren’t sure if my head was small enough to fit through the b…”

“Eww stop describing that!” I ordered. “Just, trust me here. We’ll try this chapter out and see what happens.”

Cal clarified that he didn’t think it was a bad idea, since the chapter made him look like a freaking boss, but he wanted the world to know every little detail of his life and stature. It just felt like a lot for a first chapter, let alone for the first few paragraphs he was pushing for. Most of what I cut away was about long descriptions about Cal’s muscles anyways.

Hmm… Maybe I should add that back in?

Before I knew it, a few hours had passed and I needed a break. Cal and I stepped back into the kitchen and I made us some sweet lattes. His was especially nice, since I added a little heart swirl into it, along with a peppermint stick from last Christmas that was taped to my fridge for some reason.

“Do you like it?” I asked him.

“It goes well with this pika.”

“Unless you're a chunky electric mouse, it’s called ‘pizza,’” I corrected him. “So, that means you actually like it?”

“Anything crafted by you is a wonderful treat, fair princess Aurilia.”

My heart was practically beating out of my chest. That was wonderful flattery. I felt like I was on top of the world!

“I am pretty good at lattes, I suppose.” I smirked proudly and tilted my head.

“Where did you learn to make these?” Cal asked.

I used to work at a coffee shop for a little while during college. It was my way of getting a little spending money.

“You were forced to work for currency?” he looked at me, offended. “How dare your parents force such a thing on you.”

“Everyone in my world has to work for a living, Cal,” I said. “It’s just a matter of finding what we're good enough at to make money on.”

People really liked my lattes, even though it wasn’t my favorite thing in the world to do. The coffee shop nearby was always hiring new people, so it was on my radar if I ever got desperate.

“Once you’ve authored my story to this world, I’m sure you’ll be able to retire quickly.”

“Yeah, I bet!” I cheered. “We can retire in a big mansion and have lots of children! Sound fun?”

“T-thinking a bit far ahead, aren’t we?” he laughed, but with a slight nervous tone. “Let me continue to earn your favor before we go that far, is that fair?”

“That’s fair enough,” I replied, loving the look of his blushed face.