Chapter Two

Delia

Over the next couple of hours, it was strange to witness Jack being polite to everyone at Betty’s. He’d been a thorn in my side since I’d started hanging out with Zoe. Then again, he was paid to be polite at work, so that didn’t mean it was a predominant personality trait.

“If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t believe it,” an all-too-familiar male voice said behind me. I turned to find the object of my possibly unwanted affection, Aiden, studying me with a perplexed look on his face. He wore that look around me a lot. Maybe that was part of the problem. I didn’t fit into his people-shape-sorter.

Zoe stood behind Aiden, holding Grant’s hand. This had to be her meddling. Aiden had never been to Betty’s Burgers before.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, like I hadn’t already figured it out.

“Zoe called Grant and asked him if he wanted to grab a burger while I was at his house, so he invited me to come along.” He pointed at my tiara. “Why are you wearing a crown?”

I adjusted my freshly bedazzled headgear. “It’s a tiara, and it’s part of the uniform when you’re the Pie Princess.”

“And it doesn’t bother you to wear it?” He pushed his glasses up on his nose, framing his coffee-colored eyes.

“Are you kidding? It feels like the accessory that’s been missing from my wardrobe all my life.” I struck a pose. “Admit it. You think I look awesome.”

He chuckled and shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “You always look good, but that tiara is ridiculous.”

I latched onto the first part of that statement and ignored the second. A waitress came over to me with a piece of paper. “Excuse me, but you’re up, Pie Princess. The little girl at table four wants chocolate cream pie for her birthday, with extra whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles.”

“Duty calls. I’ll come visit you guys if I can.” Turning my back on Aiden, I cut a piece of pie, added a mountain of whipped cream and a dash of chocolate sprinkles. Now where were the birthday candles? I checked all three drawers, and of course, they were in the last spot I looked. Hopefully, Betty wasn’t timing me. After adding the candle and lighting it, I was ready to make my debut…but wait a minute…I had no idea where I was going, and the waitress who’d told me about the birthday girl was nowhere in sight. Several of the tables had families with little girls. Crap. I sidled over to Jack. “Which one is table four?”

He looked at me like I was an idiot.

“While you’re judging me, a little girl is waiting for her pie.”

He pointed out the table without commenting, and I approached the little girl and her family. “Is it someone’s birthday?” I asked, because I wouldn’t put it past Jack to lie to me for his own amusement.

“It’s mine.” A kindergarten-aged girl wearing a Hello Kitty dress wriggled in her booster seat.

“Do you want me to sing?” All conversation in the dining room stopped. Good thing I didn’t mind being center stage.

“Yes, please,” the girl said.

I cleared my throat and sang “Happy Birthday,” sticking to the basics, not adding any embellishments or many mores at the end. The little munchkin blew out her candle and dug in. Mission accomplished. Now on to my sales pitch. “Would either of you like to order a piece of pie?” Betty had stressed the order part because she wanted the parents to know that the free pie was limited to one piece for the birthday boy or girl.

“We’ll split a piece of pecan,” the mom said.

“Speak for yourself,” said her husband. “I want my own slice. If you can’t finish yours, I’ll take care of it for you.”

The wife laughed. “Fine. Two pieces.” She pointed at her husband. “And if you aren’t sharing, neither am I.”

“I’ll have those right out for you.”

I headed back to the dessert case. Zoe waved at me from across the room where she sat with Grant and Aiden. I nodded at her and went to cut two more slices of pie.

When there was a lull of customers waiting for dessert and no one in line to check out, I approached Jack. “I know you’ll be painfully honest, so how did I do?”

“If you’re fishing for compliments, go ask Aiden.”

And there was the Jack I knew and didn’t care for. “I’m not asking you to stroke my ego. I’m asking what Betty will think.”

…

Jack

What could I say? “Your singing didn’t make the little girl cry, and you sold the family extra pie. She won’t fire you.”

Okay. I was being a bit of jerk, but it was self-defense. I didn’t need Delia hanging around and becoming chatty with me. I wasn’t here to be her BFF or her personal tour guide on how Betty’s Burgers worked. She could pick it up as she went along, just like everyone else had.

“Thanks,” Delia muttered and went back to her post.

When my shift ended, I headed out to my car, which was finally all mine. My mom and grandma had gotten sick of Zoe and I griping at each other about whose turn it was to use the car, so they’d bought her a butt-ugly powder blue SUV I wouldn’t be caught dead in. The silver Accord had a few dings, but it was still way cooler than Francine, which was a stupid name for a car, if you asked me. Everyone thought of this as my grandma’s car. Not me. It was the car my grandpa had secretly taught me how to drive when I was fourteen. I was responsible for several of the dings on the fender, which he’d taken the blame for. Driving the car reminded me of him and made me feel like part of him was still around, like maybe he was watching over me.

I made a pit stop at home for a shower and then headed to a bonfire at Trevor’s house. After his older brother had OD’d a few years ago, his parents liked to know where he was at all times. Sometimes it sucked, but it also meant they always had good food, the coolest video games, and the latest movies. Tonight it was supposed to be all-you-could-eat pizza and breadsticks. After working with burgers all day, pizza sounded good.

There were a dozen cars lining the side of Trevor’s driveway when I pulled up. The good thing about living in the middle of nowhere is you could park your car wherever you want. No need to find a skinny spot between two yellow lines. As long as you didn’t mess up someone’s landscaping or garden, you were golden.

I parked behind the last car and walked up the gravel drive toward the bonfire I could see out back. The scent of wood smoke filled the air. It smelled like fall. I loved this time of year. It always seemed like a fresh beginning. We were a few months into the school year, and Thanksgiving break was just around the corner.

“Jack.” Trevor waved at me from his seat on the split-log bench we’d made this past summer.

“Hey, how’s it going?” I asked.

“Pretty good.” He leaned back on his elbows and then nodded to the right. “See for yourself.”

Two girls I didn’t recognize were standing close together. One was a tall blonde with blue streaks in her hair, and the other one was short with long black hair. “That’s my cousin Sadie and her girlfriend Emma. They’re home from college for the weekend, and they came to visit.”

Did he mean they were friends or that they were a couple? Sadie laughed and put her arm around Emma’s waist, sliding her hand into the back pocket of Emma’s jeans. That answered that question.

Trevor leaned forward and spoke in a quiet voice. “Dude. I know she’s my cousin, but that’s hot.”

He wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t going to agree with him. “Pervert. Where’s the pizza?” Something warm and furry came and leaned against my right leg. I reached down to pet Rocky, a black lab who was going gray around his eyes and muzzle. “Rocky wants to know where the pizza is, too.”

“He’s the reason the food is in the kitchen. Last time we kept it out here on the picnic table, he helped himself to half of a large bacon pepperoni pizza, and then he threw up in my mom’s closet. She was cleaning dog barf out of her shoes for days.”

I squatted down and rubbed Rocky’s ears. “I bet you were framed, huh, buddy?” He leaned into the ear rub and sighed. “I bet it was the cat, wasn’t it?” He sighed again like he was agreeing with me.

“Nice try, but there isn’t that much barf in a cat,” Trevor said.

“I believe you.” I patted Rocky on the head. “Come on. I’ll share some pepperoni with you.”

“My mom will kick your ass,” Trevor called after me.

“What she doesn’t see won’t hurt me,” I called back.

The pizza was on the kitchen table, and it was being guarded by Trevor’s dad.

“Hey, Jack.” His dad always seemed happy to see me, which was nice.

“Hey Mr. Thompson.”

“We’ve got pepperoni, vegetarian, or sausage.” He pointed at the different boxes.

Rocky walked up, laid his head on the table, and whined.

“No,” Trevor’s dad said. “Not after the mess you made last weekend.”

In the time it took me to load up my plate, a small puddle of drool had formed around Rocky’s head. “Can’t he have a little bit?” I pointed at the ever-growing puddle of drool. “Because that’s sad.”

His dad glanced around. “You can give him the crust, if no one sees you, but nothing spicy.”

“Come on, Rocky. Let’s go back outside.” I pulled a lawn chair over by Trevor. Rocky watched me take every bite. I gave him a few pieces of crust, which he swallowed without stopping to chew. “Rocky says you never feed him.”

“He’s lying,” Trevor said. “We fill his bowl three times a day.”

“With dog food. That’s not the same as pizza.” I snuck Rocky a pepperoni that had fallen on the armrest of my lawn chair.

“I saw that, Jack Cain.” Trevor’s mom came up from behind me.

“It was one pepperoni.” I argued my case.

“If he pukes, you’re cleaning it up.” She didn’t sound mad. Once she rounded my chair where I could see her face, I saw that she was smiling. “How’s your mom?”

My shoulders tensed. “She’s okay.”

“I saw her at the grocery store. She seems to be doing better.”

I nodded. “She is.”

“Good. Tell her I said hello, and she should call me if she wants to go have lunch some time.”

“I’ll do that.” My mom had practically become a shut-in after my dad and grandpa had died. The only thing she had done was go to work and come home. She hadn’t really talked to any of us. She hadn’t eaten unless we’d reminded her. It had almost been like she’d died, too, but her body still walked around. Sometimes, when I’d tried to talk to her, she’d stared at me like she had no idea who I was. It had been terrifying. I had thought we’d lose her, too. Lately, though, she did seem to be tuned-in more to what was going on around her. She talked to us about our lives, and she’d started shopping, cooking, and eating again, so she no longer looked skeletal. I doubted she’d want to go to lunch with Trevor’s mom, since she and my dad used to hang out with them as a couple, but maybe she’d be interested.