Spies, Lies, and Pleasant Conversation
“Wait, hold up. You have a date with who now?” Bon Bon asked as she sat in a chair.
“Wiz. You know, the little guy with the bowl cut that's in the AV Club.” Lyra answered as she sat, legs crossed on her bed. “We were paired up in film class and he asked me out, in the cutest, little nerdy way possible.”
“I'm sure.” Bon Bon rolled her eyes as Lyra trailed off. “But, are you sure this is a good idea. I mean, you could do so much better than...that.”
Lyra unfolded her legs and sat up straight to look her friend in the face. “What's with you? You know I don't have the best track record when it comes to dating. Plus, you should have seen him. If I say no now, he'll be crushed.”
Bon Bon let out a short sigh. “I guess you're right, would be kind of rude to do that. Have a good time, okay?” The two shared a hug as Lyra opened her eyes.
“Oh, that reminds me. He wanted to know if I had any other friends. Turns out he's got a buddy...”
The other girl stopped Lyra mid-sentence with a single finger. “Are you trying to set me up on a blind date?”
“No, I'm going on an non blind date and could really use the support of a friend. The chances that said friend might also meet someone interesting is merely a coincidence.” All of the girl's teeth were bared in a huge, nervous smile as she awaited her friend's response.
“He'd better be cute.” Bon Bon groaned as Lyra squealed with excitement.
“He's gonna love you, I just know it.”
“Only for you, Lyra.”
Meanwhile
“Lyra?” Curly Winds asked as he tossed a football to Wiz Kid, who jumped up to prevent it from going over his head. “As in Lyra Heartstrings? Oh boy.” He rubbed his head, a sound of disappointment in his voice.
“What?” Wiz threw the ball back, it's trajectory a bit off, though his friend managed to catch it. “You're always telling me to be more bold. We worked together in class and it seemed like the perfect opportunity so I decided to ask her out.”
“But did it have to be her? You know there's a reason guys don't ask her out that often.”
“And what, pray tell is that?”
Curly paused for a moment and raised an eyebrow. “Because she's a nut!”
“She's not nuts, she's just...different. And if different is going to give me a chance I'll take it.”
“Fine, but I don't know why I have to go.”
“Because you're my best friend and you being there will keep me from crashing and burning.”
“Fair enough. Although you did mention there would be a girl for me in this deal.”
“Don't worry, Lyra promised she'd find someone to bring too. As long as you bring that winning personality of yours, you can win any girl over.”
“Yeah, I am good like....Hey, are you doing that sarcasm thing?”
Wiz rolled his eyes as he answered. “Of course not. You're way too smart to fall for that.”
“Yeah I...You're doing it again!”
Later
Lyra and Bon Bon approached the small, diner at almost the same time as Wiz and Curly did from the opposite direction. “Hey guys.” Lyra waved to them as they got closer.
“Hey Lyra. You, um...You look nice.” Wiz said nervously as he rubbed the back of his head and tried his best to make eye contact. The girl gave him a playful punch in the arm.
“Don't be all nervous. The date hasn't even started yet. Oh yeah, You know Bon...” She stopped as she noticed the other girl was still a few feet behind her, an intense look in her eyes as she stared straight forward at Wiz's blue haired companion. “Um, Bonnie?”
“Well this is Curly Winds.” Wiz introduced his friend only to note that he was in a similar state to Bon Bon with a tense look on his face. “Dude, you alright?”
Curly, still looking down the pipe at Bon Bon, gave a confirming nod. “Yeah, I uh, I'm just surprised. You said she was bringing a friend, not a bombshell.”
Bon Bon gave a halfhearted chuckle. “Ooh, such a charmer.”
“Well, let's not stand here all day. Let's get a table and kick things off right.” The group approached the door as Wiz quickly stepped up and opened the door for them. “Such a gentleman.” Lyra walked inside as her friend followed, stepping down hard on Curly's foot. He let out a grunt as she passed.
“Oh, I'm terribly sorry, but I'm sure a big, strong man like you can take it.” She said behind a coy smile as she entered the building. Curly muttered something under his breath as he was the last to enter. The group was soon seated in the 50's themed restaurant, Wiz seated opposite Lyra on the outside seats and Curly opposite Bon Bon near the window.
“So, how are things?” Wiz asked awkwardly in an attempt to spark conversation.
“Great,” Lyra answered. As she trailed off about things no one but Wiz was listening to, Curly and Bon Bon continued to eyeball one another. With the table as a guard, Curly returned the girl's earlier action and stomped on her foot. A smile flashed across his face as she tried to suppress her pained grunt and smiled back at him.
“right, Bon Bon? Bon Bon?”
The other girl snapped back to reality as Lyra prodded her in the arm. “Huh, what, oh yeah, agree one hundred percent.”
“So, what will we be having on this super duper day?” The familiar voice of Pinkie Pie said as she skated over in her waitress outfit.
The group greeted their classmate as they looked up. “Didn't know you worked here.” Curly admitted, taking his eyes off of Bon Bon for a moment. “I'll have a oomph...” he uttered out as his body seized up and began taking in a few gasps of air.
“Not sure we have any oomph, but I can ask the chef. One minute.” Pinkie rolled off to the kitchen as the group turned back attention to each other.
Wiz turned his attention to Curly, who was heaving to get air into his lungs. “You alright?”
“Yeah,” he responded with a pained, high pitched voice. “Just my asthma acting up again.”
“Since when do you have asthma?”
“Long time. I don't talk about it. If you'll excuse me for a moment...” Curly began to slide out of the booth as the other boy made room for him to get out. He then made his way toward the restrooms with a seeming limp in his step and almost doubled over.
“Your friend's a bit weird.” Lyra said as they watched him turn the corner. Wiz responded with a light nod.
Bon Bon watched with a smile before erasing it from her face. “Think I'll go freshen up, myself before we get out orders in. Excuse me.” Lyra made way as her friend slide out and walked around the corner to the restrooms.
Being left together gave the two remaining teens time to talk. They stared across at one another for a long time before Lyra cleared her throat and spoke first. “So, what do you think about yetis?” Wiz raised an eyebrow at her comment.
Men's Restroom
Curly held onto the walls of the stall, leaning over the toilet, nursing the low blow that his supposed date had given him hidden by the table. He groaned a bit as he waited for the pain to subside, having wanting to puke his guts out. He heard the door to the restroom open but ignored it as he had other things on his mind. After a while he made his over to the sink and washed his hands before leaning his head in and sipping a bit of water. The noise of the other stall opening again caught his attention this time as he dried his hands. “I think you're in the wrong place...Sweetie Drops.”
“I'm exactly where I want to be, Typhoon.” Bon Bon said, her back against the wall behind him. “What are you up to, you snake in a cheap afro?”
“I could ask you the same thing. Thought I was going on a date with a pretty girl, but it turned out it was you.”
“Didn't hear you complaining that night in Maretonia.” Curly's head shot up to look into the mirror, which allowed him to see the smug look on the girl's face.
“I have to commend your disguise. Never would have figured that the girl that night was the world's best spy. All the same, my employer wasn't happy I didn't have his package the next morning, so you're going to pay for that.” He turned, cracking his knuckles. “You know if I'd known my date today was you, I would have adamantly said no.”
“The feelings mutual.” Bon Bon replied as she stretched before the two rushed each other.
Meanwhile
“I know, right?” At the booth Lyra and Wiz were having a very interesting discussion on the topic of mystical creatures and various tabloid entries. “It's like, our school has seen magical princesses, sirens and portals to other worlds but everything else is so hard to believe?”
“Right, right?” Wiz responded, “It's called science. It's all about discovering new things. How can we be nuts for believing something new and unseen is out there?”
“Yeah,” Lyra laughed lightly as she sat back in her seat. “You know, it's nice to talk to someone who gets my interests. Usually at this point the guy's bolted out the bathroom window and leaving me with the check.”
“Well, not everyone is going to understand. Believe it or not, people don't always get me either. Honestly, Curly is probably my only friend outside of AV club. He may not always get my interests either, but I know he's got my back.”
The girl nodded in agreement. “Me and Bon Bon are the same way.”
Wiz paused to look around. “Speaking of which, they've been gone for quite a while.”
“I'm kind of used to that with her. She gets a call from her boss and leaves for the better part of an hour, like something life threatening is going on. Sometimes I don't see her for days.”
“Funny, Curly's the same way. Where does she work anyway?”
“No idea. Whenever I ask her, I get some vague answer that just leaves more questions. Same with him?” She received a confirming nod. “That is strange. And was I the only one that noticed they were acting really weird around each other?”
“Thought it was just me.” The two looked at each other with curiosity as they began to ponder the mystery that had just presented itself.
As the conversation at the booth had taken a surprising turn, so too had the situation in the restroom as Bon Bon and Curly had engaged in pitched hand to hand combat. Bon Bon had managed to get on his back and, getting a grip on his hair, continually punched him in the side of the head. Curly staggered around the room in an effort to remove her, slamming her against the walls with little success. He eventually got a hold of her blouse and flipped her over his shoulder and to the ground.
“You are getting on my last nerves.” He got over her and started to throw punches at her face. Bon Bon shielded herself, all the blows catching on her arms and elbows. After evading one of the punches, she swung her arms up, slapping her palms down hard on the sides of his ears which left him disoriented as he stumbled backwards. She seized the opportunity to leap up onto his chest, wrapping her legs around him as she returned the favor by delivering several hard punches to him. Curly wrestled with her around the room in an attempt to shake the girl loose. He eventually smashed her back against the mirror over the counter top, cracking a large portion of it.
Just then, the door to the restroom swung open and in walked Flash Sentry. The three seemed to be frozen in time as his eyes widened at the scene in front of him and the other two staring right back. “I'll just...I'm gonna go.” He closed the door slowly as he exited.
Curly took full advantage of the distraction and flung his opponent across the room. She quickly got to her feet and the two engaged in a dazzling display of martial arts that would make a karate tournament look like a slap fight. “I thought we had an understanding.” The blue haired boy attempted to sweep Bon Bon's legs from under her, but she jumped back before lunging forward with an assault of her own. “We keep our personal lives out of our business ones.”
Bon Bon managed to get the better of this exchange and pushed him back. She managed to eventually spin him around and twist his arm behind his back and brought him to his knees. “You should have thought about that before you pulled my best friend into this. Now what is your goon planning to do with Lyra?”
“My what?” Curly thought for a moment as he attempted, with no success, to get loose.
“Stop playing games. Why else would he ask Lyra out but to get to me?”
“Wait,” the boy chuckled only for her to reaffirm her hold. “Wiz doesn't work for me. We just hang out. You thought we we're setting you up?”
“You're not?”
“Honestly, I would have bet my last paycheck that's what you were doing.” The two lingered for a moment before Bon Bon finally released him and he got to his feet. “I think what we have here is a failure to communicate.”
“Indeed.” They glared at each other before she proceeded. “Look, I never told Lyra that I'm a secret agent and I highly doubt you told Wiz that you moonlight as a gun for hire outside of school.” She received a nod of confirmation from the blue haired boy. “We are basically arch enemies and your friend dating mine forces me to spend time with you and I run the risk of humanizing you which will prevent me from doing my job when we meet in the field and frankly, I just won't have that.”
“Well, we can agree on that. But I wouldn't worry about it too much. Wiz is a nervous wreck around cute girls. Odds are he's past out on the table from stressing out.”
“Not likely. Have you met Lyra? He's probably excused himself and sneaked out through the kitchen after she brought up aliens or ghosts. Always the supernatural with that girl.” The two shared a brief laugh before they realized what was happening. “Ahem, well I guess we don't really have anything to worry about then.”
“Suppose not. They should be broken up before they were officially a thing and we can go our separate ways and back to business as usual.” The two headed back out only to find Lyra and Wiz in the midst of a conversation.
“And it's like, seriously? We're just standing next to each other.” Lyra said as the two laughed loudly. They promptly stopped as Bon Bon and Curly rejoined them and silently got up to let them sit down. The two returning teens were a bit nervous as Wiz and Lyra wore serious looks on their faces. “You too were certainly gone a long time.”
Bon Bon looked across the table at her secret nemesis as she cleared her throat. “Well, you see what happened was....”
“It's okay, Bonnie. You don't have to lie.” Lyra interjected as Wiz nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, we know your secret.”
“You do?!” Curly and the girl opposite him almost jumped out of their seats.
“I mean, after a bit of thought it wasn't all that hard to figure out. I'm honestly surprised that we hadn't pieced this together before now.”
“Right? It's so obvious.” The two nervously shook as Lyra continued. “If you guys were dating you should have just said so.”
“Huh?” was all Bon Bon could muster.
Curly hesitantly chuckled as they realized their cover hadn't been blown but that he and Bon Bon mow found themselves in an even more awkward position. “Well... you caught us. Yep, that's exactly what is happening here.”
“Hey, it explains why you two were so against us dating. But don't sweat it.”
“Yeah,” Wiz added. “If things don't work out between Lyra and I, we don't want there to be any hard feelings between any of us.”
“I doubt there's much chance of that, right....Dumpling?” The agent known as Sweetie Drops managed to choke out with what should have been obvious to everyone, a fake smile.
Curly, a.k.a Typhoon, responded with a pretend, mushy compliment himself. “You know it....Sugar Lips.” He found himself almost gagging from having to utter those words.
Lyra looked over and saw Pinkie Pie returning with a tray of beverages. “Great. And I hope you don't mind, but we took the liberty of ordering for everyone.”
“Here we are.” Pinkie set out the drinks for each of them: A mint shake for Lyra, a frosty lemonade for Wiz and the final one, a large vanilla milk shake topped with whipped cream, sprinkles and a cherry on top with two straws facing in opposite directions as Curly and Bon Bon watched it set between them. “Enjoy.” Pinkie winked before she rolled off.
Both Lyra and Wiz looked with excitement as they watched their friends. Though the other two had synthetic happy faces, one look into each others eyes told a completely different story. Slowly and with no small degree of hesitation, they moved their lips toward the drink that would cement the entire facade.