Imaginary - Book 2 - Chapter 26 - A quiet dinner (Patreon)

“Blech! What is this?” Sprout asked, spitting out the tiny piece of lettuce I’d given her.

“Salad,” I replied tiredly, leaning on the counter. “Because I said I didn’t want to go out to dinner, Mac decided to order pizza and was nice enough to order me something easy on the stomach.” I looked over at the big man sitting at the table and raised my plastic bowl. “Thank you!”

“You're welcome,” Mac replied. “I figured after the week you’ve had, you might like something tasty. This also has the added benefit of leaving some tasty leftovers in the fridge if you feel better tomorrow.”

“I may even have it for breakfast,” I said, smiling faintly. 

“How do humans eat this? It’s poison!” Sprout exclaimed.

“It’s actually healthy for you,” I said, stabbing my fork deep into the salad. “You want sugar, don’t you?” 

“Absolutely! Four cubes worth!” Sprout declared.

“I’m not sure if I like the idea of giving you pure sugar, you’re hyperactive enough as is,” I replied. “I’ll pour you a small bowl of cereal instead.”

“Ohhh! Chocopuffs? They taste even better than sugar!” Sprout said, flittering around my head. I trudged over to the cupboard and pulled out a small bowl and a box of cereal. As I poured it out Sprout flew down and sat in the bowl, letting the puff rain down on them. 

“That’s not very sanitary,” I muttered. 

“No, but it’s tasty,” Sprout replied before trying to stuff an entire puff into her mouth. Even after opening their mouth unnaturally wide, they still couldn’t fit a whole puff in. They pouted for a moment, then started ripping the cereals apart and stuffing the remnants into their mouth.

“By the way… where are the others? I thought they’d be here by the time we got back,” I said.

“They’re doing the regular patrol, making sure there’s no bad things creeping around,” Sprout replied. “I’m here for your protection!”

I paused, my fork halfway to my salad and turned back towards the sprite. “Bad things?” 

“Yup, icky things that come through the bad holes,” Sprout said between bites. “We see them occasionally skulking around,” they paused and tilted their head to the side. “Thankfully we’ve never seen them come near you, but better safe than sorry.”

“Then I’ll leave a bowl of cereal out for them when I go to bed,” I muttered, taking my salad and moving over to the table.

“So, you have any plans for the weekend?” Mac asked as I collapsed into the chair across from him. 

“No,” I grumbled. “I’ve only really seen my friends during class, so we haven’t had time to plan anything. We’ll probably get together, but I have no idea what we’ll be doing.”

“Maybe you all could go into town,” my mother suggested. “You haven’t visited yet, have you?”

“Only when I came with you to get groceries,” I muttered. “It’s such a small town I just figured there wasn’t much to do there.”

“It’s a town designed to supply absolutely everything the residents need,” Mac said, after taking a bite from his pizza. “There are clothing stores, an arcade, a movie theatre, a gaming cafe… tons of stuff.”

“Really? Why?” I asked. 

“Because even though your movement is heavily restricted, this isn’t a prison. You’re allowed to enjoy yourself,” Mac replied. 

“If you do want to go out, I can give you some money. You deserve to go out and enjoy yourself,” my mother added.

“I’ll bring it up with Olivia and the others tomorrow,” I replied half heartedly. The truth was, now that I knew that stuff was in town, I was really interested; I just couldn’t work up a ton of enthusiasm right now. 

As I poked half heartedly at my salad, letting my mind wander, my mother reached over and patted my hand. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re looking kind of pale.”

“I’m just tired, I think… Although with everything that’s happened over the last few days I can’t be 100% sure,” I said self-deprecatingly. Mac and my mother exchanged a quick glance, so I raised a hand. “Don’t worry, if there was really something wrong with me I’m sure the doc would have found it. I’ve spent enough time in the clinic over the last week for her to do pretty much every test under the sun.”

“Well, if you say so,” Mac said, obviously unconvinced. “Just take it easy over the next few days, okay?”

“Don’t worry, all I want to do right now is relax,” I muttered. “Oh! I should thank you, before I forget. I’m sorry that you had to go out of your way to pick me up. You didn’t have to do that.”

“It was no problem; your mother and I just stayed a little later and got some more work done before I drove her home. The administration building isn’t that far out of the way. Don’t worry about it,” Mac replied. “Your mother told me a little bit about the week you were having, and I didn’t want you riding home any more than she did.”

“Well, I still appreciate it,” I said, shoveling one last fork full of salad into my mouth before shoving the bowl away. I’d only managed to finish about half of it, and I couldn’t help notice that my mother glanced at it, then looked at me in concern. “I’ll finish it later,” I said, leaning back in my chair.

I looked between Mac and my mother for a moment. “So why were you two working so late today? You said you stayed a little bit later for me, but if that was true, you would have had to stay for a couple of hours. Is there something going on?”

“Nothing super important. During the evaluations, we have to bring in a bunch of people from the Enclaves, which means adding and removing a ton of people to the tracking system. It’s not difficult work, just time-consuming,” my mother explained.

“And you’re doing it instead of the school staff because the bureau still hasn’t replaced everyone that was purged after the terrorist attack, right?” I asked.

“Well, I can’t exactly blame them for taking their time,” Mac replied. “After what happened, they tightened the requirements and require everyone to undergo multiple background checks. We’re just lucky that most of the teachers passed the re-evaluations; otherwise there’d be a lot of kids stuck here while we replaced the staff.”

“How much of the support staff did you have to replace?” I asked.

“Close to twenty percent,” my mother sighed.

I blinked in surprise and opened my mouth to say something, but Mac put up his hand. “I know what you’re going to say,” he interrupted. “We didn’t suspect twenty percent of the staff of being involved in the attack, but there were a lot of people that either didn’t meet the new requirements, or upon review, shouldn’t have been hired in the first place.” He smirked. “If twenty percent of the staff was involved in that plot, it would have been a real problem.”

“That’s true,” I muttered. I looked down at the remains of my salad and briefly considered eating a few more bites, but decided against it. My heart, and my stomach, just weren’t in it. 

“Do you mind if I turn in early? I’d like to get some rest,” I asked, pushing away from the table.

“Don’t let me keep you; get your rest, recover,” Mac replied. I turned to my mother, who nodded in agreement.

I took my salad back into the kitchen and slipped it into the fridge before glancing over at Sprout. The little green sprite just looked me straight in the eye, then attempted to stuff a full piece of cereal in their mouth again.

I chuckled, grabbed a larger bowl, and poured out some cereal out for the others before putting the box away. 

When I came around the counter I gave Mac and my mother a small smile. “Thanks for everything today, I’ll see you later.”

“Have a good night, rest up,” my mother replied. 

“I will,” I promised, before returning to my room. I closed the door and collapsed on the bed, planning to just relax for a second before changing over to my PJs. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.