#anywhere

School is out, and Katrina is FREE! Well, not free. She has homework. A worksheet for chemistry, two problems for Math (she's pretty sure this is a trick - just two? Won't take any time, right?) and a few chapters to read for another class. But mostly... FREE

Freeeeeee.

Bag on her back, and onto her be-stickered scooter.

She sees Arty heading off school grounds, towards the direction of downtown.

Whrrrrrrrrr cough cough whrrrrrrr. "Hey, Art!"

The scooter is not the most discrete ride.

He looks up, and waves! "Where are you headed?"

"I dunno - out? Not home yet."

"Is there a good place to eat? We could go to the Manor, but I wanted to check out the library, and we're closer to town. I found this decree in my bag..." He shows her a card that states that the bearer of said license may check out books from the local library!

"You like burgers? There's a good place maybe two blocks from the library."

"The food is real good, and the cook - he owns it - he'll leave you alone. I do my homework there, sometimes."

"I'm not sure. But I'll try it?"

"Hop on and hold on!"

He takes a minute to figure out how to mount. "It's not so different from a horse. I think I've ridden horses. No, I'm sure of it."

"Well, plenty of chances at the castle, if you wanted. Now, just.. uh.. hold on to my waist?" Pink spirals.

He does, carefully. "Reins seem safer, but I trust you."

"Don't worry, Gertrude only goes, like, thirty miles per hour TOPS."

Cough cough whrrrrrrrrrr/

"You named it - her? Of course you did." Amused.

Grin!

Unsuprisingly, Katrina has Creative names for the other drivers on the road. "Use your BLINKER, you knobheaded pinwheel!"

A fantastic car unlike Katrina has never seen before pulls ahead and cuts the 'pinwheel' driver off! Said Driver doesn't KNOW why his car suddenly spins out and scrapes the curb, but a chimerical Fireman tips his hat to the two as they drive past!

A gout of steam that only the two fledges can see, and it's gone around a corner!

"Dude!"

"I saw!!"

"Wow!"

"At least they went PAST the library." He says with relief, though the engine hadn't been belling it's siren.

"Agreed. Ok, this is it!"

He waits to be sure that the vehicle has stopped before sliding off and peering at the exhaust system. "Incredible, really. And you needn't house or feed it."

"Well, you kinda do both... she needs gas to run, and I keep her under shelter. But it's less work than a horse."

He gives Gertrude a pat, and looks at the place they're in front of. "Chatterbox Diner. I thought you said the chef here wasn't intrusive?"

She shrugs. "He ain't." She opens and holds the door for Arthur.

He started to reach for the door, but when she opens it, he obligingly walks through, and looks around. At first glance, the diner is nothing special. Then, he spies the chef behind the counter...

Now, Katrina has seen Al before, of course. But now she sees him.

"Are you sure about this?" Arty whispers back at Katrina!

Blink. Blink.

"...Al?"

The man turns from where he was scraping at a stain on the counter, and grunts at her. Then, he squints, and looks closer. "Huh." His voice is the same, if a bit... how does one describe it... like he's speaking through a mouthful of too-large teeth. Which he is.

"So that's it, huh, Sparkles. What, you want a candle on your burger? Siddown, or get out, if it ain't good enough for pally-boy there." Al grumbles.

"Uh. No? Art hasn't had a burger before. And yours are the best."

She's still hanging back near the door. She's not afraid, no...

Not exactly...

Art straightens up. "We would like a meal, please." He says, and manages to keep a squeak or crack from his voice.

Al nods and points a greyish-skinned, crack-nailed finger at a booth. "Sit."

"Okay." Katrina scuttles.

Arty slides in on the same side of the booth as her in a hurry, then laughs nervously and scoots back out to go to the other side.

Leaning across the table, he whispers, "That's a redcap! You sure we're here to eat, and not to get eaten?"

"He... I've been coming here for years, he's never eaten me!" The yellow spirals does betray her though - she's spooked!

"That's a redcap?