"What did I ever do to deserve this?"

"You've stolen my chocolates on every occasion possible," Mae folded her arms.

"You're always trying to embarrass me in front of my girlfriend," Rhea raised her eyebrows at me, taking a sip of her water.

"You gave my number to Alexa from the Halloween party and now she won't stop texting and flirting with me," Mason shuddered, his cheeks tinged with pink.

"You video call me for an hour everyday, just to look at Milo," Torryn deadpanned.

"She does?" Ethan shrieked before shaking off his excited expression and turning to me with a serious one. "You ate my cupcake once."

"And I said I owe you for that," I exclaimed.

"Yeah, I'll cash that in later," he grinned and I was suddenly terrified of a simple smile.

"You insist on calling me Matthew in front of hot girls," Matt added.

"Yeah, that's always hilarious," Mae let out a bark of laughter and extended her hand towards me for a high five. I snickered with her, slapping my hand on hers.

I turned to Owen. He shrugged, "I just enjoy watching people get embarrassed."

"Fine, I'm a bad person," I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms. "Now that you are all done whining, what would you like to have?" I pulled out the little notepad from a pocket in my apron. They were all sitting on the top floor of Mad Batter, so I had to take their orders personally. After this, we would be going to Rhea's house to watch the videos of my humiliation.

I had arrived a few minutes before and just in time to see my friends intimidate a group of people off of the table nearest to the wall plug, making me feel relieved that I was the one taking their orders and not Katie.

"Also, guys, stop doing that," I whined, referring to the table thing. "Mr Hatter will throw y'all out."

"Right," Matt snorted.

"Aria, I'm pretty sure he has basically left everything in his will for me," Ethan boasted.

I rolled my eyes, "Just tell me what you wanna eat."

"Hey, Aria," Mae came to a stop as we stepped out of the cafe almost an hour later. "Weren't you supposed to ask for your leave for this week or something?"

"Oh right," I stopped as my eyes widened. "I totally forgot the trip was this week."

"It still sucks that they're calling us in just for Monday and Tuesday though," Rhea pouted.

"Yeah, we're leaving on Wednesday, aren't we? Couldn't they have given us two days to ourselves?" Owen made an annoyed gesture.

"No, they couldn't," Torryn answered Owen's obviously rhetorical question. "They're assholes."

We all made sounds of agreement.

"I don't want to go to school for two days and I can't even skip this month again," Matt scowled.

"But we will have to go, " Mason (always the realist), concurred.

I glanced at Ethan to see that his eyes held the same look as mine, the look all the teachers were scared of. "Not if we can do something about it," he murmured softly.

We exchanged grins as dark as midnight.

"I'll be back in a quick sec, you guys. I'm just gonna inform Mr Hatter that I'm not gonna be able to work this week."

After nodding at me, they walked to where the cars were parked.

Greeting my coworkers along the way, I reached Mr Hatter's office in the back. Just as I was about to knock, I tripped over air and almost french-kissed the floor.

"Brilliant," I grunted.

"And I think Jason can handle it!"

I froze at the sound of the familiar voice drifting through the halfway open door of Mr Hatter's office, a feeling of déjà vu washing over me.

"Don't forget you also thought that Elektra could handle it," Mr Hatter's voice flowed out.

I stopped breathing as someone made a noise at the back of their throat to convey their frustration.
"She was handling it pretty well. Just admit that you don't want him to do that. No, you want to protect him like a child. Lord knows you've probably left basically everything in your will for him."

Well, Ethan's gonna be devastated.

"But he's younger than she was and this isn't exactly what he wants," Mr Hatter argued.

"Do I look like Santa Claus to you? I'm here to see to it that things get done, not grant wishes. I don't care if this is or is not something he wants. He's younger than her, yes, but he isn't a child," the person sighed and was quiet for a moment before speaking up again. "None of that matters now anyway. He's next in line, you know what that means. And if I say that Jason will look after the business, he will do it. This conversation is done."

I quietly stood up from my place on the ground and waited for a while as the room went silent.

When it became evident that no one was going to talk anytime soon, I went ahead and knocked on the door. A soft "come in" allowed me inside.

"Hey, Mr Hatt— Ellie?" I gave the old woman a surprised look.

"Aria, isn't it?" She sniffed, taking a sip of her tea.

"Yes, ma'am," I smiled at her as if I hadn't just been eavesdropping on their conversation.

"Wait, you two know each other?" Mr Hatter asked, his face the colour of confusion.

"Oh, yes," I beamed at him. "We have great plans for the world," I nodded, leaving out the domination part of the sentence. "You two know each other?" I smiled confusedly, even though their conversation from before told me that they definitely knew each other and a lot of interesting people.

"Yes," Ellie answered, making it clear that she would not be elaborating on it further. I gave her an amused smile and turned to Mr Hatter.

"Oh, remember the school trip I told you about? It's next week," I leaned on the back of the chair in front of me.

"Yes, yes, I remember. Yes, you can have the week off. You can have the week after this off if you'd like, too," he smiled as if he hadn't just been in a heated argument with the old woman in front of him, not a trace of the anguish on his face that I'd heard in his voice. He's good at this, I realised, smiling like everything is hunky-dory.

"Oh no, I'll start as soon as I'm back," I shook my head, smiling. "That's all, Mr Hatter. Bye Mr H," I nodded at him and turned to nod at the woman, "Bye Ellie."

"Enjoy the trip," Mr Hatter grinned.

"Yes, have fun," Ellie nodded, a ghost of a smile adorning her wrinkled face.

I grinned and left.

Climbing into the passenger seat of Bill, I thought back to the blond hair and similar shade of blue eyes they both seemed to possess and let out an involuntary snort of laughter.

Interesting. Very, very interesting.

********************************

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