Covered Correspondence

Chapter 13 Not so Happy Meals

Okay, this chapter is offically DONE.  We had a hard time finishing this chapter, just because it was...different. I cringe everytime I read this, and I can't even explain my sympathy for Mark!  I can't fathom how he has any pride left.  Your Faithful Writers- Steve~Lewis- 

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When I had changed, I found Piper and Chase waiting outside my door. After checking out, we headed yo the large building that I had first come into over a month ago.

"Piper, are you going out again?" asked a female voice with an accent. We turned around to see Yumi walking up behind us.

"Yes, Chase and I are taking Mark out to celebrate his first A.C.T. score," Piper explained.

"Oh yes, I heard. Congratulations, Mark," Yumi patted my back. "You will be a very good agent," Yumi said. She followed us to the large steel delivery door I had originally entered by. Piper swiped her card beside the door. There was a minute on silence and then the was a sad beeping noise coming from the device.

"Passage denied," came a female, robot like voice. 

"Oh, curse these hateful failures!!!" Yumi said. "Here, let me swipe my card." She moved her card over the device and the screen glowed an erie green color. It was sort of suspicous. A loud robotic voice came over a megaphone somewhere above us.

"Agents Piper, Chase and Mark are leaving the building." I turned around to see Piper and Chase type in a couple passwords. When it was my tern, I realized that Piper had already put it in. The massive, steel door pulled up and I got my first glimpse of a familiar sight. I saw an alley and several ancient brick building that had probably been built when my dad was born, the usual litter and grey sky.

"Come on, Mark," I heard Piper call me and looked to see her and Chase walking, not out of the alley, but to yet another brick building. Piper swiped her card and the Chase swiped his. After I stood there like an idiot for like five minutes with Piper and Chase waiting for to do something, Piper grabbed my card which hung from a lanyard around my neck and swiped it.

Then, to bring me down a level of self confidence more, she typed in my Zombie Tribe 3 username. Another large door opened and I found myself in a parking garage. I didn't want to admit that I didn't have a car and I couldn't ride a bike, but I then I considered lying about it an walking to McDonald's rather than continuing with Chase's plan.

He led us up to a shiny, new Harley Davidson. It shined and the edges gleamed. I took one look at it and knew that I would just have to pretend I wasn't an awesome agent. I was just some punk kid. I kind of looked like a punk kid compared to Chase and Piper. I was back in my old familiar jeans and sweatshirt. Piper wore a white, button up shirt and black dress pants. Chase could have been a biker from the fifties. He had a cool black, leather jacket and black pants.

There were two helmets hung, one on each handle. Chase pulled a key out of his pocket and opened up the seat. He retrieved a smaller teal helmet out of the seat and set it down.

"Where's Piper going to sit?" before the words left my mouth I knew. Piper and Chase went around the other side of the bike and dragged a small side car around to the left side of the Harley. Chase hooked the side car up and then pulled one of the large black helmets on his head and handed Piper the other.

"Oh, here Mark," Chase handed me the small, teal helmet. He had a slight twinkle in his eye and a smirk on his lips. He and Piper got on the bike. He turned the key and revved the engine.  

"Get in, Mark."

I stared at the side car and then down at the helmet. Then, pulled on the helmet and sat in the small car. This seemed illegal, but I decided not to think about it too hard. Chase drove us out of the garage and through the alley. Driving down the road hurt and bumped up and down. A couple rocks hit my helmet and bounced around in the cart. We stopped at a stop light and I tried not to make eye contact with the people in the cars next to us.

On the left there was a pink, convertible corvette with about five teenage girls sitting in it.  They laughed and waved at us. Thankfully I don't think they could see me. Piper turned her head and looked the other way. That was one thing I liked about Piper, she wasn't a girly girl yet she wasn't a tomboy. She was perfectly in the middle. On my left side there was a blue mini van. A little kid, about seven, looked down at me and just stared. His older sister, probably thirteen, glanced over, but quickly looked away. Finally, we kept going and after about what seemed like an eternity, but really about five minutes, we pulled into McDonald's. I jumped out of that little car, pulled off the teal helmet and smoothed out my hair. At least, that's what I tried to do. It looked more like a pelican getting attacked like a bee  when I finished though.

I tripped out of the cart and almost fell on the ground.  As I struggled to get up, I got a glimpse of Chase's licence plate. It said 'IMSEXIER'.

Sad, I thought. Just sad.

 Chase opened the door for Piper and dropped it for me. Thankfully I grabbed the door and went through before it killed me.

The McDonald's looked like every other one. Piper ordered a Big Mac and Chase got a fish sandwich. They split a fry and a hot fudge sunday. When it was my turn to order, I realized that I was paying for myself.

"Thanks, Chase," Piper said. "Do you have enough to cover it, Mark?"

"Ahh, yeah," I rummaged through my jeans and found I had just enough for one large burger or I could get a happy meal with a burger, fry and my choice of drink. I thought about it and figured I needed some happy, so I went to the cashier.

"I would like a happy meal, please. With extra happy." I asked the guy, and stared at him awkwardly.

"Is this for a boy or a girl." The guy said in a monotone.

"Seriously?" 

"Seriously."

"Boy." I glared at him.

 I sat down at our booth and when I returned from getting my Happy meal, Chase had my weird, indistinguishable alien toy and was pretending to shoot Piper with it. I didn't really find this funny since Piper had recently almost been killed, but she was having a good time.

I was about to delve into my lifeless burger when I heard a girl's voice coming from the booth across the little restaurant room: "Hey, is that, Mark?"

"Probably not, we've searched for him every where and so have the police," a familiar guy's voice responded.

"I'm sorry I brought it up," the girl voice said apologetically.

"That's okay, Carey," the disappointed guy answered.

I looked across the room to see a teenage guy with rumpeled, dark, brown hair, a black and red checkered, flannel shirt who was a couple years older than me sitting across from a girl wearing a green, flower print sundress and had waist lengh, curly red hair, about the same age.

 It was Phill.