Chapter Text
“So, what were you doing out there?” Janet asks. “Do you have places to go? OH!-” Mandy flinches at this. Her sudden and smooth moves are hard for Mandy to keep.
“What??”
“Mandy! I didn’t ask you if you had time! Now you agreed to come with us out of politeness and-“
“Janet it’s not-“ Mandy sighs, it’s just getting harder to socialize with them when Janet gets anxious and Bonnie pulls her big sister’s arm, almost making her fall every damn minute.
“I wasn’t going anywhere. It’s okay.”
“Oh no I’m really pulling you in a bad situation… no, no you must be really nervous right now…”
Mandy turns at her suddenly, grabbing her by the shoulders. Bonnie stops jumping to watch.
“I said, it’s okay.” Her gaze is serious, enough for Janet to calm down.
Mandy notices that she acted kinda harshly, so she tries to soften the situation immediately. “Hey, tell me about… your day? What are you two doing out?”
“Well, we were practicing and Bonnie said she wanted to go out to the same cafe we had went some time ago when i said no because i was afraid we’d get kicked out, she ran away! But I’m taking you there right now!”
“YIPPPEEEEE” Bonnie seems to like this very much.
What a weird family Mandy is stuck with. These strange humans does have a certain charm to them… They’re annoying.
As soon as the café is seen from the beginning of the street, Mandy is left stunned.
This is the café where she had bought a cake and forgot to pay for it.
And now she has to go in. Is it worth for the sake of Janet?
This is going to be one hell of a day, why did she even decide to come here with these humans? What has gotten into her?
She takes a deep breath before before entering the cafe.
She exhales as the first thing she sees is that damn jester… she’s still disappointed in that guy.
“JANET, BONNIE, WELCOME!” Jester comes up to them with a shining smile. Janet and Bonnie probably came here regularly, trusting the relief of them not kicking out of here because of Bonnie’s actions. Mandy would roll her eyes if it wasn’t going to seem weird.
“And who is this lady here with y- wait, I KNOW YOU!” And yes, with that, there is no salvation from this. Jester recognized Mandy at the second.
She stares at him and her blood begins to boil.
“Yes, I am aware that… we have met before.” Mandy says as she looks away. Her voice is cold she’s standing with her arms crossed. She doesn’t like this mortal, not at all…
“Hahah, yeah. It was a funny story…” Jester laughed. Mandy looks at him, clearly upset. That’s right, he’s trying to mock her. She can’t stand him and doesn’t know how much longer she can tolerate him.
Janet giggles nervously, noticing the ice between them, but immediately takes on a cheerful face. “Ya, um, let’s find a place to sit. Mandy, what would you like to drink?” Janet smiles at her.
“Nothing from this place.” Mandy makes a sudden outburst. “A-I mean…..” she coughes, trying to fix her mistake and goes with a simple request “I’ll just have some water.”
“Come on, you can have something else, there are many varieties!” Janet says.
While they talk about it, Mandy notices the jester (his name is Chester. What a strange name.) starts talking to Bonnie.
“BONNIE, MY LITTLE GRASSHOPER! Whatcha wanna play today?”
He doesn’t act like an adult at all. What’s this guy’s problem?
“Well, then i’ll say… a latte.” Mandy says and Janet gives her a smile. As strange as she is, Janet is the only one here who keeps her sane. Mandy looks at Chester, sighing at how the stupid guy now bothering the little kid… but then, Bonnie laughs with excitentment “Throw me into the ball pool again!! I’ll do a flip this time”
Janet notices her looking the the two and starts speaking “I also found it strange at first” she says giggling “but now I’m just glad that Bonnie has found a friend… Chester is a very playful person, he has the energy to devote Bonnie!”
They watch as Chester and Bonnie make their way to the ball pool on the playground. Mandy gives her a slight nod. She still doesn’t like the guy but at least Bonnie is happy.
Mandy notices the awkward silence between Janet and her, so she tries to break it “It’s… silly.”
Janet’s gaze is unfocused, she’s thinking of something… “Bonnie… she’s a little too- well, weird for the other kids. I don’t want her to suffer from loneliness” She turns to you with a quick movement. How is she so smooth!? “Anyways, do you have siblings?”
“No.” Mandy checks her tone “I had never thought about what it would be like to have a sister or brother.” She pauses for a moment “what is it like?”
“I don’t know if you’re lucky or not. As crazy as she is, Bonnie is my favorite person in the world. She is a special kid. Sunshine in my three-person family. Uncle Steward takes care of us. He adopted us long time ago…” Janet explains. “They are my everthing.”
“Sound nice to have someone who takes care of you” Mandy says. But her inner voice tells the otherwise. She doesn’t need someone to take care of her. No one cared for her in years but she doesn’t complain about it.
They talk and talk. Janet doesn’t seem like those types who pretended to be friends centuries ago and then stole her money. Mandy finds it funny. Actually, with this thought, she feels like she could fall for that trick even now. Her sensitivity to being deceived doesn’t seem funny anymore…
Janet looks at the clock “oh, our time is up… soon uncle will be home!” She takes out a pen and scribbles something to a piece of napkin “here, take my number. It was nice talking to you, Mandy.” With that, she gets up.
“BONNIE! we’re going! come on, come here!”
Mandy takes out her phone to dial Janet’s number. She is not good with phones but she bought one anyway…. She felt like it is important to have one for these sort of situations..
“Oh, um. alright. Farewell” after Mandy said that Janet looks at her with a confused look on her face. “What do you mean farewell! See you later you will say, I would love to see you again sometime!”
Mandy’s confusion is greater than Janets.
Mandy watch as Janet take her sister and leave the café. She looks around, her eye atches Chester again. He is dealing with other customers. Mandy… hasn’t always been fond of clowns and jesters. They are… empty. They’ve always been the ones who spend their short lives in the dumbest way.
She then thinks, she doesn’t really care about what he does in his short and pitiful life… unless it affects her. But seeing him make a fool of himself with every single interaction... He’s joking around. It’s like he has no dignity whatsoever. She wonders how many others have been cursed by Chester just because he’s bored or he finds it amusing.
She doesn’t know why she’s still in the café. Thousand years ago, she saw more beautiful places and met cooler people. In the end it was all history and Mandy was left alone. But those people have accomplished great things in their short lives that had been filled with things so admirable. Mandy misses it. She does nothing and can’t keep up with life. She doesn’t know why this is happening to her and it’s frustrating to think about. Peoples lives are short. short and hard. That’s important how they are recognized and what they do. During this time, buffoons are the ones who she is sure have done nothing but annoy and disgrace other people.
Mandy get’s up to pay her coffee with these thoughts in mind. Also she wishes she ordered it with extra sugar… it felt like déjà vu when Chester came up behind her after she left the money on the table and made her feel like a total idiot by reminding her that Janet paid the money already while handing her the money.
She said “i hope you drown and die” and left the place.
At least now that she’s probably banned from there, she doesn’t have to come to the café ever again. win and win.