The Beginning

The minivan pulled into a desolate McDonald's carpark. The luminescent sign hung above them triumphantly. The last 47 minutes of the trip had completely comprised of Blair describing the complexity of the chicken nugget while Elizabeth lay with her eyes half-closed leaning against the fake leather seats.

Elizabeth, after slowly sliding the door and easing herself into the chilly air, walked heel to toe along the white lines beside the minivan in the carpark, they seemed to blur in the moonlight of the very early morning.

Maxmillion was the only one without lack of stupor, shuffling after him through the doors of the fast food establishment Blair wondered if he was paranormal, possibly a vampire. Shielding her eyes from the harassment of bright lights she watched for any sign of a reflection in the abundance of reflective silver surfaces.

One middle-aged woman stood lazily at the counter, she jerked upright at the sight of one long haired male being followed by two strangely disgruntled teenage girls. She methodologically typed in chicken nuggets, two cokes and one banana milkshake. They ordered and she resumed her non-customer service stance.

They took a seat in a corner table against a large window. Unnoticed before, Elizabeth saw, in the reflection, a girl sitting alone in a booth, cradling a Big Mac.

Whilst sipping her milkshake Elizabeth lightly jerked her head towards the girl.

“No one is alone in a McDonald's without a story,” she whispered.

Blair looked over and instantly her eyes grew wide,

“Oh f**k no!” she cried

Without time for questions, Blair stood up, pushing her synthetically plastic chair back with a loud squeak. Without any discomposure, Maximilian stared straight at the two girls with curiosity. More subtly Elizabeth watched out the corner of her eye.

Maximilian observed that this other compeer was not in the best shape. Despite the undoing top-knot and tear-streaked cheeks he admired her very colourful attire. Long purple socks reached up her leg and ended at the knee. Max didn't think that would help much with warmth as she paired her socks with short denim shorts and a bright green singlet.

Blair and the girl were talking and had obviously struck a connection. Elizabeth was surprised Blair's intrusive nature hadn't resulted in any physical, economic or psychological destruction yet. Luckily, her personality always seem to draw people in instead of pushing them away.

A few minutes passed and Blair had taken the girl's small hand in hers and returned to their table, with the girl trailing behind her.

“This is Honeydew, she's coming with us.”