Young Writers Society

Maggie (the M in MJD) comes in through a side door being very careful not to make any noise. She realizes that she is too late, Eve has gone. The notorious villain has escaped a photo shoot once again. Maggie needed a shot for the Gazette, but she had been following Ms. Eve for two months and still had only gotten a picture of her left calf and half of that was covered in a chic black boot. Maggie decided that she was tired of chasing the relentless villain and take a breather. She settled down at a small table only to realize she was sitting in peas and mashed potatoes.

"Um, could somebody... er uh, nevermind." Maggie got up and went quietly to the restroom for napkins but she didn't realize that she had left her camera and newspaper journal on the table with her bag. When she returned, a man was sitting at the table giving a nasty look to whomever happened to look too long at Maggie's possessions.

"Murtuza." The man said.

"Thanks for watching my stuff." Maggie smiled, wiped off her seat, and sat down to chat with the gentleman.

Barefootrunner shrinks into her seat as a strange man glares at her. She glances around. Everyone is engrossed in discussion. An apple whizzes past her ear. She absently catches it on a handy knife from the counter and takes a bite. Sipping her water leisurely, she listens in on the people behind her's conversation.
"Murtuza," the strange man says.
"Thanks for watching my stuff," a woman replies.
Barefootrunner sits back and relaxes, ready for a nice, long, soap opera performance.

"But it's not my Birthday..." HPR gives a confused look to Tkp and takes her Pepsi can back. She finishes it and keeps the empty can down on the table. Tkp is busy chatting with someone else now, and seems not to have heard her. HPR looks around, trying to find someone to talk to. She spots a strangely familiar face talking to Maggie and hears a few words of their conversation. "Murtuza." she hears him say. Murtuza.... Murtuza... She knows that name from somewhere..... But where?

She walks over to him and Maggie and sits down. "Hola mi amigos! Whatcha talkin' about? Can I join you? Is it alright? I don't want to interrupt you. If you want me to, I'll leave. But if it's alright, can I stay? I want to talk to someone but there's no one to talk to. See, everyone's having their fun. And I'm getting kinda bored. So if it's alright with you, can I stay here?" HPR takes a deep breath and looks innocently at Maggie and Murtuza's surprised faces.

Somebody pushes barefootrunner violently from behind. Her mouthful of water fountains into the person next to her's lap. She whips around to see who has committed this heinous breach of ettiquette. A new stranger is standing behind her, talking animatedly to the pair that barefootrunner had been eavesdropping on. As the speaker finishes her long soliloquy, barefootrunner taps her on the shoulder.
"Erm, I think you just could have bumped into me from behind," she mumbles. As no apology seems to be forthcoming, she babbles on nervously.
"Do you enjoy - um - apples?" She holds up her own, half-eaten specimen.

Maggie and Murtuza sit and stare at HPR as they listen to her never ending one-sided conversation. When she finally finishes, a strange girl walks up to HPR and looks ready to start a fight.

"Oh look, I never got a drink! Be right back." Maggie got up from her seat and hoped she had avoided a fight.

"Root beer float please, easy on the root beer." Maggie told Nate. She smiled at the people on the stools next to her but decided to avoid actual conversation as she waited for Nate to return.

"One root beer float, easy root beer." Nate handed her a glass almost completely vanilla ice cream. "Spoon miss?"

"Thanks Nate! So, how's business today?" settled at the counter with her elbows on the counter and her hands holding her chin. She silently hoped the people next to her were not talking before she arrived.

Barefootrunner glances up in dismay as one of the strangers stands in apparent disgust and stalks off.
"Look, there's no reason to be nasty," she snaps, losing her patience along with her screen of shy innocence. "I wasn't looking for a fight, but if you want one, I'd be happy to oblige."
Now all traces of her previous demeanour vanish. She gazes down challengingly at the couple.

"Oh my gosh! I'm really, really sorry! I didn't realize and I promise I'll make up for it! I'll get you another drink! I'd rather you don't start a fight. Please calm down. I'm really, really sorry. I'm usually very clumsy." HPR doesn't wait for barefootrunner to reply. She gets up, goes over to where Nate is standing at the counter and says "Could I have a bottle of water please, Nate?" She takes the bottle, goes back to barefoot runner and gives her the bottle. "Oh! And I'm pretty sure I have some tissue." She pulls out a packet of tissue paper from her pocket and hands it to the person next to barefoot. "Here you go. That's all I can do to help for now." She turns to barefoot and says, "Is it alright now? I'm sorry. I'll be more careful next time." She smiles at barefoot, hoping barefoot will forgive her.

"Look, there's no reason to be nasty," a young bright personality soon charges. "I wasn't looking for a fight, but if you want one, I'd be happy to oblige."

Murtuza hadn't even been in for 15 minutes and already there were fireworks. His pleasant acquaintance had left for now. He was confronted suddenly with two new, fiery and quite animated characters. He knew there was a misunderstanding between the two. And he knew that he was going to be the one to calm them down.

They both seemed like really nice people. Maybe they had too much caffeine to drink which made them all hyper. Murt was quite amused. He felt it funny that these two young girls had met at this junction. Maggie, the old acquaintance was discreetly peeping into this space and was waiting for the atmosphere to calm down.

Murtuza stood up, before either of the two persons could reply or say anything to each other or even to him. They both looked at him big eyes and froth mustaches made of the various floats they had probably been drinking.

"Girls, why don't we all just calm down for a sec and relax?" he said, in a voice that sounded stern but all the more soft at the same time. The two potential fighters were now at ease and brushing themselves up, removing the imaginary dust particles that the awkward situation had laid upon them.

Murtuza smiled. He offered them both a seat and was eager to know more about these seemingly interesting young women. Never had he experienced such a level of excitement and calmness in subsequent order.

He took a big sip of his float and then received the same frothy mustache as the pair he had just met.

Barefootrunner glances doubtfully at these strange people.
"Who are you, anyway?" she grumbles, mollified by the man's commanding voice. "I'm barefootrunner. And this place is weird. It's messing with my mind. Has someone doped my drink? Someone tried that at a race, once, though I doubt whether they'd do it again."
She mentally fights the man's presence, but pink, fluffy calm descends on her mind.

Maggie watches as Murtuza takes complete control of the situation. It baffled her when he took only a matter of seconds to take the situation and turn it into a quiet, calm conversation. She considers walking back over but lets the group chat without her while she tries to make better friends with Nate.

I'll go over when I finish my float Maggie thought. Just then she heard two soft giggles from the group's direction. She glanced over to see a frothy mouth on the face of the hero. She giggled as well.

"So Nate. Your wife was the real push to put you back in business?"

Having long since moved to a chair in the corner, Payne sipped from a fresh can of Dr. Pepper and watched the other patrons. There were so many interesting people here, but she knew that she couldn't watch them all. She instead focused her attention on a seated trio, all of them sporting frothy mustaches.

She recognized the man and the younger girl, and momentarily considered going over to say 'hello.' Then she remembered that she was terrified of social situations. Settling more comfortably into her chair, she stretched her legs out a bit. "I could get used to this place."

HPR chuckles when she sees Murtuza's frothy mustache. Then, realizing that she has one too, she pulls out some more tissue (she seems to have a lot in her pockets) and hands one to him and barefoot. She takes one and wipes her own mouth too. Free of frothy, white mustaches, all three settle down to talk. "So, what're you guys doing here?", she asks curiously. "I'm HPR by the way. Though you can call me whatever you want. Doesn't make much of a difference to me. Nice to meet you." She smiles and reaches out for her drink when she realizes she's already gulped it down. "I'll just get another drink." She goes over to Nate and asks for a hot chocolate. "Thanks, Nate! Again!" She goes back to her seat and takes a sip of her hot chocolate. Suddenly, she feels this warm, fuzzy and excited feeling rising up inside her. Uh-Oh., she thinks. Here comes the hyperness. She decides to spend the minutes of sanity she has left talking with Murtuza and barefoot who're already having a conversation.

Muffins quietly enters The Tavern. She heard a lot about this place. Holding her bag tightly, she walks up to the counter. There, she sees Nate.
"Nate?"
"Well hello there! What would you like to have?"
"Um, w-what do you serve?" she replied, moving a little to the side, as a hiccuping couple past by.
"Everything. But booze. Even if you're above 21. Are you above 21? You definitely do not look like you are above 21. Snoink is above 21, look what happened to her without booze. What do you think booze will do then, huh?"
"Uh-huh." Muffins eyed Snoink curiously. Snoink was on the floor, giggling and talking to herself. Something about farting pigs? "I'll have a, um, chocolate chip milkshake with extra foam, extra chocolate. Make sure the chocolate powder is well-mixed as lumps are not good for your throat, and also, do not chop the chips well, I like my chocolate chips a little bigger."
Nate stares at her for a long second, and then mutters something about kids. He hands over Muffins her milkshake, and she leaves with a thanks. She finds an empty table, and, before she settles herself there, she wipes her chair with a wet-wipe, and then sits. Pulling out a small tissue from her pocket, she wipes the brim of the glass. She did not have OCD, she just did not like dirty things. Plus, what harm could be caused by cleaning the brim? Harm could be caused if she didn't as germs and bacteria settled over there would enter her body. Plus, last she heard was that The Tavern had closed down for sometime before re-opening. Now, dust would have been collected, right?

She looked around the room, as she cautiously sipped from the glass. She saw some fimiliar faces. And some, she knew quite well. She immediately stood up and walked over to her friend's table.
"Yo. Titi! Murty! How you guys doing?" She said cheerfully. Cheer- wait. Why was she so happy all of the sudden? She looks down at her drink. It's something with this drink. With everyone's drink that gets everyone like this. "Hey, did you guys know tha- What in the name of lord?!"

Titi finally turned to face Muffins. With her hands over her mouth, Titi looks like she is about to blow up. Murtuza looks just as shocked (and scared) as Muffins.Titi needed to be calmed. Or else, Hell will break loose.

That's it. I'm going to blow now. Here comes the hyperness. thought HPR. She suddenly felt all sanity leave her and jumped up from her seat when she saw Muffins come up to her. "MUFFINS!" she yelled. She hugged Muffins and when she let go, everyone around her looked surprised. "What happened, what happened? Did something happen? What'd I do? Why's everyone looking at me like that? Is something wrong?" All of this was said very quickly. HPR took another sip of her hot chocolate. "Mmmmm. This tastes good! Does anyone want some? Kidding! I won't give it to anyone! Mine!" she said happily. Then, holding the glass close to her like it was a very precious piece of treasure, "Mine. My preciousssssss. Precioussssssss." Now she had really lost it. And if there was anyone who could calm her down, it was- "Muffins! Wanna play a game? Huh, huh? You wanna? It'll be fuuuuuuuuun! Come on! Let's play a fun fun fun game! Come oooooooon! Let's plaaaaaaaaay! " Before anyone could ask what the game was, HPR stuck out her hands and started running around the place. "Look at meeeeee! I'm an aeroplaneeeeeeee!! She yelled."Wheeeeeeeeeee! Who wants to join me?!" She said.

"Right!" snarled barefootrunner, flicking her apple-core off her knife and spiking another. "You're all insane! This is going too far! I just wanted a nice, quiet, healthy drink and now I'm stuck here in downtown Crazyville, population - you lot!"
She spun around and catapulted the apple off her knife. It hit HPR with a dull thud and squelched into the mess of peas at her feet.
"Anyone else?" she hissed at a suddenly very silent tavern. Then she giggled hysterically.