Spark • Xavier Thorpe

eight

Elvira got off the bus with Wednesday right behind her. They were the last bus to arrive in Jericho, so most of the students were already making their way to their assignments. Elvira and Wednesday began making their way to the town square, before suddenly Wednesday stopped.

"Keep going, I'll meet you there," she told Elvira. The brunette watched in confusion as her cousin walked off, before growing even more confused to see her walking towards Xavier. Elvira continued walking, but kept her eyes on the pair, carefully watching them. She wasn't sure why she was suddenly feeling jealous, but she was.

Elvira shook the thought out of her head and made her way to the town square to join the rest of the Nevermore students. A few minutes after she had taken a seat, Enid bounded up to her and sat down.

"Are you excited for Outreach Day?" Enid asked, and Elvira shrugged.

"I don't know. I guess I don't have any idea what it's supposed to be like, nor do I know if the Weathervane is a good assignment," Elvira answered.

"Right, but you're with Xavier. Aren't you excited about that?" Enid asked, nudging her with her elbow. Elvira rolled her eyes, but a small smile grew on her face.

"Xavier's presence at the Weathervane won't affect the way I'm feeling about the assignment," Elvira told her. Enid gave her a look, but all Elvira did was smile. In that moment, Wednesday made her way over to join them, Xavier sitting on the other side of the bleachers with Ajax.

Principal Weems and the mayor both gave their speeches, and then Elvira and the rest of the Nevermore students were released to their volunteer jobs. Elvira made her way over to Weathervane, getting a few stares from some of the normies. Elvria ignored them, pulling open the door to the cafe.

She approached the counter to find nobody there, so she looked around a bit.

"Ah, you must be from Nevermore," she heard. Elvira turned to see Tyler, the guy that had offered to drive Wednesday out of town before the whole monster ordeal. Tyler's eyes lit up when he recognized her. "Elvira isn't it? You're friends with Wednesday."

"Cousins actually," Elvira corrected, and Tyler nodded. "I'm here for the volunteer assignment."

"Right, of course,  follow me," Tyler told her. Elvira followed Tyler into a back room, where he handed her a uniform and an apron. "Change into these, and then I'll show you the ropes. It's really pretty simple, I'm just going to have you bus the tables."

"Bus the tables?" Elvira asked, and Tyler looked at her in confusion.

"Yeah, like clean the tables off, and bring all the dishes back here. There's supposed to be another one of you, so I'll have them wash and dry all the dishes," Tyler explained. Elvira nodded, and grabbed the tray that he was holding out to her.

"So I don't have to make any coffee?"

"I'll have you make some, but I think that I can handle the majority of it."

"Alright then."

"Okay, I'll leave you to get changed. There's a bathroom over there," Tyler said, pointing to the door with a woman on it. Elvira thanked him and then made her way inside, quickly changing into the god-awful uniform. She immediately felt itchy putting on the brown shirt, but she didn't want to make things harder for Tyler and ask for a white or black one.

Elvira made her way out of the bathroom, shoving her folded Nevermore uniform into her backpack, before hanging it on one of the hooks in the back. Elvira then grabbed the tray Tyler had set out for her, before exiting back out into the main cafe.

Elvira started making her first round to all the tables, when the bell chimed above the door. She glanced up to see Xavier walking in, and she smirked.