TMM Everything Nice 6

    And so began a peculiar part of my life; juggling school with my first real job, making real money and good friends, and, oh yeah, dealing with being a freaking mutant.
    Or, I guess mew-tant. That is where that comes from, right...?
    Starting at the Cafe was really rather uneventful. Strike that, most days at the Cafe are rather uneventful. No one ever comes here. And honestly, I can’t really blame people. Who thought it would be a good idea to open a maid cafe in suburban America...? Our usual customers are cute old ladies, little elementary school birthday parties, the occasional small group of giggling teenage girls, and sweaty, awkward, college-age boys that aim (and fail) to wow with their limited Japanese. And that’s a busy day.
    My first impressions of my fellow mews all continued to prove relatively accurate; Mim remained cheerful and energetic, Mickey proved to be a perfectly tolerable mix of cheeky and chill, and Hazel... oh, that Hazel. ‘Quiet’ and ‘uncomfortable’ seemed to be her default settings. She tried hard at stuff though, and I appreciated that.
    Contrary to what Shaun had said to me that first crazy day we had met, however, none of the guys ever helped out in the Cafe. Well, Ken popped down every once in a while to man the register or help with food prep, but no one ever put on a uniform and helped us wait tables, and I resented that. I barely saw Ian around, and I saw Shaun even less. Who I did see a lot of was a different boy, one I hadn’t seen before; he arrived every morning before the Cafe officially opened for business and disappeared in the back to do who-knows-what all day long.
    I decided I’d stop him and ask him who he was after about a week of wondering. I got to the Cafe ten minutes earlier than I usually did and changed into my uniform at lightning speed. Then I stood by the counter and waited.
    I hadn’t been waiting long when that same black-haired boy appeared in the doorway. I guessed he was about my age, with an unfortunate bowl haircut and borderline-buggy eyes. He pushed the door open, and the bell above it chimed to alert his entry. I was immediately in welcome-wagon mode.
    “Hi, welcome to Cafe Mew Mew!” I said, springing adroitly over the counter to subtly interfere with his usual route to the back. “My name’s Karen, how can I help you?”
    The boy stared at me. For some reason, he seemed surprised that he had entered an eating establishment and one of the wait staff was trying to take his order. He dug around in his pocket for a second, still staring at me, and withdrew a quarter. He held it up in front of him. I kept a smile plastered on my face, but my brow furrowed ever so slightly. Did he want me to take it...?
    “Heads or tails?” he whispered mysteriously.
    My smile fell. “...what?”
    He gestured to the quarter. “Heads? Or tails?” he repeated.
    ...no, seriously, what? “Uh... heads?”
    The boy flipped the quarter with no further explanation. I waited for him to catch it, but he simply leaned closer to me and flicked my ear. I slapped at his hand, startling him and causing him to almost drop... the quarter.
    “...did you just pull that from behind my ear?”
    The boy grinned suddenly, fluttering his fingers—the quarter disappeared in the process. “Maaagic,” he said giddily.
    And suddenly, my interest in this kid disintegrated. I stepped out of his way, massaging my temples. “Please get out of my sight.”
    The boy laughed and continued to the back rooms, pausing to ruffle my hair. “Do you have a death wish?” I shouted after him. I heard him laugh again from down the hall, and he called back to me “Check your head band!”
    Check my headband? I put a hand to my head and felt something small and flat tucked under my frilly maid headband. If it was another freaking quarter, I was seriously gonna kill that guy... But to my surprise, he had somehow ‘magicked’ a crumpled up five dollar bill onto my head.
    “Thanks!” I yelled, unsure if he could hear me. “I guess! Dweeb!” I pocketed the magic tip. No sooner had I done so, the door opened quite suddenly, the tinkling bell above announcing the arrival of Mickey and a stranger... a stranger with fuzzy ears.
    “Karen! Hey!” Mickey said, looking frazzled as she led the strange girl—who was wearing a raincoat and ballet slippers and looked quite shellshocked—behind the counter towards the back room. “Can you help me with, er, something?”
    I nodded vigorously. “Yeah, of course!” Clearly, this was a mew mew emergency.
    “This is my best friend, Mary,” Mickey said as I followed them into the break room. “She... well, she’s had a rough day so far.” She helped the girl out of her rain coat and sat her down in a chair. I let out a low whistle—she was a mew mew. Like, a transformed mew mew. She wore a silky brown tube dress with a ribbon belt and gloves. Her ears were distinctly cervid, which seemed to make a sick kind of sense considering her wide doe eyes.
    This girl, Mary, glanced up at me. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and I wondered if she had been crying. “What’s happening to me?” she whispered.
    Mickey knelt down next to her and took her hand. “Hey, hey, hey, it’s okay! I told you, it’s a little weird, but you’re not alone! This is Karen, she’s done the whole transforming thing too, she’s knows how you change back! Right, Karen?” She looked at me imploringly.
    “Yeah!” I said quickly. “It’s really easy, you just imagine your normal self, and it’ll all go away!”
    Mary gulped, sniffled, and squeezed her eyes shut. As she did, her brown-schemed costume seemed to blur and melt away, leaving a normal, pretty, college-age girl in jeans, a t-shirt, and flip flops. A dance bag was slung over her shoulder. She took a deep, shuddering, breath, raked her fingers compulsively through her brown bangs, and let out a low sigh.
    Mickey patted her back comfortingly. “See? Everything’s fine.” She turned her head to look at me. “Could you go get Ian or Ken? I think Mary’d feel a lot better hearing the whole mew mew spiel from someone who actually knows what they’re talking about.” She winked at me, but I could see the concern in her expression. I nodded, and left them alone.
    Out though the Cafe, where Hazel and Mim were just getting in, down the hall, down the stairs, toward the basement space with the monitors, and computers, and blinking lights. I had never had a reason to go back downstairs since the first day I became a mew, but I knew it was where the boys spent a lot of their time. I knocked and pushed the door open, not waiting for a reply. Ian and the black-haired magician guy were sitting in front of the monitors on the other side of the room. They glanced at me.
    “Oh, hey Karen!” said Ian cheerfully. “Have you met Felix?”
    “‘Sup?” said Felix.
    I nodded stiffly in acknowledgement. “Ian, we have a bit of situation upstairs,” I reported. “A, er... work-related... situation...?” I frowned at Felix, uncertain of how much he knew.
    “A mew-mew situation?” Felix asked helpfully. Apparently, he knew everything. Whoever he was.
    Ian’s expression sobered into one of concern. “What’s happened? We did get a spike in mew and alien activity earlier today... I was about to have you check out the situation.”
    What did he want me to do? “Mickey brought in a girl... a new mew who transformed.”
    “Ah, shit...” Ian groaned. “That explains a lot. I’ll go talk to her...” He got up and started for the door. “Felix, could you watch the monitors? Text me if anything changes. Karen, a word?” He beckoned for me to follow.
    “What’s up, doc?” I fell into step beside him.
    “Like I was saying, there was a serious spike in both mew and alien activity today. This mew mew Mickey brought in may have been a factor, but I have a feeling... well, could you do me a favor and find a Lilly Kwan for me?”
    I wrinkled my nose as we ascended the stairs. “Uh... I could try...?”
    Ian smiled apologetically. “According to the data on her in our files, she’s a little younger than you, and if our computer tracking systems are functioning correctly, she’s at the strip mall on Painted Pine Way. I realize that’s not a lot to go on, but if you could just scope out the situation...”
    “You’d be eternally grateful, yeah, yeah, yeah...” I sighed. We entered the Cafe, and I waved to Mim, who was wiping the empty tables down for lack of customers to serve. “Will this be a paid excursion?” I mused aloud.
    “Naturally!” Ian grinned, ducking behind the counter.
    “Alright then, I guess I’ll go look for this mystery girl... Isn’t this the kind of job you keep Shaun around for?”
    “Usually. He’s working on a different project for me today, though.”
    “What kind of project?”
    Ian gave me a bemused smile and booped my nose. “Lilly Kwan. Painted Pine Way. Go get your normal clothes from the break room and send Mickey and her friend out here. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

    Painted Pine Way, according to my phone’s GPS, was almost on the complete opposite end of town, so I biked home and borrowed my dad’s car. The strip mall Ian had mentioned was half-full of empty store fronts. The only actual businesses that were... well, in business, were a little burger joint, a pet supply store, and a Starbucks. I slipped into the Starbucks without much deliberation. As I got in line, I suddenly realized I didn’t have much to go on. Ian had said Lilly was ‘a little younger than me’. That was it. I absently ordered some coffee, scanning the faces of the people at the tables. Lots of younger girls enjoying after-school frappuchinos. Clearly this wasn’t going to be an easy task...
    “Lilly?” said one of the baristas. “Chai latte?”
    I take it back; mission accomplished.
    A pale girl with a black bob and a long flowing skirt shouldered her messenger bag and abandoned her table. “That’s me,” she said softly, accepting the coffee and heading for the door.
    I watched anxiously as the girl wandered down the sidewalk, tapping my foot as I waited for the darn barista to finish with my coffee. I didn’t want to loose her...
    “Kar—”
    “Yes, that’s me,” I interrupted, grabbing the cup so violently a little coffee sloshed out the top.
    I hurried out the door and headed down the sidewalk as Lilly Kwan had. I could still see her way ahead of me, her long skirts swishing as she strolled. I sipped my coffee without really tasting it—I hadn’t really wanted it anyway, but there was no way I was wasting my money on Starbucks like that.
    Lilly turned off the sidewalk into the Painted Pines Cemetery. I raised an eyebrow, but I followed after her. I had almost caught up to her, thanks to her causal sauntering gait. Just as I passed through the gate into the cemetery, she stopped and turned to look at me. “You’ve been following me,” she said.
    I hadn’t realized she’d known I was there. “Uh... yeah,” I said without thinking.
    Her expression was so blank, I had no idea what she thought of the situation. “Did Annie leave me something in her will, then?” she said after a moment.
    My eyebrows shot upwards. “Excuse me?” I said, taken aback.
    Lilly shrugged, settling herself on a bench beneath a sad-looking, scraggly, oak tree. “I don’t know why else you’d be after me. Aren’t you her sister?” She sipped daintily at her latte.
    I stared at her. “How do you know my sister...?” I said slowly. The last stranger who’d brought her up to me had been a freaky vampire-alien, and I didn’t want to take any chances.
    Lilly wrinkled her nose disdainfully. “We happened to be good friends, thank you,” she said curtly.
    I shrugged weakly, not willing to argue with her. “Well, you know she died in a freak accident. You can’t exactly plan on accidentally dying young and make a will accordingly...” I trailed off when I saw Lilly’s eyes narrow at me over the lid of her coffee cup. “Never mind. I’m not here because of Annie.”
    “Then why are you here, Karen Thomas?” Her words were like icicles, hard and clipped and perfectly enunciated. I was starting to severely dislike this girl.
    “Well, my boss asked me to find you,” I started. What was I supposed to say to her? What did Ian even want me to say...? Did he think she was a mew or something?
    “...and?”
    “And... uh... have you noticed anything... weird about your body recently?” Ooh, that did not come out the way I wanted it to...
    “Oh my gosh. You did not track me down just to give me ‘The Talk’...”
    “NO, jeeze!!! I meant, like... strange new... uh, talents? I guess? Or any weird marks...?”
    She continued to glare at me.
    Eh, screw it.
    “Have you sprouted any animal appendages as of late?” I said flatly.
    Predictably, her jaw dropped. She looked at me like I was crazy. She got to her feet slowly, her latte sitting abandoned on the bench. I stared right back at her, levelly, challengingly. Then she did something that surprised me. Impossibly, she took to the air, floating upwards and back to land uncertainly in the oak tree behind her. A pair of webbed wings stretched themselves from behind her back and a pair of fuzzy ears unfurled from where they had been tucked under hair.
    “How did you know?” she whispered darkly.