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“Hello, welcome to the Nasty Burger, may I take your order?”
“Um yeah, could I get a number 5 with extra Nasty Sauce on the side?”
“Sure, would you want that to be a combo meal or just the burger?”
“Combo meal please. Oh, and before I forget can I also get an order of veggie fries?”
Caleb the cashier looks at the guy ordering strangely until he sees the pretty goth girl sitting at a booth looking in his direction. She waved and he smiled back a little. Ah…
He remembered seeing her come in once or twice to get herself a to-go order off the slim pickings of the vegetarian menu. However, her odd food preferences and looks weren’t the only thing that remained memorable in Caleb’s mind.
See, Caleb had just moved into Amity Park at the beginning of December, right after his 17th birthday. His mom got a great business opportunity in the city working for Axiom Labs that she couldn’t pass up. And so, in quick fashion, Caleb and his parents came to Amity Park leaving their lives in Virginia behind. To be quite honest, Caleb didn’t mind the move very much. He had some friends he’s been emailing back and forth which has helped him get through winter break.
That’s also part of the reason why he decided to get this job at Nasty Burger (he was surprised at the popularity of a place with such an unappealing name for a restaurant). When he met the goth girl, it had only been a week into moving in and his third day on the job.
“Hello, and welcome to Nasty Burger, can I take your order?”
The girl had stared at him. She looked surprised.
“You’re…new”.
“Oh yeah, I just started a few days ago.” Caleb thought to himself, “Is she a regular? Does she know all the staff?”
The girl pursed her lips, playing with her lip ring in the process. “I mean that too…but when did you move in? There aren’t many people our age around here so it’s noticeable when there’s a new face around here”.
Caleb was a little surprised at hearing that. After all, his previous school was massive; he knew Amity Park wasn’t a major city, but to know everyone in school? That felt very suffocating. He chuckled awkwardly.
“I moved in just last week, my mom got a job in the area so I’m enrolling to Casper High for the next semester. So far this town has been really nice to us.”
“Oh… I see.” The girl takes another look at him. Her black painted nails tap a pattern on her arm for a moment before they stop altogether and she replies.
“Look, I’m not sure if anyone has told you or your family this, but I’d feel bad if I didn’t mention anything to you now. December…it’s holiday season yeah? It’s a period of rest.” She pauses and furrows her brows before continuing, “I think that if you’re gonna be here for the long haul then you need to understand that this town is…unique. Things aren’t what they seem, and whatever ideas of normal you have are going to change. There’s an order to how things operate here.”
Caleb looks at her strangely and laughs a little. “You know, my boss said something similar. This isn’t my first time moving to a new place, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
She shrugs, “Fine, suit yourself.” She then proceeded to order some weird tofu cauliflower burger and left. A normal end to a very abnormal interaction.
Shaking back his memories of the goth girl, he turns back towards his current customer, “That’ll be $12.47”.
“Remember, we have an order to things here,” the boy murmured quietly enough so that no one behind him could hear.
Caleb’s hand froze as he was grabbing the guy’s twenty-dollar bill. “Sorry…what was that?”
“Nothing, just that Sam told me we have a new guy in town and I wanted to see what she meant. I think I get it now.”
Caleb gets a good look at the guy in front of him. His eyes are sharp, they’re a striking blue that looks almost glowing. His black hair only makes his pale skin appear even paler. His smile is brittle and flat. Caleb is starting to get annoyed. “And what do you mean by that?” he counters.
“Once the holiday season ends you’ll understand, trust me.”
On January 1st, Caleb understood.