Nora's leg jittered up and down underneath the table, worse than Piglet confronting heffalumps. Someone tapped her shoulder, sending her rocketing out of her chair.

"Wow. Someone is a little on edge today," Maddie said, going for an arm pat instead of what Nora was sure was supposed to be a hug.

Nora sank back into her chair, cheeks prickling. "Sorry. I wasn't expecting a sneak attack."

Maddie sat opposite of her, resting her head on her fist. "Yeah, I'm usually not a sneak attack kind of girl."

She sat her backpack on the ground, getting comfortable. They were in one of the lounges on campus. There weren't many students here today considering it was Saturday. The ones who were on campus were huddled at tables, studying, though Nora didn't know how they got anything done in groups with how much talking there was. It wasn't exactly a library.

Nora met her eyes, finding Maddie beaming. "What?"

"I'm so glad we could finally hang out! Thanks so much for meeting up with me."

"No problem."

Maddie leaned forward. "So, what's been going on in your life?"

Nora's hands clenched in her lap. "Um, just same old. Busy with classes."

"What else?"

"Uh, you know. Adjusting from moving here."

"Oh, yeah? I'm not from here originally either. Where are you from?"

"Pennsylvania."

"Well, this must be totally different from you. I'm from Texas. Did you move here by yourself, or is your family here?"

Nora fidgeted. "Family."

"Why the move?"

"My dad got a new job."

"Same! Everyone's been really nice here. Plus it's Orlando, so there's so much to do." Maddie tapped her fingers on the table to an unheard rhythm. "So, what else is going on in life?"

I just made my first ever Disney friend, things are looking up in that arena, but also I'm a bit too obsessed with Jack Sparrow right now...help? "That's it."

There has to be more to you than that. I promise I'm not trying to be a therapist. I just want to get to know you better." After Nora's lips went tight, Maddie asked, "Favorite food?"

"Cinnamon rolls."

"Mine's chicken fingers. Favorite season?"

"Spring."

"Summer, except for the heat but oh well. Favorite artist?"

"Don't really have one."

"Van Gogh."

"I thought you meant music."

Maddie grinned. "I did. It was a joke. Favorite Disney movie?"

Nora's eyes widened slightly. At least less people made fun of you for watching Disney than going there. "How can someone have a favorite? There are so many."

"I know," Maddie said sympathetically. "I think I'll go with...Tangled?"

Nora bit her lip. "That's probably in my top five. I'll go with Pirates."

Maddie smacked the table. "Dang it, I forgot all about Pirates. Which one?"

"The first, of course."

"Yeah, Captain Jack is something else, isn't he?"

Nora shifted uneasily in her chair. "How long have you lived in Florida?"

Their time together went on, a polite exchange of likes, dislikes. It was somewhat like a first date, which Nora found ironic because she'd just hung out with Levi and it hadn't felt like that at all. Maybe because Levi showed so little interest that she had to hunt him down, while with Maddie she was the prey.

"Wow." Maddie looked at her phone. "It's already been an hour and a half."

Nora jolted from her thoughts. "Really?"

"Time flies when you're having fun. Right, new best friend?"

She shrunk. "A little too pushy, Maddie."

"I get that a lot." Maddie saluted. "I'll tone it down."

Nora relaxed. "Thanks. It really was nice getting to know you a bit better."

Maddie was nice. A little over the top, but nice. She wished meeting up with her didn't feel like an obligation or an interview and more like an actual friendship. That was probably how Levi felt with her right now, though. She should try a bit harder.

"But really, you should come to small group sometime. I promise it's fun and all the girls are nice and there are even snacks. Snacks."

"Are you trying to buy me with food?"

Maddie blinked. "Yes."

She couldn't help but laugh. "I'll just have to see. I'm pretty busy."

"I know, I know. But just saying, Nora, life only gets busier after college. It's pretty important to make sure you enjoy it too. You know, in a healthy way. My group isn't really the college party sort."

Nora grabbed her backpack. "I know. Thanks."

"Queso, see you later?" Maddie inquired, wriggling her eyebrows.

"I guess I'll see you a round."

They exchanged smiles before parting ways. Nora took out her phone, eying Levi's latest message. "If you wanted to go over your food plan, I'm free tonight."

Nora's chest fluttered. She'd stuffed her notebook into her backpack just in case he'd asked. She texted back a meeting place, sent a gif of an ecstatic Rapunzel, and continued her trip to her car, her mind already at Disney.

"Ladies," Levi said smoothly, giving a dazzling smile.

They all giggled. Well, all but the one friend who looked like she was ready to faint.

He never really knew how to feel about ladies who swooned over him. He wasn't actually Jack Sparrow, he was a guy with a lot of makeup and a wig. And Jack Sparrow wasn't exactly looking for companionship anyway, so to him if they wanted some Disney male character to flirt with them, they should go find Gaston.

Thank God he wasn't cast as Gaston. Didn't have the height or build. Like a certain someone he knew.

He shoved the thought out of his mind.

"Is that your sword?" one of them asked.

Oh, this again. "Sarah here demands I not skewer guests." Levi made a very eccentric, dramatic gesture over to his attendant, hoping to catch her attention in case a problem arose. "I left it back on the Pearl."

"That's too bad," she said, "I'm sure you're an amazing combatant."

He'd heard worse and weirder. He decided to single out the girl who was terrified of him, change the subject. "You there. What's your name?"

"S-Sophia," she said weakly.

"Sophia," he purred her name. "Fine name. Should be the name of a ship. Sophia, have you ever been on a ship?"

"No. I get seasick." She turned pink.

This was really awkward. But Jack Sparrow wasn't awkward, at least not in the same way that Levi was. Instead, he put a hand on his chest, making a shocked, confused Jack expression. "Forced never to travel the sea? But it's freedom, savvy? What else could one possibly do with their time but pillage and plunder their measly black guts out?"

Sophia shrugged nervously. "Facebook?"

He blinked, serious. "Is this some sort of new curse I'm just now hearing about?" Levi sighed. "I've heard of skeleton faces, octopus—octopi faces, even ones with crustaceans. But books? That sounds an even worse form of torture." He pointed. "Especially for pirates."

"Oh, it's just an app," another girl explained, fortunately not the one asking about his sword.

"Ah. I think I've heard of those. Someone explained to me that when you want to buy food," he cracked a grin, as if the thought of buying anything was funny, "you purchase an app, either as a snack or before the actual meal. Hors d'oeuvres, if you will. That's French. I know French. Some. A little. The parley made French, you know." He paused, lifting his hands, crossing them. "Some of those words didn't come out the way I wanted them to."

The guests burst into another fit of giggles.

"Time for a portrait!" he exclaimed. "A little something to remember dear old Captain Jack by."

When the pictures had been taken, Sophia used her MagicBand to grab the pictures. He called out, "That will be ten gold coins."

"Oh, Jack," Sarah said, sounding a bit bored and done with him. For some reason Sarah didn't seem very fond of Levi. He wasn't sure why, "we can't charge them."

"All the posters in the Caribbean say I'm worth a lot of gold. Is that not true, then?" He put a finger on his cheek, smirking, glad to hear more laughter from his line. Levi turned to the line dramatically. "Best none of you repeat my location, aye? You wouldn't want to lock a man up. I've saved the world, you know."

Someone near the back started clapping, which started a chant, which he then conducted.

Levi couldn't help but smile. He really did like his job.

They sat in Pinnochio's Village Haus in Fantasyland. Levi was relieved to have the air conditioning blowing on them and had snagged a table right by the windows overlooking the dock for It's A Small World. Nora had her phone out. She'd taken very detailed notes on basically every single restaurant and food caddy in every single park, which she wanted to go over with him to plan their food extravaganza. But that took the backseat as she giddily waved at the families that had just been loaded into boats on Small World, some of which waved back just as enthusiastically.

Levi grabbed his plastic fork, tearing into the cinnamon roll he'd gotten over at Gaston's Tavern before meeting her. It'd been a good day and, since their night at Animal Kingdom, he'd started to relax a bit around her. "You really love it here, don't you?"

"Yes." Nora slumped forward with a nice, happy sigh that made him smile. "Who wouldn't? It's such a fun place. There aren't any obligations. Everyone is so friendly. It's an easy place to meet people."

He couldn't help the surprise that flashed across his face. Was she trying to meet guys here or something? Were they on a date and he didn't even know it? "Yeah, it is really easy to strike up conversations and make friends."

He hoped that wasn't the wrong thing to say. It was weird. When he was acting, he always felt he knew the right thing to say. But when he was Levi....so much cringe.

Nora was too busy waving out the window to notice. "Oh my gosh, that baby is adorable! The one with the Donald hat."

Levi glanced down, face softening. The baby in question's family had actually visited him yesterday. Hayden, who was probably about seven and the most pirate enthusiastic boy he'd ever met, had tried to challenge him to a duel as soon as it was his turn to meet him. It was the most fun he'd ever had as Jack, running away, pretending he could never fight such a gruesome pirate before inviting him into his crew.

When Hayden looked up, Levi made sure to wave back too. Hayden beamed. It was nice to know that even without the costume, he could still make kids like Hayden smile.

Levi looked back up to find Nora's mischievous grin.

"What?" he asked.

"It's just nice to see people loving kids."

"You obviously love kids," he argued. "Besides the whole torturing them with spiders."

"I let the designers of It's Tough to be a Bug do that all by themselves, thank you very much."

"You should work here, actually. You'd be good at it."

"Nah. I mean, I'm sure I would be? It just sounds like too much energy."

He pointed his fork at her. "Fair point."

Which meant that if Nora, who was a tsunami of energy compared to his weak drizzle, got tired, that meant he was digging his own grave. He was so introverted that he could go an entire day in the parks without talking to a single soul and he'd be more than content. Ironic that his job was the exact opposite.

"Besides, I have school. What about you?" Nora asked. "Why do you work here?"

He chewed thoughtfully. "Well, I grew up coming here all the time. Probably every other weekend, really. When my older brother got a car, we'd come even on school nights for a few hours and felt like the coolest people in the world, to be able to say at school that we were at Disney the night before. My family has a lot of really good memories here. It's my happy place. I wanted to help make it other peoples' happy place too."

Nora leaned her cheek on her fist. "That is so sweet."

He sat back. "I wasn't aiming for sweet?"

She grinned. "You're a cinnamon roll eating a cinnamon roll."

"That's called cannibalism and I don't think something that gruesome should give me cinnamon roll status." Levi stuffed another giant piece into his mouth, trying to figure out how offended he should be. She only laughed.

"Is working here everything you ever dreamed?" she asked.

He tapped the fork thoughtfully on his emptying paper plate. "I'm getting more used to it. Some aspects of the job are hard and some are really rewarding. Like the kids."

"My heart." She put a hand over her chest.

"Not that I interact with guests much," he said hurriedly, hoping she wasn't suspicious. "But I don't know how long I can keep it up, you know? I've never felt like the kind of guy to be in the spotlight and here, every Cast Member is on stage." Him more so than others. "We're supposed to be perfect. I always feel like I'm going to mess up."

Like he did the other day with the pervert lady, which Nora had fixed.

"Give yourself some credit. You're still earning your ears. Besides, I think you're doing a swell job."

"You're talking like Mickey Mouse now. You're definitely obsessed."

Nora shrugged, then pointed to the rest of his cinnamon roll. "Are you going to eat that?"

He had been planning on it, but making Nora happy was better than a cinnamon roll any day.

You guys, I miss Disney so much. Cry. I want to goooo.

Question of the Chapter: If you could be doing any Disney (or nonDisney vacation, I guess) thing right now, what would it be?

-Flips