"Yes, I'll take some coffee and some small scones filled with jelly and muffins, don't forget the hash browns."

The waiter turned to me, "I'll just take some lemonade tea."

He nods, flips his notepad to get our menus, and walks off.

Mrs. Reynolds turns to me, "so dear, what's on your mind?"

I look down at the table draped with white and start messing with the edges of the fabric, I look outside the window of a small diner near the school, I hear a lot of noises, I stare and then turn back to the lady I'm seated with, "Well," I start, "I didn't really expect to be seated here with staff from school."

She smiles lightly, "Oh, Zayley, don't think of me of some teacher right now, we are here on our own time, I'm a friend of your mother's and father's."

My eyes widen in shock just thinking of something, "Don't tell me-"

The lady laughs, "Nothing like that, dear! Especially not with that old geezer."

I chuckle still not completely trusting this woman. A waiter comes by and drops off our drinks, giving me the opportunity to keep my hands preoccupied and sip the drink.

I feel the lady's eyes on me,"Zayley, have you met my son, Marvin?"
I shake my head, no.
"I want you to meet him, is that okay with you?"

I shrug, "For what reasons, if may ask?"

"I want you to help him and I thought you could be that person to help him. He moved out almost a month ago, I don't hear much from him."

I nod, silently telling her to go on.

"You see, you both have suffered some losses, having that in common, given your age, you're the closest thing to understand what he's going through since you're going through the same thing."

"So what do you want me to do?"

She shakes her head, "I'm not forcing you to do anything, it's your choice to help as it could benefit you as well. Your father agreed."

I looked up, of course my dad had something to do with this. "If my dad thinks it's a good idea, I will go for it."

She smiles, then reaches in her gigantic purse to pull out a piece of paper and hands it over to me across the table. "The address. "

"Address?"

"Oh yeah, I did mention he moved out almost a month ago."

"Okay," I clutch the paper in my hands.

I felt a vibration in my pocket and pulled out my phone to see the same address from an unknown number. I looked up to find the little lady smiling big. "I took the liberty to text you it incase you lose the paper."

"How did yo- never mind, you work for the school, of course you have my contact information."

She continues smiling, "I love my job."

I narrow my eyes, "Question: What was that whole ordeal with the scholarship stuff? Were you bribing me?"

She laughs, "That was one way to lure you in. An amusing one, but yeah, that was mostly for my own entertainment."

I shake my head not fully believing this woman, "So when shall I head over there?"

"Let's try Saturday at 2:00 p.m."

"Alright, so I guess we're done here?" I say, downing my lemonade tea.

She looks up with food stuffed in her mouth, "Hold up, child, you wouldn't leave a little old lady to fend for herself, now, would you?"

I smile and take a piece of her muffin thing, "You aren't old."

"You obviously need glasses."

"Oh shut it, uh... Mrs. Reynolds."

"Call me Mary. Whenever."

"Even during school? Won't that be inappropriate?"

"Cool it, Zayley, it's not like you're showing off your tits."

"Wow, Mary. We went from Oh dear, to cool your tits. Was not expecting that one."

She laughs, "We best be off, we'll keep in touch. C'mon."

***

We arrive to my house as we bid each other farewell, her messing around like it was some date of some sort.

I open the door using the key in a pot nearby to find my dad watching TV on the couch.

"Oh hey, why are you home so..." he looks up at a digital clock, "late."

"Mary took me at some diner and we discussed some things and she gave me a ride."

"Mhm."

"I also found out you conspired with her."

"Mhm."

"And I found a lonely Twix bar in the fridge."

"Hey, kid, that's mine!"

I narrow my eyes at him, "You agreed with Mary about some depressed kid and me helping him because I'm supposedly able to understand him and it will 'benefit' me."

"Mary? Oh yeah her, yeah, I was gonna tell you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Why tomorrow? You have nothing going on."

"Shhh! American Ninja Warrior is on."

"It's Friday, is that a rerun?"

"Yeah, the one with Able."

Able was some old looking dude, my dad claims we know each other, Able dude lied about his age to enter the show and stuff saying he was older than he actually was and qualifying. That lie didn't last long though it was found as he later progressed but was still participating.

"Anyways, I'll be going out tomorrow."

"What about your friends?"

"What about them?"

He turned back to the TV, "Wow, you're one cold lady."

I smirked and walked upstairs to my room changing and checking stuff and updates on Facebook. I lay on my bed thinking.

I hope I get to relax tomorrow.