_______________

03. Barry Allen, The Poop Problem Solver

It's been 3 weeks since I've moved to Central City and it's been freaking amazing. The streets have more life and vibrancy in them and to replace the smell of desperation and anger that filled the air in Starling was happiness and joy. My stomach violently growling interrupted my thoughts.

I needed to eat.

"Off to Narnia or otherwise known as CC Jitters," I whispered to myself.

"Welcome to CC Jitters! What can I get for you?" An overly excited platinum blonde said. Her face was drowned with makeup and a very fake smile plastered her mouth. She looked like a real-life Barbie Doll.

"Um Hi. Can I get a cup of coffee with milk and one of those cronuts that my friend over there –Iris West–is currently devouring," I said to Blondie with a smirk.

Blondie was obviously confused by my statement and turned her head to the side so fast; I thought it was going to snap off. Her fake smile almost immediately left her face once she saw the sight of my dark-skinned, black-haired and twinkly-eyed friend invading the privacy yet another defenseless cronut. Blondie was obviously not pleased by the sight and marched off to Iris with her long blonde ponytail hair swaying from left to right.

"Um Iris, sweetie please could you not eat all the food that we are trying to sell to customers," she asked with a fake sincere voice.

I rolled my eyes at the sound of her supposed 'sincerity' and patiently crossed my arms. I decided since it was early in the morning and I didn't have work today, I would have some fun with this Barbie doppelgänger. Before Iris could say anything, I sassily snapped my fingers and caught the attention of Barbie.

"Yeah, I'm still here and I would like to order before I die of starvation," I shot sassily to the doppelgänger.

"Oh I'm sorry ma'am, what did you say you wanted?" she smiled with her signature 'faker-than-plastic' smile.

"You know what, I'm changing my mind. I can't decide whether I would like a coffee and cronut or a bagel and juice. What about you're toasted sandwiches, how are those?" I rambled all in one breath and before she could answer I started talking again.

"You know I am a very indecisive person, I can never decide what I want after properly thinking about it. Like the other day, I walked into a shop that was selling ribbons because I love ribbons and I didn't know what color I should get because they had so many different colors like red, blue, pink, orange, periwinkle an-"

"Ma'am maybe you should sit down and decide, I will get another waiter to serve you," she snapped with an irritated look.

"But I didn't get to finish my ribbon story," I fake pouted. Before she could say anything else, Iris came to her rescue and ruined my fun.

"It's fine Tiffany, I will take it from here," Iris smile creped on her face.

"Oh okay." With a satisfied smile, I walked over to the nearest empty table and plopped down on a chair putting my handbag on another. Iris came shortly after with a menu and a notebook and pen.

"That was hilarious Dani, I never thought I would see Tiffany without her fake smile," she handed me a menu.

"I decided to save you because you were devouring that defenseless cronut," I teased.

"What did that cronut ever do to you?"

"Shut up," Iris mumbled something unintelligently under her breath.

"Uh Uh, you can't be rude to a paying customer," I said, teasing her again.

"Whatever, would you like your usual?" she asked.

"I have a usual?"

"Yeah, you do. You always get a toasted chicken mayo sandwich with either orange juice when it's hot or coffee when it's cold," she said teasingly.

"I do get that a lot don't I?" I asked with a light blush appearing on my face.

"Yeah you do," she smirked.

"Then yes I would like my 'usual'," I said to her feeling proud that I had a usual.

"Coming right up!" she said while writing it down and taking the menu away from me.

"Hey, would you like to come down to the station with me? I got to give my dad his lunch then we could go chill with Barry if you'd like," she said with her smirk. I blush furiously and met Iris eyes that were filled with amusement as she watched me turn into a tomato.

"Yeah sure, I would love to come," I said quietly to her with a genuine smile.

"You would like that wouldn't you, getting to drool all day at a certain forensic scientist," she said obviously amused by my sudden shyness.

"It wouldn't matter anyway, he obviously likes you," I muttered under my breathe.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

✦✦✦✦

"Can you hurry up? You're taking such a long time," Iris said.

"Okay, Okay. Who put your socks in water then made you walk in them?" I asked her while devouring my delicious chicken mayo sandwich.

"You did, remember?" she said.

"Oh yeah!" I smiled sheepishly. I finished up my sandwich and swallowed up the remaining of my juice.

"Leggo!" I said while giving the exact amount of money needed for Iris. I also gave her a $20 tip.

"Aw, Thank you a loyal customer," she said while doing a curtsey.

"You're welcome peasant now you may carry me to my car," I said to her throwing a wink at the end.

"You wish," she paused, "I was actually thinking, we should walk there," she said while taking off her apron.

"What! But it's so far," I complained, stomping my foot on the ground like a little child.

"It won't be that bad. Now let's go see your lover."

"He is not my lover," I said defending myself.

"Yeah, but he will be," Iris said as we walked out of the café. We started talking about other things like current affairs and the stock market.

Like we would talk about that.

Minutes later we arrived at the Central City Police Department where we were greeted by Iris's dad, Detective Joe West.

"Hi daddy," Iris said to her dad, giving her dad a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey sweetie," he replied mimicking her actions.

"Hi Mr. West," I greeted respectively with a big smile.

"How many times do I have to tell you that you can call me Joe, Daniella?" Joe asked with a smile.

"I honestly don't know sir," I replied politely. Iris gave him his lunch bag and he thanked her.

"We're going to see what Barry's up to," I informed Joe.

"Okay, Don't distract him," he said to us knowingly.

"Why would we do such a thing?" Iris said while we had identical fake innocent smiles. Before he could say anything further, we raced upstairs to Barry's lab.

We walked into the lab setting our eyes on our mutual friend, Barry Allen.

"Okay! We're ready to see this atom smasher smashing," Iris said with excitement. Barry turned around and gave the both of us a sad smile.

"There was a shooting today, your dad needs me to process some evidence," Barry said while running around his lab trying to do work. I had comfortable found a chair and sat in it.

"Which means?" I trailed off.

"Which means that I don't know if we're gonna be able to make it to S.T.A.R Labs."

"But seeing this thing turn on was like your dream," Iris said to him while eating what looked like fries.

"Yeah, your sad little nerdy dream," I teased with a fake pout. He went past me towards Iris and ruffled my hair which took forever to perfect.

"Hey! Hands off my hair, Unlike Beyoncé some of us don't wake up like this," I said while pointing my index finger toward me.

"I canceled a date for this," Iris said eating more fries. She had been scoffing down on Barry's fries that it was nearly finished.

"Hands off my fries," Barry said irritated, picking up his fries.

"Unbelievable," he said clearly not believing she could do such a thing. He put them down near me and almost immediately did I went to grab one.

"Dani..." Barry moaned like a child.

"Barry," I mocked, "I'm on a seafood diet, I see food and I eat it!"

"And I'm stress eating over my dissertation, we started selling cronuts at Jitters and I ate two today," Iris said while walking towards me.

"Correction–You devoured those cronuts," I said butting in. She playfully glared at me while I just beamed at her.

"If I don't graduate soon, I'm going to be more muffin-top than a woman," Iris finishing a chip she grabbed before Barry took them away.

"You look amazing Iris," I complimented her. Barry nodded in agreement. Iris simply grinned.

"Anyway, What's so important about this particle accelerator?" Iris asked holding up a magazine.

"Uh oh," I said quietly, knowing what's about to happen.

"Harrison Wells' work in quantum theory is light-years ahead of anything they're doing at CERN," Barry spoke at a very fast speed, his eyes shining with excitement.

"English please," I uttered raising my hand up, clearly confused.

"Okay," Barry replied going over to his transparent board. He grabbed a black marker and drew a small dot.

"Just imagine that that dot, is everything the human race has ever learned until this moment," Barry thought with a sparkle in his green orbs.

"Does that include Twerking?" Iris questioned.

"Or words like 'selfie' or 'on fleek'?" I asked with the same amount of curiosity. He drew a big circle around the dot, completely ignoring our questions.

"That is everything we could learn from the particle accelerator. It's a whole new way of looking at physics," Barry resumed.

"It will change the way that we think about everything," Barry said finishing his nerd fest.

"You've got to get yourself a girlfriend," Iris said to him, grabbing both his shoulders. I volunteer as tribute.

"Hey, leave him alone, he's working," Joe said defending Barry who wasn't really working.

Ding!

The machine next to me rang, giving me a fright in the process. I nearly jumped out of my seat, placing my right hand on my chest.

"Your test thingy is done," I said pointing at it with my left hand. Barry walked up to it, laughing at me. I blushed and sat back down on the chair.

"I think the Mardon brothers are hiding on a farm," Barry said. He sat down on a chair in front of a computer that shows a map.

"The fecal matter I found on the street, it was cow manure, which contains traces of ox tetracycline," he continued.

"That's an antibiotic," I interjected. Barry glanced up at me and shot a smile before I looked down at the floor blushing yet again.

"There are only four farms in the area that still use it in their feed and I bet you'll find a very sweet Shelby parked at one of them," he said smiling at Joe who was looking at a piece of paper.

"Dad, seeing as how Barry solved your poop problem–" Iris started but I cut her short, sniggering at the 'poop problem' part. I looked up to see everyone staring at me like I'm immature –which I am.

"Sorry," I apologized, clearing my throat and straightened up in my seat.

"Continue," I said to Iris with a sophisticated look.

"As I was saying, since he's done with that, how about letting him go to S.T.A.R Labs?" Iris asked hopefully. Joe was deciding whether or not to let him go.

"Pretty please with a cherry on top," I pleaded pouting my bottom lip.

"Fine, go," Joe said defeatedly.

"Yes! Thank you, Joe," Barry grinned while getting his jacket. We all gathered our stuff while Joe went downstairs back to work.

"We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz!" I sang while skipping towards the door as I hear Barry and Iris laughing behind me.

✦✦✦✦

Feel free to vote, comment and follow!

Ore Adesanmi x