Spoonerville: Page 4

Rodney had been living in Spoonerville for exactly seven days. And in the week that he had been there he had learned a lot. He had learned that he could leisurely walk from one side of town to the other in exactly thirty two minutes. Less if he caught both stop lights on green. He had learned more that the town had taken the popularity of the Blood Night series to heart and the stores that were still open were geared towards, hunting, fishing, and Blood Night. He had never paid attention to Blood Night before he moved in with his Grandmother and now that he was here everywhere he looked was Black and Red, fur and fangs, Spoons and Forks.

The local Library had a reading group where they discussed each chapter of each book and when they finished all three books they started over again often with the same people in the reading groups. There was a tiny local theater that had done so many different stage adaptations of all three Blood Night Books that their wall of past shows was nothing but Blood Night performances. Every shop, every restaurant, every gas station had signs declaring their allegiance. Team Alphonse or Team Spencer. He had even seen that in the previous years of the high school the fictional characters had been voted prom king and prom queen.

He Hated Spoonerville with a passion and he had only been there for seven days. He had tried to get a job but no one in spoonerville was hiring, he didn’t have a car of his own so traveling to the nearest town wasn’t an option and his Grandmother didn’t have cable, even worse she didn’t have internet, so he had resorted to spending his time wandering through town hoping against hope to find someplace that didn’t suck.

That place turned out to be Joe’s Pizza. He had stopped there on his second day in town in the middle of his third timed walk across town. He gave up on beating his record of twenty nine minutes and walked across the empty street to check the place out. It instantly became his favorite place when he got close enough to the front door to see the index card taped to the door that said [Free Wifi with the purchase of…anything really, PSW: #BN5UKS].

The place was deserted but he had pretty much decided that unless the owner was a creepy pervert that it had become his new favorite place. There was a colorful sign taped to a bell that said [I can’t hear you over the N64. Ring Bell Loudly] So he did, twice.

The door behind the counter opened up and an unshaven guy in his mid to late twenties stuck his head out. “Oven’s not even on man, you in a rush?” he asked.

Rodney shook his head. “If I was then I wouldn’t be in Spoonerville.” He answered.

The guy gave a wide grin and nodded. “Right on! My name’s Derek I’ll be right out dude.” He stuck his head back in and Rodney could hear him un pause the video game and finish his level. Rodney grabbed the nearest stool and sat at the bar. Closest to the cash register. He pulled out his phone and set himself up on the wifi, able to check on the life he had left behind when he came to Spoonerville. His Facebook profile was a never ending stream of condolences and well wishes on his new life in this dirt hole, middle of nowhere village of forgotten tween romance. He closed Facebook and opened up Reddit to see what his friends were saying about the new rule set for star pilots, a board game he was sure no one in this town had ever heard of. The timing of his move had forced him to miss the most recent regional qualifier and he was pretty sure that he was no longer going to be a part of the professional scene considering the nearest regional tournament had already happened and was in a town almost four hours away.

He had gotten so lost in reading about his game that he completely Missed Derek coming out and firing up the pizza oven. “Hey buddy, what can I get you?” He asked.

Rodney pulled his mind out of his phone. “I feel like it’s a dick move to order slices when you’d have to make an entire pizza to do it.” He said.

Derek shook his head. “Either I’ll eat it over the next few days or someone else comes in and orders stuff anyway, don’t hold back on my account.” He assured him.

Rodney nodded. “Cool, I’ll take two slices of pepperoni, and an orange soda if you got it.” He said.

Derek nodded around the corner to the back wall of the shop. “Sodas are back there, help yourself. Two slices of pepperoni coming up!” He went back into the kitchen as Rodney filled his cup.