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.
