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Tonight was one of those "fend for yourself" nights for Ellie Spectre. She had spent a bit more time at Hank's garage than she had been expecting, so now she was wandering around in search of a suitable restaurant, diner, or fast food joint.

It wasn't a true "Mexican food" night for her, which was honestly a rarity. If her mom or dad had heard anything of the sort come out of their daughter's mouth, they would have felt her forehead for a temperature. Regardless, it was a night where she craved something fake. The sad American attempts at making Mexican food could be delicious, but they were rarely authentic. As she wandered down the street, she eventually came across Denny's.

They had pretty good nachos, at least, if the blonde remembered correctly.

Shrugging it off, she entered the building and saw the disaster that was a birthday party.

"Who the hell brings little kids to Denny's for a birthday party?" she snorted out quite plainly. She wandered up to the counter and managed to catch a mention of the wait. 30 minutes for fake-nachos? That was a bit much, and in all honesty, the teen could just pop by Taco Dome and get the same quality of nachos in at least 1/6 the time.

Fortunately, Phil had taught her a lesson in life she would never forget. "Is that for the smoking section?" Phil, one of Hank's employees, was a casual on-and-off smoker. Stress was usually the only thing that got him to light up, and after knowing the guy for 2 or so years, Ellie had gotten adjusted to the smell of cigarette smoke. Either way, the easiest way to cut on wait time was to just request the smoking section.

"Oh, then right this way please!" the waitress exclaimed, picking up a single menu and leading the way back outside. The stench of the cigar smoke actually caused Ellie's golden eyes to water a bit, but she swallowed the attempted tears as she marched past the older couple. She was seated quite close to the only other person in the area. A pale-green haired boy. Her menu was handed to her, and soon enough the teen was left to figure out what she wanted that evening.

Rather than look at the menu, she instead glanced over to the stranger. "Yo!" she offered, waving her hand one whole time at him. Waving it any longer would have made her feel like some prissy girl trying to get attention.

"Um, hi.."

...that was it? That was a rather lame greeting if anything. Without even thinking about it, the girl just pulled up a chair to his table, setting it backwards and sitting so she was leaning into the back of the chair. She glanced over the roll between his fingers.

"What brand do ya smoke?"

Ellie, rather obviously, was not smoking. The girl wasn't exactly lighting up, but some could blame that on the fact she was waiting to eat to start smoking. She also had teeth that were just a tad too white to belong to a smoker, something that was easy to note as she flashed him a grin. However, here she was, still asking the greenie what brand of cigarettes he smoked.

"Djarum Black?" Her eyes had obviously fallen on the box of cigarettes. "I don't think Phil smokes that brand..."

She would have blinked at the question, if she didn't already have an answer in store for the mention of her being a "non-smoker." She flashed her teeth at him again with another grin before saying "Strange ya think that clothes associate what sorta things I do, but nawwww. I'm just an addicted second-hand smoker." She, in fact, was not addicted to smoking in any form or fashion. She was just tolerant of it.

Regardless of her own status in the smoking world, she didn't hesitate to reach out and pick up the little black box to get a closer look. The box definitely was much more classy than anything Phil had ever bought. The blonde had a feeling what the answer was, but she decided to ask anyways. Conversation was a good thing to have while waiting for the waitress to come back and take her order.

"Expensive brand, I take it?" It would be the only explanation as to why Phil hadn't smoked that brand before. He was cheap, and even though he only smoked on the rare occasion he got stressed, he still insisted upon using cheaper brands. "No need to make an already expensive habit more expensive," he would occasionally say. With absolutely no grace, the girl tossed the box of cigarettes back on the table.

At the mention of the main room, she had to mention "I'd like to meet the dumb a** that booked that party in there." That was a good enough answer to the question, right?

Out of the corner of her eye, she managed to catch sight of the waitress again. Rather than jump back to the table she had been sitting at, she waved a hand to signal for her to come over to where she was currently sitting. Eating dinner with company was always much more fun than eating by herself. Though, eating dinner by herself was preferred over eating dinner in the company of a girl.

As the waitress approached, Ellie offered her own lame "Hey, yeah, hi." At the mention of the bills, she was quick to answer "I pay for my own food." Girls who couldn't pay for their own food were lame in her mind. She paused only long enough to look back to her old table. The blonde would eventually have to retrieve her water.

"Yeah, anyways... I want the nachos." She could have given the full name if she wanted to, but Denny's only had one plate of nachos at this time. At night, they had dessert nachos, but those weren't nachos. Those were sweet, and if there was one thing she couldn't stomach, it was sweets. She nodded her head, and promptly went back to ignoring the waitress as she left.

This guy had said some interesting things she wanted to comment on, and now was a good time to do such. "I dress like some kid who got ya hooked?" Her shoulders rolled into a lazy shrug as she offered a chuckle. "That's kinda funny, but I guess punk is popular these days." Rather quickly, she popped back up to her feet, but before she sprung towards her old table for her water, she asked "Can I see that lighter? Ya have good taste. Pacman is a classic!" A big smile spread upon her lips before she literally hopped over to the other table and picked up her glass. When she returned, she plopped herself back in her chair, still sitting in it the wrong direction. She pulled out the straw from her glass.

"Hey, have you ever popped these before? Um..." There was a pause as she realized a rather important fact. "Dude, you got a name?" Another pause before she thrust her hand forward for a handshake. "Name's Ellie. Ellie Spectre."

Her handshake was firm, but she was disappointed to find the newly introduced Sheldon Hobbes' handshake to be a bit too quick for her tastes. She was not the sort to hide her motions too easily, and short frown managed to touch her expression.

However, the frown quickly vanished as she took up the lighter and began to look it over. The tomboy was not exactly the biggest video game buff out there, but she was very familiar with the classics. Old school Mario would have probably gotten the same sort of attention from her. As she turned the lighter over in her hand, she offered "Well, four years ain't all that long in the scheme of things. Heck, three years in high school have already shot past. Only got one more year and I'm out!" She grinned before flipping the lighter open and doing what any teenage jackass would do. She began flicking at the lighter, causing a flame to appear and dance for them for a brief moment before it quickly disappeared again. Rinse and repeat. It was almost like she was a pyromaniac in training.

When she was satisfied with her adolescent antics, she then closed up the lighter and handed it back in Sheldon's direction. "Awesome sh*t! Seriously Hobbes!" Her fingers quickly seemed to need to find something new to play with, and they found that in the straw Ellie had pulled out of her water glass. Seriously, straws were pointless, since you could sip out of the edge of the glass. Picking the straw up with both hands, she pinched the ends, then began to roll the edges of the straw up until there was a small little section of the straw visible, puffed out with air.

She held the small section of straw in his direction and directed him with a grin "Flick the middle of that with yer finger! And don't half a** it, or it's gonna be lame!"

With a grin stretching upon her face, she corrected him with a simple "Still go to." The popping sound made the girl laugh a bit before she added "I still go to Meadowview. Junior year."

Since her little straw popper had been popped, she flung it towards the edge of the table and took a sip of water. She glanced back to Sheldon. "Damn, I wish there were more straws... god, I love doin' that!" She laughed once more before glancing to his nearly empty plate. Breakfast for dinner wasn't really her thing, but as she recalled, that was something Denny's was well known for.

"So, what sorta sh*t are ya into? Obviously ya got the smokin' thing goin' on... what else?" She leaned forward lazily, planting her chin along the backboard of her seat.

"I could... but I think it'd be best if I waited fer my food t'get 'ere..."

And speak of the devil, the waitress returned, dropping off the plate of nachos and asking the usual questions of "Can I get you anything else?"

Ellie did not hesitate to grab herself a couple cheese covered chips and shoving them into her mouth before making her request. "Straws!" The blonde munched and crunched through the chips before swallowing the mouthful and asking more clearly "...I need some more straws..."

Manners were there. With a long pause, she eventually added "Please!"

The waitress stared at Ellie as if she had a few horns sprouting out of her forehead. However, she reached into her apron and pulled out a couple more straws, as if silently saying it isn't worth the aggravation.

"Thanks!" Ellie offered as the waitress walked away. There was a large grin on the tomboy's face. With that whole situation tended to, she finally commented on her company's response to her question.

"Seriously? So all ya do is smoke and go t'Denny's t'eat? Ya livin' off'a some sort of inheritance or somethin'?" With so many rich bratty girls living at Crystal Academy, it was possible for there to be some boys who were basically the same. She snatched up a few more cheese covered chips and shoved them in her mouth, eyes thoughtfully remaining steady on Sheldon's eyes.