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It’s fall and pumpkin spice is everywhere. A local coffee shop has some great new recipes and there’s been a lot of buzz about it—only, if you’ve indulged you may find yourself with some unusual side effects. Due to some very defective pumpkins (and who knows what else), pumpkin spice lovers are suffering from nausea, vomiting and—perhaps worst of all—your skin has turned orange on top of it all. Thankfully the discoloration and illness seems to wear off within a few hours, but you probably shouldn’t go back for a second cup.
Derrick wasn’t exactly sure why he was here at this local coffee shop getting some pumpkin spice goodies. His father and brother had been visiting for a bit and had wanted to try a local coffee shop that wasn’t Starbucks. Though Derrick would have rather stayed at his apartment and tried to work on his calligraphy or just go and take a walk outside, he had had to be a good host and show his family where a local coffee shop was.
Unlike his family, Derrick wasn’t too interested in getting anything special and really wasn’t too keen on waiting in line to get whatever average pastry or drink the store had left. And the line had been long. Too long. He had already timed at least 20 minutes just for standing in line to get stuff. He could have made coffee at home! And it was starting to grate on his nerves. Sure, he was standing outside enjoying the somewhat colder weather, it was better than the heat waves they had had recently! But then again, the only thing he was doing was just standing, moving a few inches forward as the line moved and the next person got to order.
He wasn’t even really that interested in all of this pumpkin spice stuff, but his family had insisted. Finally, after a forty-minute wait, they had been able to order. For himself he just got a regular hot chocolate. Nothing special, but after waiting in line like that he just wanted something sweet. His father however had ordered a pumpkin spice latte and his brother a pumpkin spice hot chocolate. Afterwards they had walked back to Derrick’s apartment, having drunk the drinks on the way. At least I’ll have the apartment to myself the rest of the day. He thought since his family was only supposed to be here for a couple of hours. That’s what happened when you only lived half an hour away from them. At least they avoided most of the dangerous stuff that happened in Destiny City, though his father had voiced some disapproval in staying there. Though his father didn’t try to force him to come back, only to try to move somewhere else.
Unfortunately for Derrick, Destiny City was the only place he could really live on his relatively cheap salary that he got from working at his store and being able to do all that he wanted. And there was no way he was going to leave now.
However, soon after his family had consumed their pumpkin-spice flavored drinks, they started to look and feel a little sick. Derrick didn’t think anything of it until they started to turn orange. Usually that was a sign of vitamin overdosing, but he wasn’t sure if that was the problem, or if there was something in the drinks that had caused the symptoms.
Either way, for the rest of the day his brother and father couldn’t leave they felt so terrible and Derrick had been forced to look after them. He couldn’t help but feel a bit irritated that his nice day had been ruined, but he knew that weird things happened here in Destiny City.
Luckily the two of them recovered by the next morning and could be sent on their way. However, the entire family decided that there would now be a ban on anything pumpkin spice-related within their houses.
