Echo was kind enough to push Spencer and Veronica’s wheelchair to the nearest restaurant. It was a bright red building (as many others were in this park) and had a little doodle of Chronos (the park’s clock mascot) wearing a chef’s hat and flipping a burger. A neon sign read, ‘Chronos’ Cookout’. The side of the building the group was facing was more or less a large counter, on one side a sign pointed saying pick up, and on the other side were two cash registers. A large variety of chrome kitchen appliances could be spotted further back behind the counter.

    And who should be standing behind the counter, but the only girl who could help the group turn back to normal, Sapphire. As she saw the group approach, she said, “Oh, hello there,”
    “Sapphire! How did your meeting go?” Veronica asked.
    “It went well. It was mostly about administrative stuff. If you guys want, I can head over to the Medical Tent now and try and get you all back to normal.”
    The three looked at each other, before Echo said, “Well, I’m still hungry, and we’re still locked in here anyway because of the storm.”
    Spencer took the lead, “No Sapphire, that’s fine. We’re going to get some food first.”
    “That's fine with me, just tell me what you want and I’ll cook it up as quickly as possible,” Sapphire gestured to large menu board above her. The list was rather expansive, having an extremely large array of foods from Asian stir fries, to European cuisines, to American classics, and everything in between. It was truly massive.

    “Oh man that menu is massive,” Veronica said.
    “I hardly know what to order when I eat at McDonalds! How am I supposed to pick something here?” Echo said, half jokingly, half earnestly.
    “Well, if you girls want to go and grab a table, I could pick something out for us,” Spencer said.

    Echo and Veronica gave each other a look to try and gauge the other’s interest, before Echo gave a look of approval. Shrugging her nonexistent shoulders, Veronica said, “Fine with me,” Jumping off of the wheelchair she was sharing with Spencer and walking over to the various tables strewn about near the restaurant.

    Sitting down on one of the chairs, Echo reached up and placed her head on the table (giving the hand acting as her neck a bit of a break, and conveniently placing her at eye level to Veronica), and then asked Veronica a question, “Hey Veronica… How did you know when you were in love with Spencer?”
    “Why do you ask?” Veronica said, eyeing her friends head.
    “No reason in particular,” Echo lied, looking upwards and to the left with her eyes, “I just don’t think I ever heard the story is all.”
    “Well…” Veronica stretched out the word, if she had had arms, she would have been wringing them through her blonde hair, “it was in high school. I saw him in the lunch room one day and thought he was pretty good looking, but I didn’t really have a crush on him. Actually, not even having talked to him I thought he would have been a really good match for my friend Billie. Anyways, as I was walking to throw my stuff away in the trash, I accidentally slipped on someone’s discarded wrapper, and who should happen to be there but my lovely prince charming.”
    “So you got a crush on him because he saved you from embarrassment?”
    “It’s more than that. As he was holding me in his arms, there was sort of a spark between us… Like, the only thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life was have him hold me in his arms.”
     “Really?” Echo said, glad to hear someone share her experience with touch, but also slightly melancholy to learn that her fears had turned out to be true.
     “Yeah,” Veronica said smiling, reminiscing of the wonderful period of unease and testing the water that had followed as their relationship grew. “So, who’s the lucky person?”
     “W-what do you mean?” Echo said, slightly taken aback.
     “Oh come on girl. You and I both know the only reason you’re asking is because you’re eyeing someone. So spill, I swear I won’t tell,” Veronica said.
      “I really don’t want to say…” Echo said, her already red cheeks getting even more red.
      “C’mon girl, I opened up my dirt, you got to at least give me a hint. Like guy or girl?” using cues from how much more red Echo’s cheeks got when Veronica said girl, she figured it out, saying, “A girl! How adventurous. Is she in our friend group?” Echo’s cheeks, despite already being practically beet red, managed to get even redder, “Oho! A girl in our friend group no less! Is it me?”
     At this point Echo realized her friends tactic and had snatched her head from the table and clutched it to her chest, shouting (although it was muffled slightly), “No! It’s not you! So stop asking!”
    “Ha ha! Don’t worry Echo! I won’t tell a soul,” Veronica chuckled.

   “Won’t tell anyone what?” Spencer asked, rolling his wheelchair up to the table.
   “Nothing honey. Now, where’s our food?” Veronica said. Echo was still clutching her head to herself, and it was still rather red, but she was at least facing her friend once more.
    “I asked Sapphire if she could deliver the food to us since we’re the only ones here and she agreed to.”
    “Really? What did you get us?” Echo asked.

    What did Spencer order for them?
    1.) Dumplings
    2.) Hot Dogs
    3.) Wings