“You might remember a case we took on a few weeks back,” Russo said. “I thought we could grab a bite.”
The group made their way into a hole-in-the-wall pizza restaurant that typically saw its best clientele around midnight to three in the morning, catching the hungry drunks bar hopping or heading home.
Still, the place had amazing, giant slices of pizza. They ordered and crowded into one large booth opposite a few kids recording themselves on their phones. After a few minutes, the kids kept stealing glances at the booth and whispering to each other.
“You’re Enchanter Russo, right?” one of the kids asked.
“He works with Enchanter Evergreen,” another said.
Hayden ended up being dragged away, chatting with the kids while everyone else ate their slice of pizza. Within a few minutes, the kids had somehow convinced Hayden to join them in some terrible dance trend.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Hayden said. “If we’re doing this, I’m going to need my badass intern.”
He waved over a reluctant Caleb, whose moves were stiff, but he had the routine memorized within their first practice run through.
After the kids finished up, they laughed, thanked Hayden and Caleb, then left the empty restaurant.
“Okay, but I should probably upload my own vid of that trend,” Hayden insisted. “Think we can pull that off again?”
Caleb nodded with a big, goofy grin. “Definitely.”
“You know what would make it even better?” Hayden’s eyes widened with a ridiculous idea. “What if we all did the trend? Mentor and intern match up.”
Somehow, the absurdity of this didn’t bother the employees in the back, more fixated on their phones than the handful of dancing customers in their store. And the prospect seemed to intrigue Ellie and Tara, who immediately joined in. Neither of them moved as well as the boys. In fact, Ellie seemed to step on Hayden’s feet more times than not, and Tara nearly headbutted Caleb twice.
“Come on, Kenny.” Caleb waved him over.
“Pass.”
“Lena, try it out.” Hayden trotted over to the booth, extending a hand, which she ignored.
“It’s fun,” Ellie added. “You don’t have to take everything so seriously.”
Lena scoffed. “I don’t.”
Tara fluffed her hair, posing carefree in front of the phone. “I think they’re afraid.”
Kenzo slowly craned his neck, appearing like some angry owl. “Excuse me?”
“Nothing.” Caleb flailed his hands back and forth.
“I mean, it makes sense,” Tara continued. “A bully perfectionist obsessed with how you’re perceived despite pretending not to care what others think of you.”
I smirked. She was certainly leaning heavily into a basic diagnosis. I’d wager she was enrolled in the introduction to psychology course and found a new lease on life from it. A lot of third-year students focused mostly on elective courses to keep their academics lighter, and I’d endured lots of students over the years who believed they were board-certified psychologists after reading a few chapters of their textbook.
That said, she was spot on about Kenzo. Lena too. Neither of them knew how to have fun because they couldn’t quantify it into a form of achievement.
“Hey,” Lena called to Kenzo, handing him her phone. “You think you can keep up?”
“Please.” Kenzo studied the video playing, then passed the phone back. “Just try not to break anything.”
With that, the pair slipped out of the booth and joined the others for their silly little dance.
“Okay, okay, okay.” Hayden popped a hip and sent a trickle of telekinesis to start recording on his phone. “Let’s get this—”
And almost immediately, Kenzo and Lena broke out into the absurdly trending dance routine, but they seemed to add a few more elements to their movements. Kenzo dropped to the floor, ducking below Lena’s leg as she swept it over his head and twirled into some type of pirouette. While Lena continued fluttering back and forth with swanlike grace, Kenzo dragged himself on the floor in this rhythmic, choreographed motion, following Lena’s movements and imitating an advanced version of the dance trend.
Meanwhile, Hayden and Ellie stared with slack jaws while Caleb cheered and Tara rolled her eyes. Admittedly, it was quite the sight.
