𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙

𝖛𝖎𝖎. 𝕼𝖚𝖎𝖓𝖓'𝖘 𝕱𝖎𝖗𝖘𝖙 𝕯𝖆𝖙𝖊

IT WAS LUNCHTIME AT PCA and the outside lunch area was buzzing with the usual midday energy.

Chase, Dana, Penny and Nicole sat at one of the round wooden tables, their trays scattered with remnants of the school's daily offerings.

"I wonder who invented the meatball?" Chase piped up, lifting a meatball up with his fork.

"What?" Penny chuckled, surprised and amused by the unexpected query. "I mean, think about it. Some guy, like, back in the fifteen hundreds must've said: 'Yes, meat is good! But, it'd be even better in ball form.' And, thus.. the meatball was born." Chase said, his voice a theatrical tone.

Penny nodded, raising her cup. "You gotta love spherical meat. A toast to the meatball!" She joked.

"To the meatball!" Chase declared, doing the same. "Hey!" Nicole cheered. "Mazel Tov!" Dana added.

Just as they concluded their toasts by taking a drink, Mia and Quinn walked over to the table.

"Hello, people!" Quinn greeted, sitting next to Chase with Mia on the other side of her. "What are you raising your drinks to?" Mia asked, curiously.

"The meatball!" Nicole cheered, jokingly. "We are appreciating the invention of the meatball. Hey, Mia, Quinn - the meatball. Who invented it and how?" Chase asked, hoping they would know.

"Oh, wow, I.. believe it originated in ancient Persia. Kofta, I think it used to be called. People would just roll leftover meat into little balls." Mia explained.

Chase nodded, proudly. "See?" He asked Penny, grinning. "Yeah, 'cause you knew that." She teased.

"Look what I figured out," said Quinn, getting their attention again, "if you take some soy sauce.."

Everybody watched Mia grab the soy sauce, as Quinn silently instructed, from the middle of the table. She handed it to Quinn, who poured it into an empty plastic cup. "..add some lemon juice.."

Quinn squeezed one of her lemon slices over the cup, until several drops of juice fell in. "and just a couple drops of cayenne extract.. then, stir it up-"

"Uhm, is this gonna explode?" Nicole asked, watching Quinn pull a small bottle of red nail polish out of her pocket, administer a few drops of it to her cup and then stir the mixture with her fork.

"No." Mia assured her, and the others, shaking her head. "Watch." Quinn urged, taking her fork out, putting it down and leaning closer to Chase with the cup in hand. "Chase, here. Sniff this."

Chase looked understandably sceptical, but he sniffed the peculiar mixture in the cup anyway. Then, just a split second later, he passed out.

"How cool is that?" Quinn proudly questioned. Dana looked rather amused, whilst Penny looked a little concerned and Nicole looked horrified.

"Don't fuss, he's fine," said Mia, realising Penny and Nicole's discomfort, "he'll wake up in a few minutes. I tried it last night in our dormitory."

Penny responded with a small nod. "How do you guys figure this stuff out?" She questioned, genuinely curious. But Quinn wasn't listening.

"Quinn?" Mia asked, turning to her. She appeared to be in a daze, staring away. But when Mia realised why, she nodded and quietly said, "Oh.."

Nicole, oblivious, just said, "I think we lost her."

Mia shook her head, subtly pointing to the table behind Dana, Nicole and Penny. They turned around and saw three boys sitting at the table.

"Quinn, who you looking at?" Dana asked, snapping Quinn out of her trance. "No one!"

"Yeah, you were!" Penny argued, smiling. "You were totally checking out that guy!" Nicole beamed, despite not knowing which boy.