Charlie covered the receiver of the telephone that was attached to the wall. She glanced at the other side of Fredbear's Family Diner. "Mike! Call for you."
"One minute, I'm going to absolutely kill Evan."
"I don't care that you're playing arcade games. Cassidy is on the telephone and she sounds pretty mad."
Michael glanced over. "She's calling already? Dang it."
Evan cheered as he beat Michael at the arcade game they had been playing together. Michael sighed and grumbled under his breath as he took the phone from Charlie. "Hey Cass."
"Michael?" Cassidy said calmly from the other end of the telephone. To calmly.
"That would be me," Michael replied, already dreading this conversation.
"Did you quit your job at Circus Baby's?"
"Yeah. It was only a few hours ago, how did you know that?"
"Because Charlie told me just a moment ago." Michael gave Charlie an accusatory look as Cassidy continued talking. "You better have a good explanation for quitting," she finished, clearly doing her best to not start yelling into the phone.
Michael chuckled nervously. "Yeah, uhm, but of a crazy story. Remember when I mentioned that William Afton adopted another kid?"
"Vann— Vanessa. Yes. I know. I met her, she's crazy. What does that have to do with this?"
"She showed up at Circus Baby's..." Michael started.
"And?" Cassidy prompted impatiently.
"... and said I was going to die if I stuck around and that I should leave and go home."
"You. You believed her. Why?" Cassidy said, sounding more annoyed by the second.
"Kind of? Not really? I just... I didn't quit right then and there. I waited until my shift started, but then I went down the elevator. But then I had to crawl through this vent and I was in this cramped basement with all the animatronics and HandUnit told me to shock them and... I may have freaked out a bit and impulsively quit? Just a bit?"
"You can't be serious."
"Hey!" Michael replied defensively. "You would've done the same in my position. Besides, would you rather I be down there, dead? I know that I asked you to help me get that job, but that was a mistake. I'll admit that. But I don't think quitting was a mistake."
"Next time think about it a bit more before asking me to hack into an employee database and getting you a job, yeah? Just because I managed it for myself doesn't mean it's easy or safe." Cassidy sighed and grumbled for a couple seconds. "But never mind, much as I would like to yell at you about this whole thing, that wouldn't be very productive. I'm guessing Charlie didn't tell you why I called?"
Michael shook his head before remembering that he was on a telephone call. "Nope, why?"
"It's a bit complicated and I don't think I was able to explain it properly over to phone to her. Will you all still be at the diner in a couple hours?"
"Yep. We should be here all day, Uncle Henry's building some new animatronics." Michael glanced in the back room, where a frog and a hippo exoskeleton were barely visible.
"Good. I'll see you soon. You guys have a spare computer on hand that you'd be fine with blowing up?" Cassidy asked, sounding completely serious.
He blinked. "I... think so?"
"Good. And Michael?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm never helping you get a job again." It was more of a joke than anything, but either way, Michael didn't get a chance to reply before Cassidy ended the phone call and there was an audible click.
