god thats a lot of flowers

Woah, look! Plot!

By the time the Murphy siblings arrived, Alana Beck was supposedly sitting at a booth near the back, which they couldn't see from the entrance. Zoe was persistent on trying to get there earlier, however, traffic was not on their side and the two ended up 15 minutes late. Connor, who barely paid attention to his surroundings in the car, kept having to snap back into reality and answer texts for Zoe, who kept having to repeat what she'd said a second ago, which Connor didn't hear because of his music playing in his headphones.

For the most part, Connor didn't look like he cared very much. He had a flash of concern in his eyes when she mentioned Evan's name, yes, but other than that, he mostly just plugged in his ear buds and left himself drift off, checking his phone once in awhile and responding to Zoe's texts from Alana. His hair was up again, which means he just didn't take it down after work, something Connor usually does, and admittedly, Zoe liked when his hair was up.

It looked good on him.

Would Zoe say that to his face? No. If she had the chance, would she try and get matching indigo streaks dyed into their hair? Probably. He has all that hair, might as well make it look nicer than just two hair styles.

Finally reaching their destination was the best part, because god was Ms. Beck cute and ok, Zoe did lie about studying with her, but asking Alana to have dinner with the siblings and bring along her co-worker was so amazing since Alana is an incredible person.

"Zoe! Hi there, Connor! Nice to meet you formally." Was the first thing Alana said to Connor and her, holding out her hand and standing up from the booth. You could see a book lying on the table and a bag right to the side of where she was sitting. After that stood the one and only Evan Hansen.

Just as planned.

"This," She motioned to Evan, "Is Evan, but I know you two know that already."

Zoe gave a small wave to Evan, who sealed his mouth tight, quickly scanned the two newcomers and went back to scrolling on his phone. She pushed Connor into the seat and scooched in after, setting down her backpack, and smiling widely at Alana.

Connor was sweating like hell. Dying. Burning. Evan barely made eye contact with him, instead just sitting in his odd, slouched position, staring straight down at his phone. What was he supposed to do? Whip out his phone and do the same? His phone was on 18%, that's definetely not going to last him an hour.

That's when Evan put his phone down with a defeated sigh. He'd reached 80%. He's gotta stop using his phone or else it'll run out of battery. Damn, he'd hoped that he didn't have to look at anyone tonight.

"Uh, hi." Connor gave Evan a small smile, who bit his upper lip very slightly, nervous he'd do something wrong.

"H-hi." He scrambled to grab a menu from the middle of the table, which lay ontop of just one more, meaning that Alana and Zoe were already deciding what they wanted. "I, er, what are you thinking of getting?" He tested, trying to scan over it, looking for anything he'd actually want.

"Mm, I don't know." The taller of the two sighed, picking one up as well, trying to make himself seem semi-enthusiastic about the menu options. He raised his brows in faux-surprise, raising his voice to show sarcastic interest. "Wow, the egg salad with scrambled eggs on the side sounds... eggcelent."

He hates kale. Kale is gross.

Evan let out a small chuckle, and Connor continued. "Oh, did I make you crack up?" He laughed even more. Evan's laugh could cure cancer, honestly. Especially when it's genuine and real. At least it could cure Connor's cancer, if he ever got it.

Evan tried to jump in, competing with the other boy. "Stop yolking around!"

"Mm, pretty bad, omlettin' it slide." And with that, he burst into giggles, catching the attention of the girls of the table.

"Evan, did you decide what you wanted?" Alana asked, turning her attention to him. Did she think he was a kid? Why- "Oh, uh, Evan's not very keen with ordering so I do it for him. He's a great acquaintence, so I don't mind." Evan looked embarrassed when she had to explain, but then leaned in to discuss what he wanted. It seemed like he couldn't decide, and Alana told him what she liked and didn't like, making his decision much easier.

Why even call him an acquaintance, clearly she's his friend, dammit.

The waitress came over, setting their waters down and asking what they'd like, to which Connor quickly chose the first thing he saw. Spent too much time on egg jokes, huh.

Under his breath came the words "Damn, I'm scrambled." that earned a wheeze from Evan who tried his hardest to remain silent.

In the end, Alana and Evan ate the same thing- two sliders each with french fries. Evan got a shirley temple along with Zoe for his drink, and Zoe got spaghetti. Connor had chicken noodle soup and chose not to have a drink, while Alana decided to get a milkshake. Zoe was disappointed she hadn't seen the word 'Milkshake' on the menu and Alana gracefully let her take a few sips from her own drink.

Alana's such a good friend. Never mind, acquaintance, according to her. Did she not trust that they thought of her as a friend? Or did she not think of them as friends- That she had closer friends before and never got to that level with anyone else.

The dinner went way better than expected. They talked about a lot of stuff, ranted about things they didn't like, and it was really nice. Connor, when thinking about Alana's strange ways of acquaintances, realized that these people, or at least Evan, were his friends. Did Zoe count? Zoe's his sister, of course she doesn't count.

The highlight, however, was when Alana discussed her idea.

"You know, Evan and I thought, that we could make a group to help other people who have problems get through them. We could make videos and have people send in messages or something if they ever have a problem, probably anonymously or something. I know that Evan has anxiety and Connor, you go through your own mental issues, so I really think it'd help us all out. It might be easy to discuss ideas since Evan and I work together and you two work not to far away either, so we could meet up at the Willowbrook Mall foodcourt during our lunch breaks to talk and solve problems." She announced proudly, getting a smile from Evan, who nodded his head.

"That sounds really great," Zoe mused, and Connor shrugged, though showing that he agreed.

"So you two would be willing to be in? That's great! And," She gave room for Evan to speak a little, who started off shakey and a little unsure.

"J-Jared Kleinman said he'd be willing to help code and program it if I gave him 20 dollars," He started, "and lived with me knowing that I'm a dick."

"I think this is cool, Alana." Connor admitted, "but we're supposed to, what, do this during school and work days?"

"I thought we could take turns replying when we can. This would be hard, but I'm always up for a challenge! We just need some time to set it up and a name. Any ideas?"

"Uh... Could the place holder be something like... 'You Will Be Found'? That seems fitting, I guess, since we're helping other people who are calling out for help." Zoe chipped in.

It was settled. And thus, the four decided on when to meet for their first meeting.

And Connor easily got out of explaining something embarrassing with puns. Win-Win.