Vous Voilà

Mama Mia (here we go again)

From the entrance to the seating to getting their complimentary breadsticks, Enoki was squealing the entire time. Maple had ignored it for most of the time, excited that she got to order whatever she wanted off a real Italian restaurant menu, but confused as to why Enoki was so excited.

"Hey, uh... You feeling alright?"

She leaned in and whispered. "I've always wanted to eat at a restaurant like this!!"

"But you're rich, can't you do whatever you want?"

She shook her head. "I had a security team escort me places, and we couldn't go anywhere unless it was fancy or special enough. But we're in the middle of the restaurant, ordering like normal people, and no one's trying to get my autograph!!"

Maple thought about that for a moment. "You know... I always wanted to go to a restaurant like this, but I never could because everything on the menu was excessive. I mean, I could go for my birthday sometimes. Sometimes Aaron would save up enough for me to get to go on my birthday. But it wasn't every year. So, this isn't normal for you either, huh?"

"Nope!!"

Maple raised an eyebrow. "Interesting."

That's when she noticed something on the restaurant television, though. Enoki's face, followed by a short message.

"This is Enoki Ramirez. She is currently missing. If you have seen her, or know someone who has, please contact this number – 1 800 192 4509."

When Maple turned back to Enoki, she had taken her cloth napkin and thrown it over her head. Her ears were still poking out the bottom, but most of her head was concealed.

The waiter returned with their drinks. "Do I want to know?" she asked, staring at Enoki's napkin head.

"I'm very ugly," she replied, "And I am ashamed to show my face in public."

He made a weird face. "You can't be that ugly. You seem pretty cute to me."

"You don't understand! Do you see my ears? It is because... I am related to dumbo. Yes, that dumbo. I have the face of dumbo. It's terrible, really."

"So, you have the face of a cute cartoon character?"

"Yes. It's hideous."

He shrugged. "Alright..." he sighed, "But if you ever want to give me your number, just let me know. What can I get you two?"

They both ordered lasagna with a soda on the side, and the guy headed off back to the kitchen.

"So that's how you get guys," pontificated Maple, "You put a napkin on your head. Fair enough. But, uh, we need to find a way out of here..."

That's when she saw Nim go in through the front door. With an orc police officer.

She immediately ducked under the table, doing her best to keep her head away from the gum stuck to the surface. "Enoki," she hissed, "Down here."

Enoki popped under the table, lifting the napkin out from over her face but not taking it off.

"Okay, Nim's going to recognize me."

"Put a napkin on your head!"

"No! That's not going to work!"

"Why not?"

"We need to escape. How are we going to get out of here?"

"Fire exit!"

Maple sighed. "Enoki's that's going to cause everyone to panic and look at us."

"Not unless there's a real fire."

"That's way too far."

"Even a little one?"

"Besides, I can't make fire. I have this thing on my ankle, remember?"

"Hmm... How about... We pretend to be waitresses and escape through the employee's exit?"

"Too many things could go wrong."

"Just walk out the front door with napkins on our heads?"

"No."

"Escape through the air conditioning vent in the restroom, crawl our way to the outside, and then embrace freedom-"

The waiter from earlier stopped by and peeked under the table. "You, uh... You two doing okay down there?"

"We need to escape," whispered Enoki, "Someone who knows mah' friend Maple here, he's out there and we don't want him to find her."

"I see," he answered. "Well, you can come with me and I can take you both out the bad-date door."

"You have a bad-date door?"

He chuckled. "This is an Italian restaurant, of course we have a bad-date door."

"Here- why don't you both get up and hide your face with menus like normal people?"

Maple popped up and grabbed a menu, hiding her face behind it. Then, Enoki did the same thing, taking off the napkin for half a second.

The waiter gasped a little. "You were on TV-"

"Shh! I'll pay you a hundred bucks if you don't tell anyone!"

They started walking towards the back, face suspiciously obscured by menus, but... no, it didn't seem to work for very long.

"Hey, uh, Maple?" she heard Nim say.

Yeah, it was over.

She tossed the menu to the table, and Enoki did the same. The whole restaurant, who had not cared at all that Enoki was in the store before the advertisement, was now staring to see what would happen next.

"Hey! We need to talk!"

"NO!" she shouted, grabbed Enoki's wrist and darted towards the fire alarm door – it was the closest. The alarm immediately went off, as people got drenched with water from the sprinklers and loud sounds echoed through the building, equally disappointing everyone in the entire restaurant.

"AFTER THEM!" shouted Nim, who had Maurice right by his side.

Maple and Enoki burst through the door, immediately scanning the immediate vicinity. Enoki started running towards a random convertible jalopy, and not seeing much of a better option, Maple ran to the back tire, grabbing a spare key and then hopping into the driver's side.

Nim was almost there, being marginally faster than Maurice, but it was too late. Maple had stared up the car, put it in gear, and slammed on the accelerator.

Nim took note of the license plate number.

"WHOOP!" shouted Enoki, "This is so excit-'

"SHUT UP!" replied Maple, frantically trying to merge into traffic. She did, once and once again, the two were on the road.

Enoki's stomach growled. "I'm still hungry- you wanna get some drive through?"

"NOT NOW!"

"Hey, calm down miss crazy-britches."