Chapter Text

“So ...” Peedee said as he sat down next to Connie, placing his lunch tray on the cafeteria table. “You’re becoming popular.”

Connie looked up from her salad at Peedee. There was a good-natured smirk on his face. Connie raised an eyebrow and snickered.

“Oh, yeah ...” Connie gestured to the rest of the table, which was empty aside from them. “I’m clearly the life of the party. Yep.”

Peedee chuckled.

“You might have a point,” Peedee said. “There is the matter of that, though ...”

Peedee nodded his head towards another table in the cafeteria. Connie followed his gaze and saw the table was fully seated by other classmates.

And all of them were staring at Connie.

As soon as Connie made eye contact with one of them (a girl Connie recognized as an actually-popular cheerleader), they all looked away nervously.

Connie glanced around the cafeteria ... and for the first time noticed they were not the only people looking at her. Not everyone in the lunchroom had eyes on her, but quite a few did. And every single one looked away when she caught eyes with them.

Connie blushed.

“O-kay, that’s new ...” She sunk lower in her seat. “Oh God, this is uncomfortable.”

Peedee’s smile dropped.

“Hey, sorry,” Peedee said. “I didn’t mean to freak you out. I thought you knew already.”

“How would I know about this?!” Connie said.

“Well, I mean, ever since you pulled that sword out of Lion, you’re all anyone wants to talk about.”

Connie blinked.

“Oh ... oh yeah,” Connie said. She shook her head. “You know, I had almost forgotten I did that.”

Peedee smirked.

“Just another day at the office, huh?” said Peedee.

Connie snorted with laughter. This was why she was glad Peedee went to school with her. He knew Steven, so at least he “got” it.

Peedee picked up a single fry and pointed at Connie with it.

“Now I know that lions and monsters and literally anything Steven does is normal to you and me, but to everyone else, it--” Peedee took a bite of the fry and winced. “Oh wow, that is awful. That’s just-- I’m sad. I’m sad for the person who cooked this fry. And I’m not sure I’ll ever recover.”

Connie smiled weakly.

“You can have my salad, if you want,” Connie said.

Peedee’s eyes widened.

“You’re my hero,” Peedee said.

“All in a day’s work, apparently ...”

Connie slid her salad over to Peedee. He pushed his tray towards her, but she had lost her appetite; finding out she was the center of attention made her stomach churn.

“Anyway,” Peedee continued as he picked at the salad with his plastic fork, “I know that weird stuff isn’t a big deal to you or me, but everyone who doesn’t know Steven is under the mistaken impression the world makes some degree of sense.”

Connie laughed. She had to admit, listening to Peedee snark was a little calming.

“I guess I can relate,” Connie said. “I mean, I didn’t always know about all this ...”

“Right,” Peedee said. “So when you’re going through your normal day and your biggest concern is, you know, if you’ll pass a test or if some girl likes you or not ... and then all of a sudden a pink lion shows up out of nowhere and the quiet girl pulls freaking Excalibur out of its head--” Peedee shrugged. “Well, you know, it gives you a few things to talk about.”

Peedee stabbed a piece of lettuce and ate it.

“So ... people are talking about me?” Connie said, worry clear in her voice. Even though she believed Peedee and witnessed people gawk at her herself, part of her still couldn’t believe it. She wasn’t used to people noticing her existence, let alone talking about her.

Peedee stopped chewing, glancing back at Connie.

“Well ... yeah,” he said, gulping his food down. He turned to Connie with a nervous smile. “B-but it’s nothing bad. Just a little--”

“A little what?!” Connie said, leaning closer to Peedee.

“Just ... creative,” Peedee said.

Connie rubbed her temple and sighed.

“What exactly are people saying?” Connie said.

Peedee took a deep breath.

“Welllll ....”

“Come on, she’s definitely a monster hunter or something.”

“Monsters? Come on, there’s no such thing. I haven’t seen a monster my whole life.”

“Well, I guess she’s freaking GOOD then, huh?! And yes, you have seen a monster before since WE ALL SAW THAT LION!”

“Lions aren’t monster, Dan. Be rational.”

“Oh yeah, the lion wasn’t a monster. Sure. And I’m sure the fact it was pink and it has a Bag of Holding in its skull is just, you know, normal lion behavior.”

“Well ... I mean, uh ... come on, there’s a lot about lions we don’t REALLY know yet, so--”

“So what kind of bad guys do you think she has?”

“I dunno, vampires?”

“Don’t be stupid. Would you fight vampires with a sword? Instead of like ... any of the stuff that’s supposed to kill vampires?”

“Makes more sense to me than a wooden stake. I mean, why should the fact its wood matter anyway? If it stabs through the heart, wouldn’t it do the same thing?”

“I ... guess that’s true ... but why a pink sword though?”

“I dunno. Fashion?”

“She’s gotta be some kind of Chosen One or something.”

“Chosen by who though?”

“I dunno ... whatever magical thing that runs the world?”

“Like the Illuminati?”

“No, something real.”

“We’re talking about magic, I think we don’t have any right to be discounting what is and isn’t real right now. For all we know all those conspiracy videos on TubeTube were right the whole time!”

“... no. I refuse to believe the world is that stupid.”

“Okay ... fair. But at least watch THIS one though. This Keep Beach City Weird guy seems like he knows what’s really going on ...”

“I saw her hanging out with this boy the other day.”

“Boy? What’s his deal?”

“I dunno. He seemed pretty normal ...”

“He can’t JUST be normal if he’s hanging out with Maheswaran. Maybe he’s like ... I dunno, a wizard or a werewolf or something.”

“Nah, he came off as pretty normal to me. Just a sweet, chubby guy. They looked pretty cute together though. I bet Connie saves him from danger all the time.”

“Aww, yeah, you’re right. Or maybe they’re like old childhood friends or something.”

“Well, if that’s the case, they’ll definitely end up together. It’s just how these things work, after all.”

“Did you take a picture of them? Kinda wondering what that guy looks like.”

“Well, no, but I did draw this picture of both of them holding hands together last night ...”

“Lindsey, isn’t it kinda weird drawing fan-art of real peop-- oh wow, this is actually really good!”

“Thanks! Not to brag, but it’s got thirty-four reblogs, so I’m kind of a big deal ...”

“My sister saw her and her parents eating dinner at that seafood place with a Kaiju four months ago.”

“Dude ... man, if you’re gonna just make up crap, at least make it SOUND realistic ...”

Connie found herself laughing.

“But that last one actually happened though!” Connie said.

Peedee shrugged.

“See, what did I tell you? Nothing bad,” Peedee said, taking another bite of salad.

Connie shook her head, still chuckling at the absurdity of it all.

“I can’t believe they think I’m the extraordinary one and Steven isn’t,” Connie said. “That’s just ... wow.”

Peedee looked over at her, suddenly serious.

“Connie, you’re a human who learned how to use a sword to fight monsters,” Peedee said. “You are extraordinary.”

Connie stared at him, surprised. After a moment, she smiled.

“That’s ... a really sweet thing to say, Peedee,” Connie said. “Thank you.”

Peedee’s cheeks turned faintly red.

“Well--” Peedee coughed. “I mean, I’m just stating the facts, that’s--”

Nearby, someone in the lunchroom yelled out, “GO TEAM PEEDEE!”

Peedee immediately stood up, glaring in every direction.

“Who said that?” Peedee yelled. “WHO SAID THAT?!”

No one answered. They only heard the loud chatter of the lunchroom in response.

Peedee sat down, his brow furrowed.

“God ... shippers, man ...” he muttered.

Connie snorted with laughter. Peedee seemed to have trouble looking in her general direction.

“Are you still blushing?” Connie teased.

“Shut up,” Peedee said.

Connie was about to say she was only kidding, but was interrupted by a strange sound echoing through the cafeteria. The background noise of her classmates talking faded as everyone noticed the noise. It started faint but slowly got louder ...

It sounds like ... a roar, Connie thought.

As soon as the thought entered her head, a pink portal opened in the middle of the cafeteria. Lion leaped through with Steven riding its back, clutching Rose’s sheathed sword. Lion hit the ground, skidding to a stop against the tile floor as the portal winked out of existence.

“Whoa whoa whoa!” yelled Steven as he toppled over Lion’s mane. He landed on the table where Peedee and Connie were seated, still holding the sword.

“Steven!” Connie yelled, standing up. She looked down at him, making sure he was alright.

But Steven just looked up and beamed at her.

“Hi Connie!” he said cheerfully. His eyes shifted to Peedee. “Hi Peedee!”

“Yo,” Peedee said, not at all surprised by anything that just happened.

“Steven, is everything okay?!” Connie said.

Steven stood up on the table, putting on a serious face.

“The Slinker got out of its bubble!” Steven said loudly.

Connie straightened up. All her prior anxiety melted away as she felt her training take over.

“Give me the sword,” Connie said with an edge to her voice.

Steven handed her Rose’s scabbard. Wordlessly, Connie strapped it to her back, making sure the hilt was secured in its sheath.

“Let’s go,” she said.

Steven smiled and held out his hand to her. She stepped onto the table with Steven. Together they jumped on Lion, who had been calmly licking its paw during their entire conversation. Connie landed on Lion’s back, right behind Steven and--

And at this point, Connie noticed that everyone in the cafeteria was staring at her and Steven on Lion.

Connie felt her heart pound, realizing she truly was the center of attention. She looked in the crowd, noticing most of her classmates’ mouths were agape. At least three students were filming her on their phones.

She started feeling uncomfortable ... until somewhere, someone yelled out a loud “Whooo!”

Several other students joined in. Some clapped. As if opening the floodgates, more students yelled out.

“You go, girl!”

“This is awesome!”

“WHOO, GO TEAM STEVEN!”

“Aww yeah, it’s about to go down!”

“YEAH, go beat some werewolf ass!”

Steven glanced back at Connie, confused.

“Werewolves?” Steven muttered. “What--”

Connie smiled.

“I’ll explain later,” she said.

Steven grinned as well, looking out at the crowd.

“They really seem to like us though, huh?” Steven said.

Connie chuckled. It was weird. Connie had never had a crowd cheer for her like that before.

It actually felt kinda nice.

“Yeah ... I guess they do,” Connie said.

Behind her, she heard Peedee yell out.

“Okay, have fun you kids,” he said. “Try not to stay out too late.”

Connie turned back to Peedee.

“Bye Peedee,” she yelled with a wave.

Peedee nodded towards her.

“Later,” he said. “Go team Stevonnie.”

Connie smirked back at him.

Lion straightened up, scratching its paw on the floor.

Steven waved at the crowd.

“Okay, bye everyone,” Steven said. “I love you!”

Lion roared, its sonic breath opening another bright white portal in front of them, but Connie could hardly hear that over the sound of the crowd going nuts.

I could actually get used to this, she thought as the rode through the portal.