Learning to Love

Artemis shrugged. "I've got my mother's car. If Michelle needs a ride, there's plenty of room in it." He looked to Michelle, tilting his head a bit before looking to Joey. "How far is it, anyway?"

Michelle didn't want to say anything until Joey had a chance to answer. She had a car of course, but if it wasn't far she might just hitch a ride with Artemis. Then she could walk back to her car later. A little exercise wouldn't hurt her. If it was over a mile or two though, she would drive herself.

"Just a couple of miles. Not too far away," Joey replied. "I made sure to find a place to work that I could reach within ten minutes from school or home, so not far." With that settled, at least in his mind, he began to make his way toward the school's front entrance, heading for the parking lot. He was surprised that he was excited for this; normally social interaction was a strain for him. However, this was pleasantly different.

Artemis followed Joey, motioning for Michelle to do the same as he opened the door, holding it open as people began to pile through. "Well, I'm actually kinda hungry, anyway!" He proclaimed through the crowds to his new 'aquaintances'.

Michelle trotted to keep up.
"Could I catch a ride with you, Arte?" she asked quickly. She had a bad habit of giving people nicknames - and most of the time she didn't even realize that she did it. "You know, carpool. Save the earth, and everything?"

Joey found himself raising a brow at Michelle's nickname for Artemis, but he kept the thoughts about it to himself. He hoped she wouldn't attempt to find a nickname for him; he wasn't sure how well shortening his already-short name would go.

"Hope you won't think bad of me for opting out of that," he remarked instead, smirking slightly. "Not terribly comfortable with leaving my bike places, so the earth will have to suffer."

Artemis looked up at the calling of a nickname for himself, blinking. "Sure. Just put your backpack and stuff in the back seat." Turning to the parking lot, he trotted over to a what appeared to be a red car of foreign design, possibly Japanese from the oriental designs along the side, particularly the giant body art on the hood of Haruhi Suzumiya from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Art blushed a bit, shaking his head and pressing a button on a remote next to his keys. The car turned on, and a cute little voice program started up, saying 'Konnichiwa' in the voice of Haruhi, before the doors unlocked and opened.

"So I guess we'll just follow you, then, Joey?" He asked before hopping in and closing the driver's side door.

Michelle couldn't help but giggle at his car. It was so cute! She would have to remember to ask him what it was referencing later. Whatever it was, he must really like it. She threw her things into the back as he had instructed, and slid into the passenger side. Despite her previous anxieties, she was beginning to relax a little.

(ZOMG Haruhi! xD)

Joey smirked and bit his tongue to avoid laughing. "That is simultaneously the dorkiest and yet the most awesome vehicle I've ever seen," he said, understanding the reference himself. "Wow. Anyway, I'm parked a little farther down, so I'll head that way and you guys can follow me out when you're ready." With that, he started off down toward the end of the parking lot, where a small black motorcycle stood, looking lonely among the rest of the parked cars. He took up a helmet that had been hanging off the handlebars and paused to fix his backpack before mounting the motorcycle and taking off for the road.

[*has spaztastic Haruhiist nergasmic reaction* I know, right?!]

Artemis put the keys in the ignition, then sighed as the voice program came on again, shouting 'Let's Go!' in Engrish, not English, before Artemis plugged in his MP3 player, humming Ode to Joy as he backed out of the senior parking lot, following Joey. "You can change the music, if you like. But I warn you, it's mainly anime stuff." He looked down, almost ashamed at how much of an otaku he was, before turning out of the school zone, creeping up on Joey before keeping a steady pace with the motorcycle.

Michelle nodded, as if she knew what anime was. That was like. . . pokemon, right? She mentally shrugged. She was enjoying the music though, so she didn't complain. They followed Joey just a little ways, and soon found themselves in front of his place of work.

Joey took a corner parking spot in front of the small diner that was his workplace and dismounted from his bike. He was smirking a little as he pulled his helmet off. He didn't often come into work when he wasn't on shift, and he looked forward to seeing his coworkers and making them work for him for once. He ran a hand back through his hair and headed inside shortly before the other two arrived, intending to find a table and talk to someone.

Artemis sneezed as they entered the parking lot, settling down by Joey's motorcycle (kept wanting to say Microsoft...). As he turned off the engine, the voice program came on one last time, along with a small animation playing under the stereo controls of Haruhi waving. The program then spoke, "Bye Bye!", before Artemis waved back, stepping out of the car and shutting the door. He looked to the restaurant, thinking. "Hm, smells good in there." He walked forward, then held the door open for Michelle. "Ladies first."

Michelle blushed slightly. She wasn't sure which caused it; the fact that he waved good bye to his car, or that he had actually acted like a gentleman.
"And they say chivalry is dead," she said with a smile. She stepped out of the car, and began walking towards the diner. She was kind of excited to see what kind of place Joey worked at.

The diner where Joey worked was a small enough place, and had a bit of an old-fashioned feel to it. Old portraits lined the walls above the booths, where groups of people sat and conversed cheerfully.

Joey himself was talking to a blond-haired girl at the front counter, presumably someone he worked with. She looked like she was annoyed, but laughed and gave Joey a playful swat upside the head. Joey chuckled too and turned back to Artemis and Michelle when they walked in. "Hey, glad you made it in one piece, though I didn't expect anything otherwise," he said lightheartedly, and made a gesture around the diner. "You guys can pick where to sit, because frankly I see this place at least three days a week and I can't think of any spot that is any better than the others."

Artemis gave a light bow as he stepped into the place after Michelle. "It's still living, but barely." Looking around the diner, Artemis felt a bit cramped, so he moved to a circular booth that was position quite nicely in the corner, with a double window view. Artemis sat quietly down in the booth, stretching a bit and yawning. After school, he was always rather tired.

[Hello? Anybody there?]

Michelle shook her head, amused by Artemis' comment. She looked around the diner a bit before joining Artemis at the booth. On the way, she grabbed Joey's arm.
"Unless you plan on waiting on us, you should just sit down." She laughed awkwardly. She was a little worried that she had gone overboard, but what was life without small chances? She scooting in beside Artemis, unintentionally sandwiching herself between the two.
"So what would you recommend here?" she asked.

Joey, having turned back around to say something else brief to the girl at the counter, made a strangled "ack" noise as he was dragged off by Michelle. He stumbled along after her in slight amusement and caught himself before tripping over anything else on the way.

"Was that all quite necessary?" he asked with a slight smirk once he was situated in his seat, apparently entirely missing her question.

Artemis looked at a menu that had been given to him, giving a soft nod to the waitress who had come to their table. Artemis skimmed over the items before coming to a dead stop. His eyes would lick their lips if they had lips, or tongues to lick them with, at what he saw; grilled teriyaki chicken sandwich with sweet onion and any combination of added items on the sandwich. The poor boy wasn't sure if he was in Heaven, or close to it. Setting the menu down to wait for his turn to order, he quietly hummed a tune to himself.

Michelle blushed and looked down.
"Well, probably not," she admitted sheepishly. "But it was effective, wasn't it?" she laughed lightly before turning to the waitress.
"I'll just have a cheese burger with extra onions and unsweetened iced tea, please," she said politely. She sat back and waited for her companions to place their orders as well.

"Heh, no worries," Joey said lightheartedly, noticing Michelle's blush. "Dani probably would've kept me there for ages if you hadn't pulled me off, anyway. You probably saved my life, or something." He glanced up at the waitress, biting the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling at the thought of being served by his own coworkers, and politely requested a strawberry lemonade and left it at that. He wasn't particularly hungry after lunch anymore; he couldn't begin to figure out why that was, but didn't give it much thought.

Artemis looked up next. "Grilled teriyaki chicken, with sweet onion, bell peppers, spinach, and lettuce, please. And might I have just a cup of hot water?" He held out the menu, letting the girl take it, before sitting back a bit as the bewildered woman went to get their orders. "I admit, there are some good choices here." He stretched, yawning. "Damn school. It's like a fly you can't shake off. Just tires you out, trying to bother with it."

Michelle laughed a bit at Joey's comment.
"From what I saw, I don't think your life was in danger just yet, but I'm always glad to be of assistance."
Michelle shook her head though, when Artemis spoke. That was one comment that she couldn't agree with.
"Well, it can be tiring at times, but it's worth it, right? I mean, think about how much more you know now than when you started school! I think it's amazing." She laughed nervously.

"It'd be better if we weren't put through some classes," Joey chimed in. He leaned back in his seat and fiddled with one of the numerous necklaces that hung around his throat. "I like learning stuff, but I really don't care about history, and I could go without the math classes, too. We're never going to need to do the kind of math they insist on teaching. Chemistry, biology, English, art-- now those are things I can stick with."

Artemis shrugged. "Half the classes they teach are, as Joey said, unnecessary. And besides, I learn more about history and all the important subjects from my family than I do from those text books that were printed by people who think the Civil War was fought over slavery!" He threw his hands up, then set them down and happily took the glass of hot water he'd been given by the waitress, putting a small bag of green tea in it and letting it steep.