Amelia bites down on the chicken sandwich and chews with her maw open. Her eyelids slam shut as her mouth is flooded with multiple flavors: the juiciness of crispy chicken, the stale softness of sandwich buns, and the pickles that deliver a sour kick to the tongue. A few hums escape her lips before she swallows, and then goes for another bite.

Across from the table, Zed stares at her, each eye acting like a garage door whose remote control is pressed repeatedly. His vision focuses on the fox girl
in front of him, then at the people sitting at other tables, and then at the window to his right. Whenever he tries to look back at Amelia, the urge to
check his surroundings just stabs into his cerebrum and turns his head the other way. Zed looks down. A lone slice of pizza sits on his side of the table. Not even a deep-dish special with extra sausage is enough to attract his attention, not when SHE could burst through the parlor's doors at any moment.

About five minutes later, the fox girl licks her fingers and slams a fist against the table.

"Oh man," she begins, "that was fantastic! It's been so long since I last got a bite here!"

"Really," Zed replies, watching some people through the window.

"Yeah! Like, I haven't been able to reach this area since the last person who awakened. I can't enter here without a friend or two. Or three, though I never got past two. I think its because of the movie, like, all the main characters are present when this location is used."

Zed is aware that Amelia is an anthro, but even a string of gekkers would've been more comprehensible to his ears. "Amelia?"

"Like, in the movie, this is where they decide to become a band and later they start performing here until the food fight with--"

"Amelia."

The fox girl freezes, and then looks back at Zed. "Yeah?"

"Can I ask you something right now?"

"Of course. What's up?"

There it is again. The wide smile on her face, coupled with her tail swiping at the air like its swatting flies. Her carefree attitude...Zed can't stop comparing her to the Amelia that he met the second time he died. The one who stared at him with desperation before she sacrificed herself. The one who told him all that she could as if he was the only hope left in this world.

"Zed?"

Here and now, its like none of that happened. Its as if it was all just a bad dream, and the reality is that he just asked out a cute vixen on a date to this
pizza parlor. Zed recalls that there's a label for this kind of predicament--there's even a club at school dedicated to it. What was it again? The HAMOFA Club? The AFOMH Club?

"Zed!"

He looks up to see Amelia tapping on the space in front of him. Before she can say anything else, he lifts a hand and speaks.

"Look, I just...this is nice and all, but right now I just really want to know what the fuck is going on here."

Amelia's tail drops, resting on the red cushion seat.

"Didn't I tell you when I died? I thought you said earlier that I told you what was going on before--"

"NO, I said that you told me that this world wasn't real and that I had to find you again if I wanted answers. Then you died. Then I died. I looked for you, and I found you again. Now, I want answers."

"Well...um...what exactly do you want to know?"

"Anything. Please, Amelia, anything! Like, why is my best friend suddenly a trigger-happy psychopath that hunts me down whenever I get close to you? We're doing that right now, so why hasn't she gunned us yet?"

Zed takes a few breaths before glancing to his side again. The pizza parlor is vociferous with silence, broken only by the sounds of the staff
laboring in the kitchen. Ten long seconds pass before everyone turns back to their own conversations and pizza slices, allowing Zed to look back at Amelia. The tips of her ears point down to her hair. Though rather than appearing sad, Zed sees a frown upon her maw, as if he had said something hurtful. The sight of it pulls down on his heart strings.

"Look, I'm sorry. I'm just really--"

"It's okay. I'm sorry, too."

"What?"

Amelia bites her lip and rubs a lock of her hair. "Like the previous me said, this world isn't real. When someone awakens and hears that, they usually just
accept it and don't ask anything else. Sure, they ask things like 'How did this world come to be?' or 'What is the real world like?' but there were very few
who asked 'How do we get out of here?' And the moment they asked that..."

Zed let out a sigh. "She--it got them."

"I don't know why I told you to find me so you could get answers, because it's just going to get you killed. That's why I just, you know, hang out with
those who awaken like this. Show them the parts of this world that are still worth living in the moment for."

"So it hasn't killed us because we haven't made any new attempts at escaping."

"Yeah..."

The two look outside, watching people walk across the parking lot. Or the imitations of people, roleplaying the idea of life. If one were to interact with
any of them, would there actually be a sentient being that had consciousness and thoughts and ideas of its own? But what was the real life counterpart
anyway? Without knowing that, no one could tell the difference. Would Amelia be able to?

"Just what is this world?"

Amelia doesn't answer, and only replies after a minute passes.

"Its the world of a movie I like. There's these human teens who meet in detention, and then they start a band together. And they all like drinking lemonade, so they name their band Lemonade Mouth."

"So...am I one of the main characters?"

"No."

"Eh. I was never the musical type of guy anyway."

"Not even the triangle?"

"The fuck is a triangle?"

"You know, the metal triangle that goes 'ding!' When you hit it?"

"I've never seen anyone use something like that on a stage."

"I don't blame you; no one really uses it except for fancy orchestra performances."

"..."

"So, I assume you noticed that this world kind of...drags on, right? Like nothing happens but life moves on."

"Yeah...every day feels the same, but the calendar moves forward anyway. It's like something is missing."

"Exactly. Have you ever seen Lemonade Mouth around? Or anyone talking about it?"

"No...?"

"That's what is missing. Lemonade Mouth never got together. The events that lead up to them meeting didn't happen, but the world has to move along."

"So if the story never continues...it'll just stay like this?"

"Mhm...the only way for things to change is if the story continues--the characters meet up and finally start the band--or we leave this world."

Zed ruffles his hair back as he weighs his options. Escaping seems like a pain, considering the past attempts were harsher than a final boss level.
Then again, trying to get a bunch of teens to meet up and start a band? Junior year had began weeks ago; it would be impossible to figure out how to
get the story to continue if those kids were busy with the stress of high school's second last stretch.

"Then...we got to escape then. But how?"

"I..."

"Amelia?"

"We can, it's just...it's going to come for us."

"I know."

"..."

"The lemonade machine. Under the school. That's our way out. I don't know how, but its our only shot."

Zed nods his head. "Alright, let's go."

But before he even stands up, Amelia yips, her fur standing on end. Zed feels the familiar press of cold metal to his head, and stands frozen as he grits his teeth for what comes next.

"Glad you could finally make up your mind on what you wanted to do," Nona growls. "Now I know that you REALLY got to go."

"Why?" Zed asks.

"Because you're going to make things worse if you try. Not just for you, but for everything."

BANG

What I actually wanted to write until my brain decided to vomit what you see above:

"Oh man, that was fantastic! It's been so long since I last got a bite here!"
"Really."
"Yeah! Like, I haven't been able to reach this area since the last person who awakened.
"Right, so uh, Amelia?"
"Yeah? What's up?"
"Have you noticed what's wrong with that?"
"What's wrong with what?"
"Your sandwich."
"What's wrong with it?"
"We're in a pizza parlor. How did you get a crispy chicken sandwich?"
"..."
"Oh! They sell chicken tenders, so I just ordered those, asked for bread, and boom! Chicken sandwich!"
"..."
"And the pickles?"
She holds up a jar of pickles that she pulled from nowhere
"Right. Of course."