It's November but I still want candy canes

Pham Thi Anh Sang

She deflated. "I guess," Anh Sang said sulkingly, starting to shuffle back into motion. "It's still a bit weird to me, though. I mean, dessert things are special. You just have them at the end of a meal and it's like 'yay! My stomach has presents now!'" It was the happiest time of a meal, in other words. She had to wonder what other people's lives were like, that they weren't like that. Maybe they just had salty things to fill the void?

When they got to the cafeteria doors, Anh Sang pushed on through and peered inside, lulled by the smell of delicious baked things. "Wait, so what are these other things that people like anyways?"

Pham Thi Anh Sang

The answer that Iris gave her was so out of the blue that Anh Sang had to stop and take a sniff of the air herself. "I like steak," she said, straining to catch the exact smell. "Meat's always good but sometimes when I try to put it together with sweets, it's just not yummy at all. Western ones are drier but they can be good sometimes, too, especially if you put cheese on it!"

South East Asians were known for being lactose intolerant. Anh Sang thought that this was just the saddest thing ever. If she could have one wish in the entire world, it would be that everybody could have their cheese in peace.

Oh! There it was! The girl rocked on her heels in satisfaction. "It's too expensive, though." Although, wait. If there was steak here, then that meant it was free. Steak or apple pie? That was the real question here. "I wonder how they can af-ford to make all of this stuff free like this."

Pham Thi Anh Sang

Anh Sang liked to think that she was good at doing things. The moment that Iris told her to go and look for a table, Anh Sang was really looking for one, glancing wildly all about the room to see who was in the process of leaving. She just wanted to make sure that people knew she could do things. Just. Things. That was all.

"Oh, apple pie with vanilla ice cream, please!" She said to the older girl. "Ice cream on the side! And I don't like whipped cream too much." As she watched, a couple got up from one of the tables near the window, carrying their trays away.

Anh Sang poked at Iris's arm, pointing to the now vacant table. "I'm going to go and get that one for us, okay?"

Pham Thi Anh Sang

The table was just a little dirty when she got to it, so Anh Sang hurriedly wiped it off with some napkins that were nearby. She was usually okay with places that were less than clean but that was when they were for art. Or, well. When it was her own mess. Other people's messes were just weird and touching them in any way except cleaning was kind of like playing on somebody else's playground.

She held out her hands to held Iris put the tray down. Under the table, she was swinging her legs in excitement. Apple pie! With ice cream on the side like she had wanted, too. She did notice that the other girl seemed to have pasta, though. Hadn't she said she wanted something else?

When Iris noticed her mistake, Anh Sang just gave her a solemn nod and a pat on the arm. "I do that all the time, too," she said, trying to be serious. "There's just so many yummy things around and it just gets all mixed up in my head sometimes. You can have some of my ice cream if you want, though."

Pham Thi Anh Sang

She made a bit of a funny sound when Iris refused her ice cream but that was fine. Maybe she just had too much to eat already with that bowl of pasta, Anh Sang figured. Because nobody could turn down ice cream unless they had a full stomach, right?

The cinnamon apples in the pie were as good as ever, though. Maybe even better since she'd gone without them for so long. She still had to frown a bit at when Iris started talking about that accident. "Stuff like that seems to happen a lot these days, huh?" She pondered. Of course, Anh Sang had her own accidents with magic but none of them were very destructive. Just a few light explosions here and there.

"That's what I'm gonna change if I win!" She decided.