*Puff!!*
Clouds of thick white steam billowed out of the professional espresso machine, and the faint aroma of roasted coffee filled the air at the Weathervane, café and bakery.
"God, couldn't they at least have given me a lesson on how to use this?!"
exclaimed the young man with brown hair, green eyes and freckles on his face, as he struggled hard with the huge coffee machine.
"Could you give me a latte and a cappuccino with vanilla and whipped cream?"
"Sorry mate, you'll have to wait…" Tyler stopped mid-sentence and took a step back until his sword struck the wall behind the counter. "Until the shift change."
"Why so nervous?"
William raised an eyebrow in puzzlement at his reaction; it was Saturday, and William and Enid had been out on a trip to Jericho since the morning, boarding the academy's little purple bus to this small town in Vermont.
"I'm sorry about that time; I let them talk me into it."
Tyler nervously wiped his hands on his red apron; the letters spelling 'Weathervane since 1975' crumpled and smudged, and the fox on the arrow was now unrecognisable.
"That time? The mural, right."
William snapped his fingers as he realised what Tyler was referring to; Tyler nodded to confirm his assumption.
Tyler, accompanied by Lucas Walker, Jonah Davis and Carter Brown, had thrown three open tins of paint over Xavier's original mural; the black paint ruined several hours of his work on the mural.
What had initially been a physical attack on Xavier Thorpe turned into an incident where three teenagers ended up with bruises and scrapes, thanks to William's intervention.
"Forget about that, it was just a bit of a tasteless joke. More importantly, you need help with that – they didn't leave you any instructions on how to use the coffee machine."
(A little joke? Lucas and the others wouldn't agree, you know, after you made them throw up their lunch on the pavement.) Tyler thought.
"Instructions, yes!!! They should be around here somewhere."
Tyler rummaged through his jeans pockets until he found a notepad, scribbled in so hastily that some of the letters were illegible.
"Grind the coffee until it's fine, 16 to 20 grams per filter..."
"And how's training camp? Tough or fun?"
"At first it was a pain getting up so early... wait, how do you know about that?"
Without thinking, Tyler replied, before realising that the only people who should know that his father had sent him to a boot camp against his will were himself and his father.
Sheriff Galpin was not happy that his son wouldn't tell him what had happened that day in the alley, compounded by the attempted assault on a Nevermore student and the condition of Mayor Noble's son; it was Tyler who suffered the worst consequences.
"It's a small town."
"Hey Tyler, are you still here? Get out of here now, or your father will be angry with you if you miss even one session."
Philip Grace, the owner and manager of the café, entered the premises, before saying, upon seeing Tyler still struggling with the coffee machine, the filters, the flavoured shots and the whipped cream.
"It's not as if I'm in much of a mood to go."
Tyler grumbled as he took off his apron.
"You're from Nevermore, aren't you? Give me a second and I'll have your order ready. If Valerie were still here, I wouldn't have to come in so early."
Philip hung up his coat and took his apron from the rack behind the bar. Many of his regular customers were from the academy, so he didn't mind the lads.
"Young people these days, they come and go like a whirlwind. One day she turns up at my door, asks me for a job, and the next day she vanishes without a trace."
Philip seemed to be talking to himself, or perhaps he was just venting his grievances out loud.
- Ten minutes later - Veleta Café -
"So, who are we spying on now?"
Enid set several shopping bags down on the café table and sat right next to William, pressing her shoulders against his and leaning her weight against him as she leaned closer to the window.
The scent of Enid's sweet perfume was enough for William to know it was her who had suddenly sat down beside him; the strands of golden hair that brushed against his cheeks only served to reinforce this certainty.
"The new trainee barista crossed the street and went into the building opposite."
Enid first took a deep sip of her cappuccino, topped with plenty of whipped cream and small marshmallows floating inside, before replying.
"That building is a business centre; he could have gone into any of the four businesses inside."
"We'll have to rule out the least likely ones. Well, 'Attorney at Law – N. Testa'—I doubt a sixteen-year-old boy needs a lawyer."
William wiped a bit of whipped cream from Enid's lips with his thumb, which he then licked; the two of them were sitting at the table furthest away from the other customers, who were completely absorbed in their mobile screens.
"You'd be surprised how much they need them…" Enid pretended that William's gesture hadn't affected her in the slightest. "The second one would be out of the question too."
She was referring to the next business in the building, advertised in gold lettering in the window: Harper & Co. Personal Injury Attorneys.
(Oh!!! Enid is becoming more resistant to this sort of thing.)
William could barely make out the faint blush on Enid's cheeks.
"Perhaps he wants to buy a second home."
"Yeah, right, as if any of these small-town folk could afford a second home."
Xavier sat down in the empty seat in front of William; he hadn't had a good impression of the Jericho Normies even before William's arrival. Lucas and the other brats from Jericho's state school used to bully the younger pupils at Nevermore.
"A rather aggressive statement."
William raised an eyebrow; he understood his friend's dislike of the people of Jericho, who constantly gave dirty looks to anyone wearing the Nevermore uniform.
"You should be annoyed too; it took us hours to finish painting it, and they go and ruin it in a single night."
William turned to look at Enid beside him; if he didn't know anything, she certainly would.
"I wanted to talk to you about it too; they've ruined your mural, the one you did last year… they used loads of white paint."
Enid placed her phone on the table; she'd taken a photo of the side of Mrs Duvall's bakery building. The wall was covered in huge splashes of white paint that had completely destroyed the artwork which used to attract dozens of tourists to the village.
"It lasted longer than I thought it would."
*Sigh*
Xavier sighed as he removed his scarf from around his neck.
"I knew you'd react like this."
Few things had ever made William truly angry; he always had a relaxed, confident smile on his face.
«Since «Millar & Gough – Realty» is ruled out, the only option left is the office of Dr. Valerie Kinbott, psychotherapist.»
(I know Tyler Galpin is Wednesday Addams's first love interest, but I wonder if there's something more to him; he stands out too much in the series to be just a pretty face.)
William Stone knew next to nothing about the series directed by Tim Burton in his previous life; he'd spent so much time at work that he hadn't had time to watch all eight forty-minute episodes in full. As the new guy in the office, he was given more work than the rest of his colleagues.
Added to that was the fact that every little mistake he made would be picked up on by his colleagues, who were just waiting to belittle his efforts; if he wanted to climb the corporate ladder, he couldn't afford to get distracted.
'And who are we talking about?'
"No one particularly interesting."
William replied before taking a sip of his latte; all the information he had came from short videos, Shorts, Reels and the odd montage he could barely watch during his lunch break; when he got home, he could barely manage a spot of exercise before falling asleep in bed.
"Changing the subject, I've brought what you asked for, but are you sure about this?"
"I just want to confirm what I've suspected for months."
"...*sip*..."
Enid listened to the conversation in silence, even though she was very curious about the subject they were discussing.
"I told you a mermaid wasn't a good idea."
William reached into the inside pocket of his white jacket and gently placed a handkerchief on the wooden table.
"Xavier asked me if there was any object capable of detecting when a mermaid has used her siren song on someone."
William said to Enid, as he unfolded the red handkerchief; inside, a delicate, slender silver ring lay silently; the golden runes carved into the inside of the ring gave it an elegant and glamorous touch.
"Iiiiii!!"
Enid squealed with excitement. She'd never liked Bianca; her condescending attitude and the way she looked down on everyone else made Enid feel a strong aversion towards her.
"You mean you suspect Bianca has used her siren song on you?"
Enid placed both hands on the table and moved closer to Xavier.
"In fact, quite often, there are times when we have a little argument over something trivial, and the next moment we're holding hands as if nothing had happened."
"I wouldn't be surprised if something like that had happened, considering she once tried to use her siren song on Will."
"What?! When on earth did that happen?!!"
Xavier raised his voice; that she'd dared to use her siren song on him was bad enough to make him want to walk away from her, and now he found out she'd tried to control his friend—that was far worse.
"It was that day, when you told me not to let her in, or to tell Bianca you weren't there."
"Fuck, this just keeps getting better."
Xavier rested his head on the table and wrapped his arms around it; he was tired of suspecting his girlfriend.
"Don't worry about it, she apologised to me afterwards for what happened. She was upset that day too; she might have done it unconsciously."
"A siren's song is a convenient way to solve her problems."
Enid also tried to speak well of Bianca; it wasn't as if she actually hated her.
"Thanks. How does the ring work?"
"It's a ring from Fleur. It'll glow with a light that only you can see when a siren tries to use her song to control you. Then it'll send a sharp tingling sensation through the radial nerve in your hand, which will snap you out of the trance."
"I'll give it back to you later."
Xavier said as he slipped the ring on.
"Keep it. Consider it your birthday present."
"Ha! That's months away!"
"It's an early present. Don't expect me to give you another one."