Third and Fourth Wheel

[Phillip Prince]

Tag: Fiona Reinhart

"I don't even know why I agreed to this," said the boy to his friend in an annoyed yet playful tone. His friend, David, had somehow gotten him to tag along to go on a double date with this chick he had met at a club last night or something. The details were fuzzy but he knew his role for the night was basically to entertain the other's friend whilst his friend try to impress his girl.

Phillip locked his car before following his friend's lead towards the restaurant they were meeting the girls. After checking their coats in, they were lead to their table in the VIP section. Apparently, they were early.

He looked at his watch and noted that they were on time. He turned to say something to David, but then saw that the boy had brought flowers. Phillip came empty handed. Oops.

[Fiona Reinhart]

”Oh come on Emily, don’t worry about it! I’m sure it’s going to be so much fun! This David guy is hot!” Fiona grinned while her friend Emily was having a bit of a nervous freak out over going on this sort of date? Was it even a date? How was it a date when they brought friends? Oh well, Fiona didn’t care, she was planning on having fun.

The two friends didn’t look anything alike, Emily was a cute brunette and she was right now wearing a cute but kind of plain black dress, Fiona on the other hand had gone for a funny looking bright yellow dress with a big smiley face on the front, her green/blue/pink hair was put up in a bun, she just couldn’t bother doing anything with it today, looking in the mirror made her giggle a bit, she looked kind of funny but not in a bad tasteless way, at least she didn’t think so.

As they arrived at the restaurant, a nervous Emily and a excited Fiona was lead to the table where the two boys was sitting. Emily greeted the boys and introduced Fiona “Hi, nice to meet you boys” she grinned as she took her seat next to her friend and in front of the non-David.

[Phillip Prince]

Phillip was a little bothered by the fact that he came empty handed. Well, technically he was not even on a date, but he still liked to look good to the girl, whoever she may be. First impressions were important and he had an image to keep.

So when the ladies arrived at the table, Phillip knew just what he wanted to do. Whilst David handed the flowers to his date, Phillip leaned forward to the girl in front of him. "I hope you don't hold this against me that I didn't bring flowers. But to make up for it, order whatever you like and as much as you want it. It's on me," he said with a wide smile.

Now that should be better than flowers, right?

[Fiona Reinhart]

Phillip seemed charming, she smiled at him as he offered to get her anything from the menu “Flowers? Wait, are we on a date too?” This was news to her, not that she minded if that was the case. “You don’t have to do that, though I won’t say no to extra desert, just saying” she smiled and looked at the menu as the waiter handed it to them.

“Okay, if you’re paying then I think I’ll let you pick what I get too” she smiled at him, curious about what he would choose, she wasn’t picky at all so she had no worries “Surprise me” she said playfully. She glanced over at Emily and David, the two seemed to be hitting it off, which to Fiona was just adorable.

She leaned in and whispered “Remember protection” in Emily’s ear, too low for the boys to hear but Emily’s face turned red instantly and she gave Fiona a nudge and quietly telling her to shut up, causing Fiona to giggle.

[Phillip Prince]

When she questioned whether they were on a date too or not, instead of denying it, Phillip simply flashed her a smile and shrugged. The boy chuckled at the response he had gotten from his offer. The night was off to a good start.

What he had not anticipated was what she said next. An eyebrow quirked up in amusement. He liked the fact that she was not the kind to order everything that she could just because he said he would pay for it. These things did not happen often for him.

"Alright, deal," he said, opening the menu and giving it a scan. He wondered if he should order something he never had so it would be a surprise for them both, or something he knew was good. His gaze travelled upwards when he heard giggling. Phillip simply shrugged his shoulders at his friend's questioning look. "It's probably a girl thing," he said nonchalantly.

He then called for the waiter and ordered for the two the restaurant's signature chicken soup for appetizers and scampi shrimp pasta for the main course. He would order dessert a little later. Just before he wave the waiter off, Phillip turned to the girl and asked, "You're not allergic to shrimp are you?"

[Fiona Reinhart]

Fiona figured the smile and shrug just meant to go with the flow, which she liked, she could go with the flow and just enjoy the evening, why label it as anything at all? This was Emily’s night after all, Fiona was here for... What was she here for again? Well at this point she was here for a fun time and apparently free food.

“Yup, just girl things” she was still a bit giggly, mostly at Emily’s expense who’s face was still red. She watched as Phillip looked at the menu, her attitude was pretty much that if it was yummy it was yummy and if it wasn’t then that would be kind of funny, but she liked most things so she rare got a unpleasant surprise.

She grinned and tried to go for an Australian accent as she said “It’s okay mate, just slip another shrimp on the barbie” Emily was clearly cringing at that, Fiona added without the Australian accent “No, shrimp is good, really yummy.” Emily made a comment about Fiona spending too much time in Australia to which Fiona shrugged “Australia was great, I spent a year going to school there, I just got back here like.. a couple weeks ago?”

“Also a hint when it comes to desert, I love chocolate” While she didn’t mind giving him the power over her food, she did decide she was in need of chocolate at some point, if she wasn’t getting it here she would probably demand going somewhere to buy some, with or without the others.

[Phillip Prince]

A smile slowly spread across the boy's face when the girl managed to surprise him again by using the Australian accent. "Aren't you a doll full of surprises? Yes, shrimp is really yummy. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. If not, we'll just order something else love," he replied in the thickest British accent he could, which was not hard considering he was a Brit after all. "That would be all, for now," he said to the waiter before waving him off.

Australia huh? Phillip's interest was piqued. He chuckled at her profession of love for chocolate. "Good to know. This place has a lot of chocolate desserts," he said with a wink. Not long later, their drinks arrived.

Phillip was interested to know what she had done overseas. "So of all the places, why Australia?" he asked after taking a sip of his drink. "Oh the name's Phillip by the way," he quickly introduced himself, suddenly remembering he did not even have her name.

[Fiona Reinhart]

”You know how everyone says British accents are sexy?” She leaned a bit over the table as she spoke, smiling at him “I prefer Scottish” She said with a shrug, the truth was that the funnier an accent sounded, the more she liked it “Oh and please do not change the order, it sounded really good”. Phillip did come across as a charmer for sure, but a fun one, she was starting to wonder if there was a way or her to catch him off guard a bit, maybe mess with him for a fun reaction.

She thanked the waiter before taking a sip of her drink, looking at Phillip as he asked about Australia “I love kangaroos” she shrugged “I wanted to go and experience a new place and since I had to go to a school for us specials and since I only speak English, I got myself transfered to the one who has kangaroos.” Her year in Australia had really been one of the best years, but she was still happy to be back.

“Oh I know, Emily told me, but nice to meet you Phillip, I’m Fiona and you may call me Fiona or Fifi or Fee or... Whatever you want really” She reached out her hand to shake “So Phillip, why the United States?”

[Phillip Prince]

The smile on his face only grew wider after her reply. He licked his lips, taking his time to form a response. "Well, doubt I could perfect a Scottish accent tonight, so you're stuck with this one," he said teasingly. Most had loved his accent, but not this one. He found it not to be a bad change.

Kangaroos? His head tilted. His expression showed a mix of confusion and intrigue. "I have to say, that's gotta be a first. At least for me. Kangaroos," he said with a chuckle, that last one more for himself. It was an odd reason to move and for that, the boy knew she would be an interesting one to get to know.

"Think I'll stick to Fiona. Reminds me of the princess from Shrek. And a pleasure to meet you," he replied, shaking her hand.

Why the United States? "It wasn't for the kangaroos, nor was it even my choice to move here. My dad and his business basically. He decided to move us here when I was four," he explained. "Been here ever since. Well not here as in Kalispell but ya know, the states." He shrugged. "So tell me. How much does Bellefonte suck in comparison? Or are we better?"

[Fiona Reinhart]

”Well I’ll accept Irish too I guess, Irish is cute” she smiled, of course British did work in general, but she wasn’t going to tell him that now, he seemed to go with her joke so he could just keep doing that. “Accent’s are cool, all of them, I wish we had more of them here in America” She took a sip from her drink, realizing that they were actually four people but two completely different conversations was going on, Emily and David seemed to be talking about something boring, so Fiona’s attention wasn’t about to go over to them any time soon.

“Well it’s not the only reason! But they are awesome! They actually taste nice too” She added the last part with a smirk “The main reason is really that I wanted to go somewhere else and experience a new place, I grew up here in Kalispell and I have never traveled anywhere, so when I got the opportunity to transfer I took it, I would love to travel more and experience new things.”

The comparison to Fiona from Shrek made her choke on her drink, she had to cough a little as she laughed “Haha really!? Fiona from Shrek!? Why haven’t I heard that one before?” She was very amused by this, now if only Shrek’s Fiona had her own song... Wait did she? She needed to do research when she got back to the school, maybe this was the way for her to find her own theme song? She had to show it to Friday if this was the case.

She nodded as he talked about his family, considering how he had basically offered her to do whatever she wanted with the menu at the restaurant, she had guessed that he had money, his dad’s business probably explained that part, not that she really cared about that. “Bellefonte is nice! But Sir Henry Barnet Academy in Aussieland is very different, there’s less focus on school stuff and academics than there is here” she thought back to Sir Henry Barnet, she did kind of miss it but Bellefonte was home “The focus was more on outdoors activity, exercising and using your powers, I think they view it like your power is a natural force of nature, become one with nature to gain a better understanding blablabla, it was cool, a lot more freedom than here for sure and a lot nicer weather.”

[Phillip Prince]

Irish too? The boy chuckled. Yes, he could definitely see the appeal. He nodded his head, agreeing with her that accents were indeed cool. Whether America needed more of those, he simply shrugged. The fact that there were not many, made the ones with it - ahem, him - even more 'exotic'. So obviously Phillip was not complaining, but he understood her.

His eyebrows shot up in amusement. She was adventurous with her food - he did not know what he had to worry about with their order. "Stuck in one place for too long, kinda wanna explore other places. See what's out there. I get it. Travelling is fun," he stated with a wink.

"Yes. Princess Fiona from Shrek. You two have like this...similar spunk and all that," he said, smiling cheekily. He did not often compare girls to cartoon characters, but Princess Fiona was a great character. That was a compliment.

Phillip listened intently as she spoke about the Australian academy. His ears perked up at the mention of outdoor activities. He would love that. He liked using his power as much as he wanted to. "Both has its pros and cons. Sir Henry Barnet sounds pretty appealing right now," he replied with a small laughter.

Their appetizers came then. After turning to his friend to briefly explain to him what were the ingredients in the chicken soup, he took his first sip of it. He looked to Fiona to see how she liked it.

"So, any thoughts on where to travel next?" asked Phillip a little later.

[Fiona Reinhart]

She giggled a bit at his reaction to her mention of the kangaroo “Eating kangaroo sounds so weird, but they have so many of them down there so if you think about it it’s not that weird.” She nodded in agreement, he seemed to kinda understand her “Yeah, I want to see and experience everything, the world is crazy and wonderful, at least as long as you look at the positive parts of it.”

“Maybe I’ll test the green hair dye on my face, then you can start calling me Princess Fiona” she then grinned “So is this where I start calling you Shrek? Or would you prefer Donkey?” she asked playfully, Phillip seemed like neither of those characters “Or Prince Charming?” When speaking of Shrek, this really wasn’t a compliment, so she was obviously joking.

“Sir Henry Barnet was amazing, but I had to come home one day, I have my family here and I kinda missed them” She took another sip from her drink “Though surfing was cool, spending the time outside in the sun with everyone else... Getting stung by some poisonous jellyfish was less fun, but hey yay at people with healing powers” She grimaced a little before smiling again.

She thanked the waiter as the appetizers arrived, the soup smelled great. She took a sip, her eyes widening, her smile fading, nose wrinkling, she started looking absolutely disgusted before she swallowed and said “This soup is really good, good choice Phil” she hoped he had bought it, she liked messing with people, she was unable to keep a mischievous smile away as she took another sip from the delicious soup.

Where did she want to travel? That was a good question “Oh I don’t know, there’s so many places! Disney World has to happen one day! But really, anywhere I haven’t been, I’d love to see Tokyo, Paris, Rome, London.. All the usual places, but also random places where I could discover new things nobody knows about like Iceland or somewhere in the middle of Africa or anywhere really, I should just spin a globe around and pick a random spot and go there.”

[Phillip Prince]

Phillip laughed and shook his head. "I don't know...Kangaroo just seems like a whole other level of adventure. I think I'd cook it more than I'll eat it," he said it as a joke at first before thinking it might not actually be such a bad idea. It would definitely be something different for the culinary club. He might bring it up in the next club meeting.

The boy nodded in agreement at her positive outlook. "Well said." Her optimism was refreshing.

"You know, I have a gut feeling that one day you might just do that," he said, flashing her a mischievous smile. "Next time we meet, I wanna see you green, princess." When she suggested Shrek and Donkey, he gave her a look like oh, come on. But when she mentioned Prince Charming, Phillip placed a hand over his chest and jokingly exaggerated a pained expression. "Ouch. And here I thought I was good enough to be a Dragon."

He smiled as he listened to Fiona talk about Australia. It sounded like she had a good time. "Healing powers. Those definitely come with perks," he said with a chuckle.

Doubt started to settle on his face when he saw her smile fading after her first sip of the soup. Did she not like it? Relief washed over him when he realized Fiona was not serious. He cringed a little when she called him Phil but he quickly plaster a smile back on, "Oh you had me there for a second." He continued eating his soup then.

The usual places she called were great places. He knew because he had been there himself. After she finished, he spoke, "Wait wait wait. Did I hear this right. Have you never been to Disney World before?" He was genuinely shocked. "Why is that?" That was one of the early places his parents took him to when they moved here. It was perhaps ignorant of him to think at least everyone had gone there once.

[Fiona Reinhart]

”It’s not that weird! Like to the Aussies that’s just as weird as it would be for people to eat deer or other stuff we have plenty of in nature here, it just tasted like meat” she shrugged, why did everyone think it was so weird? It’s not like she was talking about snake or bugs or anything “It didn’t even taste like chicken like all the weird types of meat does, it just tasted like normal meat.”

“Green skin? I probably have some green makeup, you know what? I’ll be green next time you see me, it’s a deal!” She didn’t care if it would look silly, it was a fun idea and she decided to take this as a challenge, she picked up her phone and wrote a note for herself to remember to be green next time she met Phillip. “Dragon? No, the dragon is a girl.. You can be the Puss in Boots” she wasn’t sure if she could even think of any other appealing male characters from Shrek, the cat was a cutie though, just like Phillip.

She really enjoyed the soup “Of course I did” she smiled “The soup is really good, I love chicken and this soup made chicken even better” she was pretty happy with his decisions so far. “I never had it before, I have eaten here before though, my family had dinner here a few times” her parents would always order the exact same thing every time they came here, it was so boring.

“I haven’t even been outside of Kalispell before going to Australia! There’s no Disney-anything here” She laughed at his reaction “I have been stuck here all my life! But trust me, I’m going to go there one day, it’s happening, I’m going to travel everywhere” She was confident she could make it happen, she just needed to somehow get a job and earn money so she could make it happen, her family wasn’t poor or anything, but it’s not like they could alone support her traveling all over the world.

“So Phil, where do you want to go? Anywhere you would want to travel?” She smiled as she looked at him, next time he took a sip from the soup, she’d give the spoon a small telekinetic push to make him spill what was on it, she didn’t try and get it on his clothes, just trying to make it fall back into the bowl.

[Phillip Prince]

"Hey, I never said it was weird," he defended himself. He found it quite impressive actually to see her defend so strongly about the kangaroo thing. "Okay I'm sorry," he apologized, wondering if he had offended her somehow because that was never his intention.

He clapped his hands and laughed as she agreed to look green. "Fantastic. I certainly can't wait for our next meeting then. I'm already excited." Fiona was proving to be a fun company. Seeing her another time he knew would be sometime in the near future.

Phillip pretended to think hard about her suggested character for him. "Hmm I suppose...he is adorable. So am I." He winked. Vain? The boy has his moments.

"Really?" The restaurant was one of Phillip's go to place for a first date or the place whenever someone suggested "anything" or "up to you". What were the chances that they were in the same place but never crossed paths. "I'm glad you like it. Hopefully the entree gets the same reaction."

Ah, it all made even more sense why she would want to transfer to Australia if she had been stuck here almost forever. "You should," he encouraged. "There's a lot to see. Plenty. And not just the places and buildings you know. The people too."

His fists clenched when she called him Phil again. Oh how he detested that nickname. But he did not say anything about it because he was already replying her question. "As for me, I've actually done a fair bit of travelling myself."

At the moment, David interjected and said, "It's true. Name a place and he's probably been there."

Phillip whacked his friend on the arm playfully before turning back to Fiona. He shrugged innocently. "Name your place?" He took another sip from the soup then but when it neared his mouth, he realized the spoon was empty. Weird. He could have sworn... He took another spoonful then, observed it - not too intensely cause that was just silly - while he slowly brought it to his mouth.