Five

"Hey, Red! Look at my arm--I'm getting goosebumps!"

Red looked at Dante's arm. He did, in fact, have goosebumps.

"It's the big day, huh?" Red grinned at him, the two of them had just alighted a streetcar to the centre of Oakcrest and we're making their way to the district manor. Dante had been successfully entered into the Golden Acorn Challenge and Red was merely supervising him on his way there. At least, that's what it looked like.

In reality, Red had dropped Jordan off at a close friend's, Tatiana Knowles. Dante knew Tatiana as a close friend too so don't worry. Jordan liked spending time at said friend's house because she had a dog.

In reality, Red secretly joined the challenge, as she felt that supervising Dante on the journey there simply wasn't enough. It didn't look like he'd figured that part out yet, according to her.

In reality, Dante was starting to get suspicious, he felt that her reasoning for tagging along was strange, given he was an adult, 23 years old at best. She didn't normally 'supervise' him on his various outings, let alone with a packed bag, but...he did feel a tiny bit better about the challenge knowing she was taking time out to support him.

Red definitely didn't think he figured it out.

At least, all was going well until they were five minutes away from the manor. There was a newly forming crowd lined up, so the two of them slowly approached, trying to figure out where the queue ended.

"Are people seriously queueing up? What's the point if we're all going to get there in the end?"

"The point is," Red rolled her eyes to herself before explaining, "The point is that queuing up allows a more systematic process of checking in the customers instead of having them all rush in and struggle to manage them all,"

Confused, Dante blinked at her, "Were you talking to me? I didn't say anything...?"

"You mean that wasn't you?!" Red almost screamed.

There was a soft snicker from behind them, and Red practically gave herself whiplash trying to see who it was.

Timothy.

"Y-You! What are you doing here?!"

"I told you I was going to join, didn't I? Don't look so surprised." Timothy replied coolly.

"Uh, Red," Dante placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, hoping she would calm down, "Who's that? Am I supposed to know him?"

"No, he's a stranger, he's probably talking to someone on the phone with one those portable telephone things--"

"I bet he's not," Dante, lowered his eyebrows in disbelief, "You just asked why he was here, you wouldn't say that to a stranger!"

"Maybe I mistook him for someone else?" she suggested.

Dante gave her a look that rhymed with "ditch trees".

Meanwhile, Timothy found this to be the funniest thing he'd ever seen. He was pretty much in tears.

"You guys..." he slapped his knee, "You crack me up, you know!" and seeing that Dante was still lost, he offered a hand to shake, "Nice to meet you. The name's Timothy Burke, Red here was one of my clients once,"

Dante was about to take the hand to shake when something hit him, causing him to shudder "Client? What kind of client, Red?"

"Not whatever you're thinking," Red had calmed down, now, "He helped me out once."

Dante still wanted some clarification but decided to leave it there. He eventually took the hand and shook it, "Dante Jefferson, I'm Red's brother."

"Cool, now should we try and join the line now? Doors close at 10, remember?" Red tried to hurry them along.

"What are you doing here, though?" Timothy quizzed her, "You're not joining as well, are you? You would have needed to sign up beforehand!"

Dante smiled proudly, "She's just making sure everything goes smoothly for me until I go in, that's all." Although, now that they were getting awfully close to the signup booth, he believed it less and less.

Timothy raised his non-existent eyebrows, "So, that's how it is, huh?"

Red wanted to cry, again.

But she figured that keeping up the act would make less sense later if she followed him in, she should have planned this all better.

"Fine, I decided to join the challenge to make sure everything goes okay for you, Dante." she admitted but then seeing Timothy, she added, "Now I think I might as well stay on to make sure you both don't mess up."

Enthused, Timothy took both of them by the shoulders and grinned, "Okay then, how about I make a proposal, the first one out has to buy the others dinner at [REDACTED]."

"[REDACTED]?!" Red snapped, "Didn't I tell you that place was too expensive?"

"It's simple, then!" Dante laughed, "Just don't lose first!"

A sparrow flew overhead circling in the air before landing on a waxy leaf on a nearby tree. Unfortunately, said the waxy leaf wasn't stable enough for the sparrow to perch upon, and so it took flight again twirling through the air gracefully.