welcome to the black parade.

[Jeff S Pemberton]

[enter]

Jeff sat in the McDonald's, his half-finished box of chicken mcnuggets sitting on the table in front of him. But there were things far more interesting than undead chicken chunks here: his book lay splayed open on the table, and Jeff's eyes quickly scanned over the words as he read them with undeniable interest. Meanwhile, children ran screaming throughout the establishment, their unfinished food long forgotten as they played within the infamous ballpits of the kiddie playground. Parents chattered loudly amongst themselves, talking over the excited chanting and uncontrollable whines of their offspring.

But he didn't notice. He was perhaps the only guy in town who didn't mind studying at McDonalds in the middle of the day. The price was right in the very least, and at any rate, the text was so fascinating that it didn't matter to him that he could barely hear himself think in this nuthouse.

[Angelina Marie Halsey]

After quite a lot of walking around the city, Lina was hungry. She had nothing to do today, no new assignments, and had found no one interesting to follow around. That was strange, considering the fact in New York City, there were a lot of strange and interesting people. After many hours of mindless wandering around the city, and on foot no less, Lina was finally tired out and ready to sit down at a Starbucks and crash for an hour until her feet were recovered from this boringly uneventful morning. To her annoyance, there had been no Starbucks within walking distance of where she was. Of all the places to end up tired, foot sore, and ready for some caffeine! Sighing, she stood on the sidewalk and looked around her, trying to decide where to go next. She spotted a McDonalds not far away, and grimaced. Her least favorite place. McDonalds was almost always crowded with shrieking children and weary mothers, not to mention the overwhelming smell of frying food. She peered inside the window. Sure enough, it was crowded with people, seeing as it was lunch time. It wouldn't hurt to just pop in, buy a coffee and leave, though. Maybe sit on a bench in the park near by and look for interesting or potentially dangerous people.

Lina made up her mind, and walked towards the McDonalds, her four-inch black heels clicking on the pavement of the sidewalk. They were not the most sensible of shoes for a person as active as her, but she liked them, and they made her seem liss conspicuous. After all, every other woman walking the streets of New York City wore heels like these. Why should she be any different? Pushing the door of the McDonalds open, she drove her mind away from these thoughts and braced herself for the explosion of noise and fried food. Breathing carefully through her nose, she tried her best to hide her contempt as she swept over to the cashier. Surprise, surprise. She thought. There's a line. Maybe coming to McDonalds wasn't such a good idea after all. Sighing impatiently, she turned her attention away from the four people in front of her, and looked around the restaurant for interesting people. There were the usual screaming toddlers, as well as chatting parents, but there was a guy sitting at a table and read a textbook. A textbook! How could he possibly concentrate with all the noise and riff raff? Strange guy.