Chapter one: Caramel Cafe
Time Turner signed loudly at the tests he needed to grade. All the students had already left home with a few exceptions of them staying for after school activities. He had already done his first two classes during his planning but his third class was the largest and on top of that a lot of them didn't take the work seriously.
"Well let's get it over with" He grumbled as he placed the stack of papers closer to him. Grabbing his blue pen he began to grade each paper. It took a while but he finally finished. He looked at his watch.
"7:45 A new record" Turner smiled and started to pack his bag. Usual it would take him longer but since he was done early he could probably have a nice walk around the town. Though he has been here for 5 months, he was unable to get familiar with anything since he was far too busy with planning and grading papers. Turner gave a small frown, he had yet to go out with his coworkers. They seem like nice people and they had offered him to join them for a drink multiple times but he would always politely declined their offer. Walking out of the school he began to walk towards towns square where most of the shops are located. As he walked around Turner couldn't help but look at the people walking by.
It wasn't long before he stopped, looking down at him stomach growling. He had only eaten breakfast but even then it was just a English muffin topped with butter, his stomach seemed to growl louder causing the people passing him to giggle softly. Turner looked around, a light blush dusted his cheeks in embarrassment. He quickly walked inside the first restaurant he saw and sat down in a booth. The restaurant seemed old but had some sort of charm to it, old and new photos decorated the walls. Some looked like the workers or customers while the bigger ones were pictures of food.
"Hello! Welcome to Caramel Cafe What would you like to drink?"
Turner turned to the owner of the voice to see a woman with blonde hair. She had her hair in a high ponytail, leaving wisps of hair on the sides of her cheeks. Compared to other waitresses she wore a flowing skirt that stopped below her knees while the others had them above or higher and fit tightly on them. The woman also had white dress shirt with a dark blue vest that matched her skirt and the bow around the collar of her shirt. But what was the most interesting feature was she kept her right eye covered by her hair as she was trying to hide it. His thoughts were interrupted by a gentle breeze.
"Um Hello? You know it's very impolite to stare" She said with a small frown as she waved her hand in front of his face e.
"Oh yes my apologies Miss....Doo" Turner looked at her name tag before picking up the menu that was placed on the table.
"Good first impression you idiot" Turner thought to himself, here he was trying to make a few friends and so far he wasn't doing a good job.
"Oh please just call me Ditzy and don't worry about the staring. We all do it at one point in our lives. " Ditzy giggled softly, grabbing her pad and pen.
"Now what would you like to drink?" She waited patiently as he looked through the menu. Looking at his actions she could easily tell that it was his first living here.
"Alright Mi- er Ditzy I'll have some tea" He was surprised to see that they served tea here. The other shops he passed didn't serve tea not to mention this place seemed to serve tea from other countries. Time Turner gave Ditzy a side glance, watching her nod and turning around to retrieve his drink. He looked at his menu again. Carefully reading the food choices.
"Hm most of the food In here are pastries." He said to himself as he placed the menu down to look at his watch.
"That's right!" Ditzy said sweetly, placing his tea right in front of him. Turner jumped slightly, he didn't think it would take this long.
"Oh gosh sorry if I scared you" She pouted and grabbed her pad from the pocket of her waist apron.
"You seem hungry so I made sure that the tea didn't take too long but still had a great taste" She smiled widely as her pen made a small click sound when she pushed down it's button.
"That's very kind of you" Turner smiled back, it was nice that people here were polite. He was a bit nervous coming here but if there was more people like her that lived here he was going to make himself right at home.
"Ditzy what would you recommend?" He asked, placing his menu to sip his tea.
"R-Recommend?" Ditzy asked, giving him a odd look. No one has ever asked her about it. She let out a soft hum before answering his question.
"Oh I don't know. Probably the bacon burger with a blueberry muffin for desert" Ditzy twirled the pen around her finger as she replied, her eyes slightly widen as he nodded and smiled.
"Then I'll have the bacon burger and a blueberry muffin to go please" Turner said in a appealing tone, looking down at his tea cup. It was surprisingly good but nothing beats the tea back home. Before he could say another word he looked up to see the waitress had left to give his order to the cook. To his surprise he found Ditzy walking back and sitting in across from him. Turner couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her actions.
"So....now that I've told you my name it's only right for you to tell me yours" She said with a small smirk.
"Don't you think that this is unprofessional?" Turner chuckled as he crossed his arms and leaned back against his chair.
"Not at all in fact it's quite normal for servers to talk with their customers like this." Her eye directed him towards the servers in the front. Each were either sitting down or standing up, speaking with their customers with a smile on their faces.
"Things are different around here when everyone knows each other. But I'm assuming that wherever you're from they don't do this right?" Ditzy simply leaned against her chair as well, curiously looking at his bag that was next to.
" Alright seems fair enough. My name is Time Turner and yes back in London it was rare for servers to talk to their customers unless they knew each other well." He replied to her questions. Turner frowned as he watched her eyes widen, She stood up and pointed at his bag .
"So you're the new teacher! I knew that bag was familiar." Ditzy's eye seemed to sparkle as She leaned in closer. Turner couldn't help but feel a bit confused. How did she knew that? She looked far too young to be a teacher. Maybe a student? No it can't be it he would have remembered her if she was a student.
"Um...May I ask how you know that?" He asked bluntly, looking at the woman with a skeptical look.
"Well you see I'm sure you've met a teacher named Written Script right?" She said, a light blush dusted her cheeks.
Turner gave her a nod, Written Script was the English teacher that reached the room across from him, but despite his young age he was very intelligent and was classified as the "fun" teacher by his students.
"Well....since you're new here me and the other teachers wanted to take you out for a drink or two. You know to make some friends" She continued, giving him a warm smile.
"I know how hard it is to move away home" Ditzy frowned, looking down to see her hand slightly tremble. Her childhood wasn't the best but she always tried to avoid taking about it and since her accident a few years back. She was about to move for the second time until the people from her school threw her a " Please stay here" party. She remembered smiling widely, unable to stop trembling until they all have her a group hug. She lost her train of thought at a sudden warmth on her hand. She looked down to see Turner's hand on top of her's, gently rubbing it. Ditzy epped loudly and pulled her hand back.
"Are you alright Ditzy?" He asked with an anxious look. Ditzy's eyes widen at his gentleness and concern but nodded and gave a faint smile.
"I'm fine thank you..." She said meekly as she placed her other hand on top of his.
"You know? I think you'll fit right in" Her smile widen as she stood up at the sound of a small bell.
"Sounds like your food is ready" Ditzy said as she opened and walked through a door that lead into the kitchen. Turner looked at the other side of the booth where she was sitting on.
"Ditzy and the teachers?" He muttered loudly, she seemed to be too young to be of age to drinking but too old to be a student.
"Here's your food!" She said in a cheerful tone, setting his plate in front of him. Ditzy frowned as he failed to response and leaned in to gently poke his cheek.
"Earth to Turner" She said, waving her head in front of his face. Turner immediately responded by giving her a questionable look.
"I apologize if I'm being rude but ain't you a little too young to be drinking?" He asked curiously.
Ditzy couldn't help but laugh at his question.
"You're not being rude at all!" She said in between laughs, she continued once she calmed down.
"I get that a lot. I'm actually 25 years old" Ditzy said. "Though I'm the youngest one in the group that doesn't stop me from having fun. I hope it doesn't bother you." She smiled.
"No not at Ditzy" Turner replied with another chuckle. "I guess I can make time off my busy schedule." He stood up and grabbed his bags with one hand while shaking the her hand with the other.
"I'm looking forward to it" He made his way to the exit until Ditzy quickly reached out and tugged his coat.
"W-Wait!" She stuttered. "U-Um here's my phone number s-so we can call each other and set up a time and date." She placed it in my front pocket.
"Please come again" She bowed slightly, her blush deepening.
Turner smiled and gave a small nod before walking out of the restaurant. "What a interesting woman" He said with a small smirk.