"How lucky is that?!" Ino said joyfully. Her face lit up like a kid on Christmas Day. Ino, won 2 packs of the 5x spicy ramen and cheese flavored ramen, with one turn. Ino jumped up and down enthusiastically.
Chester grinned and high-fived her.
"That is super lucky! What are the odds of that? Maybe we should go find a scratch off machine! They have all the other kinds of vending machines, they have to have ones with scratch offs." Chester excitedly smoke with his a big eyed expression.
Ino laughed, "Okay, let us not get a head of ourselves. We won 2 packs of ramen. Which is probably worth less than $4 international dollars on a play till you win machine. It is not the same as winning big on a scratch off or hitting the jackpot."
"Yeah, okay my little four leaf clover!" He muttered. This made Chester want to try his hand in the beef jerky claw machine. Ino was watching him intensely with her hands on the glass of the claw machine.
Ino shrieked with excitement, "Two birds with one stone, again! What are the odds of that!"
"What did I tell you? We are on a roll!" Chester exclaimed proudly. He won the jalapeño and teriyaki flavored beef jerky.
Chester Handed the beef jerky to Ino.
"Thank you." Ino replied.
He grinned slightly and said, "Your favorite, (referring to the jalapeño beef jerky) for my favorite (referring to Ino)."
Ino was looking around.
"What are you looking for? You already have everything, because you have me!" Chester stated cockily.
Ino looked up in dismay and rolled her eyes. "Unless everything includes dispensing hot water for my ramen... Never mind. I'm looking for a hot water dispenser." Ino said looking pass Chester.
"You are no fun! You almost walked into that one." He smirked while helping her look for one.
She ignored him. Her hunger was setting in. Ino's stomach started growling. Chester's stomach was not feeling well. He was not very hungry, but thought he should eat. They finally spotted the hot water dispenser station to cook the ramen. Ino wanted the ramen to be cooked, and top it off by putting beef jerky on on top of her noodles. Chester did not want to wait and started eating the teriyaki flavored beef jerky.
Chester and Ino found unattended seats. They walked up to the open table. Then they noticed the people before them did not clean up after themselves. There was crumbs and something wet on the table. Ino wanted to find a different table to sit at, but as she glanced all over, the area looked full.
Chester was observing her and saw that Ino was displeased with the dirty table. He told Ino to wait there and he went to get a few damp napkins and several dry napkins. First, he took the wet napkins and wiped everything off onto the floor. Afterward he dried it with the other napkins.
He looked up at her grinning and said, "All better!?"
Ino smiled and thanked him. They both sat down to eat. The commons area smelled like lemon scented cleaner, despite their table being dirty. The set up of the tables and chairs, reminded Ino of the mall food court and high school lunch room. Also, The commons area had a sitting area for eating and crossed over to the entertainment/lobby areas.
After observing the commons area, he saw a sign that stated all of the activities on each platform. Chester noticed only on the east corridor of each level had a balcony. Each balcony lead to a different leisurely activity.
Chester asked, "Is your ramen not good?"
Ino was looking down and picking at her ramen slowly. She was making circles in the soup with her chopsticks.
Ino looked up and answered, "It's good, it's just not satisfying my craving for something spicy.
"We can go look around for something else? There has got to be something spicy enough for you. If the dishes are not to your liking, we can ask if they have habaneros that could be mixed into your food?" Chester proposed.
Ino arched her left eyebrow. She paused for a few seconds.
Then Ino responded, "No, let's leave that for another day. I'm getting tired.
Chester and Ino got up to leave. Chester went to throw away the trash and ramen containers. He was turning back around to head towards Ino, when he heard a familiar voice.
"Hey! Hey you!" Said the voice. The voice seemed to be coming closer.
Chester looked up and glanced around at the same time, still walking towards Ino. He looked in amazement staring at the girl approaching him. The guy that was with her walked speedily behind her. Chester furrowed his eyebrows.
"Oh wow! Raina! Cain! I have not see you guys in forever! What are you two doing here?!" Chester smiled in surprise.
"We decided, we needed to go on this adventure to Zoltan to see what all it had to offer. What are you doing here?" Raina replied.
She walked up to him. She hugged him and continued to stay in a half hearted hug. His arms were still holding up her arms.
Ino was staring in bewilderment. Raina had short red hair, with side swept bands, that was cut into a Bob. She wore a high rise, mid knee, black skirt with a dolman short sleeve blouse, tucked into it.
Ino had never met nor heard of this Raina person. Chester has not ever brought her up, so Ino had no clue who she was, nor the guy that was with her. Ino was never a jealous person. She never felt intimidated, but there was some sort of tension in the air. She could not figure out why, but the way Raina looked at her, made her feel like they had a problem.
"We wanted to see if Zoltan would provide us a better life than the one we were living. Which reminds me, Raina meet my wife Ino." Chester said while nodding his head to the side towards Ino.
Ino bent her elbow and waved towards them. She believed in the saying, the first impression is the last impression. Of all the days to be dressed down, she wanted desperately to turn back time and spruce herself up. Her hormones were raging and she was already feeling faulty with her weight gain from the pregnancy. Now, she felt like the woman she was meeting must think she appeared inadequate for Chester.
Ino wanted to be the first to take initiative and said, "Hi, nice to meet you. I am Ino."
Raina forced a smile. Ino extended out her hand for a handshake. The way she perceived it was that she was holding her hand out for what felt like hours. Ino's cheeks started getting hot. She quickly was made to feel like she was left out in the cold. This was very rude of this Raina person to leave her hanging, she thought. Ino dropped her hand to her side.
The awkwardness of Raina not accepting her hand started circling the four of them.
Raina looked at Ino pressing her lips together.