As soon as Mena and Janus got back to the Newt. T. Hotel, Bella led them directly to the kitchen. Surveying all the pots and pans, stainless steel tables and ovens, as well as the sinks for dirty platers and silverware, Mena wondered what exactly she’d be doing. Surely there’d be a training program of some sort to help them get used to the cooking life.

Bella spun around quirkily and lifted her hand. “I forgot to ask a very important question. I should have technically done this for the job interview but I forgot: Do you know how to cook?"

"Yes," Mena and Janus both said, both expecting more questions.

Instead of following up, Bella held her hands together and with a giddy expression, she exclaimed, “Perfect. I’ll leave you to it. Toodles.”

Mena and Janus looked at each other helplessly before tying on their aprons and hats and following Nick’s method of simply getting to it and hoping for the best.

The sous chef, an irate looking blond-haired man with grey stubble and a weather-beaten face noticed them come in and he cranked his fist in his hand. “Ah, you must be the master chefs that I asked Bella to hire for me. Perhaps there is something besides vast nothingness in her head.”

The sous chef cocked his eyebrow and looked over Mena and Janus. “But aren’t you a bit young to be working at a six-star restaurant?”

Before Janus and Mena could answer, a bow-tied waiter—a young man with green hair—came in with the orders. According to him, it was time for the evening supper and there were hungry guests gathering in the dining hall. He presented them with slips of paper.

Unfortunately, neither Mena nor Janus could recognize any of the food items on the slip of paper. Most of them were in a very fancy language that only the Tessellation sisters could speak. But not wanting to face the terrifying sous chef, they decided to improvise. All the while, the hawk-eyed chef watched Mena and Janus, and occasionally he asked probing questions.

“Why are you using so much sugar, you small child?” he asked Mena.

“And why are you taking cobwebs from the corners of the kitchen and putting them in the soup?” he demanded of Janus.

“Err…” Mena said, trying to deepen her voice to sound more professional. “We come from a very avantgarde cooking school.”

“Yeah,” Janus muttered, rolling her eyes. “Avant’garde a clue.”

At last, the order was ready, and the waiter took the strange compounds Mena and Janus had created and carried them outside.

It wasn’t long before there was a shriek outside of the swinging doors, and the waiter came in panting. “What’s wrong?” the sous chef demanded.

“The lady wants to know why she received a bunch of sugar cookies with heart shaped sprinkles instead of her appetizer.”

The sous chef raised his sinister eyebrow at Mena. Mena turned bright red. “I’m sorry, that’s all Deidre taught me how to make at the bakery.”

“That’s not all,” the waiter said, looking nervous. “She wants to know why there were cobwebs in her soup and a pile of bones stripped of all meat on a plate.”

Janus gave an innocent giggle, as the chef gave her a death glare. “Those are dishes I learned how to back at home at Lantern Valley. They’re called Cobweb Brulé and Bone Appetit.”

The sous chef turned bright pink, he grabbed his butchers knife as his voice erupted into a loud roar. “BELLA, WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, YOU’RE GOING TO BE CLEANING DISHES UNTIL YOU’VE GOT NOTHING BUT NUBS FOR HANDS.”

***

Their next task from Bella was to dress in the frilliest, fluffiest, bow-tied maid outfits and dust and scrub the lobby. Mena got the duster and started scattering dust off the lamp-shades while Janus washed the floor with a rag. The dust made Mena cough and hack, inflaming her asthma; but she had to admit, it was a lot better than cooking with that scary sous chef watching over them.

Fortunately, for her, their attention was quickly diverged. The autonomous doors opened with a swift click, and looking up, Mena saw Nick standing in the doorway. Much to her surprise, he did not have a confident smirk or eye her over, in fact, he looked a bit fragile and pure.

“Mena,” he said, his voice lightly raising. “Could I ask you something? It’s important.”

Janus pursed her dry lips as she looked up from scrubbing the floor. “Ooh, you know this is important since he didn’t make a lecherous comment about your outfit.”

Mena waited for a snide reply from Nick, but it never came. “Please Mena, come with me,” he said, “It’s urgent.”

Mena turned her head to Janus who shook her head as if to say, “You better not,” but there was a vulnerability in Nick’s tone and eyes that made her want to go. That and he was cute.

Mena gave an affirmative nod, and asked Janus, “Do you think I should tell Bella about putting my fifteen in now?”

Janus and Mena looked down the hall. Bella was snoozing at the concierge desk with her head down. Janus threw her hand forward. “I wouldn’t. The dead will wake before her.”

Mena smiled and quickly walked over with Nick. “Don’t worry,” she assured Janus. “I’ll only take fifteen minutes.”

The pixie reaper shook her head but smiled. There was nothing she could do to deter her friend from a night out with a teen heartthrob.

***

Otherwise, silent, Nick took Mena to a pagoda crossing over between the east and west districts of Wormwood. There was a beautiful view that allowed them to see the smaller suburban flats of East Wormwood, and the towering mansions, hotels and resturants of West Wormwood, all the framed under a maroon sky. “So,” Mena said, eyes shifting from the picturesque scenery to the picturesque dream star. “This is lovely and all, but why did you take me out here?”

Nick put his hands behind his back, kicking a nearby stone into the water beneath the bridge. But at last, he looked up at his companion. “Have you ever felt,” he began, his eyes slightly intensifying as he gazed at Mena, as if in a trance. “That there are moments in life that felt like a dream? That they were so good that you hated to give them up?”

Mena tilted her head in wonder but reflected on his words. There were numerous times for her. Living with Auntie Grizabella in her idyllic hut out in the Pembroke Forest, learning to bake sugary confections with Deidre, going to Nightdream Academy for the first time and meeting all of her friends and teachers for the first time, her first kiss with Prince Tal on Homecoming Night. There sure were a bunch.

“Why do you ask?” Mena asked, with a curious glance.

“Because,” Nick said, and held his hands out to the beautiful setting. “I want you to look long and hard over these many buildings, what do you see?”

Mena gazed at them, and suddenly, rainbow dream bubbles formed all over the roofs. Millions of them, depicting dreams of every kind. Some were of basking piles of jems, finding true love and eating delicious food, while others were the classic ‘being-caught-in-your-underpants-in-a-public-place,” teeth falling out or being chased by beasts and zombies.

“Miraculous magicaps,” Mena exclaimed, holding her hands together. “I totally forgot I could do that.”

Indeed, the last time she had truly read other people’s dreams was when she read Sir Stephen’s dream during his battle with Gemini.

Nick raised an eyebrow and smiled. “You’re a dream seer, right?” he asked in a probing voice. “I knew that about you.”

Mena squeaked and held her hands to her face. “You knew? But how?”

Nick was silent for a moment before answering her burning question. “Because I can do that to,” he admitted. “I’ve always been a dream seer and have gotten to see the beauty and the horror of people’s dreams countless times.”

Nick turned his back on Mena and paced away for a second, leaving her stupefied. “Mena. There’s a lot I haven’t told you about myself. I tend to keep the facts buried deep within my consciousness, but detecting your abilities has given me an interest in you and your rare talent, and that makes me want to tell you more about myself.”

Mena’s hair stood on edge as he talked. Who was Nick Clearmind?

“When my parents were killed by that cursed witch Anguish,” Nick began, his voice devoid of emotion.

Mena gasped. "So were mine... I lost my parents to Anguish too."

"So," Nick said, "You realize what she is capable of."

Mena nodded.

"So has Jonah Clearmind, the leader of the Clearmind Society," Nick said, "Who took me in…as his son.”

Nick strolled back to Mena and placed two hands on her trembling shoulders. “He told me, there’s a lot of good we can do for people’s dreams with a power like mine. We can keep them pure and maintain harmony within them, so they don’t seep into Anguish’s hands, and that of the Nightmare Void’s.”

Nick held up his ring, the eyeball at the center glistened like it was watching Mena with keen interest. “Since I could see the dreams, I could use my father’s invention—the purity of mind ring—to keep people within the confines of sweet and pleasant dreams.”

Nick leaned in close, his dark eyes burning bright into Mena’s. “We are doing great things for the people of Wormwood, Mena.”

Mena blushed, “Wow, I didn’t know you guys were so altruistic. That’s so nice of you to protect people’s dreams.”

“Yes, Mena,” Nick said, his breath charging the cool night air and finding its way onto Mena’s cheeks. “We want to protect everyone’s dreams, even yours. My father has an ideal that if we keep everyone’s mind pure we can build a utopia of endless good dreams without any vile or dirty thoughts penetrating them.”

Mena looked away sheepishly and bit her lip. She was wondering if she should tell Nick about her naughty dream about spooning with Prince Tal of the Shadow Nomads, but she elected against it.

Nick turned aside and gazed off into the pool of water below. “Look Mena, this whole wisecracking teen celebrity bit, it’s all staged.”

“It is?” Mena gasped, following him to the railing.

“Aye,” Nick responded. “People tend to react positively to those who are shallow and sexy.”

Mena gave an uncomfortable laugh. “I sure do.”

Nick gazed down into his reflection, shimmering in the pool of water below him “But deep down, my heart longs for a better world… For you and me.”

At last, Nick turned to face Mena one last time. “Mena?” he implored in a voice as pure and distant from his celebrity persona. He extended a hand towards her. “Will you join me?”

Mena giggled. “Why not? I could always use some more good dreams and…"—Mena’s face grew stern and serious—”I want to protect everyone from Anguish too. So no one else gets hurt.”

“Excellent,” Nick said, slamming his fist into his palm with an excited smile. “And allow me to give you something that I’m sure will give you a sweet dream tonight.”

Nick leaned in close to Mena, planting his lips directly on hers. For a second, it felt like there was a tongue in her mouth, but she wasn’t sure; the fireworks were already exploding on her lips and in her mind. As he pulled away, Mena was so starstruck from being kissed by a celebrity boy, she thought she was going to wobble off her feet into the water below. She gripped the railing to ensure that wouldn’t happen.

“Wooowie wow zooowie,” she sighed as images of Nick’s lips danced in her mind. “I think I’m going to have a good dream for sure. I only hope it’s a dry one.”

Nick gave an all-knowing smile and flashed his ring again. “It will be if you keep your mind clear. Which I will try to ensure.”

“Yooou know,” Mena said, still a bit tipsy from being kissed. “I like Nice Nick a lot better.”

“Of course,” Nick laughed and confidently ran his hands through his perm. “I’ll try to be Nice Nick from now on, but I must leave now. You know your way back to the hotel, right?”

“I do,” Mena replied.

“Good,” Nick said, and he put his fingers together. “We’ll see you in your dreams tonight.”

Nick slinked off into the shadows, leaving Mena alone on the bridge, somewhat drunk in love. She headed back to the hotel, but she could not decode what he meant from his last words.