Eleven

Eleven looks briefly flummoxed, because the other cone is a strawberry sugar cone with whipped cream and sprinkles. It isn't the one she was going to ask for — she'd been planning to ask for cookie dough with chocolate sprinkles — but it feels somehow right to be seeing it now. She looks at the girl beside her, then nods and steps forward, reaching out for the cone she knows is hers.

"...H-how much?" she asks.

"Your order's already been paid for," the server says, and El frowns, so he points at a sign by the register. It reads Your order has been paid for: be kind — pay it forward! paying it forward since 1955

Pay it forward. Eleven knows the term: Someone who got ice cream before them paid for an order that hasn't happened yet. Her order. So she can either take the ice cream now, and walk away with free ice cream, or she can pay for the order of whoever comes after her, so they can get free ice cream, too. It is a gesture of kindness, she knows.

She wants to be kind.

"Yes," she answers. She looks at the girl beside her and says, "I will 'pay it forward' for two ice creams, because we got two ice creams."

"That's great!" the guy chirps. It's the first real inflection or sign of personality either of them have seen since they walked in. He moves to the register and rings up two orders. "That's 9.98 total."

She pulls a ten dollar bill out of her pocket, then drops the two pennies she gets back into a clay bowl that looks like a top hat, with another small sign that reads 'I tip my hat to you!' She has seen enough signs like this to know what that means, and besides that, it saves her from having two pennies clinking around in her pocket.