Gen One- Chapter Seven

The late summer sun beat down on us. We were all thankful the terrible humidity had departed the day before, and also that we had the ocean water to splash about in. I couldn't imagine how people could stand not living by a similar body of water. Eden had explained to me recently the idea of deserts. They sounded like a horrible place to live to me. I liked the sand on the beaches, but living in a place that was all sand and heat? Not for me, thank you very much.

I wasn't thinking of deserts at that moment. I had to concentrate on the large amount of water Frost was sending my way. We had been swimming earlier, but we had changed our playing to splashing in shallower water once our energy levels dropped a bit. I was making sure to pace myself this time around. My first birthday party was going to last all day if I had any say about it. And I did have a lot of say. A few weeks after Blaze and Amaranth came around for dinner, Eden admitted that he had been planning a party for me. However, he wasn't sure what I wanted. That was why we worked on it together. I had decided to have it at the beach, and we had gone from there. My suggestion to have it at the beach, I thought, was an inspired idea. The six of us were already having the time of our lives.

Well, I couldn't say it was just the six of us. Eden had said it would be best if I expanded my circle of friends now that I was truly comfortable with Amaranth, Allium, Frost, Sunset, and Sunflower. That was why there were a few others my age running about with us. Cocoa Sweet was someone Amaranth suggested to invite. She was someone I had met a few times when I had gone over to play with him. It didn't take long for me to realize that Cocoa was much closer to Amaranth than she was to the others, and I figured that was because she did live so far away from the rest of us. I had grown to like Cocoa enough. Exactly like her last name, she was proving to be rather sweet. She was really spacey so often though, which did frustrate me occasionally. I knew she didn't do it on purpose, but to talk to her for minutes and have her not pay attention to anything I was saying wasn't a pleasant feeling. However, Cocoa was just always so kind about everything I couldn't stay mad with her for long.

Then there were the Spring triplets. I had been told about them before, but it was at my party that I met them for the first time. They had been on vacation overseas for the whole summer. The younger two were Bud and Pistachio, who were absolutely identical in looks. I got along with them alright. It was hard for me to tell them apart at first. I was only able to tell who was who because of their swimsuits. I would have assumed Bud would be wearing the one with flowers on it, but it was Pistachio who had that one. Bud was in the plain swimsuit. They kinda kept to themselves, so I didn't get much of a chance to find a better way to differentiate them.

I spent a whole lot of time with their brother, Sap, though. I found his appearance amusing somehow. My skin looked so much lighter when I was next to Eden, but his and his sisters' skin was a whole lot paler than even mine! I liked that there could be a lot of variation.

Sap was the complete opposite of Bud and Pistachio. They barely paid attention to me. He was right next to me the whole time. We talked a whole bunch, and Sap had a lot of funny stories to tell. He also praised me a lot, which I did find a bit peculiar, but it's not like I was going to complain. Sap certainly kept me entertained.

     "Let's go see who can jump farther off the dock!"

That was the challenge he gave me, which I was more than ready to take on.

Unfortunately, Sap had picked his battle well. The guy was a rabbit! We leapt off as far as we could, and he was soaring forward when I was beginning to drop. Even when I hit the water he was still in the air. I laughed loudly as soon as I resurfaced. He smiled at me widely.

     "You knew you were going to win, didn't you?"

     "It's a good thing for you that I didn't make you bet anything." he responded cheekily.

His comment brought on more splashing. We tossed water at each other until our arms felt heavy.

     "Race ya back to shore!" I challenged that time around.

Both Sap and I started swimming at the same time. I had him beat there. My feet were touching the sand before he was anywhere close to it.

Something weird was going on with him and Amaranth though. When Amaranth had talked about Sap before, he sounded like he liked him. However, as the party went on I found that Amaranth kept on getting more and more annoyed whenever he saw Sap around. I didn't pay much attention to it at first, but stuff just kept on happening. It was a little while before we were due to open presents and have lunch. A few of us were feeling peckish, so Blaze eagerly made a fire so we could roast marshmallows to hold us over. Sunset, Sunflower, Cocoa, and I sat down, which left two chairs open. I was sitting in my seat when there was a slight bit of ruckus coming from behind me. I turned just in time as I sat down to see Sap rushing in to claim the seat to my left. He gave me a big old grin.

I turned a little more to see Amaranth. He looked rather shocked, and that shock quickly turned into a glare. It was pretty obvious that Sap had dashed in front of him to take the seat he had wanted to sit in. I could understand that Amaranth would be a little irritated at Sap taking his seat, but when he gave him that really nasty glare I thought he was going too far. It was just a chair. I couldn't see why sitting in that particular one was such a big deal.

Eden brought over a giant bag of marshmallows and left us to it. The extra heat from the fire on top of the sun wasn't the most pleasant, but the delicious treats were certainly worth it. The six of us were relatively quiet for the first few minutes. It was only when we had eaten enough sugar that we had enough energy to talk.

     "So you said you went camping on your vacation?" I asked Sap.

He had mentioned it earlier, and the fire pit in front of me reminded me of camp fires.

     "Oh yeah! It was great!" Sap started eagerly, "I've camped in a lot of places, but spending a few nights out near the famous Montagnes Aurore was remarkably breathtaking. I'm sure you've seen the pictures of the colorful rocks in the mountains, right?"

     "Uh, right."

I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. I had never heard of the mont-agg a-roar or whatever Sap had called it. I had never seen any pictures of colorful mountains rocks, but I decided it was best to say I had since it seemed liked it would be strange for me to not have- especially considering how Sunset and Cocoa joined in too.

     "We have a picture of the mountains hanging on our wall at home." Cocoa revealed.

     "I heard they're spectacular when the sunlight hits them." Sunset said.

     "They are! Pictures can't do the view justice. I gotta tell you though, the view can be a bit too overwhelming. Bud was staring up, and the light reflecting off some of the shiny rocks was so bright it blinded her for a few seconds! She's such a drama queen she was squealing on and on even past when she could see again that she was doomed to be blind for life! She wore sunglasses from then on until we left."

I asked Sap more about his trip after that. Every response he gave me opened up a dozen more routes for me to go down. So much of what he talked about was stuff no one had mentioned to me. It didn't take much longer for me to realize that Sap was the complete opposite of me. He had seen so much of the world and knew so much. Given how enthused he was at answering my questions, I could have listened to him for hours. I did keep him talking for a long time too.

     "Sap, it's great you had a nice vacation...but perhaps you should talk less and watch your marshmallow more?" Amaranth eventually interrupted.

Unlike his normal self, Amaranth had been ridiculous quiet during our time around the fire. He was still practically glaring when she spoke to Sap.

I didn't get it.

Sap frowned in confusion at Amaranth's comment. I pointed to Sap's stick. So focused on talking, he hadn't noticed he had just been holding his marshmallow directly in the fire. He hurriedly pulled it out and waved it around to quench the flames, but his treat was charred.

     "Great. Now I can't eat this, and the bag has run out." he mumbled in complaint.

     "It was kinda fun to see it burning like that though," I giggled, "And here, I was roasting two. You can have one of mine."

     "Thanks, Meadow. You're the best!" Sap accepted gratefully when I pulled off one of my marshmallows to give to him.

I took a glance at Amaranth while Sap was distracted by his eating. There really did seem to be something going on. Amaranth was frowning harder.

With the bag of marshmallows all eaten, the six of us went our own ways. Sap was pulled away by Bud and Pistachio, Sunflower went with Sunset and Cocoa to join the others in the game of tag that had been started, and I walked around for a while enjoying the feel of the sand on my feet. I assumed the person who approached me a few minutes later was Sap, but it was Amaranth. He looked a lot more cheerful than he had been looking.

     "Come over here. I found something." he said with excitement.

     "What?"

     "It won't be fun if I tell you what it is. You have to come see it." he laughed.

He led me closer to the water. I spotted something lying in the sand. It looked like a rock at first, but I spotted the pink once we got closer to it. The shine of the shell reflected like a rainbow with the sun hitting its wet surface.

     "It's so pretty." I smiled as I picked it up, "What are you going to do with it?"

     "I want you to have it."

     "But you're the one who found it."

     "Well, it's your birthday, silly."

     "Hmm, okay!"

Amaranth laughed.

     "You're always so easy to convince."

     "Yeah."

I laughed too.

We wrapped the shell in a spare towel and put it in Eden's bag so it didn't get accidentally damaged. Amaranth and I then had great fun walking about just talking. However, I couldn't help but to be confused. I had thought Amaranth had been in a bad mood. That was the one explanation I could come up with for why he had seemed so grumpy. But, when he was with me he was perfectly fine. It took Sap making a sudden reappearance covering my eyes to change that right around again.

     "Guess what?" Sap asked brightly.

     "What?"

Amaranth sighed loudly. I snuck a peek from between Sap's fingers to see him shaking his head.

     "Something wrong, Am?" Sap asked him.

His genuine concern confused me further. If he and Amaranth had gotten in some kind of fight, Sap wasn't letting on about something like that at all. It was more like he was completely oblivious to Amaranth's attitude towards him. With Amaranth having not made a single mention of any bad air between them, there was a strong chance I wasn't going to get any kind of explanation from him either.

     "No. Nothing." Amaranth answered back as normally as possible.

     "Good." Sap said before dropping his hands and showing me a flower, "I found this on the hill. I don't know if you like flowers that much, but I thought this was pretty and that you might find it pretty too."

     "Thanks. I love flowers." I told him as I accepted the small present.

I went to put the flower near my wrapped up shell. I ended up meeting up with Eden, who was getting more sunscreen out of his bag. He invited me in joining in a water balloon fight. Of course I wasn't going to turn that down! He and Blaze had already filled up half of the balloons, but Amaranth, Allium, Frost, and I helped to do the rest. Half of the others were still playing tag and the other half were swimming again. It was just the five of us. We attempted to try doing teams, but we quickly found it much more exciting to simply throw the balloons at whomever we wanted to throw them at. I felt bad, but I had to laugh at how easy it was to hit Eden. His aim was terrible, and his ability at dodging was just as bad. Allium managed to knock him over with one good hit. I was a little worried he was hurt, but Eden laughed it off and rejoined the battle.

I had worked up an ever stronger appetite than before by the time we ran out of balloons to throw. Thankfully, Blaze had been working on another massive supply of hotdogs while we had been playing. He and Eden pushed together some of the picnic tables so we could all eat together. I noticed that Amaranth practically jumped into the seat across from mine the instant I went for a spot.

Presents came after the hotdogs and cake. It surprised me, but I was much more nervous receiving presents than I was giving them. Playing with my friends was fine, but my heart pounded so furiously when all of their attention was on me. I couldn't understand how Allium liked drawing people's gaze to him. I would rather stand in the crowd than be in the spotlight. The other thing causing me panic was that I didn't want to give the wrong reaction to anyone's present. I didn't mind what I got, but there was still so much I didn't know. I couldn't act confused at all if I had no idea what I had been given. It was a lot of pressure. In truth, I don't remember most of that part of the party because I was so terrified.

The presents turned out to all be great, but I was relieved when we went back to playing. The lone reason I paid attention to the fact that an hour passed by was because the stomachache I had gotten from eating too much faded. Us girls sat in the shallow water and enjoyed its cool touch. The boys roughhoused and kicked sand at each other. I took a quick break from the waves to get some juice. That was when I spotted Eden and Blaze speaking to each in other hushes tones over in the corner of the beach. They both looked really worried.

I didn't have any plans of going over to see what the issue was, for I just had this feeling it wouldn't be anything I would want to hear. In the end, I was proven right not more than five minutes later. The boys had come over and started splashing us girl to get us out of the water so another game of tag could be started. I didn't join in because I wanted more to drink. The sun and all the salt water was making me really thirsty. It took me two seconds to down another juice box. I had just thrown it away when Eden made his way over. He gave me a reluctant and apologetic smile. I was already frowning before he could open his mouth.

     "Hey," he began sort of timidly as he pretended he didn't have bad news, "I know this isn't going to make you happy, but something's come up. We're...kinda gonna have to end your party here."

     "What?!" I exclaimed.

I had expected something unpleasant, but I hadn't thought it would go that far!

     "We're still supposed to be at the beach for another hour. Then we were supposed to go to the movies!" I reminded him.

     "I know. I know. But trust me. This is the last thing I want to do, especially since this is your first birthday party," he said that part really quietly, "But this is out of my hands. It's for the best that we let everyone go home."

     "Why?!"

     "I will tell you later."

     "I'm not leaving if you won't even give me a reason as to why!"

     "Meadow," Eden said sternly, "This is not up for debate, and I'm not going to waste time arguing with you."

I folded my arms and turned away. Eden sighed and went around to tell the others the news. I focused on grinding the sand with my heel. It helped to stop me from crying.

My friends didn't take the canceling of the party much better than I did, but I was the only one who could truly be outwardly troublesome about the whole affair. By the time we left, Eden knew exactly how upset I was. I would have been amused at how us walking home with me in front with him trailing behind was the opposite of when Amaranth and I snuck out had I not been so infuriated. I did wonder for a moment, however, what I would do if Eden came over to me crying like I had done to him. I guess then I would have to forgive him.

Eden didn't coming crying though. He wandered into the kitchen to put the extra food from the party away before making his way upstairs. Perhaps he was hiding from me, because he stayed up there for a long while. I had no idea what else I should do other than sit myself down in front of the television and cuddle Fluff to try and forget that my first real birthday had suddenly turned so miserable.

I kept on ignoring Eden even when he finally came back downstairs and sat next to me. Not once did I move my eyes away from the television or Fluff. It wasn't that I cared, but it was clear Eden didn't know what to say. He simply sat there- looking at me and not looking at me. He was probably trying to decide if it was worth attempting to start a conversation.

     "Hey, Ethereal," he did eventually begin, "I figure you won't answer me, but we both know you can hear me so I'm going to talk anyway."

I had half a mind to turn up the volume on the television to a ridiculously high level, but the remote was on the couch and I wasn't that into the idea to get myself up off the floor.

     "You gotta know that I didn't stop your party because I wanted to. Trust me, I know what it's like to have an awful birthday. Try imagining how it feels to have no one care at all or to have some lazy effort put together at the last second by people who felt nothing but pity for you. That's how it was for me before I met Coal and Blaze." Eden said dismally.

I frowned. I hated it when Eden played the "I-Never-Got-Adopted" card on me. He had done it several times since he told me about himself. I hated him doing so because it did stop me from being mad at him almost instantly.

     "And I'm not saying that to make you feel guilty," Eden continued, "You have every right to be upset. I just want you to know that I understand what you feel, and I simply hope that it helps you to see that I wouldn't have done what I did had I not had a ridiculously good reason for it."

     "So what was the reason?" I couldn't help but to ask.

     "Blaze caught wind that there had been a jail break. A very bad man, whose crimes all centered around hurting children, had been spotted close enough to cause concern. You all were there with me and Blaze, but we just felt it was best to get everyone home safe for the moment until the situation got under control. I didn't say anything about it at the party because I didn't want anyone to panic." Eden explained.

     "Hmmm," I contemplated, "I guess I can accept that."

     "That's one relief for me."

Eden smiled brightly then, which made me give him a look. I frowned at him again when he gently took Fluff out of my arms and pulled me up.

     "What are you doing?" I asked in confusion when he tried to get my to do something with my arms and place me on his feet.

     "Trying to cheer you up. You didn't get to go to the dance, but listen to that music from your show. It's perfect for us to waltz to." Eden explained merrily.

     "Oh."

I cooperated with him after that. Eden got me situated on top of his feet, and after a bit of stumbling were were moving around in small circles. It didn't take long for me to get dizzy, but I was enjoying myself immensely.

     "You're actually not a bad dancer." I pointed out.

     "Well, it's hard for me to step on your feet when your on top of mine," Eden laughed, "We try anything more than this and I'll be falling on you."

      "Let's not do that then." I agreed with a laugh of my own.

Our dance ended a moment later when the music stopped.

     "Better?" Eden asked.

     "Yeah." I admitted in amusement.

     "Good. Now come upstairs with me. I think I have something that will make you forget about your canceled party fiasco."

     "What is it?"

     "My birthday present to you. I didn't give one to you at the beach, remember? That was because I couldn't."

I stared at him in confusion again.

     "Just come on." Eden prompted.

Eden led me up the stairs. I realized as we were walking up that him having spent so much time on the second floor earlier hadn't been because he had been avoiding me. He must have been getting my present ready. My eyes were covered when I was led through the door. Eden turned me a bit. I was facing my dresser when he took his hands away. I instantly saw my reflection. There was now a really pretty mirror on the wall. There was also a picture of some cute dogs.

I shifted more to the left because I had spotted something else. My mouth dropped open.

     "You got me a puppy?!" I said in an ecstatic whisper.

I was so overcome I couldn't manage to make my voice any louder.

     "I had nine other birthdays to make up for, so I figured I should go all out with your first official birthday present from me." Eden explained.

     "I absolutely love you."

     "I take it that means I'm forgiven?"

     "Yeah."

Eden laughed yet again.

I walked quietly over to the dog bed. The puppy was sleeping. I didn't want to wake it up, but it woke up anyway. Thankfully, the puppy didn't seem to mind. It bounded right over and nuzzled it's head against my hand as I went to pet it.

     "It is a boy or a girl?" I asked.

     "She's a girl."

     "Okay. What breed is she?"

I knew absolutely nothing about dogs.

     "She's about as much of a mutt as a dog can get. She's probably a mix of a dozen breeds at least."

     "That's okay. I think she's as cute as a button," I said before getting an idea, "Oo! That's what I'll call her. Button!"

     "Button it is then." Eden agreed.

A few weeks later, Button and I were inseparable. It didn't help that we rarely had the chance to be apart. My lessons had continued during the summer because I had so much to catch up on. Button rested on my lap while I worked. She followed me around while I did my chores and played. She slept more often on my bed with me than she did in her own. I even snuck her in my baths with me when Eden wasn't paying attention.

I made sure to take her out on walks everyday. With the bad man having gone back to jail, Eden was content to let us wander. It was one particular Saturday when we were gone for longer than normal. That was because we ran into Sap. We were walking in one direction. He was coming from another. We met up at an intersection.

     "Hi, Meadow," he beamed at me, "Is this your puppy?"

     "Yup. This is Button."

     "She's really cute."

     "Thanks."

     "Do you really like animals?" Sap asked.

     "I love them! I even tried to convince Eden to get me another puppy so Button could have a friend, but he said one was more than enough." I giggled.

     "I'll say! It's a rare thing to get a puppy as a present in the first place. You're lucky," Sap gushed, "But I have an idea. It might not be a puppy you get to keep, but do you want to go see some horses?"

     "Horses? Definitely! I've never seen one in person before."

     "Great. We just have to head up this hill then."

Sap explained to me where we were going while we walked. A woman named Shining Bright owned some stables. When Sap told me she was all yellow, I wondered if she was the yellow woman I had mistaken for Ms. Yellow at Amaranth's party. Anyway, she gave lessons to those who lived nearby and would occasionally allow the children in town to have free rides if she wasn't busy. Sap and I discovered that there were people around when we reached the stables, but it wasn't who we were looking for. It was Mr. Sweet, Cocoa's dad, and an all red lady I didn't know.

     "Hi there, Sap and Meadow." Mr. Sweet called as he did some jumping jacks.

We both gave Hi's back.

     "Hi, Sap. Nice to meet you, Meadow, was it?" The red lady said.

I nodded, but fiddled nervously. I was alright with some people right off the bat, but most of the time I got really scared whenever I met someone for the first time. I had thought it was me continuing to be paranoid about anyone finding out my secret, but Eden had pointed out that I was most likely just shy by nature.

     "This is Mrs. Blush. She's one of the teachers at school." Sap introduced.

     "I haven't seen you in the halls before. Did you just move here?" Mrs. Blush asked me.

     "My brother and I moved here at the beginning of summer. He home schools me." I told her.

     "That explains it."

     "Why are you two exercising here?" Sap asked to change the topic.

     "Shining has taken all the horses out of town for some big horse show. She asked me to watch the place for her while she's gone. Since Phlox and I are exercise buddies, I thought getting us out here in this scenic place and beautiful weather would be a nice change of pace." Mrs. Blush revealed.

     "Oh, okay. Do you mind if I show Meadow around?"

     "Go right on ahead. There's even some hay in the loft that needs to be scattered if you want. You should probably leave your cute puppy with us though if you go there."

We took her advice and left Button in the care of the adults while we wandered around the stables. It was disappointing that none of the horses were there for us to see, but as always I enjoyed listening to Sap's stories. He and his family went on trips during every vacation and break. He was more well traveled than most adults.

     "I'm so jealous, Sap," I had to admit, "You've lived a really cool life. I haven't done or seen anything amazing. I haven't even seen a horse, but you've ridden one many times. And an elephant. And a camel."

     "That's true, but I don't believe your life has been as boring as you say it has been. I'm sure if you think harder you can recount all sorts of fun stuff you got to do." Sap encouraged.

     "Nope. My life has been nothing but safe, boring, and routine. Trust me."

     "Well," Sap continued, "Then we'll have to change that. How about during winter break you come with me and my family on our next trip? That way you can get some amazing tales to tell."

     "Really? Your parents would actually bring me along?"

     "Sure. They've allowed me to bring friends before."

     "That would be great then! I'd love to go! Where would we be heading?" I asked eagerly.

     "Not sure yet, but it'll probably be someplace warm. We like to escape the cold winters here."

     "Does it get that bad?"

     "It can get rather awful, yes. A lot of snow and icy wind comes off the ocean."

     "Oh, yay." I cheered unenthusiastically.

Sap pointed to a corner when we reached the end of the stables. A tall ladder was situated there.

     "Here's how we get into the loft. Want to go up?" he asked.

I peered up into the loft. I had climbed up the ladder on my jungle gym many times, but this was a whole new ball park! Climbing up that high seemed terrifying. The ladder looked old and worn too.

     "I don't know." I mumbled.

     "Are you scared?" Sap asked with genuine concern.

I had tried to hide that I was, but I guess I hadn't done a good job of it.

     "A little," I admitted, "Like I said- safe, boring life. I haven't climbed up a ladder so tall."

     "Well, if you want I can stand under you so if you fall you'll land on me. I think you'll do just fine though if you try." Sap encouraged.

     "Mmmm." I mumbled again to delay making a decision.

     "But if you don't want to go up, we don't have to. It really is just a big room full of hay."

     "No, I think I...I want to try."

Sap smiled and motioned me forward. My determination already began to fail me in those few steps. My palms were sweating like crazy, leaving me to imagine slipping because of that. I brushed my hands on my shorts and forced myself to at least get on the first rung. Slowly, I moved up holding on with a death grip. I heard Sap move close to the ladder as I got higher, but I didn't dare look down.

I scrambled onto the solid floor when I reached the top. Sap smiled at me reassuringly, but he did laugh a little as well. I suppose I couldn't blame him. I would be laughing at myself too if I had been in his position. I had looked pretty silly rushing to get onto the floor.

Sap showed me where the pitchforks were kept before showing me how to properly scatter the hay.

     "Wanna give it a try?" he offered, holding out the pitchfork to me.

     "On any other day I would have said yes, but I just got this outfit. Eden would get upset if I got it dirty." I declined.

     "Got it. All of your clothes are really cute, so I can see why you don't want to mess them up."

     "Eden picks them out for me. I don't really know much about fashion."

     "You're still the one who wears them well."

     "Thanks."

I felt flustered for a second. I always seemed to get that way around Sap. It was like all he knew how to do was compliment me, which was indeed a little strange even if I didn't mind it. I watched Sap scatter the hay some more before I whipped around when I heard a noise I couldn't describe and then the sound of some scratchy, heavy breathing. There was no one else there though.

     "Something the matter?" Sap asked.

     "I heard a weird noise and some strange breathing."

     "That'll be the ghost."

     "Ghost?"

I was all ears.

     "This stable is really old. I think it was like 70 or 80 years ago there was a murder in this loft. A husband lived here with his wife, young daughter, and nephew who he was raising because his parents abandoned him after they discovered he had some mental problems. The nephew somehow got into believing that he was his uncle's actual son, and so he got really furious when he found out that the daughter was the one who was going to inherit everything. He lured her up here pretending that they were going to play, but he instead killed her by shoving hay down her throat until she suffocated. Since then, weird noises and breathing have been heard up here. The hay often goes missing. Most people say it's the daughter taking it away so her fate can't be repeated."

     "That's so sad."

     "The story didn't scare you?"

     "Nope. I love ghosts."

     "Good. Mrs. Bright sometimes lets us have sleepovers here to see if we can spot her. None of the other girls like to come, but you'll have to join us next time."

     "For sure."

Sap didn't spend too much longer scattering the hay. We took a minute looking out the windows to enjoy the view of the lot, but pretty soon we were making our way back down to the ground floor. I was a bit more confident going down the ladder since it was comforting to know the drop would be less instead of higher with every rung I moved. Button was a having a fun time running around Mr. Sweet and Mrs. Blush while they exercised, so Sap and I took a seat on one of the benches nearby. We continued our conversation. I think it was about ten minutes later when Pistachio suddenly showed up. She was looking for Sap because his parents wanted him home so the family could go somewhere. I was rather disappointed that he had to leave, but I didn't know what to think when after we said goodbye he suddenly bent over to give me a quick kiss on the cheek!

     "Haha, you don't need to look so shocked!" he laughed at me as he stood up, "Giving a quick peck on or near the cheek once or twice is what people in France do when they meet or say goodbye to someone they knew."

     "We're not in France though." I pointed out quietly.

     "I guess not, but I kinda picked up the habit. I did spend the whole summer there." Sap shrugged.

     "Well, I understand that then."

Sap smiled.

     "Alright. Welp, goodbye for real this time now." he said.

     "Bye."

He took off. I watched him and Pistachio leave before I returned my attention to Button and the two adults. They hadn't seen what had happened. I quickly forgot about the whole thing once Button bounded over to sit on my lap. Sap had done the kiss so casually. I did believe him that it was simply a friendly farewell peck.