I was annoyed when Eden walked through the door. The pounding of my head had prevented me for sleeping for some time, and, just when I had finally been about to drift off, the noise of him coming in to check on me pulled me right back into the world of the conscious that I was trying so desperately to escape from. I groaned as he knelt down next to me. That was pretty much all I could manage.
"Well, that answers my question of whether you're awake or not." Eden said.
"No thanks to you." I thought in irritation.
"Would you mind facing this way for a moment? I need to take your temperature again and give you your next dose of medicine."
"Don't wanna." I mumbled, tightening my hold on my sheets.
"Come on, Ethereal."
"No."
Eden sighed, but I then frowned when I could sense his expression changing into a snarky grin even though I couldn't see his face.
"Alright. But you know, I do have to check your temperature somehow. If you won't turn to face me, I can always go get the rectal thermometer."
I did shift ever so slightly to give him the nastiest of glares. He was indeed grinning down at me with a mischievous expression.
"You're the worst." I mumbled again, reluctantly rolling over to my other side even though it made my stomach churn harshly.
Eden just laughed.
What was even worse than Eden making me turn over was Eden making me sit up. Unfortunately, I didn't have a choice in the matter. My throat was too sore and swollen to drink my medicine lying down. The tightness of my throat also made it impossible to ignore the bitter, stinging taste as it went down. I cringed and stuck out my tongue in disgust.
"I hate this." I complained.
"I did warn you," Eden reminded me, "You shouldn't have gone splashing around in the rain without the proper gear on first."
"What does it matter?"
"It matters because your immune system is incredibly weak due to your isolation."
I stared at him in confusion.
"Didn't I explain this to you before?" Eden asked in surprised.
"No."
"Oh. I thought I did. I guess it makes sense then why my warning didn't have much impact."
"You're really the worst." I grumbled again.
"Sorry," Eden said sympathetically, "Let me give you the quick run down now. You know what vaccines are, right?"
I nodded.
"Okay, so the body does something similar on its own. When it comes into contact with germs or illness, it builds up defenses which can fend off both in the future. This is why parents are encouraged to allow their children to come into contact with common germs- as being exposed lets the children grow resistant to them. It's actually bad if young children are kept in sterile environments where they don't have that exposure. Like you. Eminence was always scrubbed clean. I doubt Swirl had much physical contact with you, and even then she wasn't around you for long. I was the only one bringing in a small portion of the germs you should have come into contact with. Your body never got the chance to build up its defenses. Now that you're here in the outside world you're bound to get sick, and get sick often, because of that."
"Great..."
I would have complained more if I had had the energy to do so. Instead, I flopped back onto my bed. The medicine Eden had given me was thankfully making me exhausted. I would whine and make a big fuss later after I got sleep. If Eden was right and I would be getting sick often- a tantrum was most warranted. The Company had stolen ten years of true living away from me. Now they were still keeping me stuck inside my room because I was never around any stupid germs.
Eden disappeared for a moment, but he was soon back.
"Here. You forgot Fluff downstairs."
"Mm."
"I'll just put him down," Eden said gently as he set Fluff next to me on the mattress, "I'll be in my office working-"
"Like always."
"Yes, like always. If you need anything, I'll be there." Eden answered with a chuckle.
I nodded ever so slightly. Eden kissed me on the forehead before making his departure.
The medicine did do the trick in making sure that I drifted off. I didn't even have the time to snuggle Fluff against me before I fell asleep. I was out of it for a while, but it felt like only minutes. However, I wasn't annoyed. The medicine and the sleep had given me a boost. My head didn't throb so much. I could breathe without my throat aching, and I felt properly lucid for the first time since yesterday morning when the fever struck me. I nearly jumped though, for I hadn't woken up for no reason. Someone else had entered the room.
"Frost?" I mumbled in confusion, rubbing my eyes as I sat up to make sure I wasn't seeing things.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you." he apologized.
"It's alright, but why are you here? I can't imagine Eden let you come in here with me being sick."
"He said it would be alright because I'll only be here for a few minutes. Besides, you don't need to worry about me getting sick. I always seem to be the one getting left out of catching the nasty colds that bother everyone else."
"I'm the opposite way." I revealed, recalling what Eden had told me.
"Sorry to hear that. Hopefully this will cheer you up."
I tried to sit up, but I was barely able to turn over to my other side as Frost walked to my nightstand. He placed a vase of white flowers down.
"Sun asked me to bring these over to you. They felt bad that you had to miss the dance tonight because of you getting sick. There really aren't any green flowers, so they decided to get white ones since you told us you like white." he explained.
I felt nervous as Frost turned his head to study my room.
"And you really do like white, don't you? Your walls are half white, your sheets are white, your teddy bear-" Frost laughed, "There's barely any green on him at all."
I avoided his gaze.
"Do you think it's weird?" I asked quietly.
"Nope. I mean, have you seen Am's room? He's got more of every other color in there than he does red."
"True." I recalled, feeling relieved.
"Besides, just because we're a certain color doesn't mean we have to like that color and that color only. I can't believe people used to get in trouble for having rooms like this. Why does the color we're born as have to determine every little thing about us?"
"I like that way of thinking."
Frost smiled.
Feeling better the longer I was awake, I sat up to smell the flowers. Well, I attempted to smell them. My nose was still too clogged up to catch even the most rancid of scents. I pulled the covers off of me as I had been sweating a lot, and they were beginning to feel too damp for comfort. I frowned when Frost joined me on sitting on the bed.
"You really shouldn't stay here for much longer." I warned.
I didn't entirely believe him when he said he never got sick.
"It'll be fine. Promise," Frost said confidently, "Besides, Eden said to talk to you for a moment if you woke up. He said you're bored and probably down about missing the dance."
"Bored, yes. Sad about the dance, not really. I was excited about getting all dressed up and spending time with Eden, but I think being around all the dads and daughters would have depressed me."
"It's good that you're not that upset then."
Frost's voice was slightly hesitant. I figured he wasn't exactly prepped for comforting me about my lack of parents.
"What's your favorite color?" I asked to change the subject.
"My favorite color? Why?"
"We were talking about how white is mine. I want to know what yours is."
"It's..."
Frost laughed loudly.
"Blue. I know I just said all that stuff about our color not determining our preferences, so I swear me liking blue is only a coincidence."
"I understand," I said, though I was giggling as well, "The whole point is that we can like what we like. I'm allowed to like white despite being green. You're allowed to like blue without your coloring being the reason for that."
"Exactly." Frost agreed.
He looked at me brightly, but he nonchalantly slid off the bed when I had a small coughing bit. It was that which convinced him that he really shouldn't stay around me.
"I hope you feel better soon, Meadow. You gotta at least be better by Tuesday."
"How come?"
"That's when Am's birthday party is. He doesn't actually like celebrations, not for himself anyway. I think he has just had dinner with Blaze in the past, but this morning he decided he suddenly wanted a party. It'll be at the park in the city. Am said he would have Blaze call Eden with better details once they got everything set up properly."
"I'm looking forward to it. He's turning eleven then?" I asked.
"No, Am's the baby in our group. He's turning ten."
"That's kinda funny because he seems like he's the oldest," I laughed, but then frowned, "You're really going to want to leave, Frost. I can feel some more coughing coming."
"Do you want me to get Eden for you?" Frost asked with concern.
"That's alright. It's not bad at all compared to yesterday."
"That's good. Well, I'll see you soon."
"See you."
Frost left. I coughed without restraint once he was out of earshot. I then was able to fall back asleep with the thoughts of attending my first birthday party helping to lull me to unconsciousness.
I was mostly better by the next day. When Tuesday rolled around, I was completely healthy once more. Amaranth's party didn't start until noon. Eden had a hard time keeping me content until it was time for us to leave. It wasn't a dress up kind of event, but I picked out a nicer outfit than normal since I had missed out on the chance to wear the fancy dress Eden had bought me for the dance. I bounced around all giddy in it at the house, but I did slightly regret the choice once I was at the park. There was little difference between the party and how my group of friends normally played together. That meant there was a lot of running around and getting dirty. And getting wet. Blaze supplied massive buckets of water balloons that Amaranth, Allium, Sunflower, and I tossed at each other with lighthearted fury. There wasn't a winning team because we ran out of balloons before either side gave up.
The six of us took over the playground after that. Eden let me borrow his phone so we could have a competition to see who could go down the slide the fastest. Frost and Sunflower tied. Summer was really picking up though, so our antics on the playground didn't last long. We had to retreat inside to play arcade games. Not that any of us truly minded. Paying for unlimited access to the arcade had been the thing that Blaze had been grumbling about when Amaranth said he wanted his party at the city park. He made us promise that we had to play in there until we felt like we were going to drop. That was another thing none of us minded. Sunflower racked up a high score on the whack-a-gnome machine. Amaranth, Frost, and Allium competed for the best score on skeeball.
Frost was kind enough to let me have a turn between one of the rounds, but it turned out that skeeball was not my game. I couldn't get the ball in any other hole than the one worth the lowest amount of points. I even got one of the balls to skid and somehow jump onto the ramp to the right. That sent the boys into fits of laughter, and I decided to go for a game that suited me better. It was Sunset who suggested it. I think she regretted her choice to oppose me when I got my groove back and absolutely dominated her. We played seven times. I won each round. Only once did Sunset get close to beating me.
When we all took a quick break from video games, we found Blaze making an absurd amount of hotdogs outside on the grill. The others went back inside to keep playing, but I hung around Blaze for a bit. Watching him cook was mesmerizing. It wasn't that he was doing anything special. Seeing food being cooked was simply really appealing to me. Given how bland and routine my diet had been with The Company, to be able to discover the sheer amount of things available for me to eat was fascinating. I was ecstatic when Blaze let me turn a few of the hot dogs. Eden was too scared that I would catch something on fire, so he never allowed me to help him cook.
I found out there were two reasons why Blaze made so many hotdogs. The first reason was because he offered them up to the other visitors to the park. The second reason was more surprising. Blaze said he would give passes for another arcade visit on another day to the winner of the hotdog eating contest he suggested we have. It was definitely for his own amusement more than him being generous to us. Eden was against the idea entirely as he was afraid we would choke. I was scared of that too, which is why I declined to participate. Blaze was disappointed when Amaranth, Frost, and Allium all said no as well. Surprisingly, it was Sunset and Sunflower who were more than willing to participate. Blaze prepared massive plates for them, and the two were off. Both Eden and Allium chose not to watch. Eden was still against the idea, and Allium apparently had a weak stomach. In this instance, it was Sunset's turn to win. She finished her hotdogs in record time. I was glad for her, but I also felt nauseous at watching her devour that much food so quickly.
Blaze had brought a huge cake to the park as well. We reasoned it would be better to wait to cut and eat it. Sunset and Sunflower were naturally in no mood to eat after their competition, and the rest of us were also full from our normal plates of hotdogs.
The better option we came up with was having Amaranth open his presents. I felt nervous and embarrassed just like I felt nervous and embarrassed when I gave Eden his CD. My brother had helped me to pick out the gift this time, but I remained afraid that Amaranth wouldn't like what we bought. Unfortunately, the others had a rule that the recipient had to open the presents based off the ages of the givers. The adults didn't count, so since I was apparently the oldest of the group it meant Amaranth opened my gift first. I nearly fainted, or that's at least what it felt like, when I handed the box over. Amaranth's glowing face when he dug into the box to get to his present calmed my nerves. What Eden had helped me pick out was a new lens for Amaranth's telescope.
Eden told me later that the lens was something Amaranth had been bugging Blaze about for months. I pouted when I heard that. There had been no need for me to worry at all if I had been given that information beforehand.
The birthday party was going so well even if I was getting tired. I had done so much running around and eaten so much food. Those two things occurring at the same time meant you had one sleepy me. The other five were winding down too, so we broke apart for a bit. Frost, Sunset and Sunflower went inside. Allium took up a comfy spot on the grass in some shade. Amaranth sat at the picnic tables with Blaze. I made the best opportunity I could out of the empty playground. The jungle gym rapidly became my preferred spot. The few months that separated the current me from the isolated me had done nothing to lessen my love of a higher view. I enjoyed myself for several minutes.
Until she showed up. My heart skipped a beat when she came strolling into the park without a care. How could she be here? I froze when she turned her head and glanced at me. She gave me a smile and continued on her way. I ducked down behind the wall. Why was that her reaction? Why was she just walking away without a glance back? Did she really not recognize me?
Shaking with fright, I slid down the pole with fervor and dashed across the park to find Eden as soon as she was far enough away. It took me too long to find him for my liking. I latched onto him with such force that I almost knocked him over.
"Okay there. Slow down a bit. I think all the junk food you've had today is giving you a major sugar rush." he chuckled.
I ignored him as I desperately pulled at his clothes to get him to bend over so I could whisper in his ear.
"What's up?" Eden asked curiously.
"It's Yellow!" I whispered furiously.
"What's yellow?"
"Not the color! Ms. Yellow!"
"Swirl? What?"
"Yeah! She's right over there!"
I pointed to where she had moved to.
Eden straightened up as he looked in the direction I pointed. I hurriedly hid behind him and clutched onto his hand tightly. My heart pounded faster than it ever had before. I wanted to yell at Eden. He didn't look nearly worried enough. Ms. Yellow probably hadn't recognized me because I was green now. However, she knew Eden. All it would take was her looking over our way and everything would be ruined. The silence that passed as he studied her was terrifying.
"You don't have to worry," Eden finally said as he turned back to me, "That's not Swirl."
"Yes, it is! You didn't look right!"
"I looked at her just fine."
"The fountains are blocking her! Or we're too far away!"
"Meadow," Eden said more sternly, "That's not her. Trust me. Swirl engrained her nasty face in my consciousness forever with all the lectures she gave me. I could pick her out in a crowd of entirely yellow women all dressed up the same. The water and the 100 feet between me and this woman here isn't enough to have me be mistaken."
"But..."
Eden allowed me to keep my death grip on his hand, but he forced me to glance past him at the woman. My vision swarmed for a second. I was so frightened that I came that close to passing out. The dizziness went away when I saw what Eden saw- the truth that that yellow woman was not Ms. Yellow. They shared the same skin and hair tone, but the structure of their faces was entirely different.
The woman started walking towards the northern part of the park. Eden watched her go, and I gently pressed myself against him. He rubbed his finger over the back of my hand as he gave it a reassuring squeeze.
"That gave my heart a jolt, but everything is fine in the end. You can go back to enjoying the party no-"
Eden's sentence was cut short when he noticed me crying.
"Meadow?"
I wrapped my arms around Eden, but I covered my face with my hands to hide my tears when he knelt down. It had been shown to me that that woman was not Yellow. She was no danger to me at all. However, I was growing more terrified by the second. I hadn't known it, but I had been building up a wall much like the ones that The Company had built around me. By living a lie as Meadow, I had been forgetting the consequences of what could happen if Eden or I messed up or got caught. Having believed for that brief moment that I would be taken back by The Company, that I would never see Eden again or know what they had done to him- it was more than I could handle.
"I want to go home."
My voice wavered as I spoke.
Eden's arms wrapped around me and held me close. I clung onto him instantly.
"Why don't just the two of us go sit in that quiet corner over there?" Eden began to suggest.
I hurriedly shook my head before he could continue, but he did continue anyway.
"I think it'll be better if we give you a chance to calm down instead of leaving the party. By the time we reach home, I'm sure you'll wish you were back here."
"No, I won't." I sniffled stubbornly.
"How about we give it five minutes?"
"No."
"I really think-"
"No."
"Don't be-"
"I want to go home!"
More tears slid down my already soaked cheeks. My annoyance that flared up had me lightly hitting Eden's back like I normally did. I would have thrown more of a fit had I not felt so weak. Eden knew how badly I was crying. I was shaking so much against him. Why was it taking so long for it to sink in that I needed to go where I felt safe?
"Alright," Eden finally agreed softly, "We'll go home."
I kept my hold on him tight and buried my face against his shoulder when he lifted me up. Eden shifted around for a second as he pulled out his car keys, but a voice distracted him.
"Are you two leaving?"
It was Amaranth. I hid against Eden even more so as to not let him see how awful my face had to look.
"Is Meadow crying?" Amaranth asked with concern before Eden could address his first question.
"Yeah," Eden answered, "You're going to have to forgive us since we are going to have to leave now. Meadow isn't feeling too great at the moment."
"She's sick?"
"No. It's...she just gets like this sometimes."
Eden paused. When he spoke again, there was something about his voice that made me think there was something hidden in what he was saying. It was almost if he was trying to keep something from me, but I couldn't figure out what or why that could be.
"Meadow is still having problems with everything that happened. She'll see something that will be a trigger for the bad memories, and she can't help but to get upset. She needs some time alone to calm down."
"I see," Amaranth acknowledged, "I understand. I hope you feel better soon, Meadow."
I managed a weak nod, but I didn't dare face Amaranth in any way.
"Tell Blaze I'll call him as soon as we get home. I'll have this one call you once she's not upset anymore." Eden said.
"Alright." Amaranth replied.
There was disappointment in his voice.
The drive back to the house passed in total silence. Even when we reached the house, Eden didn't say a word to me. He simply let me rush off to my room to finish crying and start getting a grip on myself again. I buried myself against my pillow for the longest time. It took a lot of strength and effort to flip over and sit a bit more properly. My mind became absorbed by the walls when I became obsessed with staring at them.
For the first time, I was scared of the white. The more I looked at it, the more the suffocation of entrapment caught my breath. White was ceasing to become a representative of me. It was instead becoming a reminder of how cruelly my life had been created and the harsh way it would have...could continue. I despised that my frail grasp at ignorance had been shattered. The intense paranoia wasn't an emotion I was fond of dealing with.
Which was why I entertained thoughts of never letting my lack of color return. It wasn't just The Company finding me that caused the idea. Amaranth, Allium, Frost, Sunset, and Sunflower were my friends. They liked me because they just happened to like me. If I was white, how could I ever be sure they were truly my friends? What if the only reason they chose to like me then was because of my color? I wouldn't be able to trust anyone if I had been white from the start. To others, being an albino meant being lucky. To me, it was turning into more of a curse.
I moved from my bedroom to the backyard after some time. I was letting myself get too carried away. The color and gentle wind of the outside world did the trick in helping me to calm down better. Sitting on the swing, I lazily kicked my foot against the ground. I didn't want to look up at Eden when he made an appearance, but I forced myself to do so anyway. He was smiling at me kindly.
"Doing better?" he asked.
"Yeah." I answered quietly.
"Do you want to talk at all?"
"No? I mean, I don't really have anything to say. You know what happened and why I was scared. There isn't much more to it than that."
"True, but we could simply talk talk." Eden shrugged.
"Yeah." I repeated softly.
Eden gave me a knowing look.
"I can sense you still want to be alone though."
I turned sheepish. Eden merely chuckled.
"It's fine. You take the time you need."
He said that, but he walked over to me. I watched Eden curiously as he pulled out his phone, pressed a few buttons on the screen, and then handed it to me.
"However, you have to call Am first and apologize for leaving his party before you can be on your own once more. I've brought up Blaze's number. He knows the next call will be from you, so Am should be the one picking up. Just hit the green phone icon." Eden explained in a firm, but gentle tone that told me I had no say in the matter, "Bring me my phone back when you're done."
He patted me on the head before leaving. I stared at him as he left, and then I stared at the phone's screen. It was incredibly difficult for me to push that button. Now that I was calmer, I felt horribly embarrassed about crying and terribly guilty about putting a damper on my friend's party. I think the only reason I went ahead and pushed the button was because the screen darkened to signal it was about to lock itself again. There was no way I was going to go to Eden to tell him he had to unlock it once more because I was too afraid to make the call.
My heart raced furiously as the phone dialed. I dreaded Amaranth picking up. I prayed with every ring that another ring would come- that the call would go to voicemail so I didn't have to deal with the issue directly. Unfortunately for me, there was a clicking noise. The ringing stopped.
"Meadow?"
It was indeed Amaranth who had answered.
"Hi." I said meekly.
"How are you doing?" Amaranth asked, his voice much brighter than before.
"I'm fine for the moment."
"Hmm, you still sound kinda down."
"That's because I feel bad." I admitted hesitantly.
"I thought you said you felt fine?" Amaranth spoke in confusion.
"I don't feel bad because I'm upset. I feel sorta embarrassed that I cried in public, and I feel bad because I left your party early and was a mood killer on your birthday."
There was a brief pause from Amaranth that sent my heart racing again, but he spoke his next words even more cheerfully than before.
"Aw, Meadow, you don't have to worry about any of that. To tell the truth, I was a little disappointed when you left. I got over that so fast though. I get that you've been through a lot, so how can I get upset when you're the one actually hurting? And the crying thing, well, I was the only one who saw you, so that's really no problem either."
I pulled the phone away from my ear slightly. The last thing I had expected was Amaranth to be so genuinely understanding.
"Meadow?" Amaranth called again when I didn't respond.
"Sorry, I'm here," I apologized, "I was just a little stunned. What you said cheered me right up."
"Great! I'm glad I helped."
"Thanks."
"No prob. Oh, and I got something that might cheer you up even more. We shared my cake with the other people at the park like we did with the hotdogs, but Blaze and I made sure to save some for you and Eden to have later too."
"Really?"
"Yeah. We'll get it to you soon."
"I'll look forward to it."
Amaranth began to respond to that, but his sentence cut off abruptly. I could tell he had moved the phone away from his face when I heard his and Blaze's muffled voices talking to the other. Amaranth exhaled in frustration when he returned to the call.
"Apparently, I already have to hang up. Blaze is such a cheapskate. He refuses to get unlimited calling for his phone, and he's almost out of minutes."
"That's alright. I'll just have to talk to you in person."
"Yeah," Amaranth agreed brightly, "That's more fun anyway. So, I'll talk to you then."
"Talk to you later."
"Bye."
"Bye."
Just before Amaranth hung up, I heard Blaze in the background chastising him for taking too long. I laughed.
I delayed a bit before I brought Eden's phone back to him. It was the first time I had ever had full access to it without him being around. There was no way I wasn't going to sneak. Thankfully, Eden had showed me enough about how to use it to the point where I could search around without messing anything up. Unfortunately, Eden's phone was boring. There was nothing on it save for the pictures of us he taken with it. The lone thing that caused me any sort of curiosity was his call history. It was no wonder Blaze had few minutes left. Eden was calling him and Blaze was calling Eden several times a day. Whenever they were together in person, they could chat for hours on end. It really didn't surprise me that they were the same way on the phone.
Pressing the lock button, I moved into the house in a mannerly fashion so as not to arouse suspicion. However, I was the one in for a surprise when I walked through the back door. I instantly made my way into the kitchen when I saw Eden standing there next to something I had never seen before. Eden was finishing throwing away some cardboard, so I assumed he had only just gotten the box thing in front of me set up.
"What is this?" I asked curiously.
"It's your present." Eden said, beaming.
"My present?"
"I kinda stole your idea. I've never been able to get you a birthday present either, so I figured I would get you something now. Hope you don't mind." he laughed.
I didn't even notice him casually taking his phone out of my hand as I inspected my gift more closely.
"What exactly is it?" I asked, "Wait, it looks like an oven somewhat."
"It is a kind of oven- one that's designed especially for kids."
Eden rolled his eyes at himself when he paused.
"I'm sorry I'm so paranoid about letting you help me use the real oven and stove. I don't mean to be, but I just am. This thing, however, will let you dish up some basic recipes while eliminating almost all chances of something catching on fire."
I practically jumped up at Eden to give him a huge hug. All the negative thoughts that had been burdening my mind before we swept away entirely due to his gesture.
"I'll show you how it works, and then I'll let you get to it. I've hopefully bought enough ingredients to keep you busy for a few hours." he explained lightheartedly as he motion to a large box I hadn't noticed before on the counter.
It didn't take long for me to figure out how to use my new oven. All I had to do was set the temperature and press a few buttons. Eden, surprisingly- not, eventually left for his office to do more work. I was free to break in my gift without any distractions. I took a quick glance at the recipe book that had come with it, but I tossed it aside before too long. I could barely read anything in there. More importantly, I had more fun making up the recipes on my own. I really was preoccupied for hours.
I leapt a mile high in fright when the doorbell rang, for I had been so distracted by my work. I let a moment pass to see if there were any signs that Eden was going to get it, but there were none. That left me to go see who the visitor was.
It turned out that Eden and I had visitors. I was mildly perplexed when I saw Blaze and Amaranth there. I know Amaranth had said they would bring the cake soon, but I had hardly expected him to mean that day.
"Hi." Blaze waved.
"Hi." I responded somewhat softly due to my confusion.
"Eden invited us over. He said you were cooking dinner."
"I am? I mean...Eden bought me a toy oven, but I've only made muffins." I explained.
"Given the rest of what we've all eaten today, they're probably the closest thing to a proper meal yet."
"I guess that's true," I giggled, "Come on in."
I gave Eden a frown as I spotted him coming down the stairs as Blaze and Amaranth entered. I wished he had told me he had called them over as I would have liked to have tried to make proper food for us to eat instead. Eden simply gave me a cheeky grin. We all sat down at the table right away. It had escaped my notice that it was already dinnertime. Facing another bout of nervousness when I served my muffins, I did what I could to keep a straight face. Eden, Blaze, and Amaranth said they were good, but I wasn't completely sure whether they were just being nice or not. I took the conversation away from my cooking.
"How did the rest of the party go?" I asked Amaranth.
"It was fine. You didn't actually miss all that much. Everyone was tired after we ate the cake, so we decided to call it a day there." he explained.
"Which I'm still not happy about. You lot didn't spend enough time in the arcade. Those passes were expensive." Blaze complained dramatically.
"Can I stay the night over here?" Amaranth teasingly asked, "He won't shut up about that. He's never had to cough up more than fifty dollars for my birthday before, so you think me wanting an actual party just this once wouldn't be that big of a deal."
"It's fine with me. I've never not known Blaze to be anything other than an earache." Eden joked along.
"I'm sure you'll be singing the same tune as me once Meadow's party comes along." Blaze pointed out.
"My party?"
It was the first time I had heard of such a thing.
"You've gotta be sure to make it big," Blaze prodded, "She'll be eleven, so it's her first birthday with a double number. Those are the lucky ones."
"I'm working on it." Eden mumbled.
"You know, Meadow, it's really amusing," Blaze spoke to me then, "You were born late enough in the summer to be in the same grade as this guy here, and this guy was born at the dead last second to be in the same grade as you. One day more and he would have been a grade below."
"I had no idea." I said in surprise.
"Speaking of which, you still have a few days left if you want to register her at the elementary, Eden."
"I'm not discussing this with you again, Blaze. Meadow needs to be home schooled for this next year at the very least before I consider putting her in normal school again."
"I still think just getting her out there would be the best."
"What do you know, Mr. Repeat-Senior-Year?"
"I just liked high school so much that I didn't want to leave."
I watched Amaranth subtly bend over to pull out a tupperwear of cake from the bag Blaze had brought with him.
"Wanna go have dessert outside?" he suggested softly.
I nodded. Amaranth and I grabbed our plates to make our nonchalant exit out of the dining room. Eden and Blaze watched us go for a brief second, but soon returned to their bickering, which was like that of an old married couple, as we left.
I am not surprised that she got the flu from splashing the puddles in her sandals lol
ReplyDeleteThe party looked like fun!