3 Pre-birthday shopping

She was having an awesome dream about the last few weeks of her summer holidays when the merciless alarm clock woke her up. Good bye, sweet dreams, rest in peace.

After she groggily sat up on her bed in an attempt to get out of it she looked at the alarm clock and was shocked. Didn't she set it to 8 am? How come it was already half past 10?

"Oh, wait, I hit the sleep button didn't I..." she thought when she saw the "zzz"-symbol at the corner of her clock. At least the reserve alarm she set yesterday morning went off or she would've slept though another two hours.

"She's so going to kill me! I'm over an hour late!"

Realizing that she was late for the meet-up with her friend she jumped out off her bed and dashed to her closet. Arbitrarily selecting a top and a jeans she got dressed. Looking into the full-lenght mirror next to her a teenage girl was looking back at her.

It was a pretty girl with waistlong, wavy honeyblonde hair and clear blue eyes. Paired with her long eyelashes, straight nose, small mouth and ears and an overall petite body she was very pretty in an adorable way.

After putting on her socks she ran down the stairs, carefully, to prevent herself from slipping and falling down the whole 21 stairs. Hearing the elephant-like noise she created while rushing down the stairs her mother, sitting in the living room, spoke up.

"Are you finally up? I was worried you had fallen into a coma with the amount of sleep you need. But then again, a comatose person would never be able to snore as loud as you did." Chuckling while she watched her daughter putting on her shoes she asked:"Do you have enough pocket money for your shopping spree with Jade? If not, there should be another twenty dollars hanging at the fridge"

"I actually had more than enough but since you're offering, how could I refuse your kind offer mom? Thanks a lot! We will be back after the movie, so it will be about eight in the evening. Can you set up the ingredients until then? We will cook our own dinner."

"Sure thing, but please leave the kitchen whole, ok? Even if it's your birthday tomorrow, I will have you scrub the kitchen until it sparkles again if the mess is even half as much as the chaos you left behind last time."

"Ugh, mom, why did you have to remind me of this? It was an accident! And shouldn't you be in the hospital stitching up people? Why are you still here?" Blushing due to embarrasment, she grabbed the twenty dollars, stuffed them into her wallet and started walking towards the door.

"Well, since it's your birthday tomorrow and you decided to celebrate into it through the night with Jade both your father and I thought that you might want a breakfast maker in the morning. And besides, I only get so few days off, so I thought I could just hand in a sick leave. As long as I don't do it too often it won't be a problem, so relax."

"Are you seriously the chief surgeon at the main hospital? Aren't you being irresponsible?", she retorts to her mothers behaviour and thought, "If only my classmates knew that the highly praised chief surgeon of the country's top hospital would be so irresponsible... Well, it's for my birthday so should I feel proud to have such a caring mom?"

While she was lost in thoughts her mom replied:

" Well, I can just work on paperwork to get an aliby should someone question my work ethics, which probably won't happen anyway. By the way, didn't you plan to meet up with Jade at half past nine? She'll probably strangle you if you don't hurry up~"

Being reminded of that fact her daughter's face paled and she ran out of the front door while cursing.

"Why couldn't you tell me sooner?! And why didn't you wake me up if you knew?! I'm so screwed! Bye mom!"

Running into the garage she unlocked her bike and started pedaling at her maximum speed towards the city center, leaving behind her mom who started laughing.

...

After riding her bike like crazy she arrived at the market place in the city center. The plaza was huge, crowded with countless stalls surrounding an enormous fountain, which was also her meeting point with Jade. Forced to park her bike at the edge of the plaza she made her way to the fountain by foot.

As she walked closer to the fountains rim she could vaguely make out the silhoulette of her best friend Jade: Shoulderlong, black, straight hair and obsidian black eyes adorned her beautiful face. Added to that were her athletic build due to her martial art practises and a softly tanned skintone.

Hesitant because of her "slight" tardiness she slowly approached her best friend who was looking down at her mobile phone with a expression. Standing next to Jade, she coughed softly, trying to get her friends' attention.

The moment she looked up and saw her best friend standing awkwardly next to her her expression immediately changed from dark and annoyed to outright enraged.

"Oh my, what are you doing here Becca? You couldn't be here to meet me right? After all, our meeting time was a few hours earlier. I already thought you forgot our get-together, so I called some other girls to come meet up with me since I was already here after all. So, why are you at the city center?"

She asked with an ice-cold voice dripping with sarcasm. If a person listened closely enough he would actually be possible to hear her veins pop at this moment.

Because of the difference in their body sizes Rebecca felt only more intimidated. Feeling cold sweat running down her back, Rebecca hurriedly tried to explain:

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so late, but I had a flat tire, so please don't be angry, okay?"

"If you had a flat tire, why didn't you just call me and tell me you were getting here late? Plus you could've just borrowed your mom's bike. So stop lying and spit out the truth. You overslept, didn't you?"

Hanging her face in the face of her friend's accurate guess she nodded with an embarassed look on her face.

"I'm sorry. I think I accidentally hit the snooze button on my alarm and only woke up twenty-five minutes ago due to my other alarm I set for yesterdays doctor's appointent. I'm really really sorry, so please don't be angry anymore!"

Seeing that pleading expression on Rebecca's face Jade sighed and relented.

"It's alright, I should have guessed thet you overslept after the first thirty minutes passed and no one picked up when I called your mobile and your home number."

"Wait a sec, you called my home too? My mom should have picked it up since she called in a sick leave from the hospital. She couldn't have overheard it right?" Rebecca interrupted doubtfully, but twitching her shoulders she continued:

"Well, we can just ask her when we get home after the movie. We shoud get started with the shopping right?"

Rebecca started dragging Jade in the direction of the street stalls and shops.

"I guess we should, after all we have to make up the time you spent sleeping while I was waiting for you. But you will be paying for lunch and the snacks at the cinema as a waiting compensation"

Hearing these words Rebecca, who knew just too well how much of a foodie Jade was, felt her wallet crying in her coat pocket and could only sigh and pray that her allowence of the last few months would be enough.

But it still didn't stop her from enjoying a stroll with her best friend inside this crowd of shops and people.