-6-

Summer vacation kicks off tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it. My boss told me my shifts can be reduced to 5 hours a day. My weekends will be all mine to make room for kids who would like to apply for a summer job at the parking. This is perfect because the girls and I have been saving money in case we wanted to do something this summer.

At first I thought being friends with people who are already close together would be difficult but now after Blue's blessed my shoulder with her sleep drool, I can safely say that we've come a long way. In other words, I don't feel alienated anymore.

Blue, is a very family oriented person. She doesn't think of us as her friends but the full family she never had. Blue and Juicy (who I found myself calling Juice-Scar or Juicette on occasion) were both raised by their grandpa who was a calligraphy painter. He wrote on walls, billboards and such.

When they were younger, both Blue and Juicy hated their names and only were okay with them when he wrote their names in calligraphy to show them how lovely their names can be.

When talking about their parents, neither Blue or Juicy would show that much emotions considering they never knew them, and to them, their grandpa was enough. But it did affect them deeply mentioning how their parents passed drowning; they were vacationing somewhere close to shore. Both knew how to swim but their dad was swiftly deceived by the sea, their mom tried to save him but both didn't make it back.

Their grandpa's death was something entirely different. It affected them greatly and it was especially hard on Blue. He was the closest person to her heart. They shared secrets, vented to each other and he always laughed at her jokes no matter the times she over used them.

When he passed away, about 3 years prior to meeting me, Blue started losing a lot of herself. She never liked chocolate ice-cream, which was his favorite but suddenly it was her favorite too.

The same happened with orange juice, she juiced a fresh orange every morning after he'd passed even though he tried to convince her of having a sip his whole life but always failed. Also the way she crossed her arms under her pits was something he did.

"She always thought the air smelt of donuts though" Juicy would say.

One of the secrets Blue's grandpa shared is his only wish, that is getting on a plane. He died before he was given the chance.

The huge comfortable shoes Blue wore the first time she visited me at the parking building, and many times after are her grandpa's shoes. She thought walking in his shoes and catching a plane in sight might be a way of trying to make a hint of his dream come to life. Planes never flew around here and it only made her wear the shoes when she felt despair, which is rare.

When the littlest of things make her happy, I wonder:

"How is she Blue?"

Juicy-Scarlett is a person who loves so easily. I do believe if it weren't for this thing about her, I wouldn't have seen them a second time. Without her, I would've been working extra shifts at the parking building and would've missed the best 3 nights of this town's recent history!

A few weeks back the first movie theatre here had its grand opening. It was packed, the whole town was there as it was highly anticipated. Standing in line Juicy was sporting the grimmest face I've seen on her, it didn't suit her at all.

She started expressing how she wished a theatre was there all along. Where she could've lined-up for midnight Harry Potter premiers fully dressed holding on to her wand and love for the franchise. But she just saw that on the internet and felt betrayed.

"I would've related in a whole other level had I been given the chance to stand in line."

Irish being the amajing person she is, made us pitch in to rent the smallest theatre for a day. We printed out brochures that we hung all over town saying there will be a Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince (her favorite) premiere at midnight.

We dressed up like true fanatics, we did get into the spirit of it. So much so, that we went to the theatre 7 hours earlier, which was the worst thing to do to Danielle. Poor thing had to pee many times and the closest bathroom was locked so she had to walk a lot. But she did so gladly, yeah she tried not to drink too much fluids but it didn't really help her.

When it was an hour till midnight, people who dressed normally and in Harry Potter attire started coming. That's when Juicy's eyes drowned in tears, if my eyes weren't so dry, I would've cried along! She just looked so happy.

The line was long and the theatre was full. Some people were even furious they didn't get in due to the lack of tickets. It was so successful that the theatre itself played the remaining 2 parts of the franchise in bigger halls and it was an utter blast.

Blue yells at Juicy and I a lot, it's usually just her misunderstanding us. See Juicy's been teaching me a lot about Harry Potter in order for me to get the references she's constantly using. I started to understand her jokes better and laugh while Blue feels left out. When I start to explain the joke, that's what gets to Blue's nerves.

This one time Blue was angry with Danielle for swearing too much in front of Ammo and Dani came to Juicy for back up.

"What do I do when your sister turns into a monster?"

"You stroke her spine of course!" Juicy said and laughed so hard; jokes are always funnier to Juice when they're Harry Potter related.

"What does that mean?" Blue looked at us and then smirked, "wait, don't explain, I'm not stupid! Juicy is the Hufflepuff here." And laughed triumphantly before Juicy turned serious and pointed at her: "that's racist. You're such a Slytherin!"

Blue yelled: "HOW COME CALLING ME THAT IS NOT RACIST TOO!!!" And cursed at us that day more than crowds cursing at the team they're playing against when they watch football.

Blue didn't mind one reference though. We were at The Frosht and her ex showed up looking all smug, he ordered a coffee. When it was time for his order Juicy called his name and when he showed up front she yelled:

"Here's your tea ass face, we hope you get the grim". Blue started clap laughing like she does when something's genuinely amusing to her.

When we toned the Harry Potter thing down around Blue, she simply found a new way to boss us around. She started hissing at us when she thought we weren't formal enough dealing with people we didn't know. It was motherly and I lacked it for too long…

Other times they just fight on their own, Blue and Juice that is. They remind me so much of Miss Tea and her daughter who would yell at each other a minute, then would dip biscuits in tea and laugh together in another.

Juicy likes to push Blue's buttons, their most constant battle is always sense of humor related; Juice likes to flaunt that she's funnier.

"Why do I laugh at your jokes and you don't laugh at mine?" Is Blue's recurrent argument starter.

They also fought over what my color name would be. Let me explain, see, Blue's name is Blue-March with the color mentioned first whereas Juicy's is Juicy-Scarlet with the color mentioned second.

Why would I have a color name? Turns out Irish and Danielle both have such. Though, it was utterly spontaneous how they got them.

"Juicy sat on a chair and introduced herself" Danielle was telling her story, "she was like, hi I'm Juicy, Juicy Scarlett" trying to imitate how enthused Juice can get.

"And she was like," Juicy said snorting, "oh, I'm Ruthless, Ruthless Violet."

"You'd think I got embarrassed when I learned it was actually her name that I made fun of but I just told her how stupid it is" Dani teased.

"Iris on the other hand was reading a book" Blue started, "I was sleeping on her shoulder and she was telling me all about it"

"You know how I get excited?" Irish followed, "I yelled something like, it's such an amazing read, I was all in from the first to THE LAST FREAKIN BAGE!!!"

"Freakin' Bage?" Blue continued, "Freakin' Bage? And repeated it to make her notice the color while she just got pissed"

"Then Blue yelled spelling it, Freakin' B-E-I-G-E!!!" Irish said, "FREAKIN-BEIGE! And that's how the best name happened."

"I wonder how you'll get yours!" Juicy told me, "we got Juicy-Scarlett, Ruthless-Violet and Freakin-Beige in one hand, and the lame Blue-March in the other."

"That means you gotta be careful," Danielle said, "if the color comes first, the name won't be as awesome!"

Irish has the kindest heart. If there's anything she hates more than being alone is when someone else is left alone.

Jack was late to pick me up one time after I'd asked him if it was okay for him to give me a ride back home because I had to be at work the next day. Irish had a fever that night, it was so severe she spent the morning at the emergency room.

She couldn't go to sleep while I was waiting no matter how much I insisted she needed the rest. She brought a blanket, wrapped it around herself then laid her head on my knee, I could feel how warm it was. We were inside on the floor facing the wooden gate.

By the time Jack finally got home, I looked at her and she was sound asleep with her mouth open, I pressed on her chin to help close it.

I didn't notice she was asleep because she was talking, turns out she was sleep talking. She talked about her dad, how he's not there, how he always left her heartlessly, how he didn't even ask when she fell ill… she talked about Jack, how grateful she is that he's around, that he didn't leave her as well… she talked about us, that we fill both her house and heart.

After I'd heard that I looked at her and couldn't move; she bottled things too much. Jack told me he could carry her upstairs then take me home, but that time I just couldn't leave her.

She did take me on the long bus drive she promised when the girls had their exams and now I love buses even more. When we renewed our bus passes and it was time to take the picture, both ended up with both our faces.

We did have our down moments though, one time I was with Irish and told her I had to leave. She looked at Jack and expressed how tired he looked. I told her I didn't ask him for a ride and she yelled that she didn't want me to walk alone in the dark, which she knew by then I feared. But I went and shouted that I didn't force him to be my chauffeur and I could take care of myself then apologijed that I tired Jack with me and was off.

She then texted me a picture of her bus pass with both of us making goofy faces and said: "I'll use this to see you tomorrow."

Then came the day I learned she's a clumsy eater, she can't leave the dinner table without a smudge on her blouse. That was why she never ate out, and also why she always smells of fresh laundry; she constantly has to change her clothes.

Danielle has a tee shirt that says: "If it got crumbs, that's Iris's bottle." That was something Juicy said once when Mellow was disgusted by the water bottle she found in the fridge. It made Irish so mad, every time Danielle wears that tee shirt, Juicy gets denied a break from work. Safe to say, it's Danielle's favorite top.

March 25th was Danielle's birthday and she likes her celebrations just like how she likes her hair, extravagant. Now her hair is green and it actually looks better than the purple. When Irish first saw Danielle's new hair she was like:

"Her face is something like the sky, how the sky is magically the perfect background for any given photo. Her face is the perfect front if that made sense to you as it did in my brain. Now you see why I don't' share what I write with you! I start well then suddenly I'm lost and end on a low point but whatever."

On Dani's birthday I woke up to 3 knocks on my door. I went to answer but I noticed someone's slipped an envelope under it.

"Dear Bliss,

Welcome to Danielle's Scavenger Hunt!!!

Through the duration of getting to know you, we've been some places where I left some things that marked my presence…

The task is simple,

All you have to do is collect as many "Danielle Was Here" tags as possible…

The person with the most tags wins my heart. Not. Just bring the damn things and have fun!

We meet at 11 o'clock, Iris's residence.

P.S.

Someone laughed at me today for wearing shoulder pads! I wasn't wearing any haha my shoulders are too broad for my size.

P.P.S.

That got nothing to do with anything.

P.P.P.S.

Good luck."

The first place I went to was work, the mini fan she left there had a tag on, I just never knew it was meant for something bigger. But then it got tricky… I started to really focus on picturing Danielle's face as an attempt to help my mind recall the places we've been.

That lead me to "The Cafeteria" … I was just hungry; I get that from thinking too hard. I went in and asked Jade for the usual. I looked at him and realized how long it's been since I've seen his face…

Before I left the place something weird happened. I turned around, yelled his name dramatically god knows why and smiled. He smiled back and I noticed something…

"You got your tooth fixed!" I said and I can't explain why but something about me was disappointed he actually fixed it.

"Yeah," he said, "my nana one day started yelling frantically" and suddenly his voice went from calm and deep to high and pitchy imitating what I assume to be his nana and I couldn't but laugh, "boy if you call me Sasha one more time and I hear that whistle I'm gonna die unhappy" and then his voice went back to normal, "so I had to fix my tooth" he added awkwardly.

"It didn't make her laugh, huh?"

"Not really," he said with a smile, "she thought fixing it would make me look decent."

I don't agree with his nana. "Now I feel left out that you fixed your whistle, it was all the comfort I needed to have enough courage to finally talk" I said the first thing that popped in my head and saw him smile.

"We're still talking" he smiled and gave me my sandwich.

"Yeah," I said unsure and wished him a good day on my way out.

After I'd left Jade I had a slow come back at the scavenger hunt but then I looked at the parking building and remembered the numerous times Danielle's peed in the employee's stall. That's when my adrenalin kicked in.

I had to make sure I've checked all the places possible in my part before I went to the other part of town. Unfortunately, the bathroom stall didn't help much to add to the 3 tags I found here. I looked around the stall and found nothing, then I noticed something in very small writing:

"I've marked bathrooms enough, I'm not gonna mark it with my name too! Think harder.

P.S.

There was a joke there

P.P.S.

Cause I pee a lot

P.P.P.S.

Ugh, never mind."

I got frustrated briefly before I remembered when they all slept over at my place since Irish never experienced sleeping somewhere very noisy. Danielle brought a blanket along with her that she insisted to leave in my place. I found a tag sewn to it right on the washing instructions.

I grabbed my back bag and emptied it, threw the stuff I found in it and rushed to the bus station where I found the 3rd tag on the side of the water vending machine. I couldn't take it off but I took a picture of it. I must've prayed the whole ride downtown that it was okay that I only have a picture of the tag.

Maybe it was a silly game, but deep in my mind I thought I might not have to constantly try to win them over if I won this game. Like it would officially make me one of them. Not that they made me feel excluded but it was something I wanted for myself.

It was hilarious when I got to Irish'sh Frosht; Irish actually shut down the bakery that day. They let me in after desperately knocking on the door for about 10 minutes. Juicy did feel sorry for me when I smashed my nose on the door but she laughed it off too soon. I flipped tables and chairs and heard them laughing we already checked there and I was going crajzzzy.

Having so much fun is so daunting sometimes. But I was determined, I looked at the drinks pick-up station and remembered Danielle helping Juicy around! There were tags on sugar bags, on cup holders, on napkins, on lids and under the cinnamon and chocolate powder shakers. I found another in Irish'sh office and then we all agreed on going to Irish'sh house to look there. It was less than an hour away from 11 o'clock and it got so intense.

Everyone spread around all over the place once we got into the house, it was a tags gold mine! I didn't know where to start, but I caught glimpse of the kitchen and remembered how much Danielle likes to hug the fridge. There was a tag stuck on a magnet on the side of it.

Then before I knew it, everything was a blur after that but I do remember screaming, falling and also… winning!!!

It was an overwhelming feeling. Danielle took our bags, back bags and tote and left us in the library where Blue was laughing hysterically at the scratch Irish gave Juicy when they both went for the banana wrack. A few minutes later Danielle came back beaming and gave a sarcastic speech on how proud she is of how we handled this seriously.

She put a wooden box on the ground and helped me up, I stood on it. She put a necklace around my neck, I thought it was a medal. I was so happy I jumped on the box and broke it and didn't mind Danielle's hug. Blue, Juicy and Irish joined in and we hugged and jumped and sang happy birthday to Dani.

I'd never won anything before, I touched my necklace to check bite on my medal like actual winners do. But it wasn't a medal, it was a black pearl hanging off a silver square that had a small aquamarine stone stuck to it… a necklace just like Irish'sh. She won last year's game, which was a game of general knowledge, general knowledge being how much they knew Dani. And just like Irish, I didn't take it off ever since.

"I'm just happy Juicy didn't win" Danielle said, "she'd sell that in a heartbeat!"

"HA! I totally would" Juicy joked back, "next year is my year" and let out a feeble maniacal laugh.

Danielle's birthday cake was different; Jack came around with a bunch of bananas and a single candle stuck to it. Of course Blue wouldn't settle for that so he got her a donut and another for me since we often shared our cravings.

That day I was so hyped up on winning that I talked none stop and told them all about Charlie, my birthday friend who I haven't known for long but have impacted my life greatly. Sometimes I feel like he was someone I loved.

Danielle and I didn't have a misunderstanding or a fight yet. It's alarming to me because all the relationships I can use as an example are of myself and Baba and we always argued! Whether we were on good terms or not.

The thing with these girls is, when we're together we know we're flawed and we flaunt that unashamed of each other. We had our fair share of arguments and slapping doors at each other. But at the end of the day, we're for each other as a family should.

Jack, I didn't get to know better, he's anything but a stranger though. I tried my best many times not to fall asleep in his car whenever he took me home but for some reason, I always seem to wake up with my building to my right and Jack being quiet to my left.

There is something I noticed about him though, he shaves his head a lot, probably as many times as Danielle would dye her hair.