Cyberfriends - I

"I'll be right there," Monica shouted from the bathroom as she heard the faint sound of knocking on her door. But the knocking didn't stop. She called out again. "Molly! I said I'll be right there!"

Molly had heard her sister call out to her the first time, but she kept knocking anyway. The little leopard was thrilled to spend the day with her older sister.

She had it all planned out. They were going to go shopping, go out for lunch, and go to the nail salon. But first, Molly had to get through the most annoying part of the day—waiting for her sister to get ready.

Unfortunately, Monica liked things a certain way, and it was pointless trying to rush her. Luckily, Molly remembered that she had an extra key for emergencies.

Molly was turning the key as Monica opened the door.

"Excuse me, little sister," Monica said, pretending to be angry. "Why are you trying to break into my apartment?"

"It's not breaking in if you have a key," Molly said innocently, taking her key out of the front door.

"Why do you have that?" Monica asked, taking her sister's keys out of her hand.

"Mom had them made for me," Molly said with a shrug. She plopped down on the sofa and took out her phone. She wanted to leave, but it was clear that her sister was nowhere close to being ready to go; She only had eye makeup on one eye.

Monica examined her sister's set of keys. "Molly, what's with your giant key ring? Do you have one for every apartment in the world?"

"Just yours," Molly said. "And our house. And the car, in case I need to climb into the backseat and wait when mom takes too long at the supermarket. And my diary."

"Unbelievable," Monica said, handing Molly back her keys. "When I was a kid, I didn't even have a key to our house. Mom told me it wasn't as if I could go anywhere by myself. And if she wanted to spend a zillion hours shopping, I certainly couldn't go back to the car and wait on my own. Mom said someone might try to steal me."

"It's a new dawn, sis," Molly said, looking up from her phone. Then she turned her attention back to her game. "Die, space zombies. Die!"

Monica went back to the bathroom to finish her hair and makeup. Thirty short minutes later, she returned.

"Are you ready?" Molly asked. "Because the space zombies are all dead, and I don't have any more shows left to binge today."

Monica frowned. "We also didn't have smartphones when I was your age.

If you had a big sister who took forever to get ready, you just had to wait."

"Do you need to keep remembering your childhood, or can we go?" Molly asked sarcastically.

Monica chuckled and put her arm around her sister's shoulder. She could not believe how fast Molly was growing up. It seemed like just days ago, they were playing dolls together. Well, technically, it was just days ago.

Though she was equipped with the very grown-up technology of a smartphone, Molly still kept a box of dolls under her bed.

"So," Molly said, leading the way out of the front door. "Pizza?"

"Mom said she wanted me to take you for a healthy lunch," Monica said.

"Veggie pizza, then!" Molly smiled.

It was no use negotiating. When it came to her sister, Monica was a pushover. She didn't get to spend as much time with Molly as she'd like to, so she always tried to make the most of their adventures. Most of the time, that meant Molly was getting spoiled.

As they walked through the mall's expansive food court, Molly and Monicathe two girls realized that the pizza restaurant they wanted to eat at, was closed down for the day. Even though Monica had intended to encourage her sister to make healthy choices, she was a little bit bummed out.

"I really wanted pizza," Monica sighed.

"Ooh," Molly said without skipping a beat. "Let's try the falafel place. My friend Joey said it's rad."

"What nineten-year-old suggests a falafel place?" Monica muttered to herself as Molly pulled her to the other end of the food court.

More importantly,But Monica forgot to ask about this friend Joey kid. She was way too busy stuffing her face with a falafel.

"Ahhh. So good," Monica said, taking out her cell phone to take a photo.

But Molly beat her to it.

"Hashtag sister date. Hashtag falafels," Molly said, zooming in on her lunch.

"Hashtag, no more screen time," Monica said, grabbing her sister's phone out of her hand and sticking it in her purse.

"Hey!" Molly said. "You've been using your phone all day, too!"

"And that' is exactly why you need someone to put limits on your screen time," Monica stated. "Do you want to end up like me? Should I take a poll about it? Ooh, I should take a poll."

"Okay, okay," Molly said with a giggle. "I guess I don't mind putting my phone away when I'm with you."

"Now that' is a compliment," Monica said, pulling her sister closer. "Okay.

Mani-pedis?"

"Perf," Molly said. "That's short for perfect, BTW. Oh, and by the way, B-T-W is short for, by the way."

"By the way," Monica said. "BTW, isn't new."

"Totes. I know that," Molly clarified. "My friend Joey said it's super retro."

"Your friend Joey knows a lot, huh?" Monica chuckled. "Is he an older boy or something?"

Monica was checking a text on her own phone and completely missed Molly's guilty look. By the time she looked up, she had lost her train of thought.

The two sisters found themselves at the front of a very chic nail salon.

Cute Claws was the hippest place in the mall, which was the only explanation for the outrageous prices.

"This is a lot of money, Molls," Monica said. "Has it been ten years since my last manicure, or is this just a little out of hand?"

"It's because they use a special gel formula," Molly explained. "It makes your nails super strong, and they can do the teeny-tiniest patterns."

"Did the internet tell you that?" Monica asked.

"No, . My friend, Joey did," Molly said, pulling her sister inside.

The prices were completely unreasonable, but it was hard to resist. Every detail had been thought of. The colors were popping,' and each seat was decked out. And then there was Molly's favorite part— – each chair had its own phone charger.

"Genius," Molly and Monica said at the same time.

"Hello, welcome to Cute Claws," a heavyset rabbit with too much makeup said. She chomped loudly on her gum and looked Molly and Monica over from head to toe."

"Thanks," Monica said. "We'd like two mani-pedis, please."

"I'll need to see some ID," the rabbit said.

Monica laughed loudly, but the rabbit didn't react.

"Oh," Monica said. "You're serious? What for? The alcohol in the nail polish remover?"

But when Monica looked closer at her surroundings, she started to realize Cute Claws was definitely not a place for kids. They offered their customers wine and mimosas while they got their manicures.

"Oh," Monica said. "Well, you know, that manicure price isn't that bad if it comes with a drink. But I guess this isn't going to work out today."

Molly tugged on her sister's shirt. "I can just wait out front."

"Absolutely not," Monica said. "We'll find another place."

Molly reached out and held up Monica's hand in front of her face. "Do you really want to put this off any longer?"

Monica's fingernails did need some help. Her toenails weren't not much better.

"Okay. But you sit right out there the whole time and don't move a muscle till I'm done in here," Monica said assertively, pointing to a table in the food court.

"Got it," Molly said.

"Here's your phone," Monica said, reaching into her purse. Molly ran off with her phone before her big sister Monica could change her mind. Monica was seated quickly in front of an elderly owl manicurist with thick goggle glasses.

Monica really loved a good mani-pedi. She couldn't wait for her fingernails to be done so she could post a photo online.

"Maybe I do have an addiction," Monica said to herself.

Her phone vibrated, but when she reached for it, the manicurist snapped at her.

"Sorry," Monica said sheepishly to the owl. She who had just patiently finished her first coat of nail polish. "They look lovely."

"Yes," the owl said. "I know."

Monica sighed.

"You really want to know who texted you, huh?" said the owl knowingly.

Monica nodded. The owl nodded back. Then she took the cell phone and pushed it to the far end of the table.

"It can wait," the owl said.

"That's very wise," Monica told the owl through gritted teeth.

"So, you selected little leopard spots to go on your blue nails," The owl confirmed. "A very bold selection."