Thank You, Corona

2. Fishy

'I'm gonna miss you so much!' said Carmen, hugging me tightly. It was the last day, before our flight to Paris.

'Do you have to go?' she asked for the billionth time, as the school bell finally rang and we made our way outside.

'Yes, I do. I told you it's my cousin's wedding, we can't miss it,' I said taking my apple out of my bag and taking a huge chunk.

'Which cousin again?' asked Carmen, now opening her phone camera.

'The one- CHEESE- 'I said as we took a last picture,' my father's eldest bro's kid, Daniel,'

'Ooooh, is he the one you showed me the pic of?' Carmen asked, interested now.

'Yup,' I said sitting on the benches outside with Carmen waiting for the bus.

'pity, he was a nice sight,' she said sighing, causing me to giggle.

'But for a whole month!' she whined again.

'Carm, I'll be back quickly. You won't miss me at all,' I said, trying to make her feel better. I didn't want to cry; my mascara would run out.

I looked directly in her dark green eyes, and smiled sincerely. She smiled back and said thickly,

'I will miss you.'

I hugged her and suddenly I heard a voice behind me over all the home time hubbub.

'Aww isn't this cute!' said Chase teasingly as he too made his way towards us, his blond hair falling messily on his face. I so wanted to fix them. We quickly broke apart and glared at him.

'Whoa!' he said raising his hands in mock surrender. He flopped down on the empty space beside and pushed his bangs out of his face. Thank God!

'So last day huh?' he said smiling at me, his light blue eyes piercing my brown ones.

'I suppose you also want a hug?' I muttered.

'yes pwease!' said Chase in a baby voice. We all laughed.

'C'mon you guys are acting as if it's the last day of school,' I said, pulling up my hair into a pony as Carmen shoved me. It was so hot and we all were sweating.

'Let's get ice- cream on the way back, ok?' Chase suggested.

'Yeah!' said Carmen, loosening her school tie.

'At least the weather in Paris will be cool,' I said thankfully.

'Why are you going again?' Chase asked.

'Oh god,' I sighed.

That was my last day of school. I remembered it so well. I was in my room right now. It's early in the morning. I heard birds chirping. I rested my head on the window sill and sighed. School was closed. It had been announced on 8th March, due to Covid-19.

Our flight back home was OK, I guess. Our flight was for about 12 hours, so I was very bored. I listened to songs on most of the way and talked to Chase and Carmen. I kind of enjoyed it, though it felt weird without my mom. Plus, Suzy threw up once. On my shoes.

We had reached our house, number 32 in Lockwood St, Bayview at late night. Chase was in number 47. Carmen lived a few streets behind. The first thing I did was go to my room and lie on the soft bed. It's hard to find a good pillow in a house of 15 people in Paris. I was ready to sleep but I remembered mom wasn't here. So I had to help Suzy and Christina unpack.