Wattpad Family

Chapter 11: Constellations

Late one night, I decided to go out onto the porch for dinner. Angel went to sleepover at a friends house, and Emma was out with 'some guy she met'. I took my laptop with me to write a book I'd been working on for a while. My artistic sense wasn't working, so I just cooked some carrots and a soft pretzel. Emma would've been scolding me.

I heard the grass start to ruffle in the backyard. There was a silhouette of a shorter person. I squinted into the darkness. She started skipping over, but was weighed down by a backpack.

"Hey Amber..."

"Hey Riki! Whatcha doing here?"

She sat down on one of the chairs surrounding our outside table. Riki placed her backpack on the table and took out a green binder. I kept smiling, even though she wasn't talking.

"I was wondering if you could help me with my science homework..." She spoke in barely a whisper, stuttering with every word. Riki shoved her glasses onto the bridge of her nose.

"Yeah! Sure. What on?"

"Astronomy. You know... Sky stuff."

"I know. I know."

Riki placed a worksheet in front of me. It was a map of some basic constellations, like Orion and Ursa Major. There were simple directions. Label the constellations and stars. Riki waited contently.

"Okay. Let's start with number one,"I said. It was the Big Dipper.

I took her wrist and pointed to it in the sky."You should know this. Easy one."

She snatched the paper from it and sketched down Big Dipper. Her hand writing was messy, but it look like art. There was a sparkle in Riki's eyes.

Riki looked up again and pointed."So that's the Little Dipper and the North Star."

I nodded as she wrote it down."Next one has, like, three stars next to each other."

I looked up. That's Orion's Belt... So it's there. "Then look!"

She surveyed the skies."Have you found it yet?"

"Found it a long time ago. Do you need a hint?"

She nodded and I pointed. Quickly, she wrote down, Orion. Riki wrote down a few more star names before she came to the final stars.

"I can't remember what the name is,"she said, chewing on her eraser,"but I know it's known as the Great Bear. I keep thinking of that thing from My Little Pony..."

"Oh! You watch that too? Think Trixie and the bear episode."

"Oh! Ursa Major!"she shouted as she scribbled it down. She held out a bro-fist and I sent it back at her. We laughed in sync, like the dorks we were.

"I guess I'll see you later. Thanks for your help, Ms. Woods."

I smiled a bit as a lump formed in my throat."You too, Riki. Drop by tomorrow to tell me how it went."

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[media- whispers in the mist by varien]