Summer Of '76

Chapter Two: Caramel Apples

Dancing Queen- ABBA

Wednesday, May 28th 1976, Sato King Ranch outside Abernay, New York, 7:27 p.m.

Outside Abernay sat a small ranch belonging to the Sato-King family. With a large enough house for the family of five and a barn to hold all their livestock, the home acted as the primary hangout spot for Tangerine and her two friends. It was a five bedroom house with a big enough kitchen and living room for the rambunctious family. Tangerine even had her very own bathroom. Granted it was small, but at least it was her own. The bathroom is where she stood now actually, with Liz at her dresser and Marty on her floor.

"So do you think I should repaint them?" Liz was sitting on the white faux fur stool in front of the vanity picking at her nails. She had at least a dozen curlers in her hair and still hadn't picked out the skirt she wanted to wear. Her pink nails had started to chip recently and it was beginning to bug her. A lot.

"Yea." Marty said, "You should just paint them white."

Marty was sitting on the large round rug that came halfway out from underneath Tangerine's four post bed. She was shuffling through the tons of nail polish that her ginger friend had started accumulating during their freshman year before pulling out two bottles. One white and one a powder blue. She tossed the white bottle to the blonde and kept the other for herself.

"Why white though?" Liz flipped the bottle over in her hands and looked at Marty with a quirked brow

"Because Liz, White matches everything." It wasn't Marty who responded, but Tangerine who was standing in front of her mirror in the small connected bathroom. She took the metal pic away from her dark orange hair and turned to Liz with a hand on her hip.

"White matches everything you wear Liz."

"It does?"

"It do." This time both the other girls responded before going back to their original tasks.

Marty was now painting her round tip nails a light powder blue in order to match the blue top she was planning on wearing tonight. Liz was also starting to paint her nails a stark white as she waited for the curlers to set. Tangerine went back to picking and teasing at her hair to make sure the curls were exactly the way she wanted them. Once she was done, Liz asked for her to take out the large curlers out of her light locks since she was waiting for the polish to dry. One by one, the lightly curled hair fell out of the multitude of curlers as Tangerine fussed over their placements. Behind them on the rug, Marty was frantically shaking her hands in an attempt to dry her nails sooner.

"You good back there Marty?" Through the mirror, Liz was looking at her with a teasing grin and raised brows.

"Shut up Liz." Marty muttered in response and she kept her focus on her newly painted nails. Tangerine stifled a laugh as she gazed upon Marty's look of pure concentration. Once she was done perfecting Liz's hair she moved from her vanity to her wardrobe and swung open the doors of the in-wall closet.

"Now, now." She popped her right hip out and put a hand on her chin in contemplation, "what to wear. What to wear."

At the tall teens' words her friends jumped to their packed duffle bags that sat on the burnt orange duvet of the bed and quickly dumped them onto the soft surface. Out of Liz's light pink bag came three different skirts. One white, one dark pink, and one light pink. Two shirts. One pink with white stripes, and one with flowers on it. A pair of white kitten heels also fell out of the bag along with the small carry on of jewelry. Now in Marty's bag was one pair of brown corduroy shorts and two shirts to choose from. One was a powder blue tank top and the other was a sleeveless turtleneck in the same color. Her shoes of choice were a pair of dark brown Converse. As the two contemplated on the bed, Tangerine started pulling articles of clothing out of her closet.