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𝙵𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚝𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚊 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚊𝚛𝚢

                                                                                                                                                                        23🅃🄷 🄼🄰🅁🄲🄷

Three days after what had happened during the posting,I still had not gotten over the incident,mostly due to the fact that Gretchen kept jeering at me and because I always spotted a shredded piece of my poster nearby.

I didn't understand. Why was Gretchen like that? Because her popularity rate was dropping? Because I was friends with Steve,a person so hard to friend? Whatever it was,seeing her made my face set aflame.

Two days after it happened,Charlie came forward to give me an address of his house before inviting me to come on the following Saturday. When I had asked him why,he had shaken his head. I couldn't ask Luna or Steve either,as they were not invited.

On Saturday,the third day of my inability to get over the incident,I hopped onto my Beach Cruiser and raced towards Birkenhead­, North Shore City. It took me 17 minutes to ride there and enjoy the scenery.

Like Muriwai beach,the place was full of nature. There was an easy care of gardens, a large sloping lawn, a constant supply of hydrangeas, and the established trees brought native birds.

A few minutes later,I arrived at a Cozy looking house with modern features,such as the neutral palette, and polished floorboards. I blinked,amazed to see such a modern house in a sweet village like Northshore.

Sitting on the double glazed porch was Charlie,sucking onto something with the colour of soda. In his hand he held another.

"Scarlet! You're here!" his face lit up once he spotted me. Before I could say anything,Charlie shoved the soda pop into my mouth and explained that I should swallow it. "We're going to do lots of experiments,so it's best to eat the digestive pop," he said.

I raised a brow. Haven't I been in enough experiments of his already?

Following him into the house,I stifled a giggle as I admired all the works of candy his family had framed on the walls. Charlie seemed oblivious to it all as led me from room to room,before arriving at his.

His room was even more cluttered than I had seen at his Lavender hill's room. Full of chemical sets and rows of candy jars,it was possible to call his room a lab. However,what caught my attention was a cage. A bird cage.

Just as I had noticed this,Charlie came out from his walk in closet with a red speckled bird on his shoulder. I recognised it immediately-a red factor canary.The red factor canary is a popular variety of canary. It is named after its colourful plumage, and is a 'color canary', bred for the novelty of its color rather than for its song.

"You have a canary for a pet? You didn't tell me!" I exclaimed,reaching out to pet its head. Charlie grinned. "It's very useful. I named it rainbow because whenever I feed it something different,it changes colour-" he demonstrated by plopping in a berried jam into its mouth. Almost immediately,it changed colour. Charlie glanced at me.

"I know you're feeling down lately,so I wanted to have lunch experiments with you," he said,settling down next to me. "I heard that food calms people down,and having Rainbow as an entertainment is even more exciting,right?" Charlie asked,passing me a bowl of mushroom soup filled with pepper. I inhaled the aroma,watching Rainbow bounce back and forth,changing colour from eating tomatoes,squashes and grated carrots.

"Yeah,you're right," I smiled at Charlie. It was great to have food with my friend,and well,a canary.

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