𝘔𝘺 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘎𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘢 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘥.

𝘚𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘛𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵.

I took a deep breath in and kicked my legs. I swung back and forth, back and forth. I could smell the lilacs behind the house. I could smell the pizza we just ate, driving through the window. I could smell someone barbecuing, probably a neighbor.

I always feel bad for people that lose their sense of smell. You could never smell amazing things. If you lose your sense of smell completely, it's called anosmia. I looked it up on dad's computer once. You can get it from smoking, medication side effects, nasal obstruction, and mucus. It's not a good thing, you can also lose your sense of taste. There isn't a cure, but it just goes away on its own.

Swinging up and down, up and down. Back and forth, back and forth. I squeezed the rope handles and kicked my legs harder. I tried to look for where the barbecue smell was coming from, but I didn't see it. But I heard something else.

I heard my sister's car pull up. I used my feet to stop myself, and I hopped off and ran towards her car.

"Hey Marcella, how was work?" I gave her a hug. She pushed her thick brown hair out of the way.

"Hey Gloria. It was good, thanks for asking. How was school?" She asked as I let her go.

"It was pretty good. And I want to show you something, follow me."

I led her inside. She waved hi to Dad as we walked up the stairs. When we got to my room, I took the diary from my bag and set it on my desk.

"I didn't know you had a diary." Marcella said, confused.

"I don't. I found this at school. I'm going to return it tomorrow."

"Oh, we'll as long as you return it. Do you know whose it is?"

"No. But, inside it says that the owner is going to ask their crush out tomorrow."

"Dang girl," my sister said, "Can you try to find out who it's gonna be? And if you see it happen, tell me how it goes."

I stared at her and smiled.

"What?" She said defensively, "I want to know!"

"Yeah, me too." I put the diary away. My sister noticed the clock on my desk.

"You better head to bed. Night Gloria." She walked out of the room.

"Night. And tell Dad I said goodnight too."

"I will!"

I changed into my pajamas and flopped onto my bed. I stared up at my ceiling until I finally fell asleep.

* * *

"Gloria, can you hand me the wrench?"

"Yeah, here Papa!"

"Thanks, you're such a good helper!"

"Yay!"

"If you want, you can go wait for Marcella to get off the bus."

"Okay!"

I remember running towards the front lawn, but there was no bus. I waited, and no bus came. I turned over a rock and watched the bugs crawl from beneath it. No bus. I drew a face in the mud with a stick. No bus.

"Papa, I didn't see the bus."

"Really? That's weird. She should have been here by now.."

"Where is she?"

"Sweetie...I'm gonna need you to stay here and wait inside okay? Don't open the door for anyone. Understand?"

"Ok papa."

I watched my father drive away in his car. I turned around and watched Puppy Dog Pals. I watched it until I heard a car pull up. It was my dad. I saw him get out, along with my crying sister. They opened the door, and I ran to give Marcella a hug.

"What happened?"

"I-" she sniffed, "I thought Papa was gonna come get me."

"Marcella, I thought I told you to ride the bus.."

She wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry Papa, I forgot I guess."

My father sighed, "It's ok Marcy. Just please, if you don't remember, ask someone to call me, okay?"

"Okay.."