Lemongrass and Sleep (A Clodagh Story)

Moment

"So when you add money to the phone those are credits, and each message takes a credit?" Sorscha nods. She just explained how the phone works to me. It was a new concept for me, we never even owned a landline let alone a mobile phone.

"Technically the more words you have the more credits it'll take but keep the messages short and you'll be fine. Photos take one credit as well." She points to the keypad, "And to type a letter you have to click the button how many times it needs. So, you'd click the button once for W, twice for X, three times for Y, and four times for Z. Here, try it."

I try it, clicking the button twice for X, clicking another three times for O. That's easy.

"See you did it!" She smiles and continues,

"Okay so to hold it for a number and hold the hashtag for capitalization."

"Ohh okay! It's going to take a bit for me to get used to this.." She laughs, "Well between you and me, I never capitalize my messages, I think it takes too long." I start to laugh with her.

"I think I have it now, thank you Sorscha!"

"No worries! Now I'll try to get it up and running hopefully before the end of the month. Are you going to St. Guinness School right?" I nod

"Yeah! I start on Wednesday, I still need to get my uniform though." She offers to show me hers. Its a white button up shirt that's short sleeved, striped tie which was green as the based and white as the thin stripes, a forest green blazer with pockets and the school logo on our right side of our chest, a pleated green skirt about 3 inches above the knee, green socks and black loafers, the skirt and socks amtching the blazer. According to Sorscha we have to keep our hair down or in a ponytail. I might just keep mine down because I really don't like my hair up in a ponytail.

"Plus tights in the winter. And if it gets too hot they let us take off our blazers which is nice. I keep my hair in a ponytail during school when it gets hot out but usually it's just down." She says as she puts her uniform back in the closet.

"I don't think green suits me, I prefer red." I started to fan myself, It was hot in her room.

"Are you hot? You can alway take off your hoodie. I'm personally always cold but hey not everyone is." My hoodie? Right. It is really hot though and she doesn't have a fan in her room. It makes sense if she's always cold.

"Clo? Clodagh?" She was slightly waving her hand in front of my face while gently calling my name. I could hear that she started playing some Katy Perry.

"Are you playing Katy Perry?" I ask her making sure to change the subject subtly but quickly.

"Welcome back to Earth. And yeah! It's her new album, "One of the boys." I'm playing "I kissed a girl" It's one of my favorite songs on the album for obvious reasons." She chuckles.

"I like this, I might ask if I can get a cassette of it for my birthday." We start to nod along to the music, it leads to a multi hour dance party. We didn't even realize her parents came home until they opened the door to her bedroom, very confused about the music playing nearly on full blast.

"Tiny Doyle!" her mom calls out. Sorscha looks at her, pausing the music. I swear I felt tension but they just started laughing instead. I look at them confused.

"Sorry mam. This is Clodagh, she just moved in down the street!" she moves over to the right slightly to let her mom see me better, "Clodagh, this is my mam, Fia!"
"Hi Mrs. Doyle.." I suddenly became very shy again.

"You can just call me Fia. Anyways, Sorscha, your dad has gone to grab some eggs at the shops for the bread pudding. Clodagh, It was very nice to meet you, you're welcome to stay for dinner." Her mom offers.

"Actually, I should probably get home thank you though, Fia." I smile, she smiles back before winking at Sorscha, who lets out an embarrassed "mam!" through her teeth. Her mom leaves the doorway.

"If you come over tomorrow around 4, we can hang out again!"

"That sounds nice! I should get going now however. Thank you so much Sorscha, for the phone and everything!" She smiles and nods as I leave her house.

As I enter our house I realize no one is home. It looks nice though. Everything is put where it should be. I like that. I spot paper on the kitchen table. Picking up the note I realized they were going to a bar in town. They wanted to make some friends so they left pizza they bought earlier in the fridge and some water. I grab the pizza and put it on a plate. Damn. Our microwave is broken. It is an older house so I guess that makes sense. Cold pepperoni pizza it is. I grab a bottle of water from the fridge and sit down. I don't mind cold pizza it's normal but after a gust of cold air hit me right before I walked in the door I was hoping for something warm. I have a feeling my parents won't be home until later so I eat my pizza and clean my dishes, tossing the watter bottle. I take a quick shower and get ready for bed. They left my boxes mostly unpacked so I could decorate my room but they put up my shelves and put together my bed. I can unpack tomorrow.
I crawl into bed and yawn. It's only 7pm but I really want the day to go by quickly. I made my first friend and she offered to hang out again and I'm not passing that up. I fall asleep alone in the house but I wasn't really alone.

I fell asleep with my thoughts take over by Sorscha Doyle.