Friday morning when I woke up, I planned on another day of avoiding Bryce and focusing on my school work. In second period we had a test, and I wasn't going to let a pair of dazzling eyes distract me into getting a B.
I dressed in a plain old plaid button down and some petal pushers, and pulled my hair into low pigtails.
When I came in for breakfast, mom had already left for work early. Matt and Mike were humming to each other while they danced around the kitchen, making breakfast.
"Any word on the Ella-girl, Matthew?" I said as I came in, grabbing a plate and sneaking around them to take some of the french toast.
The boys stopped humming and Matt blushed and flipped the toast, not looking at us. "She came back into the music store yesterday."
"Did you get her phone number?"
"No, are you kidding?" He cast an incredulous glance at Mike before turning back to the stove.
"No, I'm not. There she was, there you were; why wouldn't you ask for her number?" Mike shook his head as he beat the whipping cream with the whisk and added small amounts of powdered sugar.
I stuck my pinky in his bowl and swiped a bit of whipped cream in between his stirs. Raising my white covered pinky to my mouth, I paused before sucking it off to say, "I agree with Mike on this one. Did you talk to her at all?"
"Yes I talked to her! I'm not hopeless you two."
Mike and I chuckled as I took the strawberries to the table and shoved a big serving spoon into the bowl.
"So how did it go then?" I asked, sitting down. "What did you guys say?"
"I asked her if she was from around here, and she told me about how she's actually from Louisiana. She moved here to work in her uncle's flower shop because they were a little short handed after her cousin Freddy went off to college."
"Why didn't they just hire someone around here?" Mike interrupted spreading some butter on a third piece of French toast. "She came all the way from Louisiana to fill a part-time job?"
"Maybe she has another reason, it's just more personal." I reply, before shoveling another forkful of breakfast into my mouth.
Mike nodded, but Matt said nothing. His eyes looked far away and daydreamy.
"Anyway," Mike said, changing the topic, "Mom said to tell you Jules that this Saturday, Uncle Daniel's home is having this little ceremony for the residents and that we're all going to support him."
"What are they celebrating?" I asked, looking up from my breakfast, talking through a mouthful.
"Dunno, guess we'll see then, won't we?" Mike replied through his own bite of French toast.
"Are you guys coming?" I didn't think that they were very aware of Daniel when they went about their lives. He was just a name, nothing more to them. That was all he was to me as well, at least before I'd met him.
"I guess. I mean we've been thinkin' and you kinda inspired us, lil' sis, when you went with dad to meet him. So we thought it's time we met him too." Mike grinned a his crooked grin at me.
"That's great, you guys! I think you'll love him. He's a lot of fun."
"Hey Juli isn't this Saturday the Grad Dance for your school?" Matt asked, globbing more whipped cream onto his plate.
