The Scars Within

Sleepover?

After about four boxes of clothes, two boxes of shoes, and three boxes of books, mostly everything is put in its rightful place. Opening up one of the last, and definitely the largest box, I see a lot of figurines, posters, small books, and DVD cases. Pulling out one of the books, I see it's like a comic book.

"Hey Ricca, what's all this stuff?" Glancing over at me, she smiles.

"That's all of my anime stuff." She replies, walking over to me.

"Anime? Isn't that like Japanese cartoon stuff?" She freezes.

"Anime is not cartoons. Do cartoons usually have people being torn to bits and eaten? Or possibly demons trying to exterminate the human race? No? I didn't think so." She growls out. 'Woah. Looks like I struck a nerve.'

"Sorry if I offended you, Ricca. I didn't mean to." Sighing, she shakes her head.

"It's fine. I just get tired of people calling it that and making fun of me for watching it."

"Oh." After we finish emptying the box, I turn towards Ricca and ask, "Hey Ricca? Do you think we could watch some anime?" She looks me in the eye, shocked.

"You want to watch anime?"

"Yea. I mean, some of the stuff you had looked pretty cool, so why not?"

"I'll tell you what, when we get the TV and our Wifi setup, we'll watch some, alright?" She replies smiling. Nodding my head, we walk downstairs where her parents are just finishing with the last box. As we reach the bottom of the stairs, Adeline looks up and smiles at us.

"Thank you for your help, Carmin. I'm sure we would still be unpacking if you hadn't helped. Especially with all of Ricca's things." Once again, Ricca whines about how she doesn't have that much stuff. Laughing, all four of us move into the now fully furnished living room. Quentin was even able to get the living room TV set up while we were unpacking. After a few minutes of silence, Adeline speaks up once again. "Hey Carmin, when do you have to be home? It's starting to get late and I'm sure your parents are worried about you." Freezing in my spot, I think of a reply. Before I can say anything, Quentin leans over and whispers something into Adeline's ear. After he finishes, her eyes widen. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I totally forgot, I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry!" 'Oh, he must have told her about the crash.'

"It's fine, really. My Dad's on a business trip so it's just me at home for the weekend. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I was here, especially since we're neighbors. I could go if you would like me to though, I would hate to intrude." Quickly standing up, Adeline shakes her head.

"No no no. You wouldn't be intruding at all! I was just worried that your father would be wondering where you are." Suddenly, Ricca jumps up.

"I have an idea! Since Carmin's Dad is out of town, can she stay the night? We can stay up in my room. Or we can sleep down here in the living room!" Gasping, she quickly adds, "Ohhhh! We could build a fort! Then we can stay up all night! It would be epic! Please Mommy and Daddy?" As she excitedly says this, she gives her parents the best set of puppydog eyes I have ever seen. Her parents look at each other, then sigh.

"It's alright with us, but don't you think you should ask Carmin before making all of these plans?" Quentin replies.

"Oh yea!" Turning the puppydog eyes to me, she asks, "You wanna stay the night, right? Pleeeeeease?" Laughing, I shake my head.

"Of course I'll stay the night. Who could say 'no' to puppydog eyes?"

"YES!" Ricca yells, enveloping me in a big hug. Laughing once again, I hug her back.

"Alright Ricca, don't suffocate the poor girl. Why don't you to head over to Carmin's house so she can get her things to spend the night? While you're gone I'll start dinner." Adeline says with a smile. Nodding, Ricca and I make our way over to my house. Within a couple of minutes, I have a bag packed with a change of clothes, my toothbrush and toothpaste, my laptop, and my phone.

"I think I've got everything I'll need. If not it's really not that far to go." After hearing no reply, I turn around to see that Ricca is looking at one of the pictures on my wall. Walking to her side, I see she's focused on the one of my family and I in Russia.

"Where was this one taken? It sort of looks like Canada."

"No, that was taken about six years ago when we went to Moscow. Sort of like Canada I guess." After a couple more minutes of looking at the pictures, we head back over to Ricca's house. Once we get inside, Adeline comes out of the kitchen.

"Perfect timing girls, I just finished making dinner. Why don't you two go put your things up in Ricca's room and then come down to eat? I hope that you won't mind trying some French food Carmin. It's called Bacon-and-Leek Quiche. It's sort of like a pizza, I guess. Then it's Vanilla Crème Brûlée for dessert."

"That sounds delicious Mrs. Willow. I'm always open to trying new things, especially when it's from another country." I reply smiling at her. Smiling back, Adeline walks back into the kitchen as Ricca and I head upstairs. Placing my bag on the floor, we head back downstairs and into the dining room, where the table is set and all the food is out.