'Frisco.

Chapter Eleven.

I entered my room and noted the time. It was 4 o'clock and I decided that enough was enough and I needed to become better friends with Bonnie.

I picked up the harmonica that I decided against throwing away, pressed the button for the intercom and decided to sing my rendition of Billy Joel's "Piano Man" obnoxiously until someone answered.

I got to the beginning of the second verse before my laughing mum shouted jokingly down the device, "Andrew get down here! Billy Joel's doing us a bloody concert!"

This made me chuckle and I spoke into the machine, "Hey mum can I get Amanda's number? I want to meet up with Bonnie." I chucked the harmonica on my bed and grabbed a pen and paper, ready to scrawl down the information.

"Funny you should ask. Come down and get it out of my phone you lazy sod." My mum teased. There was no purpose in arguing against her. What mum says, goes.

A week ago, I created a fun game to play whenever I go up or down this tremendous amount of stairs. Whenever traversing them, I like to test myself to see how many I can tackle at a time. My record is 5 up and 7 down. My mum doesn't like me playing this game, she's scared I'm going to fall... either that or she's worried I will somehow dislodge a slab of wood and cause damage to the house. Despite her protests, I'm still as determined to get to 6 up and 10 down; I think it's possible.

Making my way down, I was working at a steady 6 or 7. At the last 9 stairs, I decided to risk it for a biscuit and just jump the remainder. The best that could happen is I break my PB. The worst that could happen is I break something else. Believing my mother to be in the kitchen and my dad to be out to lunch with his work friends, I jump. Unfortunately for me, that meant nobody was around to witness Kate Green beat her personal best of 7 down.

After realising I had succeeded, I lifted my arms victoriously in the air - as if competing in and winning the Decent Olympics. I let out a small cry of joy and fell to my knees. All of which was an exaggeration of my actual emotions. I like to do this kind of stuff even if it's just me who sees it; I make me laugh.

And apparently it makes quite a few more people laugh.

The sound of 4 people trying (and failing) to hold in their laughter made my head snap towards the living room. There, I saw mum, dad, Amanda and Bonnie sitting and staring at me kneeling on the floor with my hands still in the air.

"Kate," my dad squealed, letting the breath he was holding to carry the words out of his mouth, "how lovely of you to join us." At this, everyone in my presence finally cracked and let out huge, booming laughs.

"Ha ha," I said sarcastically, "you're all just jealous because you'll never be as good as I am at the Descent Olympics".

Amanda stood up and collected me in a large, motherly hug. She was a lovely woman from what I've heard from my mum. She also smelt like a mixture of coconut and strawberry - not that this is what determined whether or not we liked her. Although, it did mean we could stop spending money on air fresheners.

"Hey Amanda," I smiled and returned the hug, "sorry for that ungraceful entrance."

Amanda replied with a laugh and Bonnie stood to hug me. I was taken aback although luckily this didn't show. After all, I don't want to offend her. I was just very confused because she seemed a lot more confident since the last time we met.

We all exchanged pleasantries before I excused myself and Bonnie. We made our way upstairs, sans the attempts at defeating my PB. Instead of going to my room, I took Bonnie to one of the spare rooms which held a pool table, sofa and TV. I guess it could be called a play room although that does sound like a place to send your 3 year old child to. I nodded towards the pool table which translated to a challenge for her to defeat me. I've always been good at pool since I was a little girl. My uncle would teach me when our families went out together. Almost every pub in and around Ashfield has a pool table and I reckon my uncle and I have played 85% of them.

Bonnie smiled and agreed to my challenge. She picked up the other cue as I set up the balls. Whilst starting the game, she and I discussed our days and just generally became more comfortable with each other. Eventually, when I had only 3 balls left to pocket, I asked if she wanted to make a day out of exploring the sights that Jonah had recommended. I didn't bring up Jonah, though. I don't know why. I guess I was worried he'd end up falling for her - after all, she's gorgeous.

"That sounds like a lot of fun." Bonnie sighed with a grin. I was glad that she felt more confident around me. Bonnie's such a lovely girl- pretty too. Her fiery red hair fell to her ribcage and was naturally straight. She had piercing green eyes that were accentuated by her dark eye liner. Bonnie's pale face was decorated with fiery freckles that were often quite prominent. Whilst this is often a point of self-consciousness amongst freckly teenagers, Bonnie showed pride in her beauty whilst maintaining a modest attitude.

"How about tomorrow?" I asked, "You can stay over tomorrow night too. Movie night?" I couldn't stop myself rambling. I had just organised two large and rather spontaneous events with a girl I kind of know. I hope she doesn't think I'm desperate (even though I literally have nobody else).

"Yes!" Bonnie squealed with excitement, "Sounds like a plan".

We continued to play more rounds of pool, chatting of mundane topics and generally enjoying each other's company. Dad eventually called up on the intercom to let Bonnie know her mum was leaving but that she was welcome to stay.

"I'd better go," Bonnie started, "after all - I'll be seeing you tomorrow!" She grinned.

We exchanged phone numbers and I told her I'll text her some details. She left after a hug.