Their Playground

Chapter 7

Mrs. Foster poked her head in Kim's bedroom. "Where - oh, I'm sorry, dear. I didn't realize you were on the phone," she said, her voice dropping to a whisper when she caught sight of the phone in her daughter's hand.

"I can take it," Kim said, setting the phone down. Sarah could wait. Besides, she might have more news to tell her after reading the letter! "Do you know who it's from?" she asked, grabbing a letter opener and carefully slitting the envelope. The return address was written too illegibly for her to see for certain.

"I imagine it's from Aunt Cora and Uncle Brett," Mrs. Foster answered. "You know they've been sending your birthday card a month early since the year they missed your birthday. And nobody's handwriting is as messy as the writing on that envelope except for your Uncle Brett's."

Just like that, Kim's hopes plummeted. So he hadn't written back yet after all. All her excited had faded instantly. The card was nice, yes - her aunt and uncle were renowned for their homemade cards - but it was nowhere near what she'd been hoping for, even expecting. The disappointment she felt was so overwhelming.

* * *

"So?" Sarah asked eagerly when she found her friend at her locker the next day.

Kim gave her a strange look, something she found herself doing quite often in recent times. "Yes?"

"Have you seen him yet today?" That's right, she had forgotten to call Sarah after the card incident. Too distracted by her disappointment, presumably.

"Oh. Not today, no," she answered vaguely.

Sarah was visibly disappointed. "Well, I'm sure you'll see him later today." Then she paused, her brow furrowing. "Hold on a sec, you said you didn't see him today. Does that mean you saw him sometime between bowling and now?"

Kim shrugged. "I suppose so. I mean, we went out for coffee yesterday.

"What?" Sarah practically shrieked. "When did this happen?"

"Oh, you know. After he stopped by my house to invite me. That was right after you 'accidentally' told him that I liked him, I believe."

"Details, girl, details!" Sarah demanded. "What happened on your date? What did he say to you? Does he like you?"

"Don't give yourself a heart attack, Sarah. Calm down!" Kim laughed. "And really, there's not much to tell you. We just talked, about random stuff like college. Although . . . " She trailed off. She could never resist an opportunity like this to torture her best friend with suspense.

"Go on," Sarah prodded, literally bouncing up and down with excitement.

Kim smiled, knowing Sarah would have a field day with this information. She considered dragging it out longer, but finally relented. "He said that he had a lot of fun, and that he wanted to do that again sometime."

"Oh my gosh!" Sarah squealed. "He totally likes you!"

"Do you really think so?" Kim didn't want to read into this too much, but there was no stopping Sarah once she got started.

"Of course! It's totally obvious. I mean, if he - oh hey, Cole, fancy seeing you here." The boy in question had somehow joined them without being noticed by either of the girls.

"Isn't that my line?" Cole joked. "And I do go to school here, you know."

"Oh, right." Sarah shot Kim a 'help-me-out-here' look. Kim picked up on her cue.

"So, how are you doing, Cole?" she asked, giving him a warm smile despite her fluttering heart.

He returned the smile. "Doing good, thanks. Listen, I just wanted to say that I had a great time yesterday. And I was wondering if you wanted to go see a movie on Friday night?"

"I would love to," Kim answered, struggling to resist the urge to strangle the squealing girl next to her.

"Sounds great," Cole said. "See you then, if not around school."

As soon as he was out of earshot, Kim wheeled around to face Sarah. "I can't believe those strange sounds you were making there! What if he heard you?"

"Oh, it wasn't that bad."

"You sounded like a dying pig."

"Maybe it was that bad. But it's not my fault. Maybe if a certain someone - I don't know, you perhaps - had told me about this earlier, I would have gotten my squealing done earlier and come prepared."

"Oh, so it's my fault now. I see how it is," Kim said. "I was gonna call you, I promise. I just got distracted. By a certain letter which I thought had arrived but actually hadn't."

Sarah frowned. "You mean he still hasn't written back? I don't know, Kim. I feel like you should have heard from him by now, unless he hasn't gotten your letter. He doesn't live that far away, does he?"

Kim sighed. "No, he's in South Carolina. If he sent it, it should have only taken a couple of days to arrive. Maybe it got lost in the mail. Maybe I should write another letter."

"Maybe. But in the meantime, I have a better idea." Sarah grinned mischievously. "Can you come over after school?"

As I re-read this story right before posting, I become increasingly worried that there are inconsistencies between chapters since I have absolutely no time to go through and edit right now. If something jumps out at you, please don't hesitate to let me know, and I'll go in and fix it. Thanks!

Please excuse the random change in font size. I gave up on typing in Wattpad because it was über slow, so I switched to Word and I can't figure out how to fix the font size issue. So.... please bear with it.

Lucia <3