Surprise

Chapter 9: Girls Just Want to Have Fun!

To celebrate, we went shopping.  I wanted clothes of my own, and Stella offered to pay for them (with her mom's crediit card).  The boys complained but put up with it.  I laughed when Jack joked about how “sexy” I looked in some of the clothes.  He tried to get me to try on a really short strapless dress with a black skirt and a white sweat-heart top, but I smacked him in the head instead.

“What?  You could totally pull it off!  I bet you’ve got the legs for it,” he defended himself, although it didn’t help his case.

“Thank you, but shut up.”  I let Stella pick out a bunch of outfits for me to try on and we bought about a dozen shirts, three pairs of shorts, one pair of jeans, two skirts, and one casual dress, just before noon when we went to the food court of the mall and the boys got us food while Stella and I sat with my shopping bags.

“So, you and Jack seem close already,” she said, sounding like she felt like she was prying.

I shook my head.  “I guess, but nothing like that.  Believe me, he has no chance with this,” I said in mock arrogance and I motioned with my hands to my whole body.  She laughed.  “Besides, doesn’t he already have a mate?  He’s older than me.”

She shook her head.  “No, he doesn’t.”

The boys came back a few minutes later with a few containers of Chinese food, including egg rolls, egg noodles, steamed rice, sweet and sour chicken, and more.  They had only gotten chopsticks, so I tried to use them, but got more food on my new friends than in my mouth, unable to grip anything with the utensils.

“Maya, really,” Jack laughed.  He was sitting next to me, Stella on my other side, Tyler on the other side of the small circular table.  He snatched the chopsticks out of my hand.  “I’m confiscating these.  I’ll go get you a fork.”

I nodded and blushed a bit as he stood and walked to the Chinese place and came back quickly with a fork in hand.  “Thanks,” I muttered as he handed it to me and sat back down.

I dug into the food again with much less difficulty and it was good, but it was nowhere near as good as my favorite Chinese food restaurant back home.  That was probably the worst part about staying here; I’d never have famous wok’s sesame chicken again!

“So, is there anything I should know before tonight?  Anything I should say or do?”

The three of them just shrugged and shook their heads.  “Just give them a really sad sappy story,” Jack said.

“Or act like you have really sad personal story that you don’t want to share,” Stella interjected.  I nodded, taking in all the advice I could get.  I really didn’t want to leave.

“Or just say you believe in the cause of the circle pack and want to help out in any way you can,” Tyler said.

“Okay, thanks.”

We sat for a while eating until I remembered one thing; “Hey, what about school?  I guess I should start that soon, shouldn’t I?”

Stella nodded.  “We still have a month.  You just missed prom, though.”

“That’s okay, I went to mine.”

She nodded.  “But you won’t miss the end of school fling!  It’s this big party the upperclassmen have every year.  We finally get to go instead of hearing about it afterward from all the juniors and seniors around school.”

I nodded.  “Cool.  What is it?”

“We don’t know,” Tyler said.  I looked at him confused.  “It’s different every year.  They keep it fresh.  They don’t tell you until you show up.  Usually they go to the school and then load a bus and take them to an amusement park or something.  There was that one time they decorated the school pool and set up a barbeque.  We heard that was cool.”

Stella nodded.  “I remember that.  We couldn’t use that pool for weeks after school started again the next year because no one ever cleaned up afterward.”  She sounded mad.  “The swim team sucked that year.”

“You’re in the swim team,” I asked.

She nodded.  “All three of us.  It’s really the only reason we put up with Jack,” she teased.  He looked around me at her and stuck out his tongue.

Stella rolled her eyes and sat back in her seat.  “Whatever.  I’m thirsty.”

“That sucks for you,” Jack said.

“Jack, can you go get me a soda,” she said in a mock-sweet voice.

He shook his head.  “Not after that comment.  I’m not just your food getter boy!” he said grumpily.  “Tyler, you want a soda?”

Tyler laughed.  “Sure, Jack, I would love a soda,” he said, practically rubbing it in Stella’s face that Jack would get him a drink.  Stella smacked him lightly in the shoulder.

“What about you, Maya?”

I looked at Stella who looked mad for the first time since I’d met her.  “I’ll get you something, Stella,” I said, getting up with Jack with a five dollar bill that Stella handed me.

Jack led me to McDonalds where we got four large sodas for a dollar each.  When we returned, Stella and Tyler were talking, but not completely normally like they had been last night.

We sat for a while, talking about random things.  “So how was the movie last night,” I asked.  The two stiffened uncomfortably for a moment, but then relaxed.

“It was totally predictable,” Stella said.  “Everyone who was meant to be together ended up together.”

I nodded faintly thinking isn’t that how things should be?  Wouldn’t it be nice if things made that much sense all the time?  “I guess we didn’t miss much,” I said.

“No,” Tyler confirmed, looking down into a box of low mein for a moment.

We finished our lunch quickly then.

I sighed.  “Hey, boys, why don’t you go to Game Stop or something?  I feel like we’re forcing girly shopping down your throats.”

Jack and Tyler exchanged a glance and shrugged.  “Okay.”  They stood up as we did and took off for the video games as we went back to shopping.  “I need a swim suit.  Summer’s right around the corner.”

“Believe me; you don’t need one for a while.  We don’t have a pool.”

I frowned.  I loved swimming in the summer.  Not for sport, so I never joined my school’s swim team, but I loved it when it was hot, just for fun.

“Okay.  But I need shoes!”

Stella looked at me and smiled.  “Awesome!”

Two hours later, we met up with the boys again and we made them carry half the shopping bags as we walked back to the circle pack house.  It was three by the time we got back and Stella led me to her room.

“I don’t use the closet much, so you can hang up your clothes in there if you want.”

I nodded, setting down the bags on her bed and pulling them out to put them away.  “And I’ll get the boys to switch out this bed for a bunk bed or something,” she added.

I shook my head.  “No, you don’t have to do that.  I’m good on the floor.”

Stella shook her head in disapproval.  “Maya, you are going to be living here!  You will not sleep on the floor for as long as you are here!”

I rolled my eyes at her authoritative tone.  “If you insist.”

“Alright.”

It took me about half an hour to hang up all my clothes in the organized way I used to have my clothes back home.

No I snapped at myself; this is my home now!  Forget about Maine. “Thanks, for everything,” I said out of nowhere to Stella.

She smiled.  “You’re welcome.”

[A/N: So this was just a filler chapter.  The NEXT chapter will be epic!  I promise!  In fact, I might upload two chapters more before going to bed tonight!  My friends are coming over for a write-a-thon!  If you like this, vote and comment!  Please!]