Athina in Greece

.01

The week after school was let out, Josh, Sadie, Kate, Lauren, and I were on a train going to Chicago to walk around the city. We are walking down Michigan Avenue, becuase that's where all the shops are. We stopped at a cafe and got smoothies and were planning where we were going to go. We were all going to go to the Watertower Place, but while Sadie, Kate, Lauren, and I went to stores like Forever 21 and Sephora, Josh was going to go to some sport stores that I didn't know. We were all going to meet up in the main lobby at 2:00. We finished our smoothies and walked a few blocks to the buliding.

When we walked in, it was crowded with teenagers all talking, with dozens of bags hanging on their forearms. Josh, Kate, and Sadie went straight for the escelators while Lauren and I turned right to go to Lush. Right when we walked in we were hit with the sweet smell of the different soaps and bath bombs. I walked straight back to where the lotions were and started looking at the different pots. I picked up one I hadn't tried before called "African Paradise" and then turned to look at the different soaps. Lauren walked over to me with two paper bags containing bath bombs in them. At first she didn't say anything, she just studied the soaps silently next to me. I picked up a sparkly pink bar called "The Godmother" and smelled it. I instantly pulled my head back, it was a sickly sweet candy scent. Finally Lauren spoke.

"Why didn't you tell us about Greece?" She questioned without even looking at me, she just kept picking up the different soaps.

"I didn't want you guys to act like it was my last days there, I waned everything to be normal, I didn't want the sense of leavig and not coming back." I expained looking at her while still holding a chunk of the pink soap in my hands.

"I guess that makes sense." was all she said, and it was in a tone of defeat, quiet and sad.

"What do you think of this?" I asked, desperate to change the subject, holding out a chunk of a pale yellow soap called "Bohemian".

She leaned in to smell the bar, "It's nice, very subtle and lemony. It suits you."

"Are you calling my a subtle lemon?" I asked her trying to make her laugh because the look of sadness in her eyes was unbearable. To my relief she laughed and shoved me a bit. I asked one of them employees to cut me a small ammount of the soap and then moved onto the bath bombs. I picked up a purple one shaped like Saturn with red glitter all over it called "Space Girl". When we were waiting in the check-out line, I grabbed a pot of Bubbblegum Lip Scrub since I was running low and paid for my items.

When we were done there Lauren called Kate to ask where they were. She was on the phone for a few miutes before she got off and turned to me. "She says they're in Hollister but are leaving now and going to Sephora."

I turned to her and said, "Okay, lets go."

We walkd out of Lush and up the escelators. We went up escelator after escelator to the fifth floor and across the way to the Sephora. When they walked in, Sadie and Kate were over by the eye shadows. Lauren went straight to them, but I walked to the eye liners and grabbed a tube of my favorite eyeliner and then joined them. When we were done, I bought my eyeliner and left. When we were outsie of the store, Kate asked me a question that I didn't think anyone would notice.

"You've been to Lush and Sephora and you're still shopping, where did you get all the money?" It was an odd question, and one that wasn't really socially acceptable, but it made sense, most 8th graders didn't have this much cash.

"Well", I started, "I knew I would be applying for this school and knew I would need to buy things for Greece, so I set aside $20 every time I baby sat, and I've been doing that since last summer."

"Wait, you babysit nearly every weekend!" Are you really carrying that much cash aroud?" Sadie asked with a bewildered tone.

"No, I begged my mom to let me get a debit card and she said that I could as long as I was always the one refilling it, not her." I explained with my head down, I didn't like talking about my money in a place full of strangers.

Kate must have realized this because she cut Sadie off from asking another question by asking where we wanted to go next. Lauren wanted to go to Wet Seal and Sadie wanted to go to Forever 21, but I wanted to go to Aeropostale. Since Forever 21 was on the fifth floor we went there first. Everything was floral and summer-y with tons of dresses and flowy tank tops. I went to look at some sun dresses with Kate while Lauren and Sadie went by all the shorts. Kate and I pulled out dress after dress looking for dark forals for me and light florals for Kate. We both found a dress that we liked and then moved on to the jewelery where Sadie and Lauren were. Sadie, Lauren, and Kate were all loking at the chunky, colorful bracelets while I looked at the sunglasses and scarves. I picked up a pair of black wayfarers and a cute floal scarf. Then I walked across the section to the earings, I picked up a few pairs and went to find my friends. Lauren was back by the shorts so I went by her and picked up a few shorts for myself.

"That dress is going to look so cute on you." She said still rifling through the shorts.

"Really? I thought it would look the same as everything else I wear with it being dark and all." I said holding up the dress to look at it.

"No, it's gonna look good, trust me." She said, looking up from the shorts and giving me a smile.

"Thanks, and here these would look good with that top." I told her tossing her a par of shorts and pointing at the shirt she had on top of a few others.

While we stood in line I grabbed a makeup bag and talked about the different things everyone was doing over the summer. When we finally left the store we went to Aeropostale and saw Josh in the store. I went over and talked to him while Katie, Sadie, and Lauren compared different shirts and outfits. He was having an issue on deciding which shirt to buy so he showed me them and I pointed to the one of the left bcause it was darker.

"Of course you would choose that, it's dark like your insides." He said turning and hanging the other shirt back up.

"But you still chose it, so I guess my insides aren't so bad." I said poking him in the back of the neck.

He went to buy his shirt and I grabbed a few things before rejoining everyone outside the store.

"We still have to go to Wet Seal and and Athina wants to go to the book store on Clark St. but we have to take a taxi for that or bus unless you want to walk three miles." Sadie was explaining to everyone.

"Okay, I don't have anywhere to go so I'll go ith you guys to Wet Seal." Josh told the group.

When they got to the store Josh sat outside and I went in but didn't get anything or spend nearly as much time as everyone else in the store. I walked out and sat next to Josh who was playing a game on his phone. When he died, he put his phone away and turned his body so he was facing me. I turned a bit so I could lok at him without tuning my head at an awkward angle. He asked me a few basic questions about Greece, like when I'm leaving and if I'll have to learn Greek or not.

"I'm sure I'll learn some, but I won't be forced to, it's an international school, most of the students are American or from the UK." I explained, I thought that was obvious by the name of the name of the schol but I guess not.

'Oh, that's cool, when are you leaving?" He asked.

"A week before our school starts and I'll get there four days before classes start to meet people and get to see the school."

"Well, you're going to bring me back something cool right? Like a rock from some old artifact or a cheesy gift shop replica." He asked looking up and smiling.

"Sure." I replied and because I couldn't help it I smiled too. Josh had one of those smiles that made you want to smile too.

Then the rest of our group came out with multiple bags hanging from their arms. We all walked out of the bulding and got on the bus to go to Clark so we could go to he bookstore. I went to the YA section and started grabbing books. By the time we left I had 7 new hadcover books and three bookmarks. Josh had bought some comic books and Sadie got a cookbook since she loved to bake. Kate and Lauren weren't that into rading so thy didn't really enjoy the trip.

We went to a small food place to get something to eat then took another bus to the train station. And went to the cupcake shop Sadie wanted to work at, Sprinkles before leaving the city. We got on the train that would take us to the station nearest our houses and headed back home.