Anonymous

5

The phone buzzed, its noise amplified by the table it had been left on. Huffing, Bonnibel dropped her pen and leaned over, reading the message she'd been sent. She hadn't expected it to be from an actual person – probably just an automated text from the phone company or something – but no, it was a proper message. She didn't get many of those.

Lady (10:32AM): Want to join us for a day of Christmas shopping?

Bonnie's forehead creased into a frown. A day of shopping wasn't really her thing, but if she said no, it was possible that she wouldn't get invited again. Besides, it might be nice to look around town again. Maybe she'd change her opinion of it if she looked with acquaintances.

Bonnibel (10:34AM): Yeah, okay. Where shall I meet you?

Her phone had barely touched the table again when it vibrated. Apparently Lady was a fast texter. She wasn't really surprised – with the number of friends Lady had, it was probably a good skill to have. Maybe Bonnie should work on her typing.

Lady (10:34AM): Jake and I will pick you up at eleven. Be ready. :)

Sighing a little, she cast a wistful glance over at her notebook, her planned experiment going out of the window. Whatever, she'd have time to do it when she came home, and she had the entirety of Sunday ahead of her. It'd be fine.

She stretched and stood up from her desk chair, crossing the room to reach her closet. Opening the door, she glanced at all of the lovely dresses that she couldn't wear because of the cold, and settled on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt.

She brushed out her strawberry blonde hair and pulled it back into a loose ponytail, working on her makeup and checking the time on her phone every five minutes. She didn't expect her friends to be on time, and wasn't surprised when they arrived at ten past eleven rather than their designated time. Not that she minded – sometimes Bonnie could be a little sloppy with timekeeping herself.

Even though they'd arrived a little late, Bonnie still smiled when she saw Jake's car pull up outside of her house. She waved goodbye to Peter and tentatively walked down her icy driveway – the beginning of December meant lots of ice, apparently – jumping into the backseat of Jake's car.

"Hey," Lady craned her neck around to send her a warm smile, "Morning. We've got a ten minute drive to the mall ahead of us that's probably going to be extended to twenty minutes because of the ice, so I'd sit tight."

Bonnie felt like correcting her – Jake set off at a snail's pace, which made her feel like the drive would be more like twenty hours. "Alright. Who're we meeting at the mall?"

"Finn, Phoebe, and Elle. Fionna has soccer on Saturday afternoons so she couldn't come, and I'm not sure if Marshall's coming because he's usually with his other friends on a Saturday." Lady shrugged, her mention of Marshall accompanied by a little smirk that Bonnie had trouble deciphering.

"Alright then," Bonnie nodded, "So...you're shopping for Christmas presents?"

"Yup," Jake responded, popping the 'p'. "I'm nearly done. Just need to finish shopping for my brothers. Lady said she needed to get something for Elle."

"Yeah," Lady continued for him, "and Finn. What about you? How many presents have you bought?"

"Oh, I only need to buy one or two presents around Christmas," Bonnie knew that was kind of sad, but it didn't bother her. "I left my best friend's present with him back in England, and I've bought my uncle's already. I'm done."

That was the trouble when you moved just two months before Christmas – your old friends gave you your present early, and your new friends didn't bother buying anything for you because you were new. She wasn't expecting anything from Lady and everyone, of course, but Bonnie wasn't used to getting too many presents anyway. She didn't have a very big family.