Gen 9- Chapter 2 Part 1: Wisteria Lace

“So then what happened?” Viola’s excited state of confusion, was making it exceedingly more difficult for me not to get caught up in the chatter. This was the hottest thing to hit our little rumor mill in days. The moment word got out that I was “talking” to someone, all the girls were a buzz.

Talking… supposedly that is what Bubble and I were doing. I had never even heard of talking till then, but by definition, it was indeed what was happening. Not quite dating and definitely not going out yet, just talking. I had never talked with a boy before. T, let’s call him T, we never talked, we wrote a couple letters back and forth, and within a couple of days we were going out. It was a lot easier to understand the boundaries that way. I’ll be honest, talking confused me.

“Well…” I beamed. “He called me the next day. And since then he called me Monday and Tuesday.” As much as I was trying not to put the cart before the horse, every time I talked about him, it was hard not to smile or control that giddy feeling in the pit of my stomach. He was a lot different than T, in all the right ways, but it was nothing serious yet, so I was trying not to get ahead of myself.

“So what do you know about this guy?” Sandy inquired, her voice was much more demanding and slightly disapproving than Viola.

“Well, he is from Fondant Fields, and he is on their football team.” I added, I knew Sandy would like that last part.

“Oo, an athlete, very nice.” Sandy nodded her head, she was liking this idea a little bit more.

Like a scream cutting through a calm night, Harmony screeched and started to clap her hands. “AND!!!” She squealed. “He works at the Pizza Kingdom! Oh my berry! You know what we should do?! We should go see him!”

All the girls again started to chatter amongst themselves. I could feel the tips of my cheeks as if they were on fire. Not that the idea wasn’t a good one, it just scared the sweet right out of me. I started to weigh in my opinion on the idea, when Harmony piped up again. “Sandy can drive us!” Practically ready to come out of her skin, Harmony was now literally bouncing from one foot to the other.

Sandy was a little less keen on the whole plan. She wasn’t actually supposed to even be driving yet, and the car she had gotten for her birthday, was to take her to school and home, and possibly a friends house. Her folks let her get away with a lot, as long as it was around town, more than my parents would have, but I seriously doubted they wanted her driving 40 minutes to Fondant Fields. I do have to say though, the few times I had ridden with her, for being unlicensed she was a really good driver, which probably played into why she had never been caught.

Sandy thought it about it for a couple of good minutes, tapping her finger to her chin and looking from me to Harmony. Finally a huge smile started to spread across her face, she looked to Viola, “I could get in massive trouble for this, if we get caught, but to see Wisty and this boy? It’s totally worth it.”

My heart fluttered.

“As soon as we finish our drinks. I will have to message my mom and tell her I am going to Viola’s for dinner.” Sandy said, pulling her phone from her pocket, her fingers quickly started to type out her lie.

“You guys gonna order, or what?”

The guy behind the counter was not nearly as excited about our little road trip as we were. He must have waited a good two minutes before finally deciding to ask what exactly we were planning on doing. Staring at us, his eyebrows lifted into an obvious question of “Well?”

“Yes.” Sandy pushed to the front of the group. “Oh yes, we’re up. I got this today guys. Hi, I’ll have a boppity, half caf, skinny cinnamon Latte, no whip. A bitty green tea with one raw sugar, room for cream. Two boppity dipped sugar vanilla honey macchiattos, double cup on those please, and a Bubbletastic green tea…extra hot.”

The cashier, somehow looked less pleased now that we ordered, than he had before. He looked over the items on the register, and read them all back to us. *sigh* “Okay, so that was one, boppity, half caf, skinny cinnamon Latte, no whip. A bitty green tea with one raw sugar, room for cream. Two boppity dipped sugar vanilla honey macchiattos, double cup, and a Bubbletastic green tea…” He paused for a few seconds before adding an un-enthused “extra hot.”

“Yes.”

“No sugar on the green tea? No syrup?”

“No.” I smiled. “Just the tea please.”

“Alright. Will that complete your order? You sure you don’t want me to just throw in the whole fridge while we are at it?” A voice rang out from the back room. “Lichen… we talked about this.” Lichen immediately changed his tone after that, and was noticeably lighter and jovial as he pressed the total key. “15.75 please.” Sandy paid the boy, and a quick five minutes later we had out drinks. Lichen may have been grumpy, but what he lacked in social skills, he made up in efficiency.

“Here you go.” The expression on his face, now matched the flatness in his voice. “Enjoy.”

We hurriedly made our way to the little corner in the back, our usual spot, and urgently started passing our cups around. Any idea how hard it is to drink an extra hot green tea? Lets just say, I may have unintentional blistered the room of my mouth. Should have just gotten a boppity, I thought to myself, as I winced taking another large sip. My excitement, outweighed my concern for the roof of my mouth apparently, because I was able to down the entire cup quite quickly.

Once we had finished our drinks, all the girls gathered up our things and headed out to Sandy’s car. Harmony bolted out the front door so quickly that she was already bouncing excitedly at the passenger side before I had even made it outside. I opened the back rear door and slid inside, scooting to the middle, to allow for Cerese and Viola to get in on either side. I buckled my seat belt, and was ready to go. Sandy, hopped in the drivers seat, while Harmony hopped in the front passenger side. The moment Harmony’s door slammed shut, she turned to look at Sandy. “Oh, and I have to go home now.” She stated nonchalantly. Every one in the car turned to look at her.

“Dude.” Viola started.

“This was your idea! And now you can’t even go?” Sandy chimed in, obviously annoyed by this new information.

“Sorry!” Harmony whined. “My mom would never let me go that far.”

“Fine.” Sandy grumbled, putting the car in drive. “Let’s get you home first…”

After our small detour, we were on our way to Fondant Fields. 40 minutes is a long drive, when there is something or someone at the other end that you are just dying to see. I watched the cars zoom by my right window, letting my mind wander in order to help pass the time. It worked for a while, but anytime someone started to talk, namely Viola, I would snap back to the present, and back to my knotted up stomach. “Ohh!” Viola giggled, grabbing for her notepad from her bag.. “I have to write this down.” She started jotting down something into her pad, speaking out loud as she did so. “Monday, November 12th. Bubble and Wisty have their second meeting.”

I tilted my head back against the seat behind me. “Is that really necessary?” I groaned.

“Trust me, you will thank me later.”

I wasn’t too sure about that, but we didn’t have anymore time to discuss it further, because the car was pulling to a stop outside Pizza Kingdom. “We’re here!” Sandy called out. She threw the car into park, and I waited patiently for Viola, so I could get out. I gathered my nerves and took the lead, heading up to the steps.

I looked cool, calm, collected, but on the inside, I was about ready to throw up. I wasn’t sure if I would ever out grow these volatile nerves of mine, that was why I continued to push on even though, I was scared sweetless. Fake it till you make was my motto. This time in particular, I was faking it, hard. One step up, then two, then I was there, at the door, the girls huddled behind me, pushing me through the doors. “Let’s go!”

We all stepped through the imitation castle doors, and my heart went thud, as they shut behind us. Oh man, there was no turning back now. “Is that him?” Viola asked with an excited squeak.

“Him?”

“Yeah!” She laughed grabbing my arm and pointing at the register.

“Why yes. Yes it is.”

“Well? Are you going to talk to him or what?”

“Oh Wisty! Just go over there! Look he is coming over! Go go!” Viola nudged me in the direction of Bubble, before all the girls headed for the table in the far corner, leaving me completely defenseless. My heart and my head working at an overexerted pace.

“Wisteria? Hey!” Bubble rushed over by me, and threw his arms around, enveloping me in a hug, that was way more amazing than it looked from the outside. “Hi” I smiled, squeezing him back.

“What are you doing here?”

“Well.” I stammered, my nerves were beginning to get the better of me. “I came to see… you. Hope that’s alright.” I flashed a sheepish grin.

”Of course! I was just about to have my break. Here. Come with me a sec.”

Grabbing hold of my hand, he walked me over to other cashier behind the counter. I looked at our hands intertwined, before looking over at the table, where the girls were about ready to split in two. He gave my hand a small squeeze, before he started to talk to the lady. The woman had the same hair, same complexion, as Bubble, and it didn’t take me more than a second to realize it was his mother. “Mom. This is my friend Wisteria. Gonna take my break now, if that is alright.”

With an expression reminiscent to that of Lichen’s from only a couple hours before, the one corner of one side of her mouth lifted into what, I guess one could categorize as a smile. “Hello, I’m Mrs. Chiclet. It’s nice to meet you Wisteria.”

“Nice to meet you too.” I smiled, but something told me, she was not pleased.

“Fifteen minutes, Bubble, we are down one hand tonight.” She replied shortly, gazing at her watch.

“Yup! Fifteen!” He called out, as we made our way towards the door. “Come with me.”

We stepped out into the cool evening air, and it hit me like a welcome refresher. Didn’t realize how warm it had been inside, till we stepped out. We walked around to the one corner of the building, before sitting down on the bench. I had no idea what to say, so I just gave him another grin, a little less sheepish this time.

“It’s nice to see you out this way. Hah! I was really surprised.”
“I hope you are not in trouble. The girls thought it would be fun, and well I guess I did too.”

“Nah. It’s fine. Never had a visitor before. I like it.” He said with a wink.

My chest squeezed tighter. “Glad, I could make your night then.”

“I only wish we had more time. We are swamped tonight, and the dishwasher called in sick.”

“Oh no.”

“Yeah and we are set up for three different birthday parties, two down, one to go.”

“Wow. You guys are busy.”

‘Yup. But, hey. We should do something together. Maybe, I could come and visit you next time.”

“I’d like that.”

“Great?! How about Saturday?”

“Saturday would be perfect.”

“Alright. I will call you this week then, you know to get your address and stuff.”

“Sounds good!”

Bubble stepped closer. “Wisteria, wo-

“Wisty! Come on!! We gotta go!!”

Wow, what amazingly horrible timing, I thought to myself. “We gotta hurry! Sandy’s mom is going to get suspicious!!”

I nodded, waving my arm in their direction. “Alright… I’ll be right there.” I turned back to Bubble. “Sorry. Guess I better go.”

“Yeah, me too, but I will call you.”

“Can’t wait.”

We hugged one last time, before the girls and I started our way back to the car. It had been short. but I was quite fulfilled by our little rendezvous. The girls were giggling non stop, trying to squeeze as much information out of me as they could.

“So… what happened?”

“We are going to spend the afternoon together on Saturday.”

“Like a date?”

“Date…” I hadn’t even thought about it as a date. Just as an outing. A smile started to spread across my face. “I guess so.”