It was finally Friday and I couldn't be happier. We never got homework on Fridays, so Darry always let me hang out with Jenny. Today after school, I was going to her house. I really liked going to Jenny's house because she had fun games and toys for us to play with and her mom always had some sort of snack waiting for us.

Normally, me and Jenny would have asked to have a sleepover, but tomorrow was Pony's track meet to qualify for State. The first races started at nine in the morning and Darry wanted me to get a good night's sleep, so he was coming to pick me up from Jenny's house after supper. I didn't argue. I wanted to stay on his good side.

The clock stuck 3:10 and all of us ran outside of the school, excited it was the weekend. Jenny's mom was already waiting nearby in her car when we spotted her.

Jenny took off. "Race ya!" She yelled behind her.

In a split second I was running after her, trying to catch up, but she was further ahead of me and stopped when she reached the car first.

"Beat you! I win!"

"Not fair! You got a head start. Cheater!" I wasn't really mad and Jenny knew it. We always had fun getting competitve with each other sometimes.

Jenny opened up the back door of the car getting in and I slid in next to her.

Jenny's mom greeted us. "How was school today girls? You happy it's Friday?"

"Yes!" We both exclaimed in unison. Then Jenny proceeded to tell her mom about what had happened during our science lesson today as we pulled away from the school. Mrs. Morris had taken us to the science lab where we got to observe frogs. The frogs were in glass tanks that were sitting on the lab tables and during the middle of the lesson a boy in our class, Jimmy, had sneezed and bumped into one of the tables, causing the tank to slide off the table and onto the floor with a big crash. The frog was loose and started hopping around the room. All of the girls started screaming and running around to get away from the frog as Mrs. Morris was prancing around the room trying to catch it. Me and Jenny had been laughing so hard watching the scene and now that Jenny was retelling the events to her mom, it sent us into another fit of giggles. Jenny's mom laughed with us, imagining the ridiculousness of the situation.

"Well, it sounds like you girls had an exciting day." She said as we came up to their house and turned into the driveway. She parked the car and we all got out and headed into the house. "There's a snack waiting for you girls in the kitchen."

We ran into the kitchen and, sure enough, there was a plate with some fresh baked cookies sitting on the counter. Jenny grabbed two of them and I did the same, taking a bite. They were still warm. We smiled at each other as we enjoyed our cookies and when we finished Jenny asked me if I wanted to go to her room. I nodded and we ran out of the kitchen and down the hall. When we got to her room we decided to play with her animal toys consisting of an assortment of horses and dogs. Jenny and I already knew which ones each of us would pick for we had designated "families" that we chose awhile ago. We each had a spot in her room where we built our own farms, using some of her old blocks to create fences. Our animal families would always go back and forth between the two farms to play together. I had chosen one of my boy horses and she had picked one of her girl horses, so we could pretend that they were in love.

After about an hour of playing with her animals, we decided to put them away and hopped up on her bed.

"Vada," she said after a moment and smiled, "do you have a crush on anyone?"

I guess I hadn't really thought about it in awhile. Last year I had a crush on this boy, Jacob, for awhile, but I honestly couldn't think of anyone I had a crush on right now.

"I actually don't think I do." I answered her. "Do you?" She blushed and I could tell she liked somebody. "Who is it?" I pushed.

She giggled with glee. "Mark Brandston!"

"Mark Brandston?!" Mark was a year older than us and hung out with the popular crowd. I knew a lot of girls in his class had big crushes on him, but I was kind of surprised to hear that Jenny had a crush on him. Since he wasn't in our grade, we never really saw him around much. But Jenny started to tell me that the other day after school she had gone to the park across the street from her house to swing when she saw him and his buddies throwing around a football. Jenny had sat down on the swing when their football came flying towards her and landed near her feet. She had picked it up and threw it back Mark and Jenny said that when he had caught it, he looked at her and said "Nice throw!" before running back over to his friends. Jenny was smiling the entire time she told me the story and while I was happy for her, I couldn't help but feel a little jealous. I wish I had a crush on somebody.

We continued to sit on her bed and kept talking for a good while until her mom softly knocked on the door and came into the room.

"Dinner's ready."

We stood up from her bed and followed her mom down to the kitchen. I was pleased to find her parents had made spaghetti and meatballs, one of my favorite meals. Her dad was already seated at the table, helping himself to a serving of spaghetti, when he saw us and smiled. Jenny went over and gave her dad a hug.

"Hi, Daddy."

He huged her back and smiled. "Hi, baby girl." I felt a sad smile tug at my lips as I sat down. At that moment I wished more than anything that I could hug my parents. They always gave the best hugs and made me feel loved and safe. I missed that.

Jenny let go and came back around the table to sit down next to me and started to load up her plate.

"Hi, Vada. How are you today?" Her dad asked.

"I'm good, thanks. How are you?" My parents had always liked me using my manners.

"I'm doing well, thanks for asking. I'm glad you could join us for dinner tonight."

"Thanks for having me. It looks great!"

We had started in on our meal when her dad asked us how our day at school went. Jenny and I looked at each other and started to giggle again about science class. Her dad looked at us with a confused smile while her mom chuckled and shook her head. Jenny retold the story to him and he let out a laugh of his own. The rest of our dinner was filled with fun stories and laughs until we had all finished eating. Jenny and I were helping her parents clean up when we heard a knock on the door. Her mom went to answer the door and I heard her talking to somebody when she called back to the kitchen.

"Vada, Darry is here!"

I finished what I was doing and made my way into the living room, with Jenny following right behind. Jenny's mom had invited Darry inside and she was asking him how things were going. While they were talking, I started to put on my shoes and grabbed my backpack that was sitting by the door.

Darry looked down at me. "You all ready to go?"

"Yeah." I answered and turned to Jenny's mom. "Thank you for dinner and the cookies, Mrs. Simmons."

She smiled and brought me into a side hug. "No problem, dear. You're welcome any time."

Me and Jenny said our goodbyes as Darry and I headed out the door to his truck and made our way home.