Lisa and Jessica were walking through the party store looking for items for Jessica's cousin Louis' surprise party.
"I don't understand," Lisa said, "Why was Hector so adamant about you doing this yourself?" Jessica smiled as she picked up the paper plates.
"This is why," she said, flipping them over so Lisa could see. There was a giant bug on the plate.
"Ah, that's why," Lisa said calmly, "I understand."
If truth be told, Lisa found Hector to be much girlier than Jessica. Not to the point where someone would assume that he was gay, but he did own more haircare products than the rest of his family combined.
"So, are there going to be any actual bugs there, or just ones on the decorations?" Jessica grinned in excitement.
"Actually, I'm really proud of this," she said, "Do you know that junior Ally?"
"Oh yeah, we're in Skeleckian Culture 2 together," Lisa said, "She's really nice!"
"Yeah, so her uncle works at the park as a ranger, and he has all these cases of bugs. So sometimes, he lets her do gigs with them. You know, dress up, take the bugs, teach kids, all that jazz."
"But how'd you get her to do it?"
"Let's just say once you've been on the receiving end of Manny's hate, you're willing to work with any of his enemies. Even the little sister of your ex."
Lisa felt her heart pang. Ally was a year older than her, and she and Hector had dated for about a month. Lisa wasn't the jealous type, but she knew that she and Hector would have a much stronger relationship than the ones he chose to strike up.
Out of nowhere, Jessica stopped.
"Francine," she stage whispered. Lisa peered past the corner to see Francine examining an explorer-style hat.
"What do you think she's up to?" Lisa asked.
"Early Halloween shopping?" Jessica offered lamely.
"She's up to something," Lisa said.
"For sure. But let's not worry about that right now," Jessica said, "We can just check out, and she'll never know we were here."
The moment they exited the store, it was awkward.
"So... what now?" Lisa asked.
"Lisa, I'm not gonna beat around the bush: what are we doing? I mean, we need to talk about the elephant in the room."
"Jess, we both know what's going to happen. And I know for a fact that you don't like talking about it. So we don't have to. We can just act like nothing's changed."
Jessica nodded.
"Okay," she said, "Okay then. Let's not. We can be normal."
The two girls linked arms. Nothing would change between them. After all, they were each other's only one to turn to for girly matters. Why infringe that with tragedy?
