"Hi, it's us!" Kuki called as they both stepped through the door. There was no answer. Just the low sound of music coming from another room. Kuki shook her head and walked over to the side table which sat in the hallway, next to the stairs. On it was a pot of keys. Kuki picked up a set of keys and picked out a glittery blue one. She closed the door and placed the key in the lock, turning it and placing it back into the pot.
"If we can't hear anyone come through the door I'd rather not let them come right in…" Kuki grinned.
Wally laughed. "You know you've been around your friend too long when you know where she keeps her keys and which one it is!"
Kuki shrugged. "Are they in the basement? That's where the music is right?"
Wally nodded. Kuki walked over to the door which led to the basement and opened it. Giving Wally a grin before leading the way down the stairs. He followed her down the stairs, closing the door behind him.
Abby's basement had been designed into (at Abby's request and mostly Kuki's influence) a 'sleepover room'. At the back of the room sat most likely the biggest television in the house, a 42" flat screen, which Cree had saved up for with her part time babysitting earnings. She was devastated when she went to University and didn't have room in her tiny dorm room for it. She had grudgingly agreed that Abby could have use of it until she moved into her own flat in a few years time, if Abby promised not to show her parents the evidence of Cree's university antics that emerged on facebook over the weekends.
"I don't want those other girls touching it anyway, they'd break it in a drunken state!" Cree would scowl, talking about the girls which she had agreed to share a flat with during her second year.
Next to the television was a bookcase full of DVDs. the television was wired onto a giant surround sound system with small speakers at the opposite end of the room. On the soft, fluffy carpet there sat six giant, soft bean bags, neatly in a semicircle facing the television. A different throw blanket on each one and a random cushions neatly placed on the floor around them. There was a small kitchen area in one corner, complete with a mini fridge, kettle and condiments. Dim fairy lights acted as the only source of light on the ceiling.
Kuki adored having girly sleepovers at Abby's as this was her ideal heaven. She and Abby would sit and watch chick flick rom coms until early hours of the morning. When it would finally be time to go to sleep Kuki would snuggle up with a few blankets on a bean bag and place her earphones in, she could then begin to drift off to sleep as she listened to tranquil music.
The bean bags were occupied on this occasion.
"Hey girl! We didn't hear you come in!" Abby beamed as they turned their attention from the screen.
Kuki smiled. "I know...I locked the door."
"Thanks." Abby beamed. "Grab a pew!"
Kuki sat on the bean bag next to Abby, Wally perched on the one next to her.
They had the music channel playing on the television. A 'back to the noughties' program was on. Kuki beamed as she sat down and what used to be her old favorite band, Tatu, began to play.
"I'm starving." Wally said, Kuki gave a small grin, his Australian accent was still as thick as in his youth and the way he said 'stahvin'' made him sound even cuter. She'd always had a thig for his sexy accent.
"Pizza?" Abby asked, more of a statement, as if she knew the answer but was just checking.
Hoagie nodded eagerly. "I'll order!"
He picked up his cell and dialed. "Hey, can I order delivery please? Yeah, I want a large meat feast…"
He pointed at the phone, asking everyone for their order.
"Large hawaiian!" Abby said, not looking up.
Wally whispered to her as Hoagie repeated his order. "Can I split with you Abby?"
Abby nodded.
"What do you want Kuki?" Hoagie asked.
Kuki shook her head. "I'm full, I've already ate."
"Make our one an extra large then she can have a slice if she wants...oh cheese crust too!" Abby told Hoagie, who nodded and changed the order for it. He then looked at Nigel.
"Small BBQ chicken." Nigel whispered. Hoagie nodded again and then spoke the order down the phone.
"You got any deals on?" He asked.
Kuki shook her head at Abby with a laugh. "He hasn't changed has he?"
"Oh great, well change the meat feast and BBQ order and put that half and half on an extra large then we'll have the buy one get one free for those pizzas...and that brings us to what? Okay, and we get free chicken wings and wedges with that anyway? Great. That's it then…"
Hoagie gave the address to the pizza company and put the phone down. "I think I got a good deal. $20 for all of that and we get free sides because we ordered two extra larges, which I got buy one get one free on!"
Kuki laughed. She had to rethink what he had said in her head for it to make sense.
"Oh, there's drinks in the fridge if you want some girl." Abby pointed to the kitchen.
Kuki stood up. "Thanks."
She walked over to the fridge and opened it. There was mainly beer and cans of premixed drinks. Kuki reached in and pulled out a can of soda. Above the fridge was a shelf. It was full of random things that obviously had no place anywhere else. Old cook books, an ornament of a dancing couple, a pile of CDs, and a small, lime green book. The book caught Kuki's attention. She reached up and pulled it down. Gazing at the cover with a gasp.
"Oh my gosh!" She exclaimed. "Abby, I'd forgotten all about this"
"Where was that?" Abby asked, a large smile appearing on her face.
Kuki pointed. "On this shelf above the fridge."
She carried it with her can back to the bean bag that she had claimed ownage of and sat down. Staring at the picture with a reminiscent smile.
"What is it?" Nigel asked, looking over Kuki's shoulder as she sat down.
Kuki beamed and ran her finger down the side of the book. "It's a photobook. I made it for Abby's birthday in like seventh grade."
The others gathered around her to look at the picture. Abby lay down on her left side, peeking over Kuki's arm. Nigel stayed behind, looking over her left shoulder. Hoagie mirrored Nigel,looking over Kuki's right shoulder. Wally moved himself from his own bean bag and sat on the edge of the one that Kuki was on. Propping an arm behind her so that he could lean closer for a better view. He was so close that Kuki had to focus more on the book in front of her to prevent blushing. 'We're close enough to kiss!'.
The book was a professionally printed photo book. The size of a pocket diary. Kuki had personalised it by drawing lots of pictures on the front. Pictures of her and Abby, various friends that they had in seventh grade, and lots of inside joke doodles that only her and Abby would understand. She struggled to make sense of most of them. She grinned at her attempt of drawing a frog. She remembered. Abby liked a guy called Francis in seventh grade. Kuki despised him. When Abby told Kuki of her love interest Kuki told Abby that he looked like a frog...and acted like one. They both found this comparison hilarious and following a huge argument between Abby and 'Francis frog boy' later that week, the two girls secretly named him so from then on.
Kuki gave a giggle at the memory and opened the book to the first page. It was a picture of the five friends. Taken when they were aged around ten years old. They were all dressed up and holding empty pillow cases.
"This must have been halloween one year." Kuki thought aloud.
Hoagie laughed. "I remember! That was the year that Kuki made Wally dress up as Peter pan because she wanted to be Tinkerbell! See!"
He pointed at Wally's costume, then Kuki's. Kuki laughed when she noticed this. The two of them were at opposite ends of the photo. Kuki, on the far left wore a green dress which she had ripped at the bottom, on her feet she wore green slippers which she had gotten her mother to sew a white pom pom on the top of each. The outfit was topped off with cardboard, home made fairy wings. She had her arms outstretched and a huge, happy grin on her glitter covered face. Had Hoagie not have reminded her, she would have had no idea what she'd decided to dress up as, she would have assumed some sort of fairy or butterfly but wouldn't have remembered Tinkerbell.
Kuki then looked at Wally on the picture, who was last on the right. He was pulling his signature frown. Blond bangs covering his death stare eyes. His arms folded defiantly with his pillow case hanging from the grip of his left hand. He wore a green tshirt which his mother had carefully torn and dirtied to add effect. Around his waist was his cowboy holster, his mother had replaced the cowboy gun with a hand cut wooden dagger. Somehow, they had managed to get in him green tights. What Kuki felt added to the humour was the hand made green hat which his mother had obviously made by simple rolling some green card into a cone. It looked more like a gnome's hat than that of the boy who never grew up.
"Wally! Look how short you were!" Kuki exclaimed with a point at him. They all exchanged laughs.
Wally chuckled. "At least I grew! It looks like that's where you and Nigel stopped growing!"
They all laughed.
Wally was right. In the photo Nigel was the tallest, very closely followed by Abby and Hoagie, then Kuki. Wally was the shortest of the group. As they grew up, this all changed. Hoagie was now the tallest, as he long his weight he gained height, he had to have grown to be about 5"9. Abby and Wally were now a similar height. A bit shorter than Hoagie at 5"8. Nigel was now short for a boy his age, he stood at 5"4, half a head taller than 5"2 Kuki. They had all changed.
In the photo Nigel was dressed up as one of the beatles. He stood looking at the camera with a dopey grin, his fake hair flopping over his face. Abby was dressed as some sort of soccer player, she had obviously gotten Cree's help with her costume that year. Her textiles acing sister had somehow managed to adapt Abby's pillowcase into a football by reshaping it and adding black materials.
Kuki furrowed her eyebrows trying to figure out what Hoagie was dressed as. He also had some sort of floppy brown wig that reached his cheeks. He wore Nigel's sunglasses and...a dress? Kuki burst out laughing when she understood Hoagie's outfit,
"Are you Victoria Beckham?" She asked, pointing at Hoagie on the picture. His face pulled into a duck face pout at the camera.
Hoagie looked for a second and chuckled. "yeah, Abby told me that she wanted to be David Beckham so i thought we could switch roles."
They all laughed. Kuki turned the page to show a picture of her and Abby, they had taken sellotape and put it all over their faces to lift up random parts of their face. Kuki giggled, and slowly turned the pages as they all stared at the images. A picture of their new school clique when they moved to high school. Numerous pictures and memories. Some Kuki remembered, others she had no recollection of. They sat looking at the book and talking about memories. After half an hour, the doorbell rang. Hoagie gathered money from the other, bar Kuki and rushed upstairs to get the pizza. He came back down with the food, placed it on the floor and opened the boxes for everyone to tuck in.
Abby pointed at the box to Kuki, almost ordering her to eat. Kuki gave a small grin and picked a slice up. She nibbled on the slice as she continued to look through the book.
"I miss this." Kuki sighed as she reached the end of the book, running a finger over most likely the last photo they had all taken together. Back in eighth grade, they had all decided to go to the first school dance of the year and met up. this was taken in the little garden that the school had for extra curricular garden activities. It was full of flowers, a vegetable patch and a large, white arch. The five stood together under the arch. Kuki and Abby in the middle, their bodies tilted toward each other and their heads facing the camera, bright smiles on their faces, Wally stood next to Abby, Nigel on the other side of Kuki, mimicking the same pose. Hoagie stood on a step behind the girls, a huge grin on his face.
It could have been a professional prom style photo had whoever taken it not put their finger over a side of the lens and cut out Nigel's back.
"Well I've got a good camera on my phone." Hoagie said, picking out his iphone 5. "Let's get up to date on pictures."
He placed a timer on the phone and steadied it on the television. He then ran back and they gathered together for the picture to take. When they heard the snap, Hoagie got back up and pulled the camera close to him to admire the picture. He then decided to take a selfie with everyone...followed by another one, and another, Hoagie would yell out faces to pull like 'funny, pout, smile, now show the pizza!'
"I'm going for a beer." Wally said, standing up. Obviously getting bored of the photo fad.
Kuki stood up and followed him, she'd finished her drink and wanted another. Wally smiled at her as she stepped over to him, scanning the fridge.
"What' your poison?" He asked.
Kuki showed her soda can. Wally pulled a face.
"Living the dangerous life huh?"
Kuki tutted. "I just want soda."
Wally smiled back at her and picked out a can for her.
"Thanks." She smiled.
"Hey you two! Smile!" Hoagie exclaimed. Rushing over to them. Before they could react he'd snapped a photo of them both.
Hoagie rushed over, throwing an arm over Kuki and pressing his face against hers as he posed for a selfie with a duck face. Kuki smiled into the camera. Hoagie grinned and rushed back to get a picture of Abby and Nigel.
"Has he had much to drink?" Kuki giggled.
Wally shook his head. "Still on his first can I think. You know what he's like. Drunk on atmosphere."
Kuki both headed back to the bean bags and sat down, gradually the chaos calmed and they got back to chatting about their memories and old times.
"Remember that game that we used to play for years?" Kuki chuckled. "Every weekend we'd all meet in that little treehouse in Nigel's back garden and we'd just sit there for hours, pretending that we were some sort of spies?"
Nigel grinned. "Not spies, operatives!"
They laughed. Hoagie mused, "Didn't we even have a name for ourselves?"
"Kids on call?" Abby thought aloud.
"Kids next door!" Wally remembered. "God, how were we so stupid. We just had a vengence for everyone didn't we?"
Kuki giggled. "The dentist...those pool lifeguards….Our dinner lady...Nigel's cousins!"
"We were mean kids." Abby laughed. "Remember when Nigel's cousins invited us to that party and we stole their cake?"
They all burst out laughing.
"In our defence, they're still absolute morons." Nigel added, taking a bite of pizza. "They're horrid."
"Remember how we used to say that they were stuck together?" Kuki giggled. "I actually saw Lenny not long ago, he must have been walking home from practise or something but he was on his own...I almost didn't recognise him."
Hoagie smiled. "You talk to him."
"I said hi and he blanked me." Kuki shrugged.
"Told you." Nigel replied. "Idiots! I have to go over and visit every now and then and they never even acknowledge me."
Abby sat back in her bean bag, beginning to flick through channels on the TV with the remote.
"Didn't we have a thing against their dad too? Your uncle?"
Nigel laughed. "He's still really mean too. Grumpy old fart."
They exchanged laughs.
"Wow, what time is it? Numbuh 5's pooped already." Abby asked.
"Nearly twelve." Wally replied, glancing at his watch.
Abby blinked. "Numbuh 5's not being rude but she's gonna hit the sack. She's tired and wants her bed!"
"That's how you know you're getting old." Hoagie laughed. Abby glared at him with a sultry smile.
"Anyway, Numbuh 5' going to bed. Night." Abby said, heading upstairs.
They all said goodnight to her and then sat in a two minute silence.
"And then there were three." Hoagie grinned.
They were all sat on a bean bag each. Hoagie was lying practically on the floor with his torso on a bean bag. Still devouring the leftover pizza.
Wally was sat on the next one, his arms rested on his propped up legs, a beer in hand.
Kuki was next to him, her legs pulled on on the side of her. Nigel was lay on the floor.
"You know what Hoagie." Kuki said. "I'm pretty disappointed in you."
Hoagie raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"We've been sat here for over, what? Three hours now? and there's still five slices of pizza and a full box of chicken wings left." Kuki laughed.
Hoagie pulled an insulted face. "Uh, actually I think I'm getting a memory of one time that we stayed at Nigel's treehouse back in sixth grade when we couldn't sleep s we got a tub of ice cream from his freezer!"
Kuki furrowed her eyebrows with a smile, she couldn't remember what he was talking about.
Wally and Nigel were obviously just as confused. Wally chose to ask. "Why? What happened?"
Hoagie laughed. "Well, we got a tub of ice cream from that little freezer that Nigel somehow kept in that treehouse, it was FULL! And we said we'd share it. I got one spoonful...and SOMEODY ate the rest!"
Kuki gasped, remembering the event. She burst out laughing. "That's not true! I went to the bathroom and when I came back about half of it had gone! In the space of about five minutes!"
"Wait wait, this alibi's all wrong." Wally waved a hand. "You, Kuki, NEVER spent less time than ten minutes in the bathroom. Because you'd have a pee or whatever, then wash your hands three times, then gaze and dance in the mirror, then decide that you needed to pee again so redo the peeing and washing and dancing, then wash your hands again, then check that your hands were completely dry before you came out."
"I did not take that long!" Kuki exclaimed.
The three boys nodded. "You did!"
"This isn't fair...you guys are teaming up on me." Kuki giggled.
Wally scoffed. "It makes a difference. You and Abby used to gang up on the three of us! Even if you didn't know what you were arguing about you'd always win...typical women...OW!"
Wally rubbed his head where Kuki had swatted him. She gave him a mischievous look.
"Anyway, I brought a movie, want to put it on?" Kuki asked.
They all nodded. She placed it into the player and they all went quiet as the film came on.
It was about a quarter of the way through the film when Hoagie gave a yawn and stood up.
"I'm...just going to the bathroom."
He wandered out. After a few seconds Wally scoffed. "That's the last we'll see of him tonight."
He took a sip of beer.
Kuki raised an eyebrow. "Why? He's going to the bathroom."
"Yeah, followed by Abby's room." Wally replied.
Kuki raised an eyebrow. Wally saw her questioning look and answered before she asked.
"They've been supposed to get together since we were kids!" He shrugged. "They just needed to realise it. They're one of those couples that are meant to be together but are the only one's that don't notice."
"Yeah...I know a few people like that." Nigel said quietly. Kuki looked at him and he raised his eyes.
