Hello All.

I passed!

That is all. :)

Spencer

Ashley munches thoughtfully on a carrot as my Mom shoves yet another fabric swatch in front of her face.

"See if you went with the deep maroon then this fabric would be a nice compliment for the sofa, and these would be great texture pieces for the pillows, and then we can pull in some of these…" she says, shuffling for some weird greenish pile, "to really pop color!"

Ashley scrunches her eyebrows together adorably, smiles at Mom and then looks at me pleadingly. I chuckle.

"Mom, why don't you let Ashley think on it for a little while. I mean she just picked up the paint. We'll paint the room tonight and then she'll have a better feel for the color, you know?"

Ashley nods resolutely at Mom, who nods and picks up Ashley's plate, crunching into the last carrot as she turns towards the kitchen.

"You just look over that stuff, Ash. We'll talk about it some more at family lunch next Sunday. Ooo maybe by then I'll have some rough illustrations worked up!" She adds with a giggle, swinging through the kitchen door.

I move towards Ashley, pulling the fabric out of her hands as she stares at me with scared eyes.

"Next Sunday? Illustrations?"

"Come on," I tug at her, whispering. "We can make a clean break while she's not looking."

"I heard that!" Mom yells from the kitchen. "Don't you leave without leftovers, Spencer Carlin! Or else!"

Rolling my eyes, Ashley chuckles and reaches for her cell phone as it vibrates across the table top.

"What up Ky."

I gather up all Mom's fabric samples and stuff them on a chair in the corner, resetting the dining room table with a flower centerpiece as Kyla chatters quietly.

"Alright breakfast, I got it. Are you sure you're okay?"

Glancing at her, Ashley shrugs her shoulders at me then pats her knee for me to sit down.

"Well if you need anything I can come over Kyla, just let me know. Alright. Love you, too." Closing her cell, she sets it on the table and stares at it.

"Well that was weird."

"What's that?" I say, sweeping a curl behind her ear.

"Kyla just wants to meet for breakfast, but she sounded like she was upset." Kissing the back of my shoulder, she moves to stand, pushing me up.

"Maybe she's stressed about work?" I grab our cell phones and slide them into her jacket pocket, giving her middle a squeeze.

She shrugs with a half smile.

"I guess I'll find out tomorrow. Now let's go help your Mom so I can get your ass to work at my house."

"God it's so hard not to swoon over your poetic words."

She adds a firm grab to my rear as she slips by me, pushing through the kitchen door with a wink.

Ashley

"You're sure this isn't a little too…intense… for a relaxation room, Ash?"

I pause and blow the bangs out of my face. I mean, can you go wrong with green?

"I kind of like it."

"I feel like I'm in a green screen. Literally inside of it."

Spencer falls quiet in her corner of the room as a roll another strip of "Green with Envy" onto the opposite wall of the library.

"Yep, I think my retinas are shutting down. I'm so young, and so blind."

I chuckle at her mumbles. Her outlining the room while I rolled the paint on seemed like a good idea up until we actually started. Painting. Not her favorite. Check.

"Hey Spencer are you getting hungry?" I ask, leaning against my roller extension as I smirk at her, a green streak of paint smudged from her temple to her set jaw. She raises an eyebrow at me. My insides quiver.

"What's that face, Miss Davies."

"Oh nothing," I slide my roller back and forth in the pan as she studies me. I add the last bit of paint to the fireplace wall, finishing this side of the room with the added burn of Spencer's eyes boring into my back.

"It didn't look like nothing," she breathes against my neck. I jump, splattering paint on both of us, as she runs her nose down to my shoulder and presses a kiss there with a laugh.

"Jesus, you scared me."

She takes the roller out of my hand, dropping it to the plastic on the floor and gives my pony tail a tug, grinning.

"You're cute."

Slipping away from her closing arms, I chuckle as she pouts.

"And you're avoiding. I'm gonna order in some dinner. No food until your wall is outlined!"

I hear her groan as she heads back to her paint brush, smirking to myself as I grab the phone book to find a good Chinese place. I rarely order Chinese because even though Spencer loves it, it's an ocean of inner turmoil for her to eat fried foods. I can't even watch her eat, she looks so torn up about it. After ten minutes of listening to the guy try to tell me the whole menu, I just order every steamed item, tell him the address, and slip the phone back on its console.

"I swear," I start, rounding the corner out of the living room to go back into the library. "I know you love Chinese but it takes forever to order…" Stopping inside the door frame, I gasp, then mute my laughter with the palm of my hand.

Spencer is snoring quietly, seated with her back against the wall, her knees pulled tight up to her chest. Her shoulders rise and fall slowly, her head dipped down against her knees. Above her, splayed across the wall in generous green strokes, her words run and seep together, little green streaks extending from the bottom of fresh letters, reaching towards the floor like little roots settling in the ground.

Say you'll be my one and only.

Slipping out my cell phone, I take a picture, my heart warming with the gesture, then creep back out the door to let her sleep.

After the food arrives, I set the table and go back into the library, where Spencer has fallen from her sitting position into a sprawled pile on the floor. Lying down beside her, I slip my arm under her head and cuddle into her, enjoying the comfort of her tired body against my own. She hums quietly against my skin, murmuring as she wraps her arm around my waist.

"Spencer, honey."
"Mmmm."

"I set out dinner, babe. It's time to wake up."

Tugging me closer, Spencer whines as I pull away, so I kiss the tip of her nose.

"I'll see you in the kitchen." I add. She opens one eye as I get up and, spotting the paintbrush next to her head, seems to realize what she was doing before her impromptu nap.

"Wait!" She says, jumping up from the floor to follow after me. "Ashley, I…"

"Spence."

She stops as she catches the look on my face. I point behind her with a nod and she turns around slowly, taking in the addition to her art work. When she turns back to me, her eyes are gleaming. Scrawled underneath her writing in a blue I had saved for my bedroom, the drips and runs of my words intermingle with the green trails of her own.

until the very end.

Her smile lights up the room as she rushes forward, spinning me around in a tight tug.

"That's a good start." She says, setting me down and reaching for my hand. As our fingers intertwine, I kiss the back of her palm, then her lips, lingering deliciously.

Resting her forehead against mine, she sighs.

"That's a really good start."

Kyla

The minute she walked into the diner. I knew.

"Hi." She says, sliding into the booth behind her glass of water. She always drank water. "How are you today?"

I stare at her. The way her brown eyes glow. The smile I haven't seen in years. The hesitant eyebrow raise she always gives when she's waiting for the right moment to talk. I watch her as she wraps her mouth around her straw, watching me.

I pinch her straw shut.

"You and Spencer are TOGETHER!"

Ashley dawns the same goofy smile as she pulls a menu up in front of it.

"Oh my gosh did you SLEEP with my trainer! No don't tell me. Tell me, I wanna know! NO! DON'T DO IT!"

Ashley chuckles and smacks my arm with the menu with a disgusted grimace.

"God Kyla, we're taking it slow. And I wouldn't tell you anyway that's gross."

Shaking my head I sip at my own drink and watch her study her menu.

"Well it's about damn time, you chicken shit."

"Thanks for the support, loving sister of mine." She adds, patting my hand. Her eyebrows knit together in concern. "So what's new with you? Don't think I didn't know you were upset yesterday."

I shuffle my drink side to side in my hands.

"Mom called me."

Ashley chokes on her water, spraying it across the table as she erupts into coughs. She pounds her fist on the table once as she regains her breath.

"Did you tell her to find a bridge and jump off it? Why the HELL would she call?"

Running my hands through my hair, I shrug.

"She needs a kidney. She wants mine."

Ashley barks a loud laugh and pulls a menu back in front of her face.

"Isn't that rich. Well, sorry Momsies, karma can be a bitch. Do they have good pancakes here?"

"Ashley." I say, pulling the menu down from her face. "She's still our Mother."

She scoffs, throwing the menu over her shoulder into the next booth.

"A Mother doesn't abandon or separate her children. It's a kidney, Kyla. A kidney. Not like.. a pair of socks or something." She points at me, her eyes searching my own. "If this is something you have to do then fine. I will go with you, and for you only. Got it?"

I nod, wrapping her finger with my hand. "Got it."

Sighing, she steals her finger from mine and taps absentmindedly on the table. "So for real, do they have good pancakes here?"

"Can't get pancakes," I say, flagging down the waitress. "Your girlfriend's a trainer. Those will go straight to your hips."

Realization dawns across Ashley's face as the waitress asks for our orders.

I chuckle, ordering an egg white omelet with a side of fruit.

Ashley swigs her water and grimaces.

"I'll have the same."

Sara

I toss my keys into the bowl at Spencer's front door as I make my way down the hall and towards her bedroom. Pushing her door open a crack, I peek in and laugh. Spencer's pony tail sticks up out of a mass of blankets, the only proof that a person is actually in there, somewhere.

"Spencer."

It's been forever since I've gotten to see my favorite friend, so I can't help but be a little excited to have snuck away from the kids for a little bit to catch up.

"Spence."

I tip toe closer, whispering a little louder from the foot of the bed.

"Spencey-bear?"

A single leg stretches, a set of five toes peeking out from under the comforter. Slipping off my shoes, I set my purse down on the floor, squat down, and jump, landing spread eagle on the mass of bedding in front of me.

"Boo bear! Good morning!"

From somewhere in the fabric, she stirs.

"I will destroy you."

"I brought breakfast."

Shifting, Spencer unwraps her head from the blanket, rubbing a sleepy eye.

"You may stay. Hello friend."

Smiling, I push Spencer's bangs away from her face and cuddle down into her blankets with her.

"Hello friend. I haven't seen you in days. Days!"

Wrapping an arm around my waist, Spencer yawns and nuzzles into my armpit.

"Keep bringing me breakfast and that will change dramatically."

I chuckle, running my fingers through her ratty ponytail.

"So in our time apart has wearing paint on your face become popular? If so, consider this my two cents. It's not working for you."

Spencer lifts her head and blushes, reaching up to touch the crusty green streak on her cheek.

"Ashley, I presume."

She nods, sighing as she flips over onto her back.

"Yeah I helped her paint. Although, I don't really call her Ashley anymore. These days I like to call her my girlfriend." She grins, bright blue eyes meeting mine. I laugh as she kicks the blanket into the air, yelling.

"Ashley Davies is my girlfriend!"

"Seriously you have problems."

"You know," she says, thoughtfully stroking her chin. "I always said, that Julie Andrews must really love her some music to run, I mean actually run, of all things, up and down hills while singing at the top of her lungs. Who does that? But I kind of get it."

I stare at her blankly, then get out of the bed.

"I worry about your mental stability."

"I worry about you forgetting syrup for my breakfast."

"If you ever yell like that again it will be too soon."

Spencer stands and stretches, walking towards her window to raise the shade, then the window itself.

"Well, I'm excited. But I think we should really discuss the significance of this like adults."

"Let's." I say, eyeing her warily. Matching my look, she sits on the window sill, then leans out, holding tight to the wall as she bellows into the neighborhood.

"ASHLEY DAVIES IS MY GIRLFRIEND!" A cheer sounds from across the street. A car beeps as it goes by.

"Oh for goodness sake Spencer get your head inside."

"Thank you sir! I like her very much!" She adds, parade waving as I yank her shoulders back into her bedroom.

"Well at least I took it outside." She huffs, standing to follow me as I exit her room for the kitchen shaking my head.

"I swear you're like my third child."

Smiling proudly, she tugs on her tank top as I slip multigrain French toast onto a plate for her.

"Thanks Mom."

I kiss the top of her head and pat her butt as she turns to the living room, probably to turn on cartoons.

"Yeah, yeah. You better be good to her."

They just grow up so fast.