Jade got ready for her date. She put on a jean jacket, a rose-colored blouse, ripped jeans, and slides. Jade made her way to the living room. "Bye, mom, I'm going out with a friend," Jade said.
"Why did you lie about being Aaron's friend?" Ms. Hansen said. "I saw your speech online. And why didn't you tell me about the Aaron Project? I could have pitched in. I could have advertised it at work."
"Well, you never cared about what I've done before," Jade said. With that, Jade grabbed her keys. She stepped outside and climbed into the car. Earlier that day, Jade got her cast off. This was her first time getting behind the wheel in over a month.
She drove to Mitchell's household. Jade sent Katie a text, letting her know Jade was there. Katie exited the house. She was wearing a white shirt, a black and white plaid button-up, black jeans, and white sneakers. She entered the car. "Hey, Jade," Katie said.
"Hey, Katie," Jade said.
"You got your cast off," Katie declared happily.
"Yeah," Jade said. She wiggled her fingers. "Ready to go?"
"Yep," Katie said. She drove away from the house. "The Aaron Project now has over a hundred thousand followers."
"I saw," Jade said. "And we're closer to our fundraising goal. But I want tonight to be about ourselves. Just a night about the two of us. I wanna get to know you outside of this project."
"I agree," Katie expressed. They arrived at the fairgrounds about ten minutes later. Once they parked the car, they went to the front gate. "So, should we buy tickets or get the wristband?"
"The wristbands," Jade answered. "That will last us all night. We don't have to worry about going back and buying new tickets."
"Sounds good," Katie said. They were soon at the front of the line. The girls paid their way into the fair and got their wristbands. There was a ginormous Ferris Wheel nearby. It was surrounded by a bunch of smaller rides. There were also a handful of vendors selling food and drinks. There were also carnival games.
"Wanna hit up the bumper cars?" Jade asked.
"Sure," Katie said. The two girls got in line for the bumper cars.
"Wanna share one or go against each other?" Jade asked.
"I think it would be more fun if we play against each other," Katie suggested.
"I agree," Jade said. After a few rounds, it was Jade and Katie's turn. The girls sat in their separate cars and buckled up. The round then began, cueing up some royalty-free music. The game lasted for about three minutes. It was chaos, but they had a good time.
After the round of bumpy cars, they went for the fireball ride. They went on a few more rides before buying a funnel cake. They sat at one of the picnic tables to split the cake. They were sipping on Cokes as the fair raged on around them.
"I saw some of your animations on Youtube," Jade said. "They're really good."
"Thanks," Jade said.
"I wanna get into graphic design," Katie said. "I'll have to stay in town for school. Probably go to the local community college. My family has always had money problems, so I don't have a huge college fund."
"If you could pick any college to go to, where would you go?" Katie asked. "Money isn't a problem in this scenario."
"CalArts," Jade said. "It's been my dream school since I was twelve."
"Have you looked into scholarships?" Katie asked. "They have all sorts of scholarships. I'm sure you'll qualify for a few. You might not get a full ride one, but it can help. You can start looking into that."
"I never thought about it," Jade said. The two girls then finished up the funnel cake. They threw away their trash and headed towards a game booth. It was one with a BB gun where you shot balloons. A bunch of stuffed animals was dangling from the sides of the booth.
Jade handed the man running the booth a few dollars. She shot at a few balloons. Her mom used to have a boyfriend who owned a shooting range. He took Jade and her mother for a few shooting lessons.
"Nice aim," the man said. "Which one do you want?"
She pointed to a stuffed animal pug. The man pulled down the pug from where it was hanging. He handed it to Jade, who then handed it to Katie. "Just a little memento to remember this night by," Jade said.
"Thank you," Katie said.
An hour later, they arrived back at house Mitchell. "Thanks for tonight," Katie said. "I needed this."
"Thanks," Jade said. "I figured we both did. The truth is, I've had a thing for you for a while."
"Really?" Katie asked.
"Yeah," Jade said. "Aaron also thought you were really cool. He told me all about how you still did the personality quizzes in those teen magazines. He also thought you looked cool when you dyed your hair purple."
"He said that?" Katie asked.
"Yeah," Jade sighed. "To him, you were the coolest person in the world."
"I never knew that," Katie said.
"He was too shy to say anything," Jade said. "Because you are the coolest girl at school. You might not be the most popular, but you're still awesome."
"Thank you for telling me," Katie said.
"So, is there a second date in our future?" Jade asked.
"Yeah," Katie said. "Thanks for tonight. I had a good time."
"Me too," Jade said, with a smile. The two girls shared a kiss before Katie went inside the house.