Shayna was the first to wake up, at 7:30am. She opened her eyes and realized that it was Saturday. Jumping to her feet, but still on Dani's bed, she hopped over to Stacey's bed and began jumping p and down. "Get up!" Shayna yelled still jumping. Stacey groaned and turned over, in the process hitting Shayna's foot. "Up!" Shayna commanded, jumping over Stacey and then jumped one last time to be sitting on the edge of the bed.
"I'm up, I'm up!" Stacey mumbled through her sleepy voice.
"Come on! I want to get to the mall, and preferably before they close!"
"Ok!" Stacey said now fully awake, and getting out of her bed. "I call first shower!" She grabbed a clean t-shirt and some jeans from the pile of clothes on the floor. Shayna could not help but laugh at Stacey and Dani's idea of organization; not that it was that different from her own.
Dani and Stacey, who as with the rest of the older kids a size difference; Dani a large and Stacey a medium, mainly shared their clothes, except for the few sets of clothes Dani had hanging on her side of the closet for whenever Andy and her would go somewhere. They kept all of their clean clothes, folded, in a pile in the left corner, and all their dirty clothes in a semi-spread out pile in the right corner. Except, when Judy would make them hang their clothes up, or the two times during the week where Judy would gather up all the dirty laundry in the house. However, the spare clothes, that were kept for when the rest of the group came over, were kept in the nightstand by the bed. The first drawer was the younger girls' spare clothes; which Cindy, Libby, Shelby, and Brittany shared, even though each of them had at least two outfits of their own. And in the lower drawer were the clothes for the older girls'; Stacey, Dani, Heather, and Shayna all shared those, even though Stacey and Dani had their own main clothes, they used the other girls' too because they got sick of wearing the same thing.
"Where's Dani's pullover/hoodie thing?" Shayna asked Stacey going through the pile of clean clothes.
"Try the closet, she hasn't used that since it started warming up."
Shayna look in the closet, sure enough, there it was. Dani's pullover/hoodie was blue and said 'Brain Washed' in orange letters, on the back was a piece of scripture that said something about the renewing of your mind, Romans 12:2. "Hurry up and get in there! If Dani wakes up I'll never get to shower!" Stacey couldn't help but laugh at that, it was a well-known fact in the group that Dani took the longest showers, and while everyone always got their turn, those after Dani got n about thirty minutes after they woke up, at the earliest.
"I'm going in a second, go ahead and wake Dani up, but be sure to tell her she's after you." Stacey said, and then disappeared into the girls' bathroom.
So, Shayna proceeded up the stairs, to go wake up Dani, and cracked up when she saw the two on the couch. Andy had his arm on top of Dani, and Dani was again using that arm as a teddy bear. "Dani, wake up!" Shayna said no to quietly. Immediately Dani woke up and instinctively rolled over, waking up Andy. "Well, looks like you two had a nice night." Shayna said in a semi-teasing voice so that only Dani would catch that she was teasing them. Dani shot Shayna a quick glace that clearly said 'watch it.'
"Actually, besides being slapped in the mouth with Dani's head, I did sleep pretty well." Andy said winking at Shayna. Shayna was the only person who knew Dani and Andy liked each other. While everyone, including all the eight graders in the group, besides Andy knew Dani liked him, no one was for sure rather Andy liked Dani or not. Shayna wouldn't even had known if she hadn't caught Andy at a down time when all he wanted was someone to talk to; and even in that circumstance he made her swear not to tell anyone, including Stacey, and especially Dani.
"Well, if you two would hurry up and get off the couch we could go to the mall!" Shayna said. "Today's the day they release the new summer clothes."
"I'd love to see all you girls' run around trying on everything in sight, but I can't because Dani is blocking the only exit off of the couch." Andy said tickling Dani and making her roll off the couch and on to the floor, and then Andy stood up and helped Dani off the floor. "Man, my mouth hurts thanks to a certain someone slapping it as they woke up," Andy said in a teasingly chastening tone.
"Sorry," Dani said smiling at how Andy was never able to sound serious, unless he was.
"Don't just say sorry, kiss it!" Shayna said gleefully.
"What?" Dani and Andy said together. She so did not just say that! Dai thought.
"Whenever you hurt someone, you're supposed to kiss it to make it feel better." Shayna said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Dani and Andy both sent Shayna a fairly sharp 'what do you think you're doing?' type of look.
"It's okay, it doesn't hurt anymore." Andy said. However, Shayna could still see a red spot on his mouth, she lightly touched the red spot. "Ow!" Andy said reaching up and covering his mouth with his hand.
"See, Dani, if you kiss it, all will be better."
"I'm pretty sure that would just make it worse, and why would someone as smart as you resort to using pre-school remedies?"
"How could it ruin anything, 'love heals all wounds.'" Shayna quoted.
"Shayna, I'm seventeen, I think I can suffer a little pain, and even if she did…" Andy paused for a second, "kiss me, you said love heals all wounds, and there would be concern and maybe compassion, but doubt there'd be love."
"Are you saying that even if I did it'd be pointless with no love, Andy you know I love you… as a friend." Dani said catching herself.
"Compassion and love go hand-in-hand Andy." Shayna said matter-of-factly. Andy couldn't believe he was losing, to a freshman.
"No, I'm not saying anything besides it wouldn't help according to her argument because the type of love she's talking about doesn't exist, does it?"
Dani wanted to say no, really she did, but the longer she thought about it, the more she realized that the answer was yes, the kind of love Shayna was talking about would be there. "Well… it really doesn't matter because Andy said he was okay."
"Dani," Andy said forgetting Shayna was standing right beside the both of them. "That sounds a whole lot like an attempt to change topic."
"Um… I have to…" Dani said fidgeting with the necklace she was wearing.
"Answer me, would there have been love in your feel better kiss had you have kissed me, or would you rather show me."
Dani looked down, there was going to be no escape this time. "Depends… what type of love are we talking about?" She said knowing full well what Shayna and Andy were talking about.
"What do you mean what type?" Andy asked, he thought they had been on the same page.
"I think she means what level, like there's brother/sister, boyfriend/girlfriend, friend, best-friend, parental, husband/wife, and a few others." Shayna explained.
"Well, since you basically said there'd be some sort of love, what 'level' do you think it would be?"
"Somewhere… between best friend, and…" Dani paused, if she said it, would he freak? They had talked about always being there for each other friends forever no matter what girlfriends or boyfriends or whatever came along, they'd stick together. But never did either of them mention what if they fell for each other, if they were the boyfriend or girlfriend? "Shayna, could you go ahead and go take your shower now so I can have it soon?"
"But… ok." Shayna said then she turned and ran down the stairs, she could not wait to tell Stacey.
"As to answer your question," Dani didn't know how much fast, if at all, her heart could beat, "it would have been somewhere between best-friend and boyfriend/girlfriend."
"Does that mean you like me as more than a friend?" Andy asked, not moving his eyes from her.
"A little…"
"Dani, are all the clothes downstairs?" Cindy said coming down the stairs from Jimmy's room.
"All the littler ones are, actually, all of the girls' clothes are." Dani said sounding both agitated and relieved.
"Sorry, I didn't know if Judy had done the laundry this week or not, I'm just gonna go ahead, head down stairs and wait for you to get in and out of out of the shower, assuming you've already called next shower."
"Yes, I did." Then turning to Andy, "I better go on down."
"Yea, Cindy, is Jimmy up?"
"Yea."
"K, then I better be getting up there and getting my clothes on as well." Andy said, Man! I was so close! Oh well… I probably don't want to know what she was going to add after that 'a little.' Andy thought to himself.
Dani went downstairs and Andy turned the opposite way and headed upstairs to Jimmy's room, each turned their head and looked at the other before disappearing behind the doors, but neither saw the other.
Once behind the closed door that separated the stairs that lead to the girls' room from the living room Dani immediately started looking for Shayna. "Stace, have you seen Shay?"
"Yea, she's in the bathroom taking her shower now."
"No, I'm here." Shayna said emerging from the bathroom in a blue t-shirt and jeans. "And I'm using your hoodie/pullover thingy, k?" Shayna said going over to the bed where she'd laid down the pullover/hoodie.
"I should say no, but you did ask, so; ok."
"What'd I do? I thought we all shared?"
"Normally we do, but let's see, does 'well, kiss it!' ring a bell?" Dani asked trying to sound mad, but couldn't help but smile at the brilliance of Shay's line.
"Now this, I gotta hear!" Stacey said diving onto her newly made bed.
"Stace, not now, I gotta go get a shower so that Cindy can get a shower so that we can go to the mall!"
"Later? I highly dislike being last to know everything."
"Totally, but seriously, I'm gonna go hop in and out of the shower!"
"Sure. Can Shay tell me?"
"I dunno, I'd think you'd enjoy it better if you heard both sides, and I don't want Shay to ruin it, not that she would!" Dani said, then she went to take her shower, meanwhile Shay and Stace did each other's hair in French braids, but it took them two or three tries on each of the sides to get them right. Which just took enough time for Dani to finish her shower as they Shayna finished Stace's hair. "Hey, who does y hair?" Dani moaned when she saw that between the two of them they looked pretty good.
"The usual?" Stacey asked even though she knew the answer.
"No, I want it in one of those bun-type things."
"Really?" Stacey said surprised, "Ok, now I gotta know, are you and Andy going out?" Stacey said gathering the detangler, the water bottle, a hairbrush, and a few hair bands out of the pile on their dresser.
"No, but still, is it a crime to want to look different every once in a while?"
"It is when Andy's involved!" Stace said grabbing a hold of Dani's hair.
"Whatever, I just am sick of looking the same, I jut want… something different."
"You know, look could be replaced with act there!" Stacey said, once again using one of her totally genius and random lines.
"Why can't you wear it in a French braid like us?" Shayna asked.
"I could, just that usually don't work with my hair." Dani said.
"Wow, Dani, you're already out? Stace, isn't that a record?" Cindy said hearing Dani's voice above the television.
"Yes, I'm out, meaning it's your turn," Dani said turning to face Cindy; "Ouch!" Dani cried, Stacey and Shayna rolled their eyes.
"You can't move when your hair is in our hands!" They both said at the same time, which made all three girls laugh uncontrollably for about 5 seconds, in which time Shayna and Stacey noticed that they were supposed to be doing Dani's hair, so they went back to work.
"And… no the actual record is 5 minutes, set last year, before we all ditched her and Andy at the mall."
""Oh yea, that!" Cindy said.
"And right before Valentines Day! Could you possibly think of a more obvious scheme?" Dani asked actually holding her head relatively still. "I mean…He TOTALLY would have seen that coming, do you know how AWKWARD that was?"
"But you know you love us anyway!" Stacey and Shayna, each ting the end of Dani's hair in a rubber band. "Done!"
Again Stacey handed Dani the lil mirror that no one could see anything with, and Dani decided to go really check it out. She went to the back wall and looked at the front, Shay and Stace had done a pretty good job. Then she tried to look at the back, turning her head any possible way she could. "Um Dani, I don't think, no matter how many ways you turn, that you'll be able to see the back of your head." Stacey said before she joined Shayna in rolling all over the, not so newly made, bed in yet another fit of laughter.
"Yea, well, I don't think that you could be serious if you had to!" Dani said walking back over to the now totally un-made bed, and helping Shayna and Stacey sit back up. "I swear you two are worse then a teddy-bear with no fluff in it!"
"I wouldn't want to be serious if I could… it's to… serious!" Stacey said. "Man, I'm starving! Shayna, we're going to stop by Mickey D's, right?"
"Shayna's driving? Why can't Andy?" Dani whined.
"Actually…. Second thought, Andy should drive!" Stacey said. "Sorry Shay!"
"Hey, Dani, can you help me figure out what x and y are? We just started using double variables." Shayna asked.
Dani, who didn't know Shayna brought anything besides the DVD to her house turned toward Shay, who was on Dani's still made bed with a math book in her lap and pencil in hand. "How'd you get your math book? I didn't see you bring it in?" Dani asked.
"Oh, this isn't mine, it's Stace's I'm just using it." Shayna said.
"Let me see." Dani said flopping on the bed next to Shayna. She showed Shayna how to work the problem. But not without confusing herself by only finding the value of x, because she had read it to say Andy instead of 'and y'.
"Hey, Stace, will you do my hair for me?" Cindy asked after she finished combing the tangles out.
"Sure, like ours?" Stacey asked. Cindy nodded her head in agreement. Stacey went to work, and within five minutes had it done. "Wait, I just realized, I still have to put on my make-up!"
"OMG! Me too!" Dani cried racing to the bathroom mirror, before long the other girls were trying to squeeze in as well. By the time Shayna squeezed in, there was a knock at the door. "Shayna, mind seeing who that is?" Dani asked trying her best not to laugh.
"Sure…" Shayna said rolling her eyes. Oh well, I don't need make-up anyway. I was just going to use Dani's old lip-gloss. Shay went to open the door at the top of the stairs.
"You girls ready yet?" Jimmy asked. Jimmy was wearing a gray hoodie that was from Areopostle, and jeans. Andy had on a blue sweater with a gray stripe running across it, and above the stripe it said 'Jesusaves.' Both of the guys were clearly ready to leave at that moment.
"Almost," Dani said putting the last of her eye shadow on. Dani looked into the mirror one last time. She was wearing her 'Meant to die' shirt. It looked like a Mountain Dew symbol, but instead of Mountain Dew it said 'Meant to die.' However, it didn't matter because she was wearing her Anti-abortion hoodie, and of coarse a pair of her stretchy jeans.
Stacey, who was wearing a white t-shirt with flowers and the words 'so what cares if I pray like a girl… male or female all are one in Christ;' and a pair o Dani's stretchy jeans, ran over to the door. "We'll be done in a sec, right now Cindy and Dani are getting dressed up for you guys."
"She means… that we are getting ready for you to come down because we've been ready for the past… five minutes!" Dani said nervously trying to correct herself.
"Speak for yourself!" Cindy called from the bathroom, I just barely got out of the shower!"
"So, Andy, we're scared to let Shay drive, mind driving us to the mall?" Stacey asked.
"Yea, sure, I mean I can understand you being scared of riding with Shayna. It's the family van though." Andy said, referring to his family's gray van, Andy had a really nice metallic blue 2003 Corvette.
"Great, Me and Shayna get back seats!" Stacey yelped.
"I get middle!" Cindy and Jimmy called at once.
"No, I get it." Jimmy insisted.
"I want middle!" Cindy persisted.
"Guys, there's two middle seats, you can each have one!" Shayna said breaking the fight up.
"I guess that leaves me shotgun." Dani said, a little… or lot… less enthusiastic as she usually was when she got front seat.
"What's wrong, Dani?" Andy said rushing over to her and wrapping his arms around her.
"Nothing, I just… nothing." Dani said smiling. "I just can't believe Shayna and Stacey."
"What'd they do now?" Andy asked.
"Well… I just have a feeling they planned like this whole weekend better then I planned last night." Dani said when she was sure Shayna and Stace had gone to the other side of the room to get their purses.
"You think Shay and Stace can plan that good?" Andy asked raising his right eyebrow in a quizzical way, Dani couldn't help but laugh.
"They are smarter than they seem, I mean they seem like they can't be serious… but that's a cover-up, they are both very smart." Dani said giggling.
"So…" Andy started to say.
"Kay, we're ready to go!" Shayna pounced in with enthusiasm.
"Kay," Andy said slightly disappointed that every time he tried to talk seriously to Dani, Shayna, Stacey, or Cindy would ruin the whole atmosphere. Perhaps they had planned this weekend, oh well, if they did, he was going to sit back and enjoy the ride!