Chapter Two
"Dani, wake up." Judy said the next morning. Hearing her mother's voice she rolled over and practically fell off the bed.
"Dani, hurry up, there's ten minutes before we leave for church!" Stacey yelled putting her hair up in a ponytail.
"I'm up, I'm up" Dani said rolling off into the floor this time.
"You gonna make it?" Stacey asked when Dani didn't get up but sat on the floor a few seconds after the fall.
"Do I have a choice?" Dani asked reluctantly standing up.
"You could always stay home…" Stacey suggested.
"No, I'm going to church." Dani confirmed grabbing some of her Sunday clothes from the closet and heading for the bathroom to take a quick shower, and surprisingly she was done getting ready and everything in a matter of minutes. "Is Mom gonna buy us all doughnuts today?"
"Probably, she usually does every-other week, and she didn't buy any last week, so I'm guessing so.
"K, then I'm ready!" Dani said, then she lead the way up the stairs, and after about one minute Jimmy, Judy, Hugh, Stacey and Dani all piled into Judy's van, while Cindy ran over and joined them. She took the seat net to Jimmy in the back seat and the van pulled out of the Neutron's driveway and went to Deluxe Doughnuts.
"Hey, Cin!" Jim said trying his best to shake off the huge shock of Harmony dyeing.
"Hey!" Cindy said enthusiastically, "you already sick of me?" she asked seriously.
"Of coarse not!" Jimmy said reassuringly.
"Then what's wrong, you sure didn't sound to happy to see me," Cindy said, not truly sure if she wanted to know what the true problem was.
"Harmony died Friday night." Jimmy said solemnly.
"Harmony Sandlake? Why?" Cindy said, in pure shock. Sure, she knew when Principal Sandlake said his daughter was 'terribly ill' Cindy had allowed the thought to cross her head, but it never REALLY seemed a realty, but now it WAS reality.
"The doctors are saying pneumonia."
"But… she was so young… and what about Principal Sandlake? He'll NEVER listen to us, or God now!" Cindy said, trying to compute the new information.
"Chances are he WILL be pretty hard on us Christians, but that's what Vice-Principal Blockwest is for, he can bail us out if need-be." Jimmy said as the van pulled into Real Faith parking lot. The majority of the teens in the car, namely Jimmy, Cindy, and Dani, shoved the rest of the doughnuts down their throats, and hopped out of the van towards the church door. However, they all stopped when they heard Shayna's car park in the space next to the van, and waited for her to catch up.
While Shayna was still putting away the keys and all Shelby and Heather bounded out of the car and caught up with the rest. Dani flipped when she saw Shelby's new haircut.
What had once been just-below-shoulder length hair was now just-above-shoulder length. Length wasn't the only change in Shelby's hair; she had it highlighted with light-brown highlights, other than the soft yet darker brown of her natural hair. "Wow, Shelbers, what have you done to your hair?" Stacey asked when Dani wasn't sure exactly what to say.
"Mom let me cut it and get it highlighted while you guys went t the mall." Shelby said. She hair had an appropriate shine against the sun, and her high heels made it hard for anyone to deny that she had grown up in the last 2 years.
When Stacey and Dani and Shayna had finally met up in Retroville, Shayna and Stacey had their little sisters with them, Stacey's decided they liked England better and were sent home within the first week, while Shelby stayed and tried her best to blend in with the older kids, but she tended to have more in common with Cindy and Libby. To that moment, it was hard t think of Shelby as they had first met her.
It was 3:17 and Dani was standing in the Retroville Airport terminal, waiting for Shayna and Shelby's flight to arrive, and then after a tearful meeting they were to be on their way to the other side of the airport to pick up Stacey and her sisters. Standing in gate 62B Dani couldn't believe that after five years of e-mailing, Iming, and writing back and forth they were finally meeting up. When the delayed flight showed up, five minutes later than scheduled, Dani couldn't believe how easy it was to spot Shayna and Shelby.
Shayna came out of the plane first, very closely followed by Shelby, which is probably why they stuck out, Dani looked at the arriving passengers as they walked by, and that's when she noticed Shayna and Shelby. Being only thirteen years of age Shelby was clutching her order's sister's hand tightly, and looking every which way for anyone who looked like they could be Dani. Dani, pretty sure that the two girls were Shelby and Shayna walked up to them and asked them their 'code' phrase they had decided on.
"Excuse me, do you know where a Purple Dew machine is?" Dani asked the older of the two.
"I'm sorry, I'm not from around here, but I was just wondering that." Shayna answered just as she was supposed to.
"Shayna! And I'm guessing that's Shelby?" Dani said after hearing the answer she was hoping for.
"Yup, that's us!" Shayna said jumping out of the swarm of people flooding out from the airplane.
"Wow! Can you believe it? I mean, sure we always planned it, but ACTUALLY seeing each other face-to-face?" Dani said astounded.
"Where's your bro?" Shelby asked. Shelby had on a t-shirt that said 'My older sis loves me so much… she brought me this shirt.' Her hair was in one ponytail, with half of it falling at shoulder level, and from the looks of it she could easily be in the sixth grade.
"He's out in the car waiting for us." Dani replied.
"Yea, but let's go make sure Stace' made it over." Shayna said, the three kids headed to gate 17A. Just as they had finally stopped crying from meeting they reached Stace's gate, and no sooner did Stacey's plane start unloading.
It's wasn't hard at all for any of the girls to spot Stacey, she was the only teen who had two kids holding both of her hands, and carrying three different carry ons with her wrists. None the less, they still went through their 'code sayings' and when everyone had gotten their luggage, and quit crying they headed out to the car and met Jimmy.
But now here was the fifteen-year-old Shelby standing in front of them, and she looked like she was her true age. She twirled around to show off her new hair and outfit. It was then that Shayna, who was slowly walking in order to spot Amanda, caught up with the group.
"Hey!" Andy called from the church doors. "How come no one told me we were having a group get-together in the church parking lot?" He asked running to be with the group.
"Hey Andy!" Dani said, trying to push the thought of Harmony's death out of her mind. Which she wondered why it was still there? In the roughest times in life, Andy had always made it easier, but for some reason seeing him didn't help at all.
"What's up? You don't sound to good, you ok?" Andy asked, genuine concern in his voice.
"I'm OK… doing better," Dani, replied… then realized Andy wasn't there when Judy had broken the news. "Harmony Sandlake passed away Friday evening." She informed him.
"Harmony?" Shayna replied in disbelief. "But… she was my favorite kid to baby-sit for… and the easiest."
"Isn't she your principal's daughter?" Andy asked, not ENTIRELY sure of whom exactly Harmony Sandlake was.
"Yep, she was." Dani said, sighing.
"Oh.. I feel sorry for you guys, especially if he hears about that revival Jim and Cin started!" Andy cringed.
"So do we!" Shayna assured him. "We better be heading to the youth room, it's about two minutes until they began." She said, and then started to lead the way.
