Chapter 5:

Five years later

"Andie! Andie! Wait up!" Naomi Johansson called as she ran after her friend. Andie stopped in the middle of the hallway, and turned around. It was right before seventh period, the last period of the day. "Where should I meet you?" Naomi asked.

"I'll meet you outside your seventh period classroom when the bell rings," replied Andie. She was now 13, and in 8th grade at Martin Luther King Middle School.

"Sounds good. Are you parents; I mean is your Uncle picking us up?"

"We're going to take the subway."

"The subway? Are you sure it's safe enough?"

"Yeah. I've been riding the subway along this semester. The walk from the station isn't that far from my building; so don't worry about that either. My Uncle will probably out filming or something, so we'll have the apartment to ourselves for a little while."

"Sounds cool. I'll see you then." Naomi waved as she rushed off to her next class. Andie hoisted her saddlebag higher on her shoulder, and went to her next class, Spanish. Luck for her, Angel and Mimi had taught her Spanish when she was younger, so the class took little effort.

At 2:45 sharp, Andie met Naomi outside her classroom. The walked down the hall, arms linked, which was the latest thing, and out to the subway station. Some other students took the subway home too, but Andie wasn't friends with any of them.

"So, what should we do for our project?" Naomi asked when the two had gotten settled on the train.

"What are our choices?"

"It's not a matter of choices. We have to select an author, who published books before the 1960s, and write about how their books changed the world. Which author should we do? There's a list of about fifty or so." Andie took the list, and scanned over it quickly.

"I know who we can talk to about this. Collins."

"Who's Collins?"

"Collins is my Uncle's friend. He lives in my building two floors below us, and he's a college professor. He considers himself a radical too, like Maureen, my Uncle's ex-girlfriend. Even though he teaches computer age technology and stuff, he'll know who to do, and how they changed the world." Naomi slipped the list into her backpack.

"Sounds good." The two friends talked about school, and guys, and the latest fashions until they got to their stop.

"Well, looks like we're here," Andie said as she stood up. Naomi grabbed her backpack, and followed her friend out to the street above. When she got to the street, she looked around in awe. This was definitely not a part of New York City she had been exposed to.

When Andie saw her friend's expression, she said, "Welcome, Naomi to Bohemia." She grabbed Naomi's hand, and pulled her to her building. "This is Alphabet City. We live on Avenue A, which is a lucky thing for us, or else we'd have a much longer walk to take." Andie's building was in a somewhat better condition, but it was nothing compared to the sky rise Naomi lived in. as they approached the building, Benny came out.

"Hey Andie," he said. "You coming to the Life with us tonight? We're celebrating Mimi graduating, and Roger considering getting a real job." Andie laughed.

"Dunno. I have a project to do." Suddenly remembering her manners, she said, "Benny, this is my friend Naomi Johansson. Naomi, this is my Uncle's friend and landlord, Benny." Benny shook Naomi's hand politely.

"Nice to meet you," she said.

"Likewise. I hope to see you tonight at the Life Café. It'll be a lot of fun."

"Then we should definitely go," she replied. Benny waved, and went to talk to someone that owed him the rent. "He's nice."

"Yeah, when you don't have to pay him rent. Luckily, we get a discount, because we're his friends or something like that." Andie led Naomi up to the top floor of her building to the loft.

"So who exactly lives here?" Naomi asked as she put her books down on the metal table (which they still hadn't gotten rid of).

"Umm…Benny lives on the bottom floor. Joanne and Maureen above him. Then Collins and Angel above them, and Roger and Mimi below us," Andie replied as she opened up the cabinet to look for something to eat. When she saw all the food, she let out a squeal of delight.

"What? What is it?" Naomi asked as she jumped up.

"Angel was here, and she brought us some food!" She opened the refrigerator, and pulled out two bottles of Cola. She handed one to Naomi. "Here. Now, do you want to go to the Life tonight?" Naomi shrugged.

"It sounds like it's going to be fun." Naomi was about to say more, but the lights in the apartment went out. Andie swore under her breath as she went out on the fire escape to see if Benny was still outside.

"Hey Benny!" she called out. "Our power's out and we have a project to do!"

"Well, I don't know what to tell you. Is it just your apartment, or is it the whole building, because everyone has different generators."

Mimi said from the floor below, "We have power here chica if you want to come here to do your project. Meanwhile, Benny can try and fix your generator." Although Andie couldn't see Mimi's face, she knew that she was giving Benny an evil look. Benny threw his hands up in the air.

"Fine. I'll look into it. Only because I know that that girl won't get off my ass until I do." Andie smiled, as she went inside.

"So what's the plan?" asked Naomi.

"We're going down to Mimi's apartment. She has a computer that we can use." Naomi grabbed their bags as Andie wrote Mark a quick note.

Power's out. Down at Mimi's working on our project. Be back in time to change to go to the Life. Love, Andie. She taped the note to the door, and joined Naomi at Mimi's apartment.

"Hey chica," Mimi said as Andie sat down next to Naomi at the kitchen table. Mimi was busy cleaning up Roger's mess. "Can you believe the mess that he can leave behind? It's all his music equipment."

"That's like Uncle Mark's film stuff. Some days I come home, and it looks like his storage closet blew up. It's insane. You're going to the Life tonight right?"

"Yeah. Where are your manners girl? You never introduced me to your friend."

"Oh, sorry. Mimi, this is Naomi. Naomi, this is Mimi. She's dating my Uncle's old room mate."

"Nice to meet you," Naomi said. "So what is this 'Life Café'?"

"It's this café we hang out at all the time. The owner doesn't like us very much, because we move the tables around and just sit there some nights. But, if we stopped going, he'd loose over half of his business, so he has to be nice to us," replied Mimi. "Umm…Andie, maybe you should tell her about our friends before she gets there and sees Angel all dressed up, and Maureen being, well, umm, Maureen." Andie laughed.

"Okay, Naomi, I must warn you that our friends are a little out of the ordinary, but we love them to death. Please don't make any comments. Angel, Angel is a guy."

"A guy?"

"A drag queen is to be exact." Naomi looked like she didn't know what to make of this. "And she's dating Collins, the guy I told you about that can help us with our project. Don't be offended by Maureen. She's very loud, and will voice her opinion in a second. She's also a lesbian. She's dating Joanne. I guess that's it, but Mimi's right, I should warn you about the interesting people you'll meet tonight." Naomi nodded.

"Thanks for the warning, I guess," she said. Mimi laughed as she gave Naomi a hug. Surprisingly, this didn't startle her. She really liked Mimi even though she had just met her.

"You'll get used to it in a heartbeat. Just don't get Maureen started on anything you can protest, or else you'll never be able to shut her up. Trust me." Naomi smiled. "Are you guys hungry or something?"

"I think we're fine right now. We have a project to work on. I bet you'd understand that Mimi." Mimi sat down across from Andie and Naomi.

"I just graduated from college a few weeks ago. That's part of what we're celebrating tonight. Also, my boyfriend might actually get a real job, but don't hold your breath. Girls, I'm sure that you're used to hearing this, but I'm a prime example. Don't drop out of school."

"And don't do drugs!" Roger announced from the doorway. "Hey honey," he said as he gave Mimi a quick kiss on the cheek. "Hey Andie." He gave Andie a hug. "And you must be Andie's friend."

"I'm Naomi."

"Naomi. I like that name. I'm Roger, the bum without a job…still."

"Roger!" Mimi yelled. Andie prayed that this wouldn't turn into one of the famous Roger/Mimi fights.

"I'm kidding! Gosh! I got the job!" Mimi squealed as she jumped up, and threw her arms around Roger's neck.

As soon as they began to kiss, Andie announced, "Yo, lovebirds! Get a room! You're going to scare my friend!" The couple immediately broke apart. Mimi's face was bright red.

"You guys really need to get a life," Andie said as Mimi sat back down and Roger went to get a guitar.

"I'll be on the roof," he said when he returned with his old, beat up guitar. Mimi nodded, and went back to talking with the girls.

"We're not that bad," she retorted. Andie snorted, and rolled her eyes. "We're better than Maureen and Joanne."
"You mean Maureen."

Andie was about to continue when a beeper began to go off. Mimi looked at the one on her belt loop, and started swearing in Spanish under her breath.

"I cannot believe that he took that damn thing off!" she announced as she grabbed the beeper, and a bottle of medicine off the counter, and disappeared up on the roof.

"What was that about?" asked Naomi. Andie contemplated as the whether or not she should tell her friend. Luckily, Mimi had heard her question.

"That was about AZT, our lifeline," she replied as she returned from the roof.

"How did you climb up to the roof and back so quickly?"
"Your Uncle's home, and Roger's talking to him," replied Mimi. "AZT is what you take when you have AIDS, it keeps you healthy."

"You have AIDS?" asked Naomi. She knew what AIDS was, but she thought that it was for poor people in Africa or something. Not such nice people that lived so close to her.

"I was born with it. Roger wasn't. He got it about ten years ago. Collins and Angel have it. I don't know for sure how they got it. Roger got it from drugs. That's why he was saying 'Don't do drugs!' earlier. He knows from experience. He and his girlfriend at the time, April got it. April got depressed and killed herself. Nearly killed Roger to see her like that. That's why he wasn't all that fond of me at first; I was a blast from his past that he wasn't expecting."

"That's so sad that you have AIDS."

"It's nothing really. We just live life to the fullest. We can't have any kids though, or else they'd have it, or we'd die before long."

"Let's talk about something happier. How about you finally getting a real job!" Andie announce. Mimi raised her glass of water, and took a long drink from it.

"Amen. I can't tell you how happy I am to finally be leaving. I think Roger's pretty happy about it too."

Andie asked, "What did you use to do?" Mimi sighed.

"I was an exotic dancer at the CatScratch club down the street. It paid most of the bills, and provided me with enough food, but I hated the job. Working all night for disgusting men. Roger didn't like all those men looking at 'his property' either. Now I'm going to work at a daycare center in the city."

"That's really cool."

Mimi, Andie, and Naomi talked for another two hours while Andie and Naomi did a lot of work on their project. Around 6:30, Mark finally came downstairs to get

them.

"Okay girls, we're leaving in half an hour, and knowing you Andie, you'll want to change your outfit at least five times," he said from where he was standing on the fire escape.

"Not true!" Andie announced as she shouldered her bag. "More like six."

"Yeah Mark. Get it straight," Mimi said with a smile, earning her a dirty look from Mark.

"We'll see you all there," he said.

A/N: long chapter, I know. While you wait for me to post again, check out Off-Camera at www. Fictionpress. Com/ tina101. remove the spaces! Until next time!

Tina101