Brittany and Tina were sitting in the lobby of the ballet school waiting for Brittany's younger sister Melissa to be done with her ballet class.
"Hey," Tina said glancing down at Brittany's hand.
"Huh?" Brittany asked.
"You're bleeding."
"I am?"
She looked down at her hand; "oh so I am."
Then back up again.
"You're so casual about it."
"Yeah well….this isn't the first time it's happened. It's more an inconvenience than anything."
"Oh. Well ok. Y'know, Chris was sort of off in rehearsal today."
"Yeah I noticed that too."
"I wonder what happened."
At that moment Melissa came bounding down the stairs along with about 6 other girls her age.
"Bye Katie bye jen!" Melissa called to 2 of the girls looking at them.
"Bye lissa!" they chorused.
Melissa ran straight into her sister's arms and they hugged.
"Hi lissa how was class?" Brittany asked her.
"Good good," she answered.
"Bye bri'ney," jen and Katie called.
Brittany looked their way; "bye ladies!"
They left giggling.
"I love how she calls us 'ladies'," Katie said.
"I know."
They left.
"What did you learn? Anything new?" Brittany asked.
"Yes," Melissa answered.
She let go of her sister and twirled. Tina and Brittany clapped.
"We're putting on a play and I get to be a princess," Melissa said when she was done.
"Honey you are a princess. We all are," Tina told her.
"What?" Brittany asked confused.
"Haven't you ever seen that movie? A little princess?"
"I love that movie!" Melissa said.
"Me too."
"Are you my sister's new girl-"
"Melissa," Brittany said suddenly embarrassed.
"It's ok I don't mind," Tina said turning to Brittany then back to Melissa; "well, no."
"Where's 'tana?"
"She got busy," Brittany explained.
"Oh."
"Who's hungry?"
"Me!"
"Is McDonald's ok?"
"Yes!"
"Ok let's go."
They left the building and went into Brittany's waiting car. Tina giggled.
"What?" Brittany asked her.
"Got busy," Tina muttered.
"Oh. She certainly did."
"What's that mean?" Melissa asked.
"You'll understand when you're older."
Melissa was 9.
They got into Brittany's car and drove to the restaurant.
