I poked through the shelves, a few boxes fell to the ground. I made a show of bending down to grab them and put them back on the shelf. "Excuse me, can I help you?" a pharmacist asked. "Mommy needs something. I can't remember what it's called, it had morning in the name" I said as I searched through the shelves. I noticed Carl had walked into the store to and was checking out the condom shelf. "Maybe it is best your mom comes in and gets it, you're too young to be here alone anyway" he said. "I know but mommy is sick and I want to make her better. I was careful crossing the road and I brought all my money" I said and pulled a scrunched up note and a few coins from my pocket. I dropped them on the ground "oh no!" I yelled and scrambled to pick them up. The pharmacist helped me. I noticed Ian leaving the store as I grabbed the last coin. "I got money, see" I told the pharmacist again as Lee entered. "Sorry I can't let you buy medication" he said. I pouted for a bit. "Can I look at the candy then?" I asked. "Hey you! I need to get some of these" Carl yelled out. The pharmacist looked a bit confused but went over and helped him. I went and looked through the candy. "Hey. Stop!" I heard a guy yell out. I turned around to see him standing in front of Lee. He tried to grab Lee "thief, stop!" he yelled. I noticed the pharmacist dash towards the counter. Carl pushed him over. I ran over to the guy yelling just as he grabbed Lee, I stomped on his foot. Carl and I managed to get Lee free and we took off. We ran to the meet up spot a couple of blocks away, Ian was waiting for us there. "Lee got caught" Carl told him. "Only got away because of Carl and Lucy" Lee said "sucks, they always pay more attention to the Latino kids" Ian said. "Why?" I asked, I barely even thought of Lee as Latino, he was more a mix of everything. Why should it matter anyway? He wore the same types of clothes I did and he was much nicer too. "Racism" Ian mumbled. "How much did you get?" Lee asked him. Ian opened up his backpack and showed us two bottles. "Will that be enough?" Carl asked. "Probably not" Ian said. "Maybe Lip got some too" I said. The boys nodded and we headed to the park where we had planned to meet them.
"Look!" Carl yelled out and held a stick above his head. "What?" I yelled back. "It looks like a gun!" he said. Lee and I run over to check it out, Ian came too just not quite as fast. Carl was right the stick did look like a gun. "Oh wow!" Lee said. Carl held it like a gun and made shooting noises as he pointed it at people walking past. Lee started looking around for another one. "Run! I'm going to shoot you" Carl told me. I quickly took off. "Zig zag! It will be harder for him to shoot you" Ian yelled out. I started to do that. "I got you!" Carl yelled out. "No you didn't!" I yelled back and ran back towards them still doing zig zags. "I got you Lucy!" Carl yelled out. "Nah I'm too fast" I said. Carl threw the stick at me, I quickly grabbed it and started shooting at him. "You're dead Carl" I yelled. He stared at me and charged towards me. I ran off while still pretending to shoot at him. He tackled me to the ground then grabbed the stick. He stood over me and pointed the stick at me "pew" he said as he aimed at my head. "You're dead, your brains went everywhere. You can't even come back as a zombie" he said. "Come on guys" Ian yelled.
Lip, Cue and Cindi slowly approached us. "Anything?" Ian asked. Lip shook his head "Turns out people pay a lot more attention to you when you're with black kids". "Welcome to my world, so hard to steal shit" Cue said. I didn't really know what they were talking about. "We got two bottles" Ian said. "I found this!" Carl said and held up his stick. "Umm, well done buddy" Lip said to Carl. "Two bottles isn't going to be enough" Lip said "where else can we get some?" Lee asked. We all stood around and thought for a bit. "Hospital? That's were Conrad goes when he gets them" I suggested.
I hung my head, I didn't feel guilty but knew this was what you were meant to do when you got in trouble. "Why didn't you just ask?" Carol said. "You don't just get stuff coz you ask" Cindi said. We all nodded in agreement. Carol and Junie sighed. "I thought you two would know better" Carol said to me and Carl. I just shrugged. "How many have lice?" Junie asked. We looked at each other. "I need to know so I can give you the right amount" she added. "There's an outbreak at school, so all of us and everyone at home too" I said. "The school isn't going to treat you?" Carol asked "no, they said we can't go back until we get it treated too" Cindi said. "What school?" No one answered her. "Fine, I'll find that information out myself" Carol said. "Take the whole container and come back if it doesn't go away after two washes. I'll give you pamphlets as well" Carol said. "Really?" Lee asked.
"Lucy, lucky last" Fiona said as she came into the lounge room with Carl. I moaned. "Quick before your friends get back with their stuff" Fi said. They had ready washed their hair and had headed home to get their sheets and everything. I got off the floor and followed Fiona into the bathroom. I stripped and jumped in the bath. "It's kinda cold" I complained. "Well you should have got in first" Fiona said and poured some water over my head.
"Fi, we need to celebrate! Got me a new job" V said as she walked into the bathroom. "Oh wow!" Fi said and jumped up and hugged V. "Where?" I asked. "At a nursing home, place is a dump and no one gives a shit so might be able to start up my ghetto nurse thing again" V said as she checked herself out in the mirror. "So we can come to you instead of the clinic again?" Fi asked her. "Hopefully, got to suss out the perks still. Pays not the worst either" v said. "Plus they didn't check the references?" Fi asked "Nope, like I said they don't give a shit" V said. "Sounds perfect then" Fi joked. V picked up the shampoo bottle "Jesus, lice again?" she asked.
The others rocked up with a trolley full of sheets and clothes, they had a spare one for us too. We dumped our sheets and blankets in. Fiona pushed while I stood on the other end and we headed to the laundromat, we decided Wendell's was the most likely to let us wash everything without asking questions. Lee had grabbed his piggy bank, we used that to pay for it all.
"So many children for such a young woman!" an old lady said to Fiona, it was clear she was being mean. "None of us are hers" Cue told her. "Why would you even think that" I added. Fiona just raised her eyebrows and flipped the lady off. She huffed and went back to her washing. We went back to our game of slaps.
"I'll show you how to play a real game" Wendell said as he stumbled over to us with a jar full of small balls. I slapped Lees hand as hard as I could while he was distracted. "Lucy!" he hissed. "Marbles?" Fiona asked Wendell, he nodded. "I've heard of it" Lee said. "It's an old game, no one plays it anymore" Cue added "it's a good game, will keep you entertained better then hitting each other" Wendell said as he put the jar on the ground next to me. "You come draw a circle over here" he said to Lee who jumped up to do as he was told.
"You can keep what you won and your shooter marble" Wendell told us after the third game. "Really?" Cindi asked. "Yep, that's called playing for keeps, you keep what you win". "So much free shit today" Cue said. "Language" Fi warned then got up to talk to Wendell.
Etta lowered the needle onto the record as I watched. "Ready to hear some real music?" she asked. I nodded. I recognised the song as soon as it started but didn't let anyone else know that. Etta and Wendell started to dance together, we all just watched them. "Don't tell me you kids don't know how to dance?" Wendell said. "Not slow like that" Lee said. He shook his head "well get up then. I'll teach you" he said. We all groaned but Fiona encouraged us to get up. Wendell made us pair up, Lee and me, Cue and Cindi. "Hold your partner like this" he said and put one hand on Etta's waist and held her hand with the other, she put her hand on his shoulder. "Now step to the beat, 1, 2, 3" he said as he stepped forward and back. "This is stupid, I'm not dancing" Cue said and blonked himself back down on the seat, "come on" Cindi said and tried to grab his arm but he pushed her away. "I'll dance with you Cindi" Fi said as she grabbed Cindi like Wendell had shown us. I continued to dance with Lee. Fiona looked like she knew what she was doing and even span Cindi around like they did in old movies.
"What are you guys doing?" Lip asked with a chuckle. I danced around so I could look at him, Ian was with him. "Wendell is teaching us how to dance" I told him. "Well, may I then?" he asked and help out his hand to me. I stopped dancing with Lee and looked at Lip confused. "Grab it, I'm trying to be fancy" I told me. "It's not very convincing" Fi said as her and Cindi danced a bit closer to us. "I think it's time for a partner change" Wendell said. He walked over and offered his hand to Fiona. Etta came and grabbed Ian while Lee and Cindi started to dance together. Lip started moving me back and forth and span me around "how do you know how to dance?" I asked him. "I vaguely remember Monica and Frank showing us at some stage" he said. "Really?" I asked, I couldn't imagine either of them taking the time to do such a thing. "There were probably drugs involved" he said.
I noticed Cue was gone as Lip span me around again, I stopped dancing and looked around for him. He wasn't in the laundromat so I checked outside. He was sitting in the gutter smoking, I sat beside him. He handed me the cigarette; I took a small puff then handed it back. "What's wrong?" I asked him. He just shrugged. I moved a bit closer to him but didn't say anything. I heard the door bell ring, "hey, you're too young to smoke" Fi said and took the cigarette off Cue then smoked it herself. "Get back inside, time to fold everything and head home" she said as she dropped the butt onto the ground.
"Finally, bitch! Ditching me when it's time to celebrate. I've had to start without you" V slurred as soon as we walked inside. "No shit!" Fi replied. V and her started joking and laughing together. "Come on, upstairs" Lip told me and passed me his pile of sheets. "I want to party" I complained. "So does V, so upstairs for you" Lip said, I could tell he was being cheeky so I gave him a dirty look but went upstairs.
"Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy?" Lip asked as he held up a book. "I want to party" I complained again. "Not tonight, let's find out what the meaning of the universe is" he said and squished into my bed next to me. "It's 42, you ready told me" I said. "Jesus, you actually listen to what I say hey?" he said. Debbie jumped down from her bed. "I'll listen to you read" she said and sat at the end of my bed. Music thumped downstairs and I could hear talking and laughing, Lip started to read the book.