The following day, we were hanging out at the mall since we had nothing planned. Kayla and I were free from baby-sitting.
"It's hard to believe it would be a year for Amelia after we go back to school after the holidays," said Mary Anne.
"I know," said Kristy.
"Who was that?" asked Kayla.
"A friend of ours. She got killed in a car accident by a drunk driver," said Stacey.
"Her family survived the crash," said Mary Anne.
"Gosh," I said.
"Her best friend took it the hardest," said Mary Anne.
"Like Mary Anne said, it happened after Christmas Break," said Claudia.
"We did a memorial bench made for her," said Mary Anne.
"I saw that," said Kayla.
"We never knew that was for her. That was a nice way to honor her," I said.
"It took awhile for me to accept that," said Mary Anne. "I almost didn't believe it because I had just saw her the night before. She was at my house. We did a group project with Gordon and Barbara. My therapist helped me pulled it through."
"Just like Carlos," said Kristy.
"Exactly," said Mary Anne. "Oh, Lily texted me this morning."
"What's new with her?" asked Stacey.
"She's moving away at the end of the school year," said Mary Anne.
"I thought she and her father are staying here," I said.
"So did I," said Mary Anne. "She had just found out. Carlos doesn't know about it. She didn't want to make him miserable over the holidays."
"That was smart of her to wait," said Stacey.
"When is she planning to tell him?" asked Kristy.
"She's going to wait until the time is right," said Mary Anne. "She didn't mind me telling you guys since she trust you."
"After all, she has been by his side when his family died and ever since he moved into the orphanage," added Stacey.
"Of course," said Kristy.
"I promised her I wouldn't tell him," said Mary Anne. "I choose to tell you guys while Dawn's not here."
"Which reminds me, she asked about that and she found it strange Lily is still holding a grudge against her," said Claudia.
"She'll figure it out at some point. I sort of feel bad, but she shouldn't have done the adoption party behind Carlos' back in the first place while he was still recovering from depression," said Mary Anne.
"I agree. I could remember he got upset even more because of that," said Claudia.
"I remember it was like yesterday," said Mary Anne. "Lily said she can't trust Dawn after that."
"I can't blame her," said Stacey.
"That was back when Dawn thought Carlos would be glad," said Kristy.
"Yeah, right," said Mary Anne.
"I know," said Kristy.
"That's why Lily trusts you," said Kristy.
"That's awful," said Kayla.
"That was before you girls came along," Mary Anne told us. "At first I thought Carlos would be mad at me, but he wasn't. He and Lily knew I was trying to protect him from being depressed even more."
"I did recall Dawn got trouble," said Stacey.
"Me, too," said Mary Anne.
We were at the food court to have lunch. We shared pizza. After we had pizza, we went to the movies, but everything was sold out, so we decided to explore in stores.
"Everyone had the same idea," said Jessi.
"It's still school vacation for the kids," said Mary Anne.
"Oh, yeah," I said.
We were there for another hour until we went home afterwards. We started making plans on what to do for the party.
"Let's make a list here," said Kristy. "Mary Anne and I choose to make plans to go shopping for the party next week."
"Maybe we can all go shopping if everyone is free," said Mary Anne.
"That would be a great idea," said Kristy.
"Our club is slow because of the holidays anyway," said Claudia.
"True," said Stacey.
"And, I'm planning to bring stuff since I'm having the sleepover," said Kristy.
"Which makes sense," said Mary Anne.
"Karen and Andrew are at their mom's during that time," said Kristy.
"Can we invite Marci, Patti, and Kathi to shopping with us?" I asked.
"Sure," said Mary Anne. "They're all coming to the party."
"Oh, good," said Kayla.
"I don't mind them," I said.
"Neither does Mary Anne," said Kristy.
We made a list on what to do like doing baked goods.
"We can have a buffet party like we did our Christmas Party," said Kristy.
"Good idea," said Mary Anne.
"We can other things at Party City," I said.
"I thought about the same thing," said Kristy.
We talked some ideas for those items.
"We can't forget to do that report for English," said Mallory.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot," said Kayla.
"I've been too busy to do that to be honest," said Mary Anne.
"We all were," I said.
"I'm planning to do mine before we shop for stuff," said Mary Anne.
"Good idea. We should do it that way we wouldn't have anything to do on New Year's Day," said Kristy.