Chapter 8: Taking Root
David tossed two of his old t-shirts to Makoto and Shinozaki, then tied an apron over his own clothes. As they pulled the shirts on, he gave one last skeptical look at the baking ingredients in front of them.
"Makoto, are you really sure this is what you want? You know BlitzyBurger makes a birthday cake for you. I'll even get them to put a bunch of pink all over it."
Shinozaki snickered.
Makoto ignored him and nodded vigorously. "I want to make it, like I saw on tv."
"It's not gonna look like the one on tv," lamented Shinozaki as he climbed up onto one of the bar stools tucked under the small kitchen island.
"I think we can make it close." Then she looked pointedly at David. "And we're still going to BlitzyBurger even if we have our own cake. You promised."
David held his hands up in defeat. "A girl only turns 7 once. Okay, let's see what we have to do here."
Makoto pulled the step-up over and put herself between David and the counter while he scanned over the recipe in her mommy's cookbook. The little pictures next to the instructions looked kind of like what the lady on the tv did. She just needed David to read the hard words. And do the fractions. Because fractions were stupid.
The square pan was passed over to Shinozaki, along with a blue tub of Crisco and a paper towel to grease it. David reached behind them to turn the oven on, then he and Makoto started measuring things out.
"One stick of butter."
Makoto reached for it, eager to get started. She peeled the wrapper off, letting the stick slowly slide off and land in the bowl with a plop. She smiled up at David in triumph.
He chuckled. "Okay, sugar next. Then we need to mix them."
Picking up the biggest measuring cup, Makoto scooped up a heaping mess of sugar from the bag on the counter. Granules rained down, leaving a white halo around the bag. Shinozaki swiped his greased fingers through it, stealing a bit of sweetness as Makoto, her tongue sticking from the corner of her mouth, moved the cup with imagined care. She dumped it in, then reached forward for another.
"Whoa, hold on!" David grabbed her hands to stop her. "Use the half cup."
Makoto looked at her options. None of them really looked like half of the one she was holding. She set the big one down next to the smaller ones. The one with the two was bigger, but two was smaller than four, and if half was the next one it should be the bigger number. She started to reach for the 1/4 cup…
David's little cough made her stop. He cut his eyes to the one with the two.
Letting out a sigh, Makoto reached for the correct cup and grumbled, "Fractions are dumb," as she took another big scoop from the bag.
Shinozaki nodded in agreement. Then, "I'm done with the pan." He held it up for them to see, struggling a bit to hold it in his greasy fingers. He'd smeared almost as much all over his hands and wrists as he had the pan.
Only a bit of David's irritation at the greasy mess showed as he gingerly took the pan. He grabbed a dish towel and moved around to Shinozaki and started wiping off the boy's hands. "You can help with the flour next."
"We need the mixer for the flour! Where is it?" Makoto asked, impatient to get on with this part and not caring if the boys were ready.
Shinozaki squirmed away from David and grabbed the hand mixer, holding it up precariously in half-cleaned hands. He pointed the unplugged mixer at her like a laser blaster, making "pew, pew" sounds as his imaginary laser beams shot across the counter.
Makoto clutched at her heart and dramatically fainted onto the floor, sputter-coughing as she lay there. "He was her best friend! And then… betrayal!"
"Son, you're going to baker jail for misuse of an electrical appliance," teased David as he took the mixer from Shinozaki. He moved back around to Makoto's side of the island and tapped her shoulder with his foot.
Makoto cracked an eye and stared up at him, insult all over her face. "What about for betrayal?"
"The betrayed one gets all the icing." David watched Shinkozaki hang his head, not sure if the boy was playing or if he really believed he wasn't going to get any icing.
"Score!" laughed Makoto, not at all concerned with her friend's sorrow. She bounced back to her feet and snagged the power plug. "Ready?"
David nodded, giving her permission to plug it in, then stuck the hand mixer into the bowl. Makoto hopped back onto the step-up. David's arms went around her, and she leaned against his front as he held her hands firmly in place around the mixer.
"Here we go."
Makoto braced herself, concentrating hard on the bowl. "I'm ready."
David flipped the switch, going one click further than he intended.
Makoto let out a gleeful shriek as little bits of butter flung themselves outward, landing on her face and hair. "Too fast!" she yelled, her voice vibrating with the little motor as she held on tight.
"Oops, sorry," said David quickly as he flipped it down a notch. "That better?"
Makoto nodded.
Shinozaki laughed. "You look all buttery now."
Not caring at all, Makoto concentrated on the bowl and moved the mixer around trying to make it do what the big stand mixer on tv had. When the butter and sugar were fluffy and pale lookingalmostlike the tv, she looked up at David to turn the mixer off. "Now what?"
David frowned at the instructions. "This says we have to separate and alternate dry and wet ingredients. That just seems unnecessarily fussy." He shook his head at the drawing of immaculate female hands perfectly cracking an egg. "Okay, let's mix in the eggs. We're just going down the list and dropping stuff in."
Makoto's eyebrow arched and her mouth turned into a small, dubious frown.
"Trust me," reassured David.
Nothing in Makoto's posture suggested she trusted his judgment on this, but she went along with it anyway.
Any reservation either child had evaporated as soon as scoops of flour started hitting the bowl. They squealed in delight at the puffs of white that billowed up around them. David was too busy trying to control the mixer in what he realized now was too small a bowl. The metal tapped against the countertop as it shimmied and swayed and tried to walk away from them, the beaters getting caught up in a tacky mixture that just wasn't getting enough liquid. His hip kept the thing from falling over the edge, the other grasped the mixer over Makoto's hands, and his eyes tried desperately to focus on the recipe text to figure out where they'd messed up. But before he could get an answer, the kids got too far ahead of him.
Shinozaki, having decided he understood fractions on spoons way better than on cups, grabbed the brown bottle of almond extract. His tiny, greasy fingers struggled with the cap.
"Hurry up!" said Makoto, her voice jittering with the speed of the mixer. "It's trying to get away!"
The cap popped off and half the bottle spilled to the counter. The sweet cherry scent spread with the liquid as it ran down onto the floor. Shinozaki muttered a hasty apology as he put all his focus on the measuring spoon. He held it over the bowl, moving in time with it as he tried to pour the extract. He was marginally successful, though David was certain that was the wrong spoon and there was probably three times as much in the mix as there was supposed to be. But at least it was some added liquid.
Absolutely certain they were going to need the BlitzyBurger cake, David ordered, "Do the same with the vanilla."
Shinozaki nodded, a serious look on his face.
Tongue poking from the side of her mouth, Makoto circled the mixer around the bowl as best she could, combining it all into a uniform pale yellow, until David finally turned it off. The mixer made a sad sound as the motor powered down and the bowl settled to a stop.
Makoto quirked an eyebrow and bounced the beaters up and down in the stiff batter. "It doesn't look like it did on the tv."
Shinozaki shook his head, confirming that.
David sighed. "Let's just get it in the oven and see what happens."
For several minutes, all three of them crowded around the little window on the oven door and stared at the pan. A little twinge in David's knee let him know he'd been standing there long enough, so he straightened up and placed his hands on top of two flour covered heads.
"Okay, you two. Let's get the icing done, then you can go get rinsed off while the cake cools."
Eager nods answered him, and he pulled around a stool to sit on to finish things up.
He hadn't seen so much blacklight and neon since college.
David kept a steady hold on the cake box as Makoto and Shinozaki brushed by him into the chaotic maw of the game center. Behind the hostess and the glowing orange of her futuristic minidress, dozens of children ran between long party tables and the endless cavern of game stations. Screams of laughter could be heard over the din of prize bells and celebratory sirens as machines spit out yellow and blue tickets in a steady stream. The clack of skeeballs against wooden ramps censored half of the hostess' words as she asked for their reservation and gave an enthusiastic 'Happy Birthday' to Makoto.
Makoto bounced on the balls of her feet, the metallic pink bells in her hair tie reflecting back the light like mini disco balls. Excitement rolled off of her in waves, her eyes wide as she tried to figure out what to do first. Shinozaki had a gleam his eyes David had never seen before, competitiveness bubbling over in neon green.
"You have to eat first," said David through a wide, amused smile as they passed the prize counter on the way to a smaller corner table.
Both children looked at him like he was crazy. You couldn't do something as mundane aseatingwhen all this was spread out gloriously in front of you, calling to you like a siren to a sailor.
But David was their captain, so both children reluctantly slid onto seats, though neither really sat. By the time their burgers got there, Makoto was standing on one foot while the pink and white sneaker on the other rested on the seat because David told her one part of her body had to be touching it while they ate. She stuffed a quarter of her cheeseburger in her mouth, then chased it with a fist full of fries, a bit of the grease dripping onto the pink pinstripes of her birthday dress.
Neither child noticed as they watched a boy run by with two handfuls of prize tickets.
"Did you see the big yellow duck with the top hat? I want that!" exclaimed Makoto around a mouthful of french fries.
Shinozaki nodded and took a big gulp of milkshake. "I want the green alien. Its eyes light up!" He stuck a sticky hand into his jeans pocket and pulled out a worn pile of blue tickets. "I've got some left over from my cousin's birthday. I'll split them with you."
Makoto beamed at him. "You are the best friend ever!"
Shinozaki's cheeks pinked up and he hid his grin behind his cheeseburger. "We're gonna need a lot more tickets, though."
Two sets of eyes fixed on David. He smirked, then laid ten rolls of tokens on the table.
The rest of the food was forgotten as they both made an immediate grab for them. And then they were gone, the sad, lopsided cake and their Uncle David forgotten.
David let them go, figuring they couldn't get into any real trouble here. He looked around and let out a sigh. Not really much for him to do. He returned the grin he was getting from the hostess, mostly ignored the curious looks he was getting from random parents, then got up to check on the last minute BlitzyBurger cake. Maybe he had time to step out for a quick beer across the street. Makoto wouldn't even notice and it would get him out of this madhouse of children and away from the parents wondering if he was there to kidnap them.
.
.
"Where'd he go?" asked Shinozaki.
Makoto shrugged. "Just look for his head. That's the easiest way to find him in a crowd." She stood on tiptoe and scanned around, finally spotting him up near the front with the hostess. She held up a trailing fistful of yellow tickets and pointed them at him. "Over there!"
They scurried through the crowd, hurrying over to him. They were excited and out of breath when they reached him, bouncing as they each held up the haul of prize tickets for him to see.
David gave the hostess an apologetic half-grin as she moved away from him, then turned his attention to the children. He was actually pretty impressed. Between the ticket wades in their hands and the strings of them trailing out of their pockets, they'd made good use of all the tokens he'd given them.
Makoto grinned widely. "I got enough for the duck!"
"Yeah, you did," he grinned back. "C'mon, let's go cash in."
.
.
Half a cake, a few more rolls of tokens for the basketball game, and a bonus pack of sticky-rubber-slappy hands later, and the kids were passed out in the back of the car for the ride home. One of the red slappy hands was stuck to the window behind Makoto's head as she cuddled her giant duck. Shinozaki was half laying on her, the pale blue glow of his alien's eyes adding to the muted lights of the city that washed over them as David drove.
At a stoplight, he glanced in the rearview mirror and smirked. "This is supposed to be your life," he whispered. "But she's gonna be okay. We got this."
He had no idea how he was supposed to handle this.
After being summoned from practice by an irate school secretary, David now found himself standing in front of three scuffed and dirty children. Makoto's hair had come loose from its ponytail and was hanging in a disheveled mess around her shoulders, framing her face and highlighting the red scraped welt on her cheek. Her knee socks had fresh holes that matched the torn pocket on her blouse. Her entire uniform was streaked in mud and grass stains, and she looked the best in the group.
David did a quick assessment of Shinozaki - covered head to toe in mud but no obvious injuries. The other boy wasn't so lucky. Just a glance let him see the bloodied knee through a torn pant leg and the cheek scratches. He was missing a front tooth behind his swollen lip, but David wasn't going to count that since he wasn't sure if Makoto was responsible for it. The rest of it…
He could feel the cold stare of the principal on him, and his inner 10-year-old shrank down even though he stood at least six inches over the man and his crisply pressed suit.
Makoto, however, wasn't the least bit intimidated. Her face reddened behind the dirt streaks and she pointed an accusatory finger at the boy. "He started it! He was being a jerk!"
The principal's stare landed on her. "The last thing you need to be doing right now is speaking out of turn."
Makoto gritted her teeth, entirely uncowed.
"Sir," began David with a forced polite deference, "maybe if we let them tell us what happened we could resolve things more easily."
"We're aware of what happened," returned the principal. He nodded toward the boy with the missing tooth. "And Toru will be spending several days in detention for his rudeness and poor choice of words. However, given Makoto's very outsized response, she'll be spending a full week."
Makoto started to protest, but a shake of David's head quieted her.
"Perhaps," went on the principal, "if you're going to take on such a child and not provide her with a mother, you should find a better way to instill being a proper young lady."
David's eyes darkened, but he knew this was a fight he couldn't win, and neither of them needed the trouble. "Yes, of course." He reached out for Makoto's hand. "I should take her home and get her cleaned up. Son, do you need a ride?"
Shinozaki shook his head. "My mom's coming to get me."
David sighed internally. He was going to get a call later.
He tilted his head to the principal, then tugged Makoto to the exit. As the door closed behind them, without looking down at her, he said quietly, "Your mom would have slugged him, too."
Makoto's angry frown morphed into a bright smile.
"But you need to learn to block after you swing," went on David. "We need to work on that."
Makoto was only half listening to her sensei as he went through the closing exercises for her karate class. It was the same every class, and after two months, she had this part pretty well memorized. Her attention was instead at the back of the room where her Uncle David was trying to pace while he held the receiver for the payphone to his ear. The metal cord kept him from getting very far. He was obviously frustrated with the conversation, though, given how he kept running his hand over his new, short beard. Every once in awhile his voice would start to rise and he'd quickly reign himself in.
Snapping back to the class, Makoto nodded automatically to whatever had just been said. The others looked excited, so it must be something good. They all bowed to their sensei, then scattered like a flock of birds.
Makoto snagged her bag from the plastic chair it was sitting on and slowly walked up to David.
He frowned harder at the phone when he saw her. Then into the receiver, "Yeah, Hanzo. Yes, I know. Look, she's done with class. We'll talk about it tomorrow." He hung up without a good-bye.
"What's wrong?" asked Makoto. She knew there was something even without his nervous foot tapping a fast rhythm against the floor.
David let out a sigh, then gave her a half-grin. He put a hand lightly against shoulder and started leading her to the door. "Let's go get some ice cream."
Nothing else was said for the entire ride to the ice cream parlor. David knew her favorite and ordered it, then let her pick out their seats. They were half-way through eating when he dropped his spoon in his sundae dish and leaned back in the booth, giving her a serious stare.
"The team's cutting me."
Makoto went numb. "They can't!"
David chuckled, though it was without humor. "Yeah, they can."
"But that's stupid!" Makoto returned, throwing her spoon to the tabletop. "That's not fair!"
Sitting forward, David motioned for her to quiet down. He nodded an apology to the mother staring at them from two tables over.
"I don't like it, either," he went on in a quiet tone that was underlined with the anger he felt. "But that's how it is in this business. I don't really get much say."
Makoto crossed her arms, angry along with him. "They suck. I don't care if they're Dad's team. I'm throwing away all my gear and becoming a Blue Dragon fan."
David couldn't help smiling at that. "Oh, ouch. It hasn't even been five minutes and she's taking up with the Phoenix's biggest rival."
The look she gave him indicated she didn't share his humor. Then, quietly, she added, "I don't want to move again."
"I know," said David. He picked up his spoon and stabbed at the remainder of his ice cream. "We may not have to. Hanzo is trying to set up an interview for me."
Perking up, Makoto leaned as far across the table as her little body could go. "Really? Is that why he was on the phone? Cause it sounded like you were mad at him. Can I have a t-shirt for the new team so I don't have to pretend to be a Blue Dragon? Cause I really do hate them and that would have sucked."
Holding up a hand to stall her enthusiasm, David said, "I'll get you gear for wherever I wind up. This interview isn't a sure thing, you know. And it's a bit far away. The commute is still cheaper than the rent, though, so even if I get it, we aren't moving."
Makoto smiled widely and picked her spoon back up. She dug into her ice cream as if the world had been made right again. "You'll get it. I know you will."
"You'll have to start taking the bus by yourself in the morning if I do," he returned, pointing his spoon at her. "And I won't be home until really late, so you'll have to be responsible for your homework, too. So don't get too excited yet." Then he frowned. "But I need to find you a babysitter for a few days. The interview is going to be an overnight deal, and I don't want to take you out of school when the semester just started. Maybe Shinozaki's parents…"
"I don't need a babysitter," threw back Makoto, entirely offended at the idea.
"I'm not leaving a seven-year-old overnight alone. Christ, Makoto, I'm not that bad a parent."
Makoto laughed at him. "You should see how frowny-face you are." She dipped into her ice cream, scooping out an M . "But I don't need a babysitter. I can take care of myself."
David's fingers tapped anxiously against the tabletop as she listed off all the things she thought she could do entirely by herself. He had to admit, she wasn't wrong…
"Okay," he interjected, then leaned in until he thought they were close enough no one else would hear this. "But you can't tell anyone. Not even Shinozaki."
Makoto made a motion like she was zippering her lips, then crossed her heart.
"We're also going to have a list of rules. Like no leaving the house except for school. You don't touch the stove. In fact, you don't even microwave anything. You're eating cereal for every meal. Got it?"
Makoto nodded enthusiastically. She was glad Uncle David understood she wasn't some stupid baby who needed to be watched all the time. She was in second grade now, after all. She was one of the big kids, and she deserved to be treated like it. She just hoped he got onto this other team and that they had a good mascot, because she really didn't want to have to become a Blue Dragon.
She was sooooo bored.
David had walked her to the bus Thursday morning, reminding her 100 times not to tell anyone she was going to be in the apartment by herself all weekend. Then another 100 times to not go anywhere and not step foot out of the apartment unless it was on fire, and he would call to check on her when he got a break around dinner. Makoto thought he was being silly about it, but it was a grown-up thing, so she just nodded. Then gave him a kiss on his fuzzy cheek for luck before getting on the bus.
Thursday night had been a little weird, and maybe just a little scary once it was really nighttime. All sorts of sounds she'd never heard before came out, and she didn't like not knowing what they were. Having all the lights on made it better. So did hiding under her blanket.
Friday was okay. She was tired at school, and her teacher didn't like that she was falling asleep during the math lesson. She'd had to stand at the back of the room for most of it as punishment. Makoto thought that was stupid, because it hadn't made her any less tired and she'd wound up with twice the homework. She stuck her tongue out in a grimace. Math was stupid.
But now it was Saturday, and there was another whole day before Uncle David got back.
Hanging upside down over the edge of the couch, her arms splayed out and her feet bouncing against the back cushion in time to the background music of the cartoon on the tv, Makoto watched the second hand on the clock slowly tick by. She let out a sigh. It was 9 am, she was washed and dressed, she'd already eaten the boiled eggs and cold noodles that were supposed to be her lunch, there was nothing good on tv, and she was fully, totally, mightily bored.
Rolling down onto the floor, she crawled over to the phone and sat cross-legged in front of it. She could call and talk to Shinozaki. But he couldn't come over. And if his parents answered the phone, they might ask about Uncle David.
Makoto leaned forward onto her elbows, resting her chin on her palms. Her eyes watched a couple of birds swooping around each other, playing in the wide-open blue sky. They looked like they were having a lot of fun.
She chewed on the inside of her cheek. She really shouldn't, even if it was a pretty day. The park wasn't really that far away, though, and she knew the bus route. She glanced by the doorway where her bus pass hung on a neon pink lanyard and her sneakers lay haphazardly, calling to her.
She didn't even bother to turn the tv off, afraid she would lose her nerve if she stopped too long on her way out the door.
.
.
Makoto didn't correct the bus driver when he smiled kindly and asked if her mom knew she was out by herself. She'd just said 'yes' and asked if this was the right bus to go to the park. Just to be sure.
And now here she was, laying in the cool grass after running the jungle gym course on the playground. Her arms ached in the best way from going across the monkey bars so many times. She'd only fallen once, and it had been so fast she'd barely felt it. Though she did have a new hole in her pants she was going to have to find a story for. She'd been especially careful at the slide after that, only going down feet first. Head first was definitely more fun, though. She laughed as she stared up at the clouds making lazy shapes in the sky - a butterfly, a chipmunk in a cowboy hat, a squishy marshmallow duck. This was so much better than being cooped up in the apartment.
Her fingers played gently with the little yellow flowers in the grass, careful to watch for bees. Makoto knew she was going to have to leave soon so she wouldn't miss David's call, but now her tummy was growling, reminding her she hadn't had anything since this morning. She sat up and checked her pockets, relieved that her little daisy coin purse was still clipped to the chain on her belt loop. She'd forgotten all about it until just now, and she really didn't need to lose her keys. More importantly, though, there was money for the food stand.
Running along the path beside the duck pond, Makoto headed for the small event set-up she'd seen when she first got to the park. Music drifted from the stage, changing each time someone new got up to perform during open mic. Makoto stood in the middle of it all, scanning the food trucks and stalls until her eyes landed on a chunky yellow truck. It was the cutest one in the group and had the best price on the curry plate. Her mouth watered.
It took forever until it was her turn. She was holding her money up to the window before her order was even out of her mouth. "The large curry, please."
The old man at the window chuckled as he leaned out. "Can such a little thing really eat such a big plate of food?"
Makoto scowled at him. First off, she wasn't little. She was the second tallest in her class and got reminded of it A LOT. Second, she was starving. "I can. Just take my money and give me food, please."
This made the man chuckle harder, but he took her money.
A few minutes later she was precariously balancing the styrofoam clamshell of curry in one hand as she perched on a decorative boulder. She was behind the audience, but could see the next act coming onto the stage. It was a girl with long, dark hair and two little old people. They were all dressed in matching purple pants and gold-yellow shirts. The man had a matching yellow hat with a purple band, and the girl had a big purple ribbon on her headband. The woman set up a keyboard, and the girl waved to someone in the audience.
Makoto looked around and saw a woman in a wheelchair. She was a bit off to the side, away from most of the crowd. There was a small blanket over her legs, even though it was warm out. She smiled up at the girl and waved back, her smile bright in spite of how tired she looked.
The man tapped the microphone, then handed it to the girl. Just as the woman touched the first key, a little nip at her ankle made Makoto yelp. She bobbled her plate, smooshing the lid into her remaining lunch in an effort to save it. Curry oozed over the edges, and she frowned hard both at the container and the little squirrel rooting around by her foot.
"Stupid thing. Why did you…"
The little squirrel chittered, then sat up on its hind legs. From its mouth dangled two shiny keys on a plain ring.
In a panic, Makoto dropped her food container. She frantically patted her pockets, coming up with her coin purse but not her keys. She locked eyes with the squirrel, then froze.
"Those are mine," she said very softly. She started to inch down as slowly as she could. "If you give them back, you can have some yummy food. Wouldn't that be better than my keys?"
The squirrel blinked at her… then took off running.
Smooshed food container forgotten, Makoto took off after the little thief.
.
.
Alandra crossed her arms and shook her head in annoyance. She didn't intend to interfere with her aunt's plan for these young Guardians, but neither was she going to help it along. Especially if it involved the Martian.
Turning from her misty viewing portal, the little goddess left distracting the Guardian to her kirkri. Her baby priestess had been unusually quiet today, which almost certainly meant a bit of mischief was afoot. That would be far more interesting than trailing along after a defiant young Jovian.
.
.
Makoto bounded up the stairs two at a time. The squirrel had dropped her keys in the grass before disappearing up a tree. She was really lucky it hadn't taken them back to its nest. And she hadn't missed her bus. But then the bus got a flat tire halfway to her stop, and that was definitely unlucky because she didn't know any other schedule and wasn't really sure where she was on the route. While she had enough sense not to just go wandering around and hoping she got to the right bus stop, she might have gotten home faster if she had.
Once at her door, it took three tries to get the key in the lock, she was hurrying so badly. She could hear the phone start to ring through the door on her second try and felt her teeth clenching as she used both hands to aim the key.
The lock clicked, and she slammed the door open without any finesse. She didn't even bother to take her shoes off as she raced across the room for the phone.
"Hello!" she yelled into the receiver, cringing at how loud she was.
"Damn, Makoto. Are you okay? Why do you sound so out of breath?"
She could picture David holding the receiver away from his ear when she yelled, and him screwing up his face into a look that said he could tell she was up to something.
"I'm okay," she answered, willing her breathing to go back to normal. "I was… I was just roughhousing because I was bored. That's all."
There was a beat of silence, then, "Roughhousing? By yourself?"
"Uh huh." She nodded into the phone.
More silence, then a puff of air like a deflating balloon. "Okay, okay," said David quietly. "Just don't jump on the couch or stomp on the floor too much. You know Tanami-san downstairs will complain if you do."
"I promise I won't," assured Makoto. Then she brightened up. "Did you get the spot?"
She could hear the smile as David's voice became playful. "You'll just have to wait until I get home to find out. I don't want to ruin the anticipation and surprise."
Makoto grinned ear to ear. "Bring me a t-shirt!"
David laughed. "If you're good, you may even get a ballcap and some stickers, too."