Claire reached out her hand to sneak another chip out from Jerry's packet.
"No!", Jerry smacked her hand away. She hadn't been sneaky enough. "You haven't even opened your own pack. Stop mooching off of mine!"
"I'm saving mine for later!", Claire grinned.
She stepped in front of Jerry and attempted to block her path.
Jerry narrowed her eyes in a challenge. "I won't let you get another." She stuffed the open pack under her sweater and grinned.
"Okay now that is cheating.", Clare glared at the sweater. Cursed thing. "You'd be wrong if you think I can't get it still!" She looked up and grinned back.
Jerry's reply came in the form of a tackle. She had ducked down low, propped her arms defensively in front of the sweater, and had started rushing straight at Claire.
Claire took a step back and braced herself to catch Jerry.
Jerry squeezed her way under Claire's arm and continued on towards the park gate. Claire couldn't stop her despite her tries.
Jerry laughed as she passed her.
"Hey!" Claire turned and ran behind Jerry. She wasn't as small as she used to be, but Jerry's ability to slip through nearly anything still took Claire by surprise.
Claire turned the corner into the park. Fortunately, she was a faster runner than Jerry.
Jerry hopped off the path and onto the grass.
Claire grinned as she closed in on her friend. She stretched her hands out. Just a little bit more.
She lunged forwards and barely caught onto Jerry's coat.
A dull thud sounded out, followed by a loud pop.
Claire couldn't find her footing after the lunge and hit the ground, twisting her body enough to land on her back.
All this time, she'd still held onto Jerry's coat tightly, which caused her to stumble backwards and fall onto Claire's belly.
It took Claire a couple of seconds to catch her breath, after which she burst out laughing.
Jerry groaned softly, before breaking into a chuckle as well. She slowly lifted herself off of Claire and moved to sit beside her.
"You okay?" She asked the still laying Claire.
Claire nodded in response. "What about you?"
Jerry rolled her eyes and hit Claire on the head. "Bad Claire."
Claire stuck her tongue out.
Jerry checked her sweater for her pack of chips. It was still there. She pulled it out and reached in for one. Claire could see the grime on her hands from the fall even in the darkness.
"Hey!" Claire sat up. "You're gonna get dirt all over them."
Jerry blinked and pulled her hand out of the bag. She rested the bag on her lap and dusted the dirt off of her hands.
"There!" She presented her hands to Claire. "Good enough for me." She then proceeded to reach for a chip.
"Yuck. Keep that packet away from me now." Claire huffed. "I'll just have my own. And I'm not giving you any!"
"Yours?" Jerry grinned. "That one's mine too. I paid for them both."
Claire frowned. "I told you the next one will be my treat!"
The two had spent quite some time deciding what they should get. In the end Jerry had gone with her initial choice, cream and onion chips, while Claire had grabbed a bag of barbeque flavoured chips. But only when the two had made their way to the counter had Claire realised that she had forgotten to bring any money with her. They decided to think of the snacks that day as Jerry's treat, and that the next time it would be Claire's treat.
"Try and stop me!", Jerry chucked and reached a hand out for Claire's coat.
Claire hugged her coat pocket in defense, only to realize that she couldn't feel the air of the packet cushion her hands.
"Wait. Something's wrong." She called out to Jerry before reaching into her pocket.
She felt the packet, deflated and crumpled. She also felt the edges of something solid and distinctly powdery.
"The pack popped. My pocket's filled with chips." She said, pulling out the chip her hand had felt.
Jerry couldn't help but laugh. "So that's what that sound was!" She stood up and dusted her clothes. "Well, it saved your chips from me, at least!"
Jerry then made her way over to the swings.
"Dirty hands bother you less than pocket chips, huh." Claire mumbled after her. "You're a weirdo."
===
Claire and Jerry spent the next half hour riding the swings and enjoying the weather. They'd once considered the activity childish. Claire would be offended at even the implication that she'd get on such a thing.
"I'm a teenager! These things are beneath me!" Claire remembered saying something along these lines to a classmate who'd suggested that once.
It was odd to think that that was her less than a year ago. She couldn't put a finger on why she ever became that way, or why she stopped, but she was glad she did.
Feeling the breeze on her face as she slowly swung back and forth, among the dancing silhouettes of trees. A sight illuminated by the slats of light which were able to sneak past the leaves. This would have been one of the most pleasant things Claire could have thought of.
But the presence of a friend made it a moment to forever cherish.
That was, until she remembered that Jerry had been eating her chips with still dirty hands.
Now Claire was not unwilling to get her hands dirty. She loved running and she loved playing with her flufferino. She loved splashing through muddy puddles and well, she was the one who'd tried to tackle Jerry in the first place.
But getting her hands dirty and then eating with them? That was sacrilege. And Claire did not waste any opportunity to mock Jerry for that task.
The park even had a faucet, but Jerry had still denied to use it!
Claire herself had washed her hands before eating her pack of chips. Well, the portion which hadn't escaped into her pocket anyway. And she'd relished every single one of the chips.
At one point, Jerry had looked at her pack and said she should have suggested her the 'beef jerky' flavor instead. When asked why, she said that she'd wanted Claire to have a beef with some jerks.
"That was bad." Claire had said. "Terrible. Horrifying. And it makes no sense."
"I can't help you if you don't like puns." Was Jerry's reply. Claire was too busy groaning to hit her.
When asked to elaborate, Jerry had told Claire that she'd seen a couple of people following her in school. One was Kyle, and the other seemed to be of some different class. The description she gave let Claire guess that it might be Mick, or Mack, or whatever the name of that junior of hers was.
To be frank, she had noticed Kyle acting a bit stranger than usual, but she hadn't appropriated it to stalking yet. Jerry's horrible pun laden warning had confirmed that she needed to look more closely into this matter.
Jerry had also talked about a game she had started playing. Some sort of an open world MMO, about a world where everyone has a system and every country is based on some different discipline. The country she'd started on had everyone studying food.
She had still been laughing about the event they had had on the April Fools day, despite it having happened months ago. Something about all characters restarting from the age of five and doing menial tasks to level up.
Claire didn't really get it. She decided she had to go to Jerry's house someday to see the game in action.
Later, the two went back to the convenience store. Somehow Claire felt that ice cream would be a fun thing to have despite the bone chilling cold. Jerry seemed to have agreed with her.
"Here you go." Jerry said as she waved the money in front of the cashier, who had still been playing a game.
"Aww, come on! I died!" The cashier cried as the notes blocking his vision caused him to stumble in game.
"Ow"
Claire pinched Jerry's arm and bowed to the cashier. "Sorry about my idiot friend here."
"Hey!" Jerry protested.
The cashier grumbled. "It's okay. Wasn't that important anyway."
The two checked out their ice creams and went along on their way.
"Gah! Cold!" Jerry exclaimed as she took a bite out of hers. Claire could see her visibly shudder. She however did not hesitate to take a second bite with a grin on her face.
Claire grinned too, and licked at hers. It was, understandably, chilling. But there was an undeniable joy in enjoying cold things during a chilly night, and that night was a night to relish already.
Claire felt something light hit her head. She looked up instinctively and felt another impact, now on her hand. She looked down at it. A drop of Water.
"It's about to rain. We should go home now." She suggested.
Jerry nodded.
They both said their goodbyes and headed on to their ways home, ice creams in hand.
Unfortunately. That light drizzle soon turned into a full fledged outpour. Claire's ice cream was not spared. Neither was her coat.
She got back home, wet, cold, unable to fully enjoy her ice cream, but otherwise very satisfied with the night's events.
===
"Here you go!" Claire saw Jerry wave the notes in front of the cashier again.
"Hey, hey!" The cashier protested. "I'm just about done with this boss, wait."
Apparently this time the cashier hadn't made the blunder.
"Ow"
Claire pinched Jerry's arm and bowed to the cashier. "Sorry about my idiot friend here."
Maybe this time Claire would be able to save their ice creams too.