"If you think you are two small to be effective, you have never been in the dark with a mosquito"- Betty Reese.
The rest of the week went quicker, after she knew she would be volunteering next week and she had a dinner with a friend. On that Sunday, 2nd of July she started her first day of volunteering. It was hard work, but as she predicted, it was extremely rewarding. Working with all these people made her feel like she was making a difference. It was a lovely feeling. Some may say that mindset is naïve, but Freya didn't listen to them- because, as Taylor Swift most famously sung, haters are just going to hate. Freya had learned this lesson the hard way.
As a teenager in high school, Echo had been bullied. It wasn't for the colour of her skin, her bullies were of mixed ethnicities too- one of them was orange. Thinking back on that, that girl was definitely using fake tan- no one could be that shade of orange naturally. If they were, Freya felt exceedingly sorry for those poor people and hoped that they weren't bullied because of it. Echo had attempted to change the way she looked to stop being bullied. She was mocked as being a coward, because she had only one piercing; Echo got numerous ear piercings to counteract this. She still had them to this very day, as she liked the look of them, but the reasoning behind getting them was wrong. Echo had been called a sissy for not going out clubbing with a fake ID. Doing that, Echo got hammered. Luckily she wasn't caught by the police- as that would have put a mark in her record, but her mom was extremely disappointed in her. Her mom wasn't violent towards her, she didn't even shout at her. Her mother just sobbed, saying that it was her fault that Echo resorted to doing this. This just made it worse for Echo. The guilt of seeing her mother beat herself up after a mistake she made. After that, Echo realised she didn't want to do stuff like this anymore. She realised that the haters weren't going to change.
Back at her bungalow, Freya still didn't feel comfortable calling it home yet, she had an hour. She finished working at four forty-five, and arrived at her house at five via her new bicycle, which she had bought. It was a purple one, which had a larger seat on it to make it more comfortable. Sam told her that they would meet in the restaurant at six, but according to her fellow colleagues, it was customary in Manchester to be late to those types of things. Freya decided to have a shower and change into a Marvel t-shirt, cause why not? A pair of black jean shorts completing her ensemble, with some converse shoes. She had taken out her piercings earlier, as they might offend some of the older people in the old age home, but now she put them back in. She made sure her hair was tidy.
Looking at the time it was ten to six, and she decided to ride on her bike to the restaurant they were going to. It was a vegetarian restaurant, as Samantha had decided to become a vegetarian. Entering the restaurant, she ordered a table and sat down and waited. Finally, at twelve past six, Sam entered. Her colleagues were right, Freya smiled inwardly. Sam spotted her and immediately went to the table and plopped herself into the seat opposite Freya.
"I'm sorry that I'm late, just the shift took longer than I expected," Sam began saying and a whole speech about why it wasn't her fault she was late, came running out. There was a cat, a spider, a fire, a car, and a train that were all somehow conniving against Sam, and their only purpose was to make her late. When Sam finally stopped speaking, she noticed that Freya was cackling away. Failing to keep her poker face after the part where the 'ginormous man-eating spider' had entered the story, Freya just started rolling in laughter.
After Freya had calmed down, she noticed that Sam was slightly irritated that she had found joy in her plights, that had prevented her from being on time to their sacred dinner. The dinner went well, just as revenge, Sam kept attempting to set her up with her friends.
"Come on Freya, what's wrong with George?" Sam asked, shoving her phone into Freya's face, "He doesn't even have pimples like Michael had!". Sam sounded exasperated, but what could Freya do. She couldn't tell her that the reason she wouldn't date them was because she would feel guilty about lying about her identity. Somehow, even though she said no to all of Sam's suggestions, she ended up with three blind dates that week.
As she had told Sam that she was bisexual, Sam had set her up with two women and one man. Freya had no choice, but to go on these dates, as Sam had already set them up, and if she didn't go on a date with them they would feel hurt.
The first date was with the man, his name was August. He had dark brown hair, African American, deep chocolate eyes, and a million dollar smile. Mentally though, Freya nicknamed him Charles, as she felt that name suited him better. When they reached the restaurant the date was going pretty well. He had just said a joke and she was cracking up.
"Oh Charles, you are just too funny," Freya laughed out, not even realising that his name was August. Poor August did not forget. How could he, when she continued calling him Charles through the rest of their date. Freya just didn't understand why he got so irritated every time she said his name. When they finally parted, it hit her. Freya realised that she had ruined that date. Sending a text to him failed, it seemed like he had already blocked her number. That one was on her.
That night, Sam called her up and asked her how the date went. When relaying what happened, Sam burst out laughing. Sam then told her how she did something similar to that once, except it was through a text. She had broken up with her boyfriend and was in another relationship. One night when she was drunk, she sent a message meant for him, to her new boyfriend. Needless to say, they broke up soon after. After relaying to each other a few more stories of misfortunes like that, they wished each other good night and went to bed.