"Sooo…. is this my room?" Becca says, sounding excited. She jumps into the middle of the room and looks around, inspecting everything from the bed to the closet. "Wow, the style in this room is a bit lonely. Maybe a poster or two. I love decorating!"
Standing in the doorway watching Becca talk about my room like that irritates me. "This is my room." I point vigorously to an empty space in a corner next to the entrance "...and that's your space, I'll be back with some bedding." I shrug. "I guess for now you can go down for dinner."
"Oh, thanks Ginger, Sorry, your room looks nice" Becca says stopping mid spin, "I'll head down then." She says, smiling shyly, slowly walks past me.
My heart pinches. I didn't mean to snap at her. I guess I was getting tired of her being so happy-go-lucky and being in my space.
Taking in a deep breath, I turn my attention back to my task. I need to get the bedding before they eat without me. Mom didn't even tell me a guest was arriving, so I doubt she made enough food for us all.
I quickly turn on my heels and grab sheets, a pillowcase and a couple blankets from the hall closet.
Grabbing the bedding, I quickly toss it onto the unaired mattress, then plug in the pump and turn it on. I need to hurry, Mom doesn't take long arranging our plates.
Skipping steps on the stairs, I arrive at the table to find a full plate at my place and their plates still full.
Sitting back in my spot, I glance at Becca who sits over on Mom's side. Luckily away from me.
Dinner passed with ease; Becca told us about her hometown in Pottoob, California. Mom even told us about her time in California, and how she met Becca's parents in college.
Becca offered to wash the dishes which encouraged Mom to have me help clean up the table. After cleaning up, Becca said goodnight to Mom and we went upstairs.
"The bathroom is on your left, I'll be in my room," I say, showing her the bathroom.
"Thank you, I'll go brush my teeth. If you need to use the bathroom please go ahead. I'll keep the door open" Becca says, smiling while heading into the bathroom.
Walking into my room, leaving the door open. Unplug the pump that I left on downstairs. I flop down onto my bed, checking my phone in boredom.
After Becca finishes her teeth, she leaves the light on, and smiles at me as she walks into my room and over to her air mattress. I quickly head to the bathroom and lock the door.
Once I finish my bedtime routine. I head to the bedroom to find Becca getting comfortable in her corner. I instantly start feeling bad for her but then quickly disappear when we make eye contact. I quickly looked away, hand hovering over the light switch, I turned it off and headed straight for my bed.
"Goodnight!" Becca says before we both drift off into slumber
-------
Morning rises and still no sign of Jennifer. Dragging my feet I head to the restroom to find Becca brushing her teeth. I sigh remembering everything that happened yesterday. Sadly it wasn't a dream.
"Gooh mahing!" Becca says excitedly, toothpaste bubbling out of her mouth. This is why I've never asked my parents for a sibling, people are too much and I like having my own space. Even though Jennifer is always in my space.
"Hey…" I awkwardly reply as I walk away, not facing her.
I'll just use mom's bathroom, she should be downstairs around this time getting ready to wake me up.
I walk across the hall into mom's room. I quickly glance around her room; nothing's changed since I "borrowed" a comb from her last June. Walking past her bed to get to her bathroom, but before I go in, I see something move in Mom's bed. "Fjsdjfh!" I scream, jumping back. As I do, I realize Mom is still in her bed. Is the world ending!?
"What!?" Mom says, jerking upright and looking around lost.
"Why are you still asleep?" I say while my blood is boiling. There's too many changes happening for one; Jennifer hasn't showed up since last night and then the new girl is everywhere. Now mom sleeps in late. Did I walk into the twilight zone?
"Stayed up a little later than I usually do. Is everything okay? The house burning? Hows Becca?" Mom says rubbing her eyes and yawning.
"Everything is fine," I say, muttering "I'm just weirded out that everything is going wrong," under my breath. Massaging my temple.
"Ginger, if you don't need anything Ima need you to go. Didn't you say you had somewhere to go today? Don't forget to take Becca with you. Ima have a 'me day' today. Night." Moms says laying back down, already half asleep.
What just happened? Who am I? Where am I? Because everything feels wrong. Before I think anymore my blabber starts to scream at me. "I need to pee!" I whisper to myself
"Umm… sorry to disturb you but Ginger I'm done with the bathroom." Becca says from the other side of Mom's door.
"Yeah, thanks," I say rolling my eyes, heading back out of Mom's room.
"Go make friends. Also don't talk about 'you know who' to Becca. I'm warning you" Mom says before going back to sleep.
I quickly walk out of the room without using mom's bathroom. I might as well use mine since Becca's already done.
Walking past my bedroom door, I see Becca looking at my big pile of books in the far right of the corner.
"Hey, in twenty minutes be ready." I say before closing the bathroom door.
---
Twenty minutes pass, I'm on the porch now waiting for Miss Pretty.
I hear the bang of my room door closing, and the thud-thud-thud of Becca coming down the stairs. I stay sitting on the porch steps, looking out at a tree across the road, intentionally not turning to look as Becca quickly slips on her shoes and opens the door.
"Sorry I'm late. I was looking for my bag. I accidently dropped it in my suitcase." Becca giggles, sounding genuinely sorry despite my arbitrary time limit.
"Okay whatever lets go. I don't want to be even more late." I say walking ahead of her, not really caring if she catches up or not. My conscience twinges a little at how rude I'm being, but my irritation overrules it.
Becca jogs a few steps to catch up to me, and then matches my brisk pace as we walk towards the bus stop, where the bus takes at least ten more minutes to arrive.
-------
We arrive at "The Muffin Shop", the chain muffin store that is now finally in our town; I get in line behind the 30 plus people who are already waiting to try the muffins.
"Oh cool, we had one of these back at home. My friends and I used to go here every Friday to hang out." Becca says standing besides me
I rolled my eyes. Great! Something I've been excited about has been ruined by this stranger again.
Becca looks around, staring like a tourist. "Woah! Your town is way tinier than my city." She laughs to herself. "Do you have a mall? Where is the school from here? Where are your friends?"
My blood begins to boil. I don't want to start something, plus I might not be able to try the muffins if I make a scene. I need to keep my cool until I get a muffin.
Taking in deep breaths, I turn to her. "Oh really tell me more about your home and malls!" I say mockly, annoyed by all the questions.
I turn away from her to block out her voice. And drift off thinking about the different muffins and Jennifer's citation. What am I going to do next? She hasn't been showing up.
After 20 mins of waiting in line and halfway listening to Becca talk, we finally make it to the door.
"I can't believe we are finally going to get one! I'm so ready to stuff my face!" I say, my heart races like crazy.
The wait makes the muffins seem more extra rare and we are about to experience the rareness. Makes my mouth water.
"Yeah, I'm pretty excited too. I was thinking I want a chocolate banana nut muffin." Becca says trying to take a peek in the shop, from the shop's window.
An employee who has been managing the door, looks over at us and gestures it's our turn. A high pitch noise came out of me.
"Thank you!" I squeal.
Once we get in the shop, the mouth drooling aroma hits me. Looking around at the navy blue walls with different photos of people eating muffins. Glance at the large glass rectangle boxes holding all kinds of muffins. My stomach starts talking, oh god! I know I am in heaven.
I hear a whisper around my ear. My heart sinks pass my feet. I stop in my tracks right before one of the glass boxes, looking only at the ground.
"Hey, Buttercup!"
Why, is she here?! I really don't want to look crazy in front of everyone. I try to ignore her. Pretending to look at the menus above the employees heads, who are behind the glass boxes.
"Ginger, are you ready to order? I found what I want. What about you?" Becca says, standing next to me waiting for my answer.
"Hey! Look at me! Oh wait look at these muffins. This is what you've been waiting for? Man, back when I was alive we had a baker who made normal muffins, not these wannabe muffins" Jennifer says float around everyone.
Trying to keep my eyes straightforward. Clutching my fist, I whisper harshly "Leave me alone!"
Becca steps back a little "Um.. sorry?"
Crap! I point out the triple chocolate muffin "That's the one I want! Let's order and leave." I try saying cheerfully
The store clerk nods and picks out our choices. They then gave us the price, luckily mom gave me money before I left, to pay for Becca's muffin too.
Walking out the shop I realized I hadn't heard from Jennifer or seen her after purchasing our muffins. I quickly glance around just in case.
With my nervous trigger I forget about my muffin and the excitement of it disappears. I feel confused and hungry but the hunger doesn't win and I just stand there trying to figure out why Jennifer keeps popping up and leaving for a large amount of time at a time.
"Where to next?" Becca says chowing down her muffin.
Looking around, I see the library. I do need to do more research for Jennifer, before school starts up. I stuff my muffin in my backpack to eat later. I want to enjoy it at a better time than now.
Determined for my muffin and getting rid of Jennifer, "Let's head to the library." I say, looking both ways before crossing the road.
"Cool, do you have something you need to do there? Or is that just a place you hang out?" Becca says trying to catch up to me.
"Well yeah, It's basically a mystery I need to solve." I say absentmindedly, then clap my hands over my mouth. Crap! I said too much.
"OOOOOHHHHH!!!! A MYSTERY! Can I help? That sounds fun. What kind of mystery? A cold case? Myths? What adventure in this small town are we going on?!" she says with her eyes watching my every move, "I love mysteries!"
I don't know if I made a mistake or if this is a blessing?