Poke. Poke.
I can feel someone's finger gently poking at my cheeks, waking me up from my nap.
"Mmm is that you Skylar? Stop it I'm tryna nap."
"Hehe".
I hear giggles near me but strangely the voice doesn't sound like Skylar.
"Nope not Skylar, guess again."
!
I immediately open my eyes and see that it is Jaki poking my cheeks.
I must have fallen asleep on the train after my exhaustion from waking up early finally kicked in.
My face starts turning red. It doesn't help that Jaki was the one poking at my cheeks.
"So you've finally awake from your nap, sleepyhead?"
Jaki is smiling warmly at me as my eyes slowly begin to adjust to the light. My heart melts into a puddle, especially when Jaki called me sleepyhead.
Hearing Jaki's voice and seeing her smile first thing after waking up is truly a blessing.
"Mmm yeah, are we close to school yet?"
"Not yet, we still have around 15 minutes left but I figured I'll wake you up now so you have more time to adjust instead of waking you up just before we arrive."
"Thanks!"
"I definitely would struggle to leave the seat if you woke me up only a few stops before school."
I feel all nice and warm on the inside. Even though it was a small gesture I still feel really happy about Jaki looking out for me.
I glance at the window, even though the scenery is still the same, everything feels much more alive than usual today.
"Oh look someone put a little hat on the abstract cactus today."
What I call the abstract cactus is a little sculpture that is made of a bunch of green blobs morphed together.
If you try hard enough the shape kind of resembles a cactus. And that's why it is often referred to as the abstract cactus sculpture.
The sculpture is sorta a land mark around this area since it looks so out of place. An abstract sculpture surrounded by boring suburbia filled with nothing but houses and roads.
Since it stands out so much people often mess with it. Sometimes it is graffiti sometimes it is something simpler like putting random objects on it.
Its the highlight of a rather boring train ride, to see what surprises the cactus will bring today.
Jaki seemed to be confused by what I referred to as the abstract cactus then she realized what I meant and replied:
"You mean the booger sculpture?"
"Booger sculpture?"
"Pfft, Hahaha"
I couldn't hold in my giggles as Jaki refers to the sculpture as the booger sculpture.
"What? You know I'm right. People say its suppose to be a cactus or something but it definitely looks like snot and boogers.
"Yeah I guess so."
I reply as I try to catch my breath from my giggles.
"Still the last thing I expected was for you to call it the booger sculpture."
"I mean its even green."
Jaki seems to be blushing slightly out of what I assume is embarrassment from defending the name booger sculpture.
I can't help but adore at the cute and childlike reactions that Jaki has sometimes.
"Anyway speaking of clothes on the booger sculpture, did you see when it had a puffer jacket on during winter?"
Jaki is still calling it the booger sculpture, cute.
"Oh yeah it actually looked really cute, probably the cutest a booger has ever looked."
"Pfft."
Jaki let out a small giggle after hearing my remark.
I continue the conversation by talking about the different variations I saw.
"One of my favourites is probably the time when someone stuck googly eyes on it."
"Mmm. It looked so goofy but also cute at the same time."
I wouldn't exactly have called it cute but it was definitely goofy. Maybe the right term for it is goofy-cute?
Jaki also shared some of her favourite versions that she saw.
"One time I saw it drawn with a huge lip stick mark on it."
"Oooooo. It must be one popular booger."
"Maybe you were the one that left the mark there Jaki?
"Hey, as cute as it can look sometimes I still wouldn't kiss a booger."
"Hehehehehehehehe."
"Hahahahahahahaha."
Jaki and I both giggle before we start full on laughing. Realizing how ridiculous our conversation is sounding.
Before I knew it we arrived at our stop. Normally minutes felt like hours on this train.
But today minutes felt like seconds.