4 stickers, each one different, each one obtained from a quarter based machine in the local video rental store. The first was a cartoonish vampire bat, which belonged to Mae. The second was a beautiful unicorn ripped straight from the pages of a fantasy book, which belonged to Trisha. The third was a retro spaceship that belonged to Chaz and finally, the fourth was a pseudo realistic T-Rex which belonged to Allie. They'd gotten them one Saturday night while renting movies for a sleepover at Mae's, but now, sitting in the living room with the movies on, each one inspecting their particular sticker choice, didn't know what to do with them.
"My mom makes scrapbooks sometimes," Trisha said, "We could just do that, make a little scrapbook and put all our stickers we collect in them." "I'm not sticking Batholomew into a book," Mae said, making the other girls giggle. "I say we each pick a place and then we put our sticker in that place because the place means something special to us," Allie said, "That way, whenever one of us winds up at that place, we might see the sticker and think of eachother!" "That's a good idea actually," Chaz chimed in, "how about we each come up with one tonight and then tomorrow we go around and put them up?" So it was decided. The following day, Saturday, the girls would collectively go to each spot each one had chosen and place their sticker there. The next morning, the girls woke up, watched cartoons, ate junk food for breakfast and then went gathered their stickers and bikes and began the trek. The first stop would be Chaz, and only because she'd picked the closest spot. Chaz's spot was at a park, the one where she'd had her 7th birthday to be exact. As the girls pulled up to the spot near the BBQ grill and the picnic tables, hopping off their bikes so Chaz could place her sticker, none of them were really sure why exactly she'd picked this place in particular. "I don't think I even went to your 7th birthday," Mae said. "None of you did," Chaz said, "It was a small birthday." "Small like family only?" Trisha asked, and Chaz nodded. Chaz walked slowly to the BBQ grill and got on her knees, her shorts getting covered in dirt and gravel. She smiled as she pulled the sticker from her pocket and looked at it, sighing. "This was the last birthday I had when I saw my dad," Chaz said solemnly, "he made BBQ for everyone, and he gave me a bunch of easy to read chapter books, none of which I ever read, but all of which I still have. That was the best birthday ever, just because he was there." She started to peel the sticker, but Trisha grabbed her wrist and knelt beside her. "Are you sure this is where you wanna put it?" she asked, and Chaz nodded, peeling the sticking off and slapping it onto the side of the grill. Trisha helped Chaz stand up and together they stepped back and looked at the sticker on the BBQ grill, admiring it. Chaz couldn't help but smile. She missed her dad, and she couldn't forgive him for leaving, but she also couldn't forget how much she loved him, and how much she wished he'd loved her enough to stay. After a moment, she climbed back onto her bike, and they rode off to the next location. *** The next location was Allie's, and it was a small minigolf park near the middle school, somewhere the girls had actually been to fairly frequently, alone and together. As they peeled up the curb onto their bikes and came to a skidding halt, Mae couldn't help but feel a little odd that this was the second location chosen that didn't really revolve around their friendship. She grimaced as Allie pulled her sticker out of her coat pocket and headed up the hill, where the three primary color headed dragon statue was. The other girls followed. Allie stopped at the dragon and slapped her sticker onto the red one, her favorite color, before standing back and admiring it, hands on her hips. "A T-Rex on a Dragon, doesn't get much cooler than that," she said proudly. "Gotta admit, it's pretty cool," Chaz agreed. "Why'd you pick this spot?" Trisha asked. "Well, my dad and I come here to minigolf alot cause it's one of the cheaper activities we can do together besides, like, the movies, and also remember last summer when we all came here when they had the tournament? We all got loads of slush drinks and nachos and got to play for free since we were the right age." "That was a lot of fun," Trisha said, "Probably the only time I'll ever participate in a sporting event of any kind." Allie's smile faded a bit as she reached out and touched the dragon, running her hand down the neck. She and her dad had used to do minigolf a lot more frequently, but these days he worked so much they rarely seemed to do much of anything together anymore, and this saddened her. At least she had this. The sticker, and the dragon it was stuck to. The memory would last forever, even if the games didn't. After a few minutes, she sighed, put her helmet back on and they all climbed aboard their bikes, riding off to the next location. *** Trisha had the third spot, and hers was...well...odd to say the least. While the others had been places the girls had been together, Trisha's was at her church, or more specifically, the bible study beside it. None of the girls had ever come to church with her before (Trisha was a mormon, and the other girls were not only varying faiths, but also didn't really attend their own churches to be fair), so it was an odd decision to them, but they weren't going to bring that up. This was her sticker, and this was her spot to place it. They parked their bikes at a bike rack and walked to the building where bible study was held, Trisha unzipping her coat pocket and pulling her unicorn sticker out. "I love fantasy stuff," she said, "which is maybe why I love religion. Whether it's real or not doesn't matter, it makes me feel safe and happy. It gives me comfort. That's why I like my bible teacher. She tells me that so long as I believe for my own sake and not the sake of others, then I'm doing well." Trisha didn't have to say it, but they all knew she was referencing her mom. Despite loving her mom, and despite her mom being pretty alright, she was weirdly controlling and overly religious to a fault, and it made the girls uncomfortable at times. They could only imagine how Trisha must've felt on a day to day basis, being her daughter. Trisha peeled the sticker off and plastered it onto the side of the building, near some bushes so nobody else would see and remove it. Afterwards, she stepped back and sighed. Trisha had a clearly complicated relationship with her family, her religion and herself, but at least, she thought, at least there's stickers, and there's nothing complicated at all about those. *** The fourth and final spot was Mae's, and it was not going to make anyone feel good. Mae picked the the school bus stop they had all used at one time or another. The pole was already splattered in stickers, wrapped around the entirety of it, so it was an odd choice, but as she climbed off her bike, silently angry, she pulled the bat sticker from her pants pocket and looked at it. She looked up at the bus stop sign, then back down at the sticker and sighed. "I thought we were putting these places that meant something to us," she said, "that meant something about our friendship. That's why I picked the bus stop, cause it's where I met all of you for the first time. But...I guess it's selfish for me to think that our friendship comes before family or whatever." She began to peel the bat, but Trisha stopped her. "It's not selfish," she said, "All those places we picked are all places we've been together too. We've all gone to that park where Chaz put hers, we've all played minigolf where Allie put hers, and you even came to bible study with me one time, remember?" A moment passed, and then Mae's eyes lit up. "I did! I forgot about that! In second grade, I went to bible study with you one weekend cause it was the only way we could spend the weekend together!" she said, sounding chipper now, almost laughing; she looked at the bat sticker and peeled it, then told Allie to get on her hands and knees. Allie walked over and did just that, letting Mae climb up on her back and slap the sticker onto the bus stop sign. She then climbed down and admired their handiwork. "God speed Batholomew," she said, all the girls laughing together. *** 4 stickers, each one different, each one obtained from a quarter based machine in the local video rental store. The first was a cartoonish vampire bat, which belonged to Mae. The second was a beautiful unicorn ripped straight from the pages of a fantasy book, which belonged to Trisha. The third was a retro spaceship that belonged to Chaz and finally, the fourth was a pseudo realistic T-Rex which belonged to Allie. They'd gotten them one Saturday night while renting movies for a sleepover at Mae's, but now, now they each sat a distinct and specific location, each one marked by their time spent apart...and their time spent together. If there's one thing nobody should ever underestimate... ...it's a young girls love for stickers.
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It was finally here, the one thing every kid looked forward to in the school throughout the year...the book fair! Even the kids who didn't like to read still came away with enjoyment from it, because they weren't in class and because the book fair offered things not pertaining to books to buy. There were fun erasers, stickers, cool binders, unique school supplies all around, but mostly it was books. Lots and lots of books. And every year, the girls could barely sleep the night before knowing it was coming. This particular morning, walking down the halls towards the library where it was held, Mae, Trisha and Allie (they knew they'd see Chaz with her class at the fair) couldn't stop yammering about all the things they looked forward to buying.
"My dad says they sell all these books at a markup, and you could just as easily get them for half the price at a regular bookstore," Trisha said. "Your dad is smart, so I don't doubt it," Mae replied, "but I also don't care. It's not like it's my money, it's my parents money." "Also regular bookstores aren't gonna have cool popup books that you could only find at the fair," Allie chimed in, "Remember last year? When I found that popup book of Rudolph in which he becomes a vampire?" "I think that was a misprinting," Trisha said, "I think someone accidentally put two books together on one press." "It's still the coolest thing no bookstore's ever gonna have," Allie said. "I can't really argue that," Trisha said, shrugging. As they got closer to the book fair, the girls could hear the laughter and yelling of other kids. Only two classes were allowed to be at the fair at a time to prevent overcrowding, and it was just sheer luck that their class and Chaz's class got to show up together, but apparently Chaz's had gotten here earlier than theirs had. They could see her mop of blonde hair over the top of a cardboard standee, in fact. As they got up to it, Mae looked over the standee and Chaz looked up at her, and the two laughed as the girls came around the side. "Find anything good?" Mae asked. "I've only been here for like two minutes," Chaz remarked. "I wish I liked reading more," Allie said, "I wanna buy stuff here, but I just don't enjoy reading all that much." Trisha and Mae, however, had already left them in the proverbial dust to check out the chapter books. They had always loved reading, and often they would read books from the same series - sometimes the same book at the same time - just so they could later discuss it together. It was one of the cornerstones of their entire friendship. They dawdled off to a nearby shelving unit containing popular chapter series, and started looking through them, seeing what sounded best, leaving Allie and Chaz to their own devices. As Trisha picked up a book and turned it over, she groaned. "There's so many things I wanna read but I know my mom would never let me," she said, "which is ridiculous, it's not like they're adult books! They're kids books! I'm a kid, they're books for me!" "Why not buy them and read them in secret?" Mae asked. "Because she checks my backpack every day when I come home," Trisha said. "Geez, I'm so sorry," Mae mumbled, "that sounds terrible. My parents don't ever look in my backpack. Remember last year when I left that sandwich in there so long it grew its own society?" They both started laughing at the memory, and this made Trisha feel better about her own home life. It wasn't that she hated her mother, because she didn't, but she was so very overbearing at times that it was starting to become an issue. All Trisha wanted was to do the same thing the other kids her age were doing. She didn't mind going to church, in fact she admittedly enjoyed having faith in her life, but she didn't like the restrictions said faith placed on her adolescence, and often felt like she was missing out on integral parts of being a kid. Mae, on the other hand, often felt neglected. She knew her parents loved her, sure, but she also felt like they were often too busy with themselves and eachother to focus on her the way she wanted them to, and she felt weird asking for their attention. Sometimes she was jealous of Trisha's mom. Not necessarily the overbearingness persay, but the amount of attention in general she received as a result. Sure, Trisha's home life sounded awful, helicopter parenting was often awful, but she couldn't deny the fact that she often wished she could have that much attention lavished onto her, even if for the wrong reasons. "I love going to the library," Mae said suddenly, "And I can remember when I was really little, my mom would take me to the bookmobile and we would get out books she would read to me. The bookmobile is such a cool idea." "The library is a nice place," Trisha agreed, "but sometimes it's almost too quiet, and it's creepy." "We should go to a library together sometime!" Mae said excitedly, making Trisha laugh and nod. Meanwhile, Chaz and Allie were busy looking at all the non book related products the fair offered, ranging from magazines to school supplies and so on. Chaz picked up a bookmark and showed it to Allie, who scoffed. "What?" Chaz asked, "It's a race car, you don't like race cars?" "Just because I live in a trailer park I automatically like race cars?" Allie asked, "...I mean, sure they're cool, but still, don't just assume that!" "Sorry!" Chaz said, laughing and putting it back in the plastic bin, "what do you wanna get? Did your dad give you some money?" "Yeah, he gave me about twenty dollars," Allie said, "but I can't really think of anything. Didn't they used to sell posters? I could get a book poster. Or maybe get something for my dad. He likes to read more than I do. Maybe I could get him a book about cars or something." "Get your dad a magazine subscription." "That's...actually not a bad idea, let's see what they have." As Chaz and Allie flipped through the magazines, Trisha and Mae had each found something they were interested in, and were now comparing notes between the two, seeing which series they should pick to read together. As they stood there, coming away with pros and cons for each book series, Mae couldn't help but remember a time when she couldn't read, and not just when she was a baby, but when she was in 1st grade. All the other kids weren't having trouble, but she was, and it took giving her a private tutor during school hours to help her. They'd meet once a day throughout the week, and after a while, Mae was reading books well above her classmates levels. A small piece of pride found within a shameful secret. "Guys guys, look," Chaz said, approaching from behind and holding something out in front of Trisha and Mae and adding, "puppy calendar. The puppies are dressed up as characters from kid books." "Adorable," Trisha said, giggling, "I want one. Where's Allie?" The girls all looked around but they didn't see her. Suddenly they heard some noise from beside them and turned to see Rachel standing there, who was looking through a book about medieval fashion, specifically princesses. She waved daintily at the girls, who waved back. "Have you seen Allie?" Mae asked. "No," Rachel said. "What is that?" Trisha asked. "It's a book about princess fashion," Rachel said, "I love princesses, and I love the dresses." Mae, concerned about Allie's whereabouts now, began to walk away from the group in search of their missing friend. She looked around but she couldn't seem to find them no matter where she looked. After a while, she decided to give up, gave the things she wanted to purchase to Trisha to pay for for her - with the money her mom gave her so Trisha didn't spend her own - and then asked Mrs. Spinner if she could go to the bathroom. She said yes, handed Mae a hall pass and then watched her leave. When she got into the bathroom in the hall near the library, she shut the stall door behind her and locked it before hearing crying in the stall beside her. "Al...Allie?" Mae asked, getting on the floor and looking under the stall wall. "Mae?" Allie asked, doing the same. "What're you doing in here?" Mae asked. "I don't know..." Allie said, rubbing her nose on her long sweatshirt sleeve as she added, "I guess I just feel embarrassed cause I don't feel smart cause I don't read really. I was gonna get stuff for my dad, but I don't think he'd like that. I think he'd want me to get stuff for me, but I just...I don't like reading." "What if you joined me and Trisha and we all picked the same thing and read it together? That's what Trisha and I do. We pick the same book, then we read it and discuss it and that makes it more fun because we're experiencing it at the same time, and it gives us something to talk about," Mae said, "...also can we get off the floor, this floor is cold." Allie laughed and nodded. The two girls got up and exited their respective stalls. Standing now in the bathroom proper, after a moment, Mae surprised Allie by hugging her. Allie, taken aback, hugged Mae in response, and once the hug broke they both giggled. "I'm sorry you feel stupid, but you're not stupid, you should know that," Mae said. "I know, my dad always tells me I'm smarter than he is, but it just bothers me that everyone else looks forward to this day and I don't as much because I just don't like to read really." "We all have hobbies. Chaz doesn't read much either. She usually buys knick knacks or comic book collections," Mae said, "and there's nothing wrong with that. Would you help you to know that I had trouble learning how to read?" "Really?" Allie asked. "Mhm," Mae said, "I just couldn't figure out how to do it, and it was making me feel really dumb because all the other kids weren't having trouble. So my parents found a tutor and I went to her everyday during the week, and she helped me learn how to read and now I can read books like nobodies business. But for a long time it was embarrassing. I'd get picked to read a paragraph of something and I would stutter and stammer and have a lot of problems and all the other kids would laugh." "Jerks." "Total jerks. But eventually I outread them all," Mae said, "We all have hobbies and we all have problems, but we're your friends and we're not gonna judge you for that, Al. You can join Trisha and I if you want. We'll all read something together. Or you don't have to read at all. The world's your oyster!" "What's an Oyster?" "I don't know, some kind of fish," Mae said, shrugging. Together the girls headed back out of the bathroom and back to the book fair. Once there, Allie purchased an airplane calendar for her father and a book for herself, the very same book Mae and Trisha had picked to read together, and she felt a little bit better about reading. Chaz bought the puppy calendar, along with a sticker book and a few bookmarks. As they headed back to their respective classes, the girls couldn't help but feel like another book fair had successfully come and gone, but that they'd each walked away with a better understanding of themselves, their hobbies and eachother. That night, when Allie gave her father the calendar, he hugged her tightly and thanked her repeatedly. He said that she didn't have to buy him anything, but that he appreciated the gesture anyway. And then, for the first time in her life, Allie went to her bedroom, sat on her bed and read a book, and enjoyed it. Knowing she would have friends to discuss it with in the morning made the experience all the greater, it turned out. She didn't really appreciate the art of literature, in the end, but she appreciated the other things it brought her, such as a better friendship with the girls. And that alone was worth the 7.50 she paid. "I'm telling you, if you say her name three times in the mirror, she comes back and haunts you!" Allie said, "My cousin's oldest cousin tried it and ever since then she's been seeing things! She keeps having these really vivid nightmares about Bloody Mary."
"We're taking your cousin's oldest cousin as proof? I don't even know your cousins name, let alone their cousins name," Mae replied as the four girls headed home from school, walking. The girls usually didn't walk, but once a week they made an effort to walk home together, or as close to home as they each realistically could. Truth be told, Trisha was the one who lived closest to school, so she was usually the first to drop off. Chaz was a bit of a ways after that, and then Allie went home with Mae until her dad come come get her, seeing as they realistically walk all the way to a trailer park. As they passed the nearby wooded area beside the school, they suddenly heard laughing and shouting, and they stopped, backed up and peered past the trees to see a group of girls - all varying ages from 3rd grade up to 6th grade - riding bikes together. "What do you think they're doing?" Mae asked. "I think...and I might be wrong about this," Allie said, "but I think they're riding bikes." "Shut up," Trisha said, making them laugh. "It's like a club or something," Chaz said, before calling out to them, "Hey! Are you guys a club or something?" A 6th grade girl zoomed up to them and skidded to a stop in front of them, looking at the girls suspiciously. After a moment, she pulled her helmet off and nodded. "Yeah, we're a club, why?" she asked. "We've just never seen you here before is all," Trisha said, "You guys just come here to ride bikes? Is that the whole club?" "Yeah," the girl said, "We just come here to hang out after school and ride bikes and do bike tricks. Why? You wanna join us?" The girls all exchanged a glance. They'd never really been part of a club before, but they did like riding bikes. Or, at least, most of them did. Mae still had training wheels on her, while Allie had a different reason entirely for not wanting to ride a bike, despite doing it with her friends when the moment called for it. After leaving the club to their activities, and Trisha and Chaz wound up at home, Allie and Mae continued walking towards Mae's, but neither one said a thing for a while. After a bit, Allie finally sighed. "You don't wanna join that bike club, do you?" Allie asked. "I don't know," Mae said, "Kinda? But I'm embarrassed. I still have training wheels.I feel like they'd make fun of me. I can barely ride, let alone do tricks. But it would be kinda cool to hang out with other kids I guess. What about you?" Allie didn't reply. She just looked away, and mumbled something, which Mae didn't even bother trying to understand. After another moment, a few cars passing them on the road, Allie finally spoke again. "I had to buy a training bra the other day," she said softly. "What? Wait, you're a 4th grader!" "I know, but my dad says that sometimes girls develop early," Allie replied, "So he had his sister take me to get one. It was awkward, but less awkward than having him take me to get one. I'm wearing it right now. It's really uncomfortable." "Jeez," Mae said, "Wait, so that's why you don't wanna ride a bike?" "It hurts!" Allie said, "It cuts into me, it has wires in it!" "Being a grown woman's gonna suck," Mae muttered, making Allie laugh. *** "Can you take my training wheels off?" Mae asked, standing in her stepfathers office as he worked. He stopped and looked at her, a smile playing on his lips, one brow raised. "Why do you want your training wheels off?" he asked, and Mae shrugged. "I just do," she said. "You know you're not good at balancing," he said, "I mean, I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be rude or insult you, but you know that. You're not good at balancing. That's why you have training wheels. What makes you suddenly want them gone? You think you're good enough now?" "There's this group of girls at school and they meet after school and they ride bikes together. They asked me and the girls if we wanna join them, but I'm embarrassed cause I still need training wheels. Nobody else needs training wheels. None of the girls in the club had training wheels." "Come here," her stepfather, Scott, said as he patted a seat beside his desk. Mae obliged, entered the home office further and sat down. He turned his chair to face her and looked at her, smiling as he continued, "don't judge yourself by the merits of others. Just because you need training wheels it doesn't make you any worse than them. There's nothing really wrong with it, Mae. Honestly, you should try and stay a kid as long as possible." Mae nodded, looking down at her feet. "...but they'll make fun of me if I go with training wheels," she said, her voice cracking, like she was going to cry. He rubbed her back and sighed. "If they do, then they're not people you should wanna hang out with," he said, "but, if you feel that strongly about it, I'll take them off, at least for a few days and see how you do. Would that make you happy?" Mae smiled, now looking back up at him, nodding. He smiled back, kissed her forehead and nodded. "Alright, I'll do it tonight," he said. *** Trisha was riding her bike to school the following morning, thinking about joining the club after school. On one hand, it'd be freedom from the suffocating home life, but on the other hand, she felt wary about hiding anything from her mother. Suddenly she heard the sound of wheels coming up behind her, struggling to stay on the ground, and turned to see Mae come rolling up beside her, panting a lot. "Are you okay?" Trisha asked before looking down at her bike and asking, "...where are your training wheels?" "I don't need 'em!" Mae said, "I can do it all on my own!" "Move it slowpokes!" Chaz said, zooming past them on her own bike, skidding in front of them and coming to a stop, making Trisha wobble a bit and making Mae flat out stumble altogether and almost fall over, catching herself only with her foot. "Be careful!" Trisha said as she stopped and helped Mae back up. "Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you," Chaz said, "but I do think I've got a pretty good shot at getting into the club! I can do all sorts of tricks and I am really steady on my bike. I can even go off a ramp." "I didn't realize you were so athletic," Trisha said as Mae got back onto her bike. "Well, when I wanna be," Chaz replied. "Did you...did you put flame decals on your bike?" Mae asked, struggling to sit on her bike without tipping over, as Chaz looked down, grinning, at what Mae was referencing. "I sure did, now they know I'm wicked cool," she said. "Flame decals make you wicked cool?" Trisha asked. "Everyone knows that, Trish, duh," Chaz replied, turning around and speeding off towards the school, leaving Trisha and Mae alone on the sidewalk. They waited a few moments before glancing at one another, before heading towards the school as well. Mae was having trouble balancing, so Trisha sighed and took her hand, placing it on her own bikes handlebar grip. "Just hold onto this and I'll keep you steady, we'll ride at the same pace, that way you won't break any teeth before class," she said. "I appreciate it," Mae said, "I don't understand why this is so difficult for me, it's not like I have trouble walking on two feet!" "Your feet aren't circular. Also, you fall over all the time." "Okay no more talking." *** The school day passed by rather uneventfully. Come the end of the day, each girls thoughts were consumed by bike club, though all for differing reasons. Trisha, on one hand, wanted to be involved, but on the other hand was scared of going against her mothers wishes of further socialization with her peers. Chaz wanted to be involved but was afraid if she got too invested in it, she'd run the risk of losing her friends to competititveness. Mae wanted to be involved, but Trisha was right, she tripped constantly throughout the day as it was so odds on her riding a bike well weren't looking great, and Allie...well, Allie wanted to be involved but was afraid the other girls would judge her if they knew she was already wearing a training bra. As school let out and the girls headed to the bike rack out front, the only one they didn't see there yet was Allie. Trisha, Chaz and Mae all climbed aboard their bikes, best they could, and headed toward the clearing the club had been spotted in. Mae held onto Trisha's handlebars the whole time, which, yes, gave her steadiness but also made her feel weak. Eventually they reached the club, and lo and behold, Allie was already there. Turns out she'd parked her bike on the opposite side of the school so she could get there sooner than them. "So," the 6th grade girl from the other day, Lauren, said as she rode up to them, "You guys think you can be in our club? How well can each one of you ride?" "I'm a great rider," Chaz said, speeding off towards the club, popping a wheelie, impressing them. Even Lauren looked happy about her skills before turning back to the others and noticed Mae's hand on Trisha's handlebar. "You can't balance, can you?" she asked, and Mae started sweating. "I...I can, yes I can," she said. "Then let go of the handlebar." "I'd rather not." "We don't need little kids who can't ride without training wheels," she said, before looking at Trisha and adding, "and we don't need other kids who protect them like little sisters. This club is for cool kids. Kids who can ride their bikes without crashing and crying." "It's a club where you ride bikes," Trisha said sternly, her voice growing angry, "who cares how each one does it?" "Because your lack of skill makes us look lame," Lauren replied, now glancing at Allie, "...and what's with the sweatshirt? Why are you wearing so many layers?" "...no reason," Allie mumbled. "Sorry, your friend here is pretty good, but she's the only one we really want to include," Lauren said, before turning and riding away slowly, until she heard Allie's voice calling out to her. She came to a quick halt, and turned back towards her, glaring. "You know, you think just cause you're in 6th grade that that makes you more mature, but you're not! Biologically I'm already more mature than you! And maturity is knowing that you don't put someone down or exclude them simply because they don't live up to your weird standards of inane hobbies!" Allie yelled, surprising even Trisha with her vocabulary; she continued, "I'm already wearing a training bra, and I was afraid that that would make you make fun of me for developing early, but you know what? Mae can't even ride without training wheels, and she took them off and came here and that makes her WAY braver than me! I'd rather be part of her club!" Lauren stayed there, parked on her bike, before looking back at Chaz, who was sitting on her bike with Lauren's friends. Lauren smirked. "And what about you?" she asked, nodding at Chaz, "you wanna be part of the baby club over here?" Chaz looked at the girls, then looked back at Lauren, and sighed as she started to roll back towards her friends. As she passed Lauren, she stopped and looked at her, glaring. "I don't wanna ride bikes with someone who can't even treat others nicely," Chaz said, "Yeah, you're good at riding a bike, but you're not good at being a friend." With that, the girls each headed on their way to Mae's house, with her holding Trisha's handlebar the entire way. The way they saw it, they already had a bike club. A better club. A club where they accepted one another for who they were, instead of ostracizing them for their lack of skill in a normal activity. Besides, in their bike club, they didn't have to deal with Lauren, and that was reason enough to be excluded. *** Sitting in her room that night, waiting for Allie's dad to come get her, Mae looked up from the board game they were playing on the floor and bit her lip. "Thanks for standing up for me," she said. "Thanks for not telling anyone I was wearing a training bra or being weird about it," Allie said. "...will you teach me how to balance on a bike?" Mae asked, and Allie smiled, nodding, making her move on the board. "Yeah! We can go to the park near my house, there's never anybody there, and we can ride together! I'll teach you how to balance!" Allie said, "...We should start our own bike club, with a cool name, and maybe leather jackets. All the cool bike clubs have leather jackets." "We could call ourselves the Glittering Blisters," Mae said. "That's...pretty cool, actually," Allie replied, the both of them laughing. The school year was passing them by quickly, but the girls didn't seem to notice. They just noticed the small incidents, the ones that seemed mundane at the time but would, in the future, be the best memories. Whether it was helping a homeschooled girl socialize or forming their own rebellious bike club out of spite, these were the sorts of things childhood memories were formed by. Allie's dad got off late that night, so she let Allie sleep over at Mae's. The following morning, the four of them rode to school together, Mae's training wheels back on her bike, where they belonged. "I'm telling you, we tried it last night and nothing happened," Mae said, "We stood in the bathroom and we said 'Bloody Mary' three times and no blood nor any Mary's ever showed up to haunt us. It's not real. Your cousin's cousin is trying to scare you." "Well I'm gonna punch my cousin's cousin in the face next time I see them," Allie said, making the girls chuckle. "Hey!" Lauren shouted at them from behind, with some of her 6th grade friends riding alongside her. The girls all stopped and turned to look at her as she grinned and pointed at Allie, "Get out of my way New Boobs." The girls stepped aside and let Lauren and her friends ride past. Lauren smirked as her eyes connected to Allie's as they passed by. "Good choice," Lauren said. "You know, you're kinda mean, and I don't know how you have friends unless they're as bad as you are," Allie said. "Yeah, well, you have boobs, so," Lauren replied. "Yeah well in a few years when all the boys start to like me, you'll wish you had them," Allie replied, making Lauren blush as she sped up on her bike and raced off towards the school, her friends in tow, and the girls laughing with Allie at her remark. "That'll teach her to mess with the Glittering Blisters," Mae said. "The WHAT?" Trisha asked. "Don't ask," Allie said. "That's our bike club name! We're gonna get leather jackets!" Mae said, as they continued along the sidewalk to the school. "That's a disgusting name, I'm not gonna be part of a club called that," Trisha said, half laughing. "It's not that gross, that's why I added glittering to it! Makes it prettier!" Mae replied in defense. |
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FANNYPACK follows 4 girls - Chaz, Allie, Trisha and Mae - in the 90s as they deal with adolescence and friendship. Archives
December 2022
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