When lunch-time came along, Rachel and I got our lunch-boxes from our lockers and began heading for the club-room. All that morning, I had paid more attention than usual to our classes as flashbacks of last night''s incident tried to distract me. Now, I was blankly walking along the halls, like an automaton on some pre-programmed course. After a few moments, Rachel gently put a hand on my arm and nudged me to the side of the hall. She fixed me with a look of concern as we stopped.
“You okay? You''re like, really spaced out,” she asked me.
I took a deep breath, and then told her what had happened. A look of alarm came to her face, only to fade into a look of relief as she heard how quickly her brother had reacted to save us both from what could have been a serious collision. She laid her head on my chest, then wrapped me in a tight hug, which I returned.
“I''m glad you''re okay. Both of you.” Rachel told me.
“Same,” I said.
A moment of silence passed.
“You good for lunch? I mean, with the others and stuff,” she then asked me.
“Yeah; yeah, I think so,” I replied.
“Okay,” Rachel smiled as she let go, and we resumed our walk. “Thank goodness for Joshy''s reflexes, though.” she remarked.
“Right?” I agreed.
We were the last to arrive this time, finding the others in their usual spots around the table in the middle of the room. As the two of us settled in, I heard Ellie say something teasing about us, but I wasn''t quite sure what I heard. Rachel quipped back to her in like manner, and the older girl began cackling.
“Oh! While we''re here! We have our work-visitation this Saturday!” Andrea then announced, snapping us to attention.
“Hm? This Saturday, huh?” Ellie said.
“Yep!” the other girl nodded.
“My shift won''t start until late afternoon that day; maybe we could time our visit to be like a couple hours before...”
“It''s set up for one in the afternoon already.” Andrea told her with a wry grin, and Ellie shrugged.
“Not important! I can mess around for a couple hours until it''s time!” she beamed.
“That... should work for us,” Rachel slowly nodded.
Eh? Did we have a play-related obligation that Saturday...? I suddenly wondered.
“Did some of the other actors want to do something that day?” Andrea asked her.
“In the morning,” Rachel answered. “Oops! I forgot to tell you that,” she smiled at me.
“Ahh...” I returned uncertainly.
“Some of the gang wants to get together at the park again around eight.” she said.
“Gotcha,” I nodded back.
“That time works for me as well,” Anhe said.
“Good!” Andrea smiled back. “Mary?”
“You''re asking me ahead of your boyfriend?” Mary grinned back. “I should be good to go that day.”
“I already knew he could make it,” Andrea shrugged. Thomas affected a grin as she said this, giving a nod. “On to other things!” she then said.
“Hmm? There''s more?” Ellie asked through a mouthful of her lunch.
“Elisabeth Drew,” Andrea sighed, shaking her head as she stifled a grin. “Anyway--we have our summer vacation granted to us, courtesy of the Liang family!” she announced, and we clapped as Anhe blushed, smiling back at us.
“I am happy that we could do this for all of you, and for the older girls, too!” Anhe told us.
“We''re glad you became a part of our little group!” Andrea replied, getting up to go and sit in the chair with the younger girl, giving her a hug. Anhe hugged her back, the smile on her face growing brighter.
“Def!” Ellie said with a broad smile.
“For sure!” Rachel agreed.
“We''re getting our itinerary in a couple of weeks; let''s all make sure we have our IIDPs sorted out for the big adventure ahead!” Andrea then said as she let go of Anhe and settled into the chair with her.
“Right!” Thomas nodded back.
I''ve probably mentioned this before, but it''s worth mentioning again: IIDP is the acronym
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This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.
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