ALWAYS I SING THIS SONG FOR YOU [raine]

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

Sandra was pretty much overflowing with excitement when she hopped off of the bus. It wasn't terribly cold anymore -- the weather was a little chilly but the snow was mostly melting. The ground was really just wet all the time, which made things muddy and terrible, but as a Water, Sandra could never complain about things being wet. The air now was fresh and light, actually, and even if she was a bit cold, she very much liked this weather. Summers were better of course because she loved swimming and getting to eat ice cream without being looked at like a freak of nature, but Sandra could find something to appreciate in most any season. It was good walking season, anyway, so the next few minutes would be nice for Sandra; it being that the bus didn't actually go all the way down the road to Raine's house, and the street was fairly long, she had quite a bit of walking ahead of her. One of these days she should really take her driving test so that she could avoid these things, but Sandra just didn't mind very much. She mostly had people drive her around anyway, and otherwise she took public transportation, like today.

She was not, however, overflowing with excitement because she got to walk for ten minutes, or because the weather was nice, or because the ground was wet. No, no -- Sandra was excited because she was sleeping over at her best friend's house, and that was always worth getting excited over. This was going to be a good weekend, she was pretty sure. In her backpack she carried the necessities -- toothbrush and what-not, as well as a sleeping bag rolled up and attached; Roosevelt she carried herself in her arm, along with a giant bag of chocolate-covered pretzels that she'd already opened up and started eating on the bus ride over -- they were so good, she hadn't been able ot help but to cave. Still, it was a pretty enormous bag into which she'd barely made a dent by the time she reached her friend's house. She rang the doorbell and then waited patiently, but didn't hesitate to greet Raine with a hug once the girl arrived at the door. "Raaaaaaine," she called even though they were right next to each other now, after Sandra finally released her. "You want a pretzel? They're chocolate and they're really good!"

She bounced up and down a few times, not waiting to be invited in before she took off her shoes and looped arms with Raine, turning to the interior of the house. "Anybody else home? Or do we get everything to ourselves for a while?" She was fine either way, to be honest -- she liked Raine's parents, despite the issues that she knew her friend had with them, so their being home wouldn't have been that bad as far as Sandra was concerned. As for being home alone, well, what teenagers (even the perfectly innocent ones, honestly) didn't want to be home alone, even if it was just to roll around on the couch or play their music a little louder? ...More importantly, they could steal all the food in the fridge, and Sandra made a sidenote to keep in mind for later. "I'm so excited, this'll be the best. When's the last time we did this?" Best friend nights were always fun, and she wasn't kidding -- it really had been a long time since they'd last done something like this.

[RAINE SOPHIA ELLISON]

Raine was relieved that her parents had decided to take an evening out. Of course, they would be back plenty before midnight, which meant that they were like to run into each other as Raine planned to commandeer the sitting room because the TV and sound system there were the best. The sitting room was, of course, also smack dab in the middle of the most convenient route from the front door to her parents’ private staircase to their room. She wasn’t sure why they always sued that staircase, but she was sure she didn’t really care to know, and so she never asked. She just dealt with it. Besides, they liked Sandra well enough. They’d probably gush over how she’d grown, even if she hadn’t, ask about her grades, which was really none of their business, and ask what she planned to do with her life, while insinuating that Raine had no worthwhile plans and how Sandra should help guide her. Blergh. She’d be sneaking to hide in the bathroom when her parents arrived in the hopes that it would prevent them gushing over her friend. Or maybe they could put off watching movies until the two adults were in bed. That would work, too, but she’d leave it up to her friend to decide in the end.

Relief rushed through her when the doorbell finally rang. It wasn’t so much that Sandra was late, but rather that she was dying to see her friend again. She hopped up from her position on the stairs and darted for the door, sliding on the tile that was in the entranceway and nearly running into it. Only experience kept her from completely toppling over as she opened the giant door and was immediately tackled in a hug, which she eagerly returned. “Sandraaaaaaaa,” she mimicked, laughing. God, it felt good. At the invitation, she replied, “Don’t mind if I do,” and reached into the bag to help herself. Tossing a pretzel into her mouth, she nudged the door shut with her hip after Sandra had made her way in. “These are amazing.” She reached for another pretzel, and led her friend inside to the carpeted foyer that branched out into the various areas of the house. Dining room and kitchen that way, sitting room that way, backyard this direction, stairs to the upper levels that door.

“Fortunately, we’re alone till later this evening,” she agreed, nodding enthusiastically. She didn’t like her parents. That much was generally obvious. Her siblings were all out doing their own things, too, which was weird. Maybe they’d done this on purpose, to give her alone time with a good friend, but usually it wasn’t hard to find that in a house this big. House was too humble a word anyway. It was a mansion. A manor. A castle. No, that was going too far. If it were a castle, she’d have her own turret and she’d be able to play Rapunzel or something. Frankly, it would be awesome, but it probably wasn’t happening unless she agreed to marry the man of her parents’ dreams once she finished a degree in astrophysics and won the Nobel prize. Yay for never-going-to-happen scenarios. Well, her parents could dream all they wanted. She wasn’t going to ruin it for them. No, that was a lie. She was, and she would enjoy it.

She poked Sandra’s backpack and opened it, poking inside curiously with the hopes that she’d find more chocolate pretzels. She would hunt for them shamelessly. “God, it’s been entirely too long since we did this,” she complained, pouting when she only discovered hygiene products, and closed the backpack. “I’m tempted to kidnap you for the whole weekend. I’ll just buy Matt a new a car if he complains. Don’t tell him that.” If Sandra did, she’d probably just buy him a little toy car, which would be the plan anyway. She was just that mean. She nudged her friend with her elbow playfully. “So, what do you want to do first? Set the curtains on fire? Make a mess of a the kitchen under the pretense of baking a cake? Veg out and watch movies till our eyes are the size of dinner plates? Play dress-up with my mom’s ball gowns? No joke, she has those,” she added seriously after her list of suggestions. Part of her hoped that Sandra wouldn’t take her seriously for some of the items she had listed, leaning more toward the idea that her friend could always pick something else entirely.

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[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

Sandra beamed and nearly tackled her friend in the hug, clinging shamelessly. It had been too long -- they saw each other around all the time, of course, but the last this had happened had been ages ago, or at least that was the way it seeemed. "Raine Raine Raine Raine Raine I missed you," she said all in one breath, snuggling up to her friend without any qualms whatsoever. Personal space was not something that Sandra respected even the rest of the time, so no surprise here -- she did whatever she wanted when it came to her best friend, a girl who knew her well enough to know that this was pretty much completely one hundred percent normal Sandra behaviour. She was affectionate anyways, though -- but some people were special. "They're the best, aren't they?" she asked, laughing a little nad offering over the bag freely. She'd brought them to share, after all, even if she had accidentally started digging in a bit prematurely.

Though she was perfectly alright with Raine's parents, it was always nice to be alone when she knew that they didn't always get along the best. "Yay!" she said happily, grinning. "What's everyone up to, what time will they be back?" It would be nice if they got to be alone for a couple of hours. Sandra didn't intend to do anything tonight that she didn't want other people to see or hear, anyway, of course. She was a fairly trusting person of most everyone, and certainly her friends' families. Still, it was somehow the principle of the thing that would have made it weird.

Raine spoke the truth. Sandra nodded a few times, slowly as if she were trying to pretend to be very wise. She stroked an imaginary beard for emphasis. "Way too long," she said softly, quieting down for just a second so that she could be serious just briefly, because Raine was right. Sandra kind of grew overly attached and didn't like to be apart from the people she loved for too long -- nuh uh. She was capable of doing it just fine, but it meant lots of hugging and whining the next time she saw these people. "I don't have more snacks, I'm sorry," she told her friend, correctly guessing what she'd wanted. "We'll have to survive on the pretzels. And raid your kitchen. Do you have anything?" Sandra could eat quite a lot for such a tiny girl, and she thoroughly enjoyed it too. The girl had no shame when it came to that. "The whoooole weekend? I'm okay with that!" she said, and she really would have been too if Raine would really keep her the whole time. "And I don't think he'd complain, but he likes his car now too much anyway. But he'll probably just like having me out of the house and not sleeping on the couch like a hobo." She giggled. Matthew did love that car, and really did hate when she laid around and did nothing all day. Unfortunately this was something that happened frequently on days she didn't have plans.

Sandra nudged Raine back, giggling a little bit. Less aggressively, though, she wrapped an arm around her friend and leaned against her shoulder, chattering away. "I say we order like five pizzas. Oh oh or make five pizzas. Oh my god can we make pizza?!" She had done it once for Home Ec, and it hadn't come out too badly, so she would have probably been able to pull it together again. Then again, that pizza class had been a while ago. "Oh or, or, or, -- wait, your mom has actual ball gowns?" she asked, blinking. Well, Raine's house was pretty enormous so that didn't surprise her that the family had money, but she wondered if the woman actually had reason to wear ball gowns. Did people even hold parties like that anymore? "No way. I wanna see! Are they like, Cinderella-y?" This thought was very distracting. She was thinking on it some more when all of a sudden she yawned. Oh my. She sighed and burrowed further into Raine's shoulder. "Or we can lie around for a while," she suggested a bit lazily. If she did, though, she might actually fall asleep... which probably shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone at all, really. The girl could fall asleep most everywhere. "But I think what we should actually do is have a disco pogo dance party." She didn't even care that she'd just made a bunch of completely different suggestions -- Raine could sort it out. As long as they didn't actually set the curtains on fire, she was sure they'd be fine.

[RAINE SOPHIA ELLISON]

Raine had a personal bubble that was fairly pregnable. Close friends were welcomed past. Embraces and snuggling were both frequent occurrences, regardless of who initiated. Kissing, on the cheeks for friends or on the mouth for more romantic partners, was an addiction of hers, after all. She just didn’t get tired of it. It was a really fun way to spend ten or twenty or forty minutes, especially if you weren’t interested I doing anything more at the time. Not that she was about to bring anything like that up with her friend, unless the other girl happened to ask, which she couldn’t imagine. Sandra was probably about as innocent s Knox, from what she’d seen. That didn’t bother her, of course. Innocence wasn’t a bad thing. Rather, it was one she valued and admired, though she was from likely to ever reach it again. A nun would condemn her without hesitation. Sex before marriage. Lying to and disobeying her parents. Her behavior in general was not one that would be fitting of the more disciplined lifestyle that she wouldn’t ever want to be part of anyway.

What she wanted and what others wanted for her were two different things, at least when “others” was her parents. When she finally moved out—which she was dreading, because she was afraid of being on her own sometimes—she wouldn’t miss them very much. She’d instead miss her sisters. Nonetheless, she rolled her eyes at Sandra. “Oh, come on, we saw each other two days ago. And texted yesterday.” But she hugged her friend back nonetheless, because it didn’t matter and the thought was sweet all the same. “Marie went out with some friends. I dunno if she’ll be back tonight. Mom and Dad left for an afternoon together. They’ll probably be back, but I don’t know quite how late. I mean, we’ll be up all night, I expect, but I don’t know how energetic they’ll be when they get home.” She sort of hoped they’d be too tired to criticize (with her mom, it seemed like a crazy thought) and would just wave and crawl to bed, leaving them alone.

“Of course I have food.” She rolled her eyes, elbowing Sandra playfully, and lead her into the kitchen. She lifted her arms and turned in a circle. “Firstly, we always have food. Secondly, I planned ahead. I know your stomach is a bottomless hole. By the way, I totally hate you for your eating habits. How do you stay so tiny?” She pouted at her friend, then wrapped her arms around Sandra and hugged her again. It felt good to be joking with a friend again. She liked the relaxation, the joking, the ease, and not having to worry about being accepted because she knew she was. It was an absolutely wonderful feeling. “And I’m totally claiming you for the weekend then. Call your brother so he doesn’t freak out on us and call the police to report you missing or something.” Wouldn’t that be a delightful mess? Well, it would certainly be a mess, but she doubted that it would be delightful. She figured it would be more of a pain in the ass than anything fun. But imagining it and joking about it could still be fun. But wait. “Don’t you have a bed to sleep on? Why would you sleep on the couch? And that’s nothing like a hobo anyway.” She rolled her eyes again. “Hobos don’t have couches.” Man, she felt insensitive for joking about the living circumstances of homeless people.

Not that it would stop her. She was awful.

The water listened to her friend’s offers patiently and thoughtfully, curious what went on in the head of dark hair. Homemade pizza was delicious, but it wasn’t exactly the perfect thing to do on such a night. “I don’t know how to make pizza,” she admitted, laughing.

When talk came to ball gowns instead (her mother would kill her if she dared to suggest they make pizza in ball gowns), she laughed again, nodding to her friend’s enthusiasm. “Yeah. It’s crazy. She hardly ever wears them. Maybe once a year, at a Christmas party she always complains about when she gets home.” She shrugged it of. She supposed that it wouldn’t be a usual thing to someone who hadn’t seen the gowns more than enough times, but they weren’t as interesting to her as perhaps they should have been. Even if Sandra could easily put an entertaining spin on the dresses. The death certificate would certainly be worth it if she got a nice amount of pizza sauce on her mum’s favorite one.

Lying around sounded nice, too, though. “Maybe we can just watch some movies and pig out with potato chips. Lord knows we have enough. Too bad we don’t have pogo sticks. That would be awesome.” She shook her head sadly and faked a pout. “We don’t have a disco ball either. We have disco music, though. We could totally do the hustle or whatever it’s called.”

They were never going to reach an agreement at this rate. They were just coming up with crazy schemes, which, admittedly, wasn’t bad at all. They were fun enough to chat about and Sandra hadn’t been far off. Raine had missed spending so much time with her. They needed to get together more often. But the memories they could make had to be particularly memorable. Like pogo stick disco dance parties with ball gowns and pizza sauce.

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[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

She ignored these details, waving them off without so much as a second thought. They were minor, trivial things. "It's different," she insisted, shaking her head and rocking the two of them back and forth in her bone-crushing hug. How Raine could breathe enough to talk she had no idea, but the girl was probably used to Sandra at this point. She was a very affectionate person -- it was good when friends didn't seem to mind it, and luckily Raine didn't. "Well, either way is okay!" she said happily, not concerned about whether or not Raine's family would be back around later. Sandra wasn't about to get up to anything suspect, anyway. Plus, Raine's parents liked her, and she always fully intended to keep it that way. It would be pretty heartbreaking if they didn't like Raine hanging out with her, even if, Sandra was pretty sure, it would never stop her friend. "I'm guessing we'll be alone for a while, though, that's fun!" It was fun indeed.

Though she knew the way to the kitchen, she followed along with a bright, eager grin, always happy to get her hands on food. She wasn't even as bad as some of her friends, truthfully, but she did love some food. "Do you have hot sauce, too?" she asked, blinking innocently, because if Raine had planned ahead enough to make sure there was food for Sandra, then surely she knew that there should be an adequate supply of hot sauce, too. The girl was a hot sauce fiend. People generally didn't expect it from someone so tiny, which was hilarious. "And dooon't, you're totally gorgeous!" she said, grinning. She meant it -- Raine was one beautiful lady. She wasn't as teeny tiny as Sandra, but then again, Sandra was weird and just very lucky to have some kind of ridiculous metabolism. It was with a laugh that she threw her arms back around her friend; she knew it was all in fun. "And anyway it doesn't matter, everyone should just eat as much as they want anyway, everybody's metabolism slows down later." That probably meant that she should eat less, but hey, she loved food way too much to stop. "So, y'know, live life while you're young and stuff!" She still intended on enjoying life to the fullest in the future, old or not, but there were certain limits that would be in place, that was for sure.

She wasn't the slightest bit concerned about being "claimed" for the weekend, and she was sure that Matthew wouldn't mind having the apartment to himself either. They actually got along pretty well, silly sibling arguments aside, but there was always the need for distance when it came to things like that. "Oh nooo, I'm being kidnapped," she teased, making a mock aghast face as if in total shock and dismay at this most recent turn of events. This wasn't good at all! It was, though, because she loved Raine and she didn't mind hanging around at the Ellisons' all weekend at all. "I'm sure he won't file a missing report... Well, maybe. But don't worry! He knows I'm here anyway, it's not like he would totally panic right away." She giggled, then added as an afterthought, "At least I think. Well, I'll text him either way." She would probably forget later, truthfully, but she was sure Matt would just call her first if he got worried, so it was no big deal. Sandra wasn't easily worried about these kinds of things, clearly. "Of course I have a bed! You've seen it, silly," she teased, shaking her head when Raine refuted the hobo comment. "I fall asleep a lot on the couch. Like, watching TV. Or just to take a nap. It's a comfy couch." She kept blankets there and what-not, so it wasn't a huge hassle for her to seriously just come home from class or whatever, curl up on the couch, and sleep through a few hours of TV background noise.

She had only learnt to make pizza once in a Home Ec class, but hers had come out decent-ish enough from what she remembered, so she would have totally tried again if given the chance. Unfortunately, she didn't think this would be a very good idea at someone else's house, so she just sighed. "That's sad," she said, pouting, but she was really just teasing, and soon she brightened up again. "But that's okay, we should learn one day! And then we can just have loooots of pizza and it would be awesome. Enough pizza to like, sleep in." Of course, that didn't sound very comfortable, but she highly doubted they were actually going to do it, so it was all good. If she had that much pizza, she certainly wasn't going to let it sit around so that she could sleep on it, that was for sure. That pizza would be gone in a hot second, or at least in a couple of hours, since there was so much of it. She'd probably make herself sick, unfortunately, but she would be alright. "Why would she go if she hates them?" she asked, frowning in confusion. "Wait, I bet the food there is really good, huh." She was kidding, but hey, food was a really good reason to attend a party, truth be told. Sandra liked going out and hanging out with friends in general, but who didn't like food as an incentive? Then again, Raine's mother probably did not attend those kinds of parties, particularly not for that reason.

More than anything, almost, Sandra just liked to lie around and be lazy, and this was definitely one of those types of days when she could do that. It made her happy to hear that Raine seemed to like this plan as well, and she nodded enthusiastically. "Potato chips! I love chips," she chirped approvingly. "Wait, what kind? Are they barbecue? Because mmmm, barbecue. Oh oh and jalapeno, and all-dressed, and ketchup? And just... just every kind, actually," she said. Chips were so bad for them, but ugh, Sandra really couldn't care any less at all. They were delicious, and an awesome movie snack. "Oh, and popcorn? Can't have movies without popcorn! Oh, what are we even watching anyway?" she asked, bouncing around on the soles of her feet, her thoughts all over the place. The simplest of things could get the girl excited, and they hadn't even yet decided for sure that this was the plan! She liked just about every idea thus far, though, except possibly the ones that potentially involved Raine's parents kicking her out. "Ooooh, pogo sticks... You should have said something, I could have picked some up on the way!" Then pogo sticks led to disco balls somehow, and she giggled. "I... don't know what the hustle is, actually," she admitted with a tilt of the head, wondering if Raine would know even if she wasn't one hundred percent sure, apparently, on its name.

[RAINE SOPHIA ELLISON]

“Oh, yeah, we’ll be alone for a while,” she confirmed, nodding, and she was glad for it, honestly. She preferred those days when her parents were absent, though she was indeed fond of her sisters. And yet, with a life that was already filled with so many individuals from dawn till dawn, she was glad on those days when she enjoy a building completely to herself and not worry about needing to talk to anyone. Then, if she did desire to spend time or communicate with anyone, she wouldn’t hesitate to call or text a friend in order to accomplish such a thing. “I don’t expect anyone back before 10 or 11 at the earliest and it’s only, what, 6 or so?” She didn’t have a watch on to check, so she was guessing at the time. She could have checked the oven or the microwave when they reached the kitchen, but why bother? It was such an insignificant little detail. They had the whole weekend, after all.

She shoved Sandra playfully, not putting much force into it because she didn’t want Sandra to go hitting her head and bleeding out on the tile. Man, she’d been watching way too many murder shoes. It was ridiculous how many people killed other people. Of course, millions died in war, but that wasn’t considered ‘murder’ by legal standards. She frowned at just the thought. It was murder, even if they didn’t call it that. “Models are gorgeous when they don’t starve themselves, and I’m definitely not model material,” she shot back, grinning back at her friend. She put a hand over Sandra’s hand, reaching for some height as her palm and fingers lay flat. “If you were a few inches taller, though, ever agency would be after you. How do you do that? It’s totally unfair.” She shook her head—but then she had a light bulb moment. “Oh, I get it. That’s why you eat so much hot sauce! You’re trying to burn away the calories.” And she couldn’t stop herself from laughing at the awful pun. Maybe she’d had something to drink without knowing it? She felt sufficiently silly—but perhaps that was just because her friend was around and friends made it okay to be silly.

It was one of the best things about best friends. They were security blankets in human form. It was quite wonderful to have them around.

“Isn’t there a rule about being missing for 48 hours before you can report it? Or is that only for adults?” She blinked at Sandra, trying to think through it and not finding much logic. Then she grinned and teased, “Are you even eighteen yet?” She wrapped an arm around her friend’s neck and ruffled her hair playfully trying to make a complete mess of it as best she could. "There. Now you look like a scarecrow. And probably the prettiest I’ve ever seen. Damn. So not fair.” And maybe she was obsessing a little, but that was fine. They could turn it into a running gag if they wished. Complaining that the other was more gorgeous while thinking they were everything of equals. Better than insulting each other, wasn’t it?

Raine shook her head. “No way. The only comfy couch in the universe is the one in our living room. I mean, seriously. It’s basically a bed.” They could take a nap on it later. Or just camp out there for the night. Her parents could complain all they liked. It wouldn’t make a difference. Besides, in their minds, it was a better place to sleep than any other friend’s house, especially if that person happened to be a boy (Knox, of course, was an exception; her parents would endlessly encourage her sleeping at his home if only it would bring about an official engagement). And that was exactly where her obsession came from. Honestly. Her parents were quite a bit insane and there was no kind way to say it. They were crazy and as someone who wasn’t very fond of them, she had no hard time saying so.

“Sleep in pizza? You’re crazy, Sandra. But I have a better idea. Why not, instead of making pizza, we order a couple? And we can scare the delivery guy by jumping out from the bushes.” So maybe she was actually about 5 years old on the inside, but her driver’s license ensured that she wasn’t about to called a child anymore—by anyone other than her parents, of course. But then, Sandra was right about in the same age range, so they were completely safe. It wasn’t a 9-year-old trying to play with a 39-year-old. They were both 9 years old, or five, depending on whom you asked. “And come on, we didn’t know we wanted to do a pogo disco dance party.” She rolled her eyes. “Don’t fret about it. We can find something else to do that’s fun. Though I think my mom goes ot the parties because they’re good for business. I don’t think she’d recognize fun if it slapped her in the face with a fish.” But some people were just hopeless.

“So… how’s Devin doin’?” she asked, hopping on the counter because they hadn’t decided yet as to food. Besides, Devin was pretty yummy. She didn’t know if Sandra knew that she’d had a crush on the other water’s boyfriend. Of course, that had passed by now. By now, she was interested in the boyfriend she was hoping she’d secured. She wasn’t about to be too possessive of him, however—it was safer. She didn’t want him to feel like she was throttling him, suffocating him, even if she sometimes couldn’t help but squeeze him that hard. Besides, talking about romantic partners could have some very amusing results. She couldn’t wait to see just how crimson Sandra was about to turn. “You guys still happy together?”

[/color] She even waggled her eyebrows at her friend, then winked, implying as much as she could without getting into the realm of explicit content.[/blockquote][/font][/size][/justify]

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

Being alone with her best friend was perfectly okay by Sandra, and she nodded and grinned to show her approval. She didn't mind her friend's family at all either, of course, but it was whatever happened. "So a couple hours! That's good!" she replied, beaming. She didn't wear a watch either so the only thing she had was her phone, and she didn't feel like digging it out just to check the time. Hell, it could have been nighttime already and, were it not for the light outside, she wouldn't have known the difference either way. She blinked at Raine's words. "But you don't have to be a model to be gorgeous! It's like that whole squares and rectangles thing!" Squares were rectangles, but rectangles were not necessarily squares; it was something like that. Besides, Sandra was of the opinion that most everyone was beautiful in their own way -- but she was the type to try to see the best in everyone, then again. It was hard to say with her. "And I wouldn't want to be a model anyway, it seems like a pretty tough --" Then she heard Raine's words, and she burst out giggling ridiculously. Oh gosh. That was a terrible pun but it was funny. "That's exactly why I eat hot sauce! Is it working?" she asked, really just teasing. She had never done anything to purposely lose weight -- if the ultimate goal was to be skinny, then she had just gotten lucky with that ridiculous metabolism, but it wouldn't last forever. She wouldn't be a teenager for too much longer.

That probably was the law, but Sandra didn't know, and she just shrugged innocently. "Doesn't mean he wouldn't try!" she said, smiling. She'd always heard that whole forty-eight hours thing on TV and what-not, however, but she didn't really watch those shows anymore. It was far too needlessly dramatic. "No idea what the law is! But nope, not eighteen 'till June!" June wasn't long from now but it wasn't June quite yet. Sandra wasn't sure she was ready to be an adult yet, to be honest. This entire thing about taxes and what-not just confused her deeply, and she had always considered herself to be... well, maybe not super smart, but not too dumb to understand a few numbers, that was for sure. From what her mom said, taxes were actually very simple -- but Sandra was just trying to get through school, here. "I -- heyyyy!" she whined, raising her hands to bat away Raine's from her hair. "I bet you would make a way prettier scarecrow," she said, huffing and messing up her friend's hair now as well, giggling as she did so. "And I was right!" Now they had messy hair to match, though Sandra now ran her fingers through her own, trying to make it sit right again. It probably wasn't going to work, unfortunately, unless she actually took a brush to it, and right now was not the time for that.

She was the type who could fall asleep anywhere, so in fact, Sandra thought most couches were comfy, and even if they weren't, she could probably nap there anyway and be perfectly content about it. Of course, some places were bad to fall asleep at -- like class -- but that had never stopped her before, which was unfortunate. "Nuh uh. Lunette has a Big Comfy Couch," she said, shamelessly referencing children's TV shows. She sometimes caught them when she was channel flipping, even now, but usually the girl was tuned into the Food Network. Then again, she didn't watch much TV these days -- there were always better things to do. "Hey, that's mean!" she said when Raine suggested they scare the delivery guy, but her smile gave her away. "But totally awesome. We should do it! How many pizzas do you think we can get away with ordering?" Sandra could eat a lot, and she really wanted to see a delivery guy being scared while walking up the step with about ten pizzas... even if that meant a lot would be leftover. She wasn't actually much of a prankster, but when it was harmless things like these, it showed; there was a bit of mischief in her yet, innocence and naivety aside. "I bet getting slapped with a fish would be really super painful," she said thoughtfully, and of course that was the only thing she really took out of everything Raine had said. "But! Luckily our disco pogo party is gonna be wayyyy more fun than that. And you don't have to wear a ball gown to a disco pogo party." Truthfully, dressing up could be really fun -- like for prom or something, although Sandra's prom days were over with -- but wow, ball gowns were just really in the way, and she wouldn't be able to put up with them.

Her boyfriend was not a subject that Sandra tried to put into conversations, but sometimes it happened, and with girl friends, it was unsurprising that boy talk came up. "Devin's good!" she chirped happily, because that was all just the truth. "And of course!" She hopped up on the counter after Raine and wiggled around, grin showing the truth of her statement. She didn't know what else to say about it but she was faintly pink as she turned it over in her mind. There were lots of things that she could say, probably, but it was all summed up pretty well with a few simple words. "Still really happy. I am, anyway. And I think he is too? I mean, he's just -- oh my god the sweetest thing," she said, blushing but only in the best of ways, or something, whatever it was. Raine's eyebrow waggle and wink went completely missed -- she saw but didn't really comprehend, and so there was no response to any inappropriateness that may have been suggested. She didn't even know. "But how's Yeager?!" she asked, squealing a little bit excitedly. Boy talk? Of course there was boy talk. It had been a little while since Raine and Yeager had gotten together, and Sandra wanted to know the details. "I tried to give him like, the 'Don't Hurt My Best Friend Or Else' talk, but I don't think he took it very seriously."