THE BRIGHTEST GREEN , nell!

[NELL DOE DALE]

She poked Ashton’s side with her finger, saying, ”Oh please, it’s not that big a deal!” It wasn’t like she’d die if she took a break for one day. Ashton was a perfect excuse to have some time to enjoy herself, and she really did want to hang out with him. Balancing everything in her life wasn’t too difficult—at least, she would never let on that it was—and so she’d definitely find a way to spend some time with a friend she barely got to see thanks to their hectic lives. ”Oh yes, the glory that is summer,” she sighed, looking off as if she could see ‘summer fun’ written in the sky somewhere. She couldn’t wait for the break from school, even though she wouldn’t seriously say that she’d been overloaded with work. Nope, that’d be complaining. ”I don’t think we’ll be pranking my neighbors,” she said. Beckoning Ashton closer with a finger, she whispered, ”They scare me.” Her neighboors in the building were two tattooed junkies who look like they haven’t eaten anything healthy in ten years. In actuality, they were pretty friendly but they still intimidated her a bit. She guessed it was because it was her first time ever having to deal with people like them. And the fact that she knew more about their sex life than she cared to ever know about anyone’s. ”Anyway,” she said at regular volume, ”There will be movies and lots of food involved.” Food was of course an important factor in Nell’s sleepovers—well, in her daily life, actually.

Speaking of movies, Ashton apparently liked the idea of her learning her tricks from cinema. She rolled her eyes, joking, ”No, that means I have way too much time on my hands and need a new hobby.” But it showed in her smile that she liked Ashton’s praise—she never got much of it in her life, so it was still a strange new feeling for her. ”I get by,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders, still smiling. ”But I enjoy doing it and it doesn’t get too bad…most nights…” The one that stuck out in particular was Josh, a night she would actually rather forget. Since then, she had been forced to deal with unruly patrons, of course, but she had to say that she’d never been threatened with a switchblade. Josh should have been honored, she believed. Compared to him, most everyone else she had to deal with were docile. Nell only offered rides to the giggly drunks now, which mostly turned out to be girls dressed in skimpy clothes and yelling about how it’s the greatest night of their life.

”What’s it like in Vancouver?” Nell wondered. ”Any different than Maple Hollow?” Even though she made a rather impressive journey from New York to Canada, she had only been to a few of the cities, and even fewed provinces. All she knew was that Vancouver was to the south, but she was interested to hear more about it, especially since Ashton was from there. Nell lifted her eyebrows as she watched the plant finally grow, looking to be a mix between a rose and something else…a lily? It was hard to tell with the coloring. Even still, she clapped for Ashton. ”Hell yeah, you did it,” she congratulated him earnestly. He then went on about her job prospects and she grinned even wider. ”Well, looks like I’ll be on the job hunt,” she said. Hopefully her boss would give her a good reccomendation, but she worried that since she wasn’t an uppercrust socialite if she wouldn’t be accepted at the Blackjack Bar. She could always bluff, though it would be hard considering her previous employer. Still, papa had money and she could try to pull off the whole rich bitch image. Yeah right. Nell waggled her eyebrows and said, ”You’re something, all right.”