𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖕𝖑𝖊𝖝 𝖒𝖔𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖘 - 𝘰𝘤 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘵 *

𝖓𝖔 𝖔𝖓𝖊'𝖘 𝖌𝖔𝖓𝖓𝖆 𝖇𝖔𝖓𝖊 || 02.

The friend group were all gathered at Ruby's house. Monse and Quinn were on the couch, Quinn trying to get Monse to play chopsticks* with her, and the boys were by the window looking at Mario and Angelica arguing.

"Angelica's pissed."

"She's always pissed." Ruby says.

"You would be too if you had a dangler." Jamal responds, Ruby and Cesar give him a look. "What?" Quinn overhears and quietly snickers. "Look, Mario's crying. She's making Mario cry-"

"My brother doesn't cry." Ruby interjects, before looking up and seeing Mario wipe away tears. "Dude, he's crying." Jamal snickers.

Cesar walks away from the window over to the couch Quinn and Monse were sitting, Quinn was laying her head Monse's lap as Quinn looked at the ceiling and Monse picked at her nails. Cesar plops down on the couch's armrest, wondering why both girls were thinking so hard about.

"Quinney, why you staring at the ceiling so intensely?" Cesar asks, mirth in his eyes as he gazes upon Quinn's lost in thought expression.

"I was thinking about this thing I used to like," Quinn pauses, looking to the side as she recalled something in her mind. Cesar was taken aback slightly by how serious and calm the girl seemed, he could tell by her vague answer that he shouldn't pry. But, he intently listened as she finished her answer. "and I was thinking about how come I don't do it anymore."

"Maybe, you should try that thing again." Cesar smiles. "I mean, if you liked it enough to think about it like this."

"Okay." Quinn responds quietly, making Cesar shake his head at her fondly.

Cesar then looked at Monse who had a similar expression to Quinnly, but it didn't surprise Cesar. Monse has always been a deep thinker.

"Que estas pensando en tu cabeza?" He asks, Monse smiles.

"Nada. My brain's empty." She replies with a sigh. "Do I really need some stupid writing camp? I don't wanna waste my summer."

"It's not a waste." Quinn argues.

Cesar agrees with a nod, "It's badass." Monse rolls her eyes a grin creeping on her face. "Not everyone can get in, even the kids who pay. But...you'll need this."

Cesar reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a notebook. It wasn't too big or small, it was nice, it had a black leather cover with a strap that held it shut. Monse takes it and she couldn't seem to mask her expression of genuine gratitude with furrowed brows or a bored eye-roll.

"It's for writing your stories, or maybe an old-fashioned letter or two, for your favorite?" Quinn clears her throat. "For your favorites?" Cesar humorously corrects.

Quinn's eyes bulge out in remembrance, she then shifts in Monse's lap grabbing something from her jacket. She hands it to Monse, who turns it in her hand to examine it. It was one of those bulky pens that had colored buttons, you could press to get different colors of ink.

"It's a pen, so you could write the stuff." Quinn gives Monse a toothy grin, it was hard for Monse to not mimic it, showing off her shiny silver braces. "I didn't know what color to get and just decided to get them all in one. Got a good deal on it too."

Before Monse could thank either of her friends, Jamal and Ruby rush away from the window towards the couch. Jamal and Ruby slip under Quinn's legs, so they rested on their laps.

"Here comes the waterworks." Jamal says, indicating that Mario was coming in.

Mario abruptly enters and loudly closes the door shut, making all of them jump, causing Quinn to sit up right. All their postures were rigid, while making no kind of eye contact with Ruby's older brother.