I Won't Let You Wilt

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The deafening silence that filled the room after the door had opened—revealing that Sunny's friends were all here—was broken by Kel's cheerful voice.

"Hey, Mrs. S," Kel said, using the name everyone called Sunny's mom by back when they were all children. "We heard Sunny was throwing a reunion party, and he invited all of us to come and celebrate mom and son seeing each other again!"

Both Sunny and his mom stared at Kel in honest confusion at that statement.

"Party?" Sunny's mom retorted. "We're in the middle of—"

"We know things aren't all smooth between you, Sunny, and Basil," Hero added, smiling the most charismatically Sunny had seen in a long time. "We're not here to support Sunny against you or anything like that! We just want to get our honest thoughts off our chests."

"Honest thoughts? About what?" Sunny's mom asked.

Before she could protest, Kel, Aubrey, Hero, and Polly invited themselves into the room, standing together on the side of the space between Sunny and his mom.

Sunny cast a glance at Basil, and even Basil looked surprised at what was happening.

Did they script this whole thing out?

"Just what is going on here?" Sunny's mom demanded as detective Jawsum entered the room to gaze in wide-eyed confusion at the new arrivals.

"Mrs. S, I'd like to start by apologizing sincerely for the loss of your daughter," Polly spoke.

"I still cry about Mari sometimes! She was like a big sister to me," Aubrey said solemnly.

Wow...I have a feeling Aubrey's got something planned with the others but that is a huge change in tone from the way she normally talks these days!

"I looked up to her as a role model," Aubrey continued. "When she passed away, I didn't know what to do with my life without my big sister by my side. That's how much I missed her."

"I usually don't cry about the past, but even I can admit that every day was a lot happier when Mari was still around," Kel added with a sad smile.

Errhh, this is turning into a giant cheesefest.

"Well, you know me," Hero said, scratching his head. "Mari and I were...losing her was like losing a big chunk of my heart that I'll never get back."

Sunny looked at his mom. The empathy and sadness his friends were showing her still could not overcome the confusion written all over her face.

"Okay, why?" she asked. "Did you all come here just to say you're sorry for my daughter?"

"We just wanted to get our feelings out before we start celebrating the mom and son reunion party!" Kel said.

"No, I think you've got it wrong," she protested. "There's no 'party'—"

"And we can guess you're not in the mood for a party because of all the unresolved feelings between you and Basil, right?" Aubrey interrupted.

You guys really wrote a whole script for this, huh...

"That's why we thought we should also tell you why we all forgave Basil!" Kel piped in.

"You want me to forgive...that—?"

Before Sunny's mom could get another word in, Polly stepped forward with a whole speech prepared.

"Basil is the kindest, most thoughtful boy I've ever had the joy to be the caretaker of," Polly began. "Throughout my years raising him, I saw how he always put others before himself, always showing compassion for me and his grandma in everything he did. And the person he cares the most for is Sunny. I know he did something...wrong, in the past. But, as a child, you can't expect him to be able to fully differentiate right from wrong, so it's not fair to blame him forever."