Dreaming of Cheers (Standing Up to Life Book 3)

Chapter 13:

IN THE MORNING Mom showed us little mercy for how tired we were. She woke us up at nine and prodded us both to breakfast. I let Amy into the shower first after that so she could get ready to leave. Her mom had called and told her that she was on her way to come pick her up and they were going to go straight to shopping in town. Neither of us really wanted to have the other one go home that morning. I didn't like how little time we seemed to have to hang out, and I know she felt the same way.

She also seemed to be dreading the shopping trip for some reason. "Why don't you want to go shopping?" I asked her as I helped her take her stuff to the living room to wait for her mom.

Amy gritted her teeth and said, "I think Mom is planning something today..." She didn't elaborate any more than that, and I decided to just leave it at that. When her mom came shortly after that I went out and said 'hi' before going back into the house and taking my own shower. It was noon before I was really ready to do anything, so I ate the leftover pizza my mom heated up, and then set about practicing.

I knew I would have to be able to play whatever they picked in the songs perfectly, so I played everything again and again until my mouth and fingers hurt. I looked up at the clock at that point and was surprised to see it was already five. I'd been practicing for over four hours! 'No wonder my lips hurt,' I thought to myself. I cleaned up my saxophone and went back out to the living room.

"What do you want for dinner sweetie?" My mom asked.

I shrugged, "I don't know... What were you thinking?"

"Well, your dad doesn't really want to go out to eat, so it'll have to be somewhere fast." She told me.

"A happy-meal?" I suggested. I really wasn't that hungry.

"Nuggets?"

"Yeah, that'll work." I told her. That meant I'd have a while before I had food, so I decided to go over to the computer and play a game. I didn't have a lot of time to play computer games now, but it was probably the one aspect of my life that I had any real tie to my former self. I had been playing a game off and on called Monkey Island 2, which was an adventure game. I enjoyed it, and the humor in it, a lot. This was my third time through the game though, so when my mom came home with my happy meal box in her hand, I was easily able to save it and go eat.

Shortly after I finished eating the phone rang. I stood up and walked over to the phone behind me. "Hello?"

"Hey, Tiffany?" I heard Amy ask.

"Yeah, how's it going?" I asked.

"It's going I guess..." I heard her grumbling a bit. Something was definitely not going well.

"What's wrong?" I asked suddenly concerned.

"Oh nothing... except my mom decided I needed two dresses almost exactly like yours today!" she grumbled angrily. "And I'm blaming it on you." She replied. I could tell she wasn't really mad at me though.

I giggled.

"It's not funny!" she told me. I could hear her lip curled over while she pouted.

"Well actually..."

"Harrumph." She said and I giggled even louder.

"Well, when do I get to see them?" I asked her with a smile on my face.

"With me in them?" She asked.

"Yeah."

"Never." I had a feeling she was glaring at her mom.

"They can't be that bad Amy." I told her.

"If I was ten, they'd be fine, but I'm twelve!"

"Look at it this way Amy, we'll make it the last year either of us has to wear them," I promised.