Lotus & Lilac

Chapter Six

"All I'm saying," Joy began as she lounged back on the picnic table trying to soak in the sun, not making eye contact with Cameron, "is that if you really think about it you'll see that I'm right." Cameron stared straight at Joy with a raised eyebrow and pursed lips. She shook her head as Joy opened one eye to look at her.

"There is no way that if we had to rebuild our society after a zombie apocalypse that people would get charged for murder because of the zombies they had to kill. It just doesn't make logical sense. I'm sorry but you're wrong J." Cameron shrugged, adjusting her criss-cross folded legs under her.

"You're not looking at the big picture here Cammie, I'm telling you. If you just-" Joy tried to argue but then a water bottle whipped through the space between the two girls and they both turned their heads toward the source. Jamy, eyebrow raised and face filled with annoyance, still had his hand raised at the picnic bench next to theirs. "That was rude."

"In case the two of you have forgotten, we're supposed to be working on our homework for Graves' class on Friday. It was your idea to come sit on the quad to do work because the classroom was giving you a headache." Jamy shot a pointed look at Joy. "Now I'm the one getting a headache from listening to your stupid zombie apocalypse bullshit." Cameron took her pen from on top of the notebook that had fallen to the wayside when she had moved to sit on top of the table with Joy and flicked it toward Jamy's head. With reflexes that had Cameron wondering if she had been right about Jamy being a vampire the first night they hung out, he caught the pen and narrowed his eyes at her.

"The only thing we have left is the last question." Cameron stated, shaking her notebook a little to emphasize her point. "Which is about consumerism, which is the whole reason we started talking about zombies in the first place." Jamy rolled his eyes, tossing the pen easily to Cameron so she could catch it.

"You've also gone through the topics of beekeeping, how to become a yoga instructor, what your preferred brand of stuffed animals are, and which version of A Star Is Born was the best. Mind you, that was all on our way to getting to the last question." Jamy grumbled. "You two get off track so often that I'm surprised you successfully walk in straight lines when you're together."

"So what I'm hearing is that you don't think they would charge people with murder for killing zombies either, right?" Joy asked, her sunshine-like smile taking over her whole face. Jamy sighed, hanging his head and covering his face with his hands. "Relax grumpy Gus. I already wrote down the answer to the last question."

Joy handed her notebook over to Jamy who tugged it none-too-gently from her grasp. He glared at them once more for good measure before beginning to copy Joy's answer into his own notebook. Joy shared a conspiratorial grin with Cameron before leaning back on her palms once more to try and soak in the sun. Cameron took her momentary quiet time, relaxing and closing her eyes against the sun's rays, to reflect on the past three weeks of friendship between the three of them. Since the day at Black Creek things had tangibly shifted in direction. Sure, Jamy still bothered Cameron in class to the point where she was filled with rage and wanted to do more than throw her pen at his head, but when he wasn't purposefully bothering her he was pretty enjoyable to be around.

Cameron found herself spending most of her free time with Joy. More often than not that hang out time also included various combinations of the misfits. She was now completely convinced that since they couldn't have been separated at birth, seeing as there was almost a year between their birthdays, that her and Joy must have been friends in a previous life. It was as if the universe had decided that the two of them were meant to be friends. Cameron wondered, not for the first time, if the term soulmates could be applied to a friendship instead of a romantic relationship. If so, then Joy was her friendship soulmate. The two girls could talk easily about anything and everything. No topic was off limits and the pair seemed to be on some strange frequency where they could perfectly understand how the other was feeling.