PKU (English)

17.

"Enough pen! Jessie has her reasons for having a crush on Leon, although none of us understand them."

Today was the last full day at the lake. Tomorrow 2A and 2C would be picked up again by the bus and taken back to school. So tonight, they were going to have a final party, and everyone had to help with the preparations. Nita's hut was divided into garlands to be cut out and hung up, and so the four girls had gathered on their narrow terrace between pens, scissors, sticky tape and stacks of colored paper. As they folded, drew, cut and glued, the inexplicable feelings Jessie had on Leon were brought up again. Whenever they talked about this subject, Jessie's face turned red as a strawberry.

The three girls had taught Nita a lot about what it was like to be in love and even more about the stupid things that people in love sometimes (or always) did just because they were in love. Regarding Jessie's crush on Leon, Nita agreed with Penny; she just didn't understand how anyone could fancy her brother. However, she was still on Meg's side; she would accept Jessie's feelings even if she had no idea how those feelings ever came about. Especially with a self-assured, conceited idiot like Leon.

Just as she was about to pick up a new piece of paper someone called her name, and it wasn't one of the girls - it was Sandy.

"Wow, as soon as we teach you what a crush is, you'll get one." Penny grinned cheekily.

"Leave Nita alone, Sandy probably only wants to speak to her briefly." Jessie defended her friend, who now got up and left the terrace.

"Oh, I'm sure you'd like to just have a word with Lollipop?" Penny countered, at which point Jessie became a strawberry again.

"Leave Jessie alone!" Meg intervened, and the discussion of Jessie's feelings started again while Nita hurried to Sandy.

"I just got back from calling my parents!" Sandy began when Nita reached him.

None of the students were allowed to take cell phones with them, although Nita was sure some had done so anyway. Otherwise, those would certainly not have survived the entire week. In any case, today they were allowed to call their parents on the teacher's cell phone if they felt like it. Nita hadn't really wanted to, but she was pretty sure that her father would have come to the lake himself if he hadn't heard from her today. Probably accompanied by the police, ambulance, and health insurance company. As expected, their brief conversation with him had consisted of a thousand times the same question "Are you really alright?".

"My mom is convinced that our monster is a sea witch. They are usually very rare and, as the name suggests, they live in the sea."

"So that's why the resemblance to an axolotl." Nita thought.

"I don't think we can defeat them. These things are extremely toxic, but Mom explained to me over the phone how to shrink them over time. Then she just needs to be locked up and I can bring her to mom."

"That means we have to go back into the forest tonight and face that axolotl thingy!" Nita stated.

"Only if you want to come with me," Sandy replied. Today he wore a necklace of shells around his neck with his star barrette. Nita thought he had a funny taste in fashion, but one thing was clear.

"Of course, I'll come with you! This beast attacked my bear dog, slash dog bear! She'll get my revenge tonight!"

Sandy laughed. Nita didn't understand what was so funny, but she liked the face the boy made when he laughed.

"Then we just have to figure out a way to sneak away from the party without your brother getting suspicious."

"Don't worry.", Nita smiled with a mischievous look. "I have the perfect distraction right on my terrace."