𝐢 𝐝𝐨 ; s.c.

𝚗𝚞𝚎𝚟𝚎

ellie looked at rose in amusement. "'astonishing', huh?"

"yep. old man probably hasn't had a stress free day since 1932."

"rose, that was over thirty years ago!"

"i know. me and sandy ain't saints. we've matured, sure, but obviously not enough for our pops. he's always rubbin' his head and sighin' bout how he works too hard for life to be this way or somethin'. personally, i think he's a lil dramatic," rose explained.

ellie tilted her head. "well, you don't know his story. you shouldn't assume."

rose stopped and turned towards the older girl. "but i do. i do know his story, there's no doubt about that. i could recite it, with how often he goes around mumblin' to himself bout how tired he is and everything. 'i didn't know what i was signin' up for when i had kids, i obviously didn't learn my lesson after dealin' with sandy, but no, i just had to go and have rose—oh, hi rose, honey cakes, how was your day? did yo—'"

"okay, okay, i get it," ellie interrupted, laughing. "he sounds quite expressive."

"he is."

the girls arrived at rose's elementary school. "well," ellie said, "this is your stop."

rose looked to ellie frantically. "c'mon, can't i come to your school? i'm so sick of this place."

"you'll be sayin' the same thing once you're in middle school, trust me."

"nuh uh. how do i skip a grade? i don't wanna be here no more. it's drivin' me to insanity. you can see it in my eyes, they're turnin' gray. look, see?" she widened her eyes, and they were as blue as ever.

"they don't look very gray, rose. but maybe you're on to somethin' there. my brother's got gray eyes, and i wouldn't be surprised if he qualifies to be legally insane. but, to answer your question, i think you gotta take a test or somethin'. you're smart, you'll figure it out if you really wanna. bye, rose, i'll see ya later."

rose sighed in defeat. "goodbye, libby."

ellie chuckled to herself as she walked away, starting the short distance to will rogers high.

even though it was ridiculously early in the morning, rose brightened her day with her bright personality. she could learn a thing or two from the girl. even if the world started to fall apart, rose would probably ignore it and live her life as normally as she could. she simply didn't have time to be upset, because she was too busy enjoying things. that's the mindset ellie wanted to have.

even if things were crazy, everything would be alright.

or, that's what ellie thought, until lunch time.

she and melissa were in the library, trying to do more work on their papers. melissa wasn't too stressed, but ellie was having a hard time interpreting soda and steve's words. her paper was still blank, aside from the title.

purple colored lenses.

what did that even mean? ellie wasn't able to figure it out, and she was the one who wrote it.

"melly, this is stupid."

melissa looked at ellie's empty page. "who'd ya end up interviewin'?" she discreetly shoved a grape into her mouth, not in any mood to get reprimanded by the librarian.

"sodapop and steve," ellie groaned. "i swear, they're the same person sometimes. even though they're so different," she crossed her fingers to emphasize her point. "i know very well those two had different experiences in the eighth grade, so why is it they had the same answer?"