Animation

Chapter 9

My face takes on a wide grin.
"Is that a trick question?" I say.
"Would I joke about Japanese food?" She lifts her eyebrows.
"Yes, of course I want Japanese food!" I say, with a smile that matches hers, once again, despite my exhaustion. I am sleep deprived, but my stomach is food desolated.
~
"The steak hibachi with rice please" I tell the little Japanese woman at the counter. It's my favorite and I get it every time. Kate gets the same, but with chicken. It is so packed in here, so after watching the grill fire and jet-fast cooking for a little while, I suggest we go get coffee. The coffee shop is just down the street a little from here. Kate agrees and we make our way past a maze of people in this dimly lit restaurant, and out the door. We catch our moms' disapproving glares in the window of the restaurant as we make our dash down the street.
We barge through the coffee shop's doors and the line is fairly short, for once. I spot Brandy behind the counter and wave. She recognizes me, waves, and goes back to whipping up coffees almost as fast as the Japanese were tossing their foods back at Mt Anime.
The line moves quickly and I assume it's thanks to Brandy. Kate orders her Carmel coffee and I try out the peppermint latte.
"Always drinking something Christmas" Kate tells me, as we sit on the couch, sipping our coffee.
"Want a sip of this Christmas?" I ask her.
"Sure. Want a sip of Carmel.. Again?"
"Yeah, sure. You're just not as complex as me." I say, taking a sip of her coffee.
"It is good though." I say afterwards.
"Well duh. I don't need to be complex." She says.
"Fair point." I say.
"How long have we been gone?" She asks.
I check my phone time.
"Ohhh, we should probably be headed back to Mt Anime.." I say, realizing we've been gone over twenty minutes.
Kate stares at me.
"Well, over twenty minutes!" I say, grabbing my coffee and making a dash for the door, followed by Kate who is struggling to fasten the lid back on her coffee.
"Why did you have that off anyways?" I ask her through laughs as we jet toward the restaurant.
"How are you gonna ask that? You have yours off all the time! I wanted it to cool down!" She says, struggling to jog, fasten a lid, and talk at the same time.
"Touché!" I say with a laugh.
As soon as we reach the restaurant, I hear Kate's lid snap in place.
"There!" She breathes.
"Took you long enough!" I laugh, opening Mt Anime's door with a little too much force.
Kate rolls her eyes and then laughs.
"I can't deal with you, Aunna. You were tired at the game." She says.
"I just hated it there." I retort, right as we find our mothers.
"They haven't called y'all yet" Kate's mother, Amy says.
"Really??" Kate says, collapsing on the seat.
I sigh and flop over on the seat across from her.
We have only a few minutes of conversation of our coffee dash before a middle-aged Japanese woman delivers mountains of food to our table.
~
Tonight as I lay in my bed, I think of how bittersweet tomorrow will be. We have a test.. A state test. Agh. But other than that, it's our last day before Christmas break, which is totally amazing, except for the fact that when tomorrow's over, I won't have the same classes I grew to love so much this semester. I will still have every class with Kate, but we won't have the same classes. We will still have Ms. Dale's class because it's a year round class, but that's it. No more ag. That's what gets me the most. Well, that and the fact that I will have an algebra class instead of English when I get back. I shudder, say a small prayer in my head, and fall asleep.