Straighter than Parallel Parking

≈ e i g h t e e n ≈

It doesn't matter how old you were, what you looked like or whatever culture you brought to the table. All that matters at this parade is the aftermath of where all these ordinary people, the same as you and her, are sharing the joy that brought females to the standing point they're at today, and Janice couldn't even begin to explain how much she loved it.

"Thank you so much for this," she says to James, having to raise her voice so that he could hear her over the jostling, clamorous mob around them. "I'm really glad you decided to get us tickets to come here."

James shrugs, pushing his hands in his pockets. "It's nothing. I'm kind of glad I brought you here, too. Plus, I got free drinks."

"This place is amazing!" she gushes, her eyes already caught onto the next act that was coming up next. "It's so beautiful and cool, you know? So interesting in a way I never thought something could be. I love how it's such a blend of things you just don't expect to go together, but just do, like you and me here."

Janice doesn't catch James staring at her intently, focused too entirely on the Aboriginal portion that was coming up, where a woman decked in traditional clothing and signature tribal paint masked on her, marched to a language Janice was not able to identify.

"She looks so brilliant," she sighs helplessly, observing the woman's confidence stance and pride.

"Yeah, she sure is," James mumbles.

But, this time, he wasn't looking at the float.

________________________________________

ONCE THE PARADE HAD COME TO AN END, much to the disappointment of Janice, who, after just a couple minutes of the event, became adorably enthralled (who knew you could use Janice and adorable in the same sentence?), James and Janice decided to stick a little longer for the public spokespeople that would share about their opinions on the day and concept behind it.

She and him had agreed that if this didn't take much longer, she would try and ask them her own specific questions, kind of like an interview so she had some material to put in her project.

She'd never felt like much of a reporter before, but she would be lying if she wasn't anticipating what form of displays the groups lined up were going to present.

The festival was being held a little farther into the urban part of the city, a large park rented to host the entire thing. It was a paid (she would even go as far to call it exclusive, come to think of it) kind of event.

When Janice had asked him how he had even found this particular affair, she could've sworn his cheeks turned a little pink against his tanned skin, telling her that he had, er, searched it up on Google.

"I searched Google a while ago for an event like this, and I couldn't get a single hit," Janice told him, curious.

The heat was radiating off his cheeks so badly that you could've fried steaks. "Hm, is that so? Maybe your Nokia just had terrible wifi signals, heh, which wouldn't take me much by surprise."

Should she feel guilty that he went through fifty sites to find the occurrence?

Doesn't matter what you think, because she's too busy blocking it out with her own, "hell to the yeah, you spent that much time behind me", her own silly little smile making it somehow alright for James to be humiliated (I mean, it's completely fine to want to stay up for two hours so that you can pick some place special for a dat—project between friends, right?).

Back to the festival, it was set up quite beautifully. While the parade had pranced from different locations originally, the area was vast, even if many people filled in the spaces that lingered. Already laid out to the side was a large mobile stage, scattered plastic chairs and towels for people to enjoy the presentations.