Do You Believe In Destiny?

Chapter Eleven

Her room was extraordinarily large...for any person, regardless of age...but today it felt too small, confining even, as she paced back and forth in front of her bed. 

The day had been progressing normally until a phone call from the wedding caterer had arrived right as lunch was wrapping up.  Apparently, they were unable to source the right ingredients from California due to the never-ending drought in the area, but would be bringing in the supplies from Oregon instead.

The news had been...very poorly received...and her mother had been in a positively foul mood ever since.

Not wanting to risk being caught under the woman's magnifying glass, she'd decided that her room was the safest place to be for the time being. 

Of course, her room wasn't where she wanted to be right now - and she'd managed to wear a nice line into the floor while she walked quickly back and forth, phone in hand.

It had been several days now since Lauren had invited you to the track meet - where she'd gotten to witness Normani run for the first time before the four of them had gone to have ice cream together once again. 

And, even though she and Normani t in near constant communication via text messages, her chest was burning with desire to see the girl again. It was a very, very strong urge - one she eventually conceded wouldn't go away until the brunette was in her presence. 

But she couldn't just text and say 'I need to see you' - she needed a legitimate reason...or an invitation of some kind.

She could invite Normani somewhere, that would be easy enough. But the real question was...where?

She'd already eaten dinner (having been granted permission to eat in her room, leaving her father to face her mother's fury alone) and she imagined that Normani had likely eaten or would be shortly as well. 

They could go see a movie? That seemed like a pretty harmless invitation...something friends did often, but she didn't know anything about the films currently in theaters. 

They could go out for dessert? Normani would always be willing to get ice cream...but she didn't know if she could consume any more sugar right now. And inviting someone only to not partake in the invitation would be unusual and suspicious, not to mention a little rude. 

Glancing out of one of her bedroom windows, she knew taking Preslee for a walk would be out of the question. The sun had nearly disappeared from the sky at this point in the evening, and the temperature at night had grown far too frigid for being outside to be any fun. 

Her family had wonderful seats at the philharmonic that would be playing this evening, but she didn't believe that classical music would really be Normani's taste. 

A sports event, maybe?

She immediately discarded that idea. She knew less about sports than she did about movies. The last thing she wanted to do was invite Normani somewhere and then make a complete fool of herself through lack of knowledge.

It needed to be something that shouted 'Normani Hamilton'...somewhere the girl's inner child could be set free...somewhere like...

An arcade.

The idea instantly brought a grin to her face as she imagined the bubbly brunette running from machine to machine - the loud noises and bright lights probably over stimulating for someone with Normani's energy level. But it was inside, it was laid back, and Normani would absolutely love it.

It was perfect.

A quick internet search later, she'd found the best , biggest arcade in town. It even had a cotton candy bar - she didn't exactly know what that was, but she would make sure to buy some for Normani.