America: 50☆Stars (Vol. 2)

Episode 38: Better Days (Part 2)

"You went to the beach?!" Georgia gapes at her in utter disbelief.

"Of course, I went to the beach. They were open. So, why not? I would've stayed out longer wasn't for the Grim Reaper ruining my day."

She shakes her head with a disapproving scowl. "You're a breed of lunacy no one can't describe without repeating stupid a hundred times."

"You expect me to hibernate throughout the summer like a pasty-faced degenerate. Like, no way."

"But shouldn't you be more careful around the virus?" Hawaii questions worryingly. "I heard your home gained another ten thousand cases yesterday."

Florida lets out a deep breath. "Look, girl. It's bad enough I wasted the entire spring staying indoors. There's no way I'm letting a microbe ruin summer, too. Tourism is big here, so I need to salvage as much money as I can to get things back to normal."

"Sure, but..." she mumbles guiltily, realizing she and the Floridian are on the same boat. "... Yeah. I need the tourism industry to reopen, so I can recover. But at the cost of having more people get sick, I don't want to have that on my conscience."

"It's alright, Hawaii. I feel the same way," says New Jersey upon returning to the living room with a bowl of freshly-popped popcorn. "It's nice to be careful, but we need to keep in mind the unemployed can't stay jobless forever." He stuffs a handful of popcorn into his mouth. "It's double jeopardy. Reopen too early, the number of coronavirus cases increases. At the same time, the economy will grow worse if we don't reopen soon. No one wins either way."

"Then, what should I do? I don't wanna mess things up."

"Don't worry too much, sweetie," Georgia assures her. "As long as you're not making headlines like Florida, I'm sure you're doing a decent job."

"Oye! What do you mean by that?" Florida narrows her eyes at her.

While the Floridian defends her pride from a barrage of criticism, Washington shows up to the party, greeting America, "How's it going, dude? Happy birthday!"

"Awesome! Thanks for coming!"

"Did you get the gift cards in your email?"

"Yep! They're the Amazon and Microsoft Xbox ones, right?"

"Yeah. I thought about getting you a Starbucks gift card, but I might save that idea for the holidays."

"Cool! I can't wait to get a pumpkin spice latte by then." He smiles.

"Since you're here," Nevada speaks up, "I've been meaning to ask about the new consoles. You're getting the Xbox Series X, right?"

He scoffs, "Why even ask? Of course, I'm getting the Xbox Series X."

"You mean the X-mini-fridge?" Rhode Island remarks, getting snickers from the group.

"At least it looks better than the Wi-Fi router," he huffs.

Nevada chuckles, "Well, you two have fun starting the next console war. I plan to get both during the holidays."

"I still love my Nintendo Switch," Hawaii chirps, unperturbed by the console war. "I love Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and I can't wait for the New Pokémon Snap when it comes out."

"Hello, y'all!" Mississippi shows up at a rather strange time. "Guess what? I'm changing my flag."

Georgia is taken aback by this piece of news. "Oh, wow. You are?"

"Uh-huh. I understand why people hate my flag so much, so I'll be making a new one everyone can look up to without appearing embarrassed."

"I guess better now than later..."