I look up at the house, then check the address to make sure I didn't get it wrong. It's grand and white and clean and definitely not a place I'd expect Heather to live. But then the front door opens to reveal a mess of blonde curls, and Heather waves at me and calls,
"Are you just gonna stare at it or are you gonna come in?"
I shake my head and start walking towards the door. "Sorry. Am I late?"
"Kinda, but that's okay," Heather moves aside so I can step inside. Immediately the smell of window and other such cleaners fill my nose. It doesn't necessarily smell...bad...but I still wrinkle my nose until the scent fades as we ascend the stairs. The shiny, clean, wooden stairs.
I feel almost bad for wearing my shoes inside, but clearly Heather doesn't care, since I see her own shoes scattered throughout the top floor, which seems to be exclusively hers. I'm honestly kinda jealous of her- she gets her own full floor?- but I just follow her into her room.
"Timothy!" Ream cheers as Heather kicks her door open. I see Tai awkwardly sitting on Heather's bed, Ream reclining on a sofa in the corner of the room, and Sydney sitting cross-legged on the carpet. I flash him a smile and go to sit next to him.
"How's it going?" I ask.
"I made a paper airplane!" Ream volunteers, holding up something that vaguely resembles an airplane.
I wince, half at the 'airplane', and half at my own tardiness. "Did I really take that long?"
"Naw," Heather shakes her head and plops down next to Tai. He blushes fiercely. "Everyone got here early. You're actually pretty much on time."
"Good," I sigh. Then I turn to Sydney and lower my voice. "You okay?"
He blinks, then leans closer and rests his head on my shoulder. "Surprisingly, I'm doing fine."
I smile and lean my head against his briefly, then lift it again, all the while making sure to keep my shoulder still so Sydney doesn't move.
"So, what's the plan for today?" I ask.
Heather claps, startling everyone and bringing all four pairs of eyes on her.
"The plan is going to be mapping out New York," She says. "For things to do."
I frown and glance at Sydney. He shrugs.
"Is that where we're going for the trip?" I ask.
Heather nods. "Tai remembered hearing the location." She pats his head affectionately, and he practically glows. "So I printed out a map and got out some markers."
"And I made a paper airplane out of the messed up paper," Ream adds.
"And Ream made a paper airplane," Heather shakes her head, but she's smiling. "But now that Tim's here, we can start."
And if by 'start' she meant mess around for an hour, then draw on ourselves with the markers until we finally remember the map we left on the floor, then yes, we start. We eventually all settle down and sit around the map with our phones in our marker-covered hands.
Ream points out that it wouldn't be a trip to NYC if we didn't go to Central Park, and Tai insists we can't not go to the Empire State Building, and then they argue over which one is better.
Heather just circles both locations on the map and looks at the website she pulled up on her phone a couple minutes ago ('top twenty things to do in New York'), pauses, and circles a spot somewhere just out of Manhattan.
Ream talks about the Statue of Liberty, makes another questionable paper airplane, throws it, and somehow manages to nail the tip against where Heather points when he asks where it is.
Sydney just watches them, then quietly tells me he wants to go to the big zoo in the Bronx. I agree, then tease him about how sad he'll be when they don't have any hamsters. He laughs and insists that he isn't a hamster, to which I snort and bring up our conversation about him eating grass that definitely proves him otherwise.
---
Heather ducks downstairs at some point, coming back with arms full with snacks. I grab the bag of chips she offers and plop it in my lap. Sydney takes a chip from the bag and slowly crunches on it.
"So..." Heather says, settling back down on the floor and peeling open a container of cookies. She pops one in her mouth. "What we have so far is-" She points at the circles on the map, each in turn. "Empire State Building, Coney Island Aquarium, Central Park, Statue of Liberty-" She pauses to stuff another cookie into her mouth. "Bronx Zoo, Times Square...anything I'm forgetting?"
"Nope," Ream shakes his head, leaning forward so he can steal a cookie from the container and take a bite. "Unless this-" He points at a large circle that isn't surrounding any of the places she mentioned. "Is important."
Heather shrugs. "That's just where we'll probably be staying, since the hotels there are pretty cheap."
"Huh."
Sydney nudges me gently in the ribs with his elbow. "I wonder if we'll have to share rooms."
I see Tai flush, and I feel my face heating up to a similar color. Heather and Ream exchange a glance.
"Maybe, since there's like twenty kids in each class," Ream runs a hand through his hair. "The teachers probably won't want to pay for enough rooms for everyone to have their own bed."
There's a silence that hangs lightly over our group, and Heather breaks it by saying, "Well, I guess we'll find out when we get there."
I see Ream slowly inching his hand towards a stack of paper, probably to make another airplane, and decide to accomplish two things at once- changing the subject and hopefully helping him make something better.
"Hey, Ream," I say. He glances up at me. "I know how to make a couple other things with paper."
His eyebrows shoot up. "Yeah? Like what?"
I grin. "Boats, hats, ninja stars..."
"Ninja stars?" He repeats. Even Tai looks intrigued. I nod, then gesture for him to grab me a paper.
"I need two," I say, taking the one he gives me and holding out my hand for another. "And then it's like- here, watch me....Hey, Heather, do you have any scissors?"
And a half an hour later and we have a small pile of misshapen ninja stars that everyone ended up pitching in to make. We decide that the next time we come over we can have a ninja fight with our newly made weapons, and finally we leave with a small bundle of paper that Heather sends with us so we can grow our arsenals.
Later that night, Ream texts the group chat, sending us a picture of an almost-perfect ninja star followed by several dozen 'cool guy' emojis. Heather responds with a giant one made from blue and green paper and covered in sharpie swirls. Tai sends us a picture of a pile of neat white ninja stars, and Sydney follows with a small, pink pile of stars on the blanket I recognize as his comforter.
I give all the pictures a like, then send a picture of a bucket full (maybe a hundred or so?) of perfect white ninja stars I worked on painstakingly for a couple days a while back ago. I was planning on selling them at school, but never got around to it.
Everyone replies with shocked emojis and exclamation marks, and I allow myself to feel superior for a few minutes.
For all Ream's complaining about it, our little get together was really fun, and I'm already looking forward to both the ninja war and the big trip to NYC.
I go to bed thinking about my friends, and for once, the night is free of nightmares.