It was the Friday before Leah was to leave for California. She and Nayeli had stayed home from school in order to prepare for the trip. Surprisingly, they had been able to convince Nayeli's mother to allow her to go to California as well. It took a lot of begging and pleading; but eventually, they got her to agree. She trusted Lee enough to send her daughter with her.
At the moment, Leah and Nayeli were in Leah's bedroom picking out outfits to wear while in California. They were trying to figure out what Leah should wear for her chemistry read, and they were stuck between a few options. "Leah, I promise you need to wear this one. I wouldn't lie to you," Nayeli said, pointing at her favorite option, a pink dress.
"I already told you I don't want to wear pink anymore," Leah responded.
"But it looks so good on you," Nayeli said.
"Well, I don't want to wear it. I'm sorry. Just please pick any other color."
"What about blue?" Nayeli pulled out a blue t-shirt from Leah's dresser.
"I guess. It could be okay," Leah grabbed the shirt and a pair of jeans and threw them into her suitcase.
"If you don't start folding, we aren't gonna be able to get the rest of your things in there."
"Yes we can. Watch," Leah threw a few more outfits into the suitcase, along with a pair of shoes, and then she tried to close the lid. She moved the suitcase off of her bed, sat on top of it, and started to zip it closed. It was a struggle, but she eventually got it closed.
"And what are you gonna do when you have to open it?" Nayeli asked.
"We'll worry about it when the time comes."
The girls dragged their full suitcases downstairs and set them at the front door. Lee walked over and grabbed Leah and Nayeli's things and began moving them to the car. The two girls went into the kitchen to find a snack. "Do you think we'll have time to do anything fun in California?" Nayeli asked.
"I'm sure we will. We're gonna be there for three days, and the chemistry read probably won't even be an hour," Leah answered as she began cutting up some apples,
"I know we're supposed to go visit Floyd. He doesn't live on campus. He has an apartment, but he said he would take me on a walk through campus."
"Can I go?"
"Nayeli, you have to go. I'm not just gonna leave you in a hotel room."
"I've always wanted to visit the UC's. I honestly wanted to visit UCSD, but I'm sure UCLA is just as pretty," Nayeli explained.
"I don't really have much interest in them, but I'm sure it'll be fun anyway. I wanna try and convince my mom to take us somewhere fun, like a museum or an amusement park or something."
"I hope she does," Nayeli grabbed a plate of apples and peanut butter from Leah, and they both went to the living room to eat.
Lee walked in and sat down next to Leah. "Are y'all excited?" she asked. The two of them nodded and kept eating their apples.
"Well, that was not as enthusiastic as I expected y'all to be," she laughed.
"I'm tired," Leah told her. She got up and took her plate to the kitchen.
"Well stay up as long as you can so you can sleep the whole ride," Lee said.
"I don't wanna be asleep. I wanna be awake," Leah laughed. She and Nayeli went back upstairs and started to prepare for bed.
The next morning, they woke up very early. Leah's timer went off at three am, so they could get up and start getting ready to leave. When she looked over, Nayeli was still very asleep. Leah got up and started to softly shake her friend awake. "What?" Nayeli asked, groggily sitting up in bed.
"You gotta get up. Mom wants us out of the house by five, and it's three."
"So, we have two hours."
"In those two hours; we have to eat, get dressed, and make sure that we have everything before we leave," Leah explained. Nayeli started to get out of bed, stretching on her way up.
Leah went into her bathroom and got ready first. She showered and got dressed. She didn't have to worry about her hair because she had gotten it braided the week before. Nayeli went in after her and did the same. The two of them went downstairs and had a small breakfast before heading outside to help Leah's parents do the final checks on the van. Once they knew that they had everything they needed, the four of them got in the van and started their drive to California.
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(807 words) I really didn't like this chapter 😭 it's just a bunch of filler really. I wasn't able to completely finish chapter seven, but I should be done soon! I will (hopefully) have it posted sometime this week. Also, I realized I never told y'all what Nayeli looks like 💀 You can imagine her as you'd like, but I've been imagining her as a younger, 12 year old version of Malia Baker that wears glasses. Anyway, byeeeee 🙃