6

Auriana

We were on our way to the shopping mall where we had agreed to meet the headmistress. She would wait for us by the fountain. On the way, we were already discussing about what decorations and other things we wanted to get. As soon as the shopping mall came into view, we became more and more enthusiastic. We parked our bikes in the rack and walked inside, where we were in awe. No matter how many times I came here, it always amazed me. The shopping mall was enormous and consisted of five floors. The number of different shops to choose from was almost endless. The fountain where we had agreed to meet the headmistress was in the middle of the shopping mall on the ground floor. We saw the headmistress sitting on the edge of the fountain as we had agreed to shortly before in her office. She gave each duo a hundred dollars, but pointed out that we didn´t need to spend it all. Brooke and Jeremy immediately ran to Party All Night. There they have party supplies for every occasion you can think of. While I waited impatiently for Jake, Skylar, Jimmy, Emma and Renee also walked further into the mall in search of the right shops.

"Nikki, you don't know anything about film cameras, do you?" Nikki shook her head in response to the question.

"Okay, if you go get the decorations, I'll get the film camera." She gave Nikki fifty dollars, which she immediately put in her wallet.

"Thanks, headmistress Nickolas." Nikki glanced in my direction and was, as usual, a lifesaver.

"Should the three of us go to Hobby's & Co.?" I looked at her gratefully and walked with her towards the escalator.

"Auriana, don't walk so fast!" Jake shouted. He had to sprint to get to Nikki and me.

"Hey look, you can pronounce my name!" We all walked into Hobby's & Co. While I ran up the stairs, Jake stopped panting at the entrance.

"Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth," Nikki said. She was a little slower than Jake and me and had fallen behind halfway. Sports were not exactly her cup of tea.

"Auriana runs fast," he said. I was already walking down the stairs with the basket in my hands.

"Hey Auriana, do you know where the craft supplies are?" Nikki asked. She knew that I often came to this store and therefore knew where the different items were.

"Downstairs, third row, second shelf on your left." Nikki gave me a smile as a thank you and went down the escalator.

Brooke

"We definitely need balloons and streamers," I said. We walked through the aisles looking for the best and most suitable decorations.

"And a confetti cannon!" Jeremy said as soon as he saw the different types on display. I looked back from the balloons and completely agreed with Jeremy. Okay, we didn't necessarily need it, but confetti makes everything more fun.

"What's a party without confetti? This is going to be the best party ever!" Jeremy cheered. We placed our order for two confetti cannons and walked back to the balloon section.

"Glow in the dark balloons!" Jeremy said enthusiastically. He grabbed five bags of fifty balloons and threw them into the basket on the floor next to us.

"And in the shape of different sports balls!" this had to be fate, these were ideal for a sports fanatic like Scarlet. I grabbed four packs of twenty-five balloons from the rack and gave them to Jeremy along with ten packs of one hundred regular balloons.

"Oh and with: we're going to miss you!" Three packs of twenty balloons of that also went into the basket before we decided that we had enough balloons now.

"On to the streamers!" Jeremy cheered. He took the basket from me and walked ahead of me, while I walked behind him laughing.

"Let's see," he said, as he let his eyes wander over the different types of streamers.

Skylar

Jimmy and I had walked to the other side of the mall. He knew that Copy Your Life was there. I let my eyes wander over our list to see what we had to get. Maybe it would be smart to split up. The store consisted of three floors, a kind of basement, the floor we were on and a second floor.

"If you get the blank CDs, I'll get the photo paper and the scrapbook."

"Sky… you can't keep avoiding me, I know I made a huge mistake." I looked at him, but quickly turned my gaze back to the ground.

"I'm not avoiding you, this is just faster." Jimmy walked away, shoulders slumped. My guilt grew as I knew I was the reason he was feeling so bad. I walked over to the photo paper and looked at all the different types. Jimmy came down the wooden stairs that led to the next floor, holding a huge stack of blank CDs.

"Hey, do you think five hundred is enough?" His voice startled me from my thoughts.

"Yeah, I think so," I replied. The headmistress had decided that we could sell a CD of our songs at the party to raise money for the school.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." I gave him a smile that let him know it was okay.

"Do you know which photo paper is good?" I asked, looking at the different types again. Jimmy looked with me, but he didn't know anything about photo paper either.

"I don't know," he admitted, "I'll just ask, you go get the scrapbook."

"Okay." Jimmy walked away. Why do I keep carrying this guilt around with me? I thought to myself as I walked toward the aisle where the scrapbooks were.

Emma

"Hey Renee, what kind of cake do you want to make?" I let my eyes wander over the different types of batter that were on the shelves of Bake Away. A store that specializes in everything that has to do with baking.

"There are so many different types: Red Velvet, Carrot Cake, Yoghurt Cake, Marble Cake, Butter Cake, Half-Full Cake, Stracciatella…I can't choose."

"Red velvet is nice," Renee said, as she stood on the other side of the shelf. I looked across the aisle where Renee was peeking around the corner and decided to go see what she was looking at.

"Speaking of nice, do you see that boy standing there?" I asked Renee as soon as I was close enough to whisper. I gestured with my head to a boy who was looking an aisle back at the different colors of fondant. Renee looked from me to the boy, got a sneaky look on her face and walked over to the boy. Oh no… I wish I hadn't said anything to her. I quickly looked away as Renee tapped the boy on the shoulder. The boy turned around.

"Hey, what's your name?" she asked, "my friend likes you." The boy looked in the direction Renee was pointing, but didn't see anyone standing there.

"Axel." He turned his attention back to Renee, waiting for her name.

"Bye Axel." Renee walked back and grabbed the Red Velvet cake batter from the rack. My cheeks were red with embarrassment.

"You're insane!" I hissed as Renee slipped her arm through mine. Together we walked to the end of the aisle.

"Thank you." We walked over to the cake decorations, leaving a stunned Axel standing alone among the fondant and marzipan.

After we had found and paid for all the stuff, we sat on a terrace for a while, went over the plans again and just enjoyed the sun on our faces. We helped the headmistress bring all the bags with the purchased stuff to her car. There were seven bags in total.

"The confetti cannons will come on the day of the party," Brooke said. She gave the receipt with the order details to the headmistress.

"Okay, if I give you an hour every week during music from now on to practice for the performance, will you make it?" We looked at each other and finally nodded.

"Since class is officially over in three minutes, you can go as far as I'm concerned," the headmistress said, looking at her watch. We said our goodbyes and walked out of the parking lot to the bike shed. A little later we walked home with our bikes in our hands.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Jake asked.

"Because we didn't want you there," Auriana said simply, shrugging her shoulder.

"Because we were so busy making the plan, we didn't even think about asking if you were interested in joining us," I corrected. Jake rolled his eyes and kept walking without looking ahead. He had heard enough and felt slightly hurt that they had simply forgotten about him. He was so lost in thought that he didn't notice what was going on around him.

"JAKE WATCH OUT!" Jimmy shouted.