Popping Bubbles, Chapter 2

The next day was Friday, Laura's favorite day of the week. Saturday was wonderful too, of course, but something in the very word, Friday, added a sort of excitement.

Friday.

"Did you study for the science test today?" Avery asked as they were walking to school, her ever-present smile resting on her face.

"Only for three hours," Laura responded, nudging her best friend with an elbow, grinning a little.

"Name the three types of blood vessels," Avery quizzed, kicking a rock up the sidewalk.

"Aver-ee!" Laura whined, stealing the rock.

"I was kidding."

"I know."

By this time they had arrived at Roseburn Middle School. It wasn't the prettiest of schools, or the newest; in fact, it was rather old and dirty, with such a lack of color or enthusiasm that it almost seemed purposeful. All the teachers eventually adopted the 'middle school monotone', as the students called it. The school was drab and gray and probably the last place anyone would wanna spend six hours a day at, regardless of wheather they were getting paid or not.

The girls stood against the faded mural painted on one of the walls of the outside courtyard and talked randomly. That was part of the beauty of their friendship' they could spend hours on end talking about nothing in particular, whereas the other girls always had to talk about something important and nothing irrelevent.

The way Avery and Laura saw it, sometimes the important things weren't so much fun to talk about, and the irrevelent things were.

Just before the school doors opened, Avery fired out another one of her famous deep, leave-it-to-the-Pope questions.

"What are ten things you wanna do before you die?"