The Ice Cream Shop

Yui was exploring the mall gaping at everything with amazement. Then all of a sudden she stopped abruptly in front of a store. she slowly turned her head and her jaw fell to the floor, it was a Ice cream shop. without a second of hesitation she ran into the shop and up to the counter. "One strawberry Ice cream please!" She said as she placed a crisp five dollar bill on the counter. the woman smiled nervously at the strange woman and then left only to come back a minute later with a cone. Yui took it happily and then bowed to the girl. "Thank you very much!" She said happily with a slight pink blush on her cheeks.

Wandering in the mall, Carson soon rode the escalator to the upper level. He watched in awe as a bright-haired girl gazed at everything with such wonder--he used to do that too, when he was smaller. Of course, he couldn't do that now, right? As a high-schooler, one was supposed to drop childish things--at least, that's how things were supposed to go, from all the TV shows and books he'd seen and read. Rebecca seemed to differ on that point, but Carson couldn't remember her ever being very childish.

He continued to watch, bashfully, as he saw the girl order and eat with total bliss ice cream the color of her hair. She seemed about Carson's age and he wanted to speak to her, but instead he opted to buy a small cone for himself. Approaching the counter, he was brave enough to ask the girl, "Um, what flavor....what flavor did you get? Is it good?"

Yui turned her attention away from her sweet cone and looked up at a boy with dirty blonde hair and fair skin. He was taller then her, but then again most people were taller then her. She looked at him with big curios eyes and then a shy smile crossed her lips as she looked down at the ground. "It depends... for you i would say you look more like a chocolate-teer." She said and then laughed at the last part.

She looked up and saw his stone face and she felt herself become more shy. " One chocolate please..." She said shyly and then when the woman came back she looked the boy straight in his face. "Here!" She said happily as she offered the boy the chocolate cone with a slight blush.

"I-I was going to pay for myself...." Carson stuttered and trailed off, pulling his wallet out of the bag. Even so, he accepted the cone gratefully from the girl, with his other hand. He stared down the cold treat intensely. "Thank you," he said in his soft voice and smiled gently back at her. "Uhm, I'm Carson."
He shivered, for the first time noticing the heavy air conditioning of the mini-shop. Cold was not his element... Even so he smiled to hide his discomfort and licked around the edge of the cone, so the chocolate wouldn't begin to drip towards his hands.

She smiled kindly up at the shy boy. " that's okay! i your gonna eat it so my money wont go to waste." She said happily and then she saw a drop of strawberry ice cream try to escape the side of her cone. She let out a gasp and licked it before it fell off the cone. "Carson? that's a nice name!" She exclaimed happily. " I'm Yui... nice to meet cha!" she said with a giant smile spread from ear to ear.

Carson blushed and slipped his wallet back into his bag, before clumsily attempting to duck and hide the faint reddening of his cheeks.
"Sorry, um, I never know how to talk to people..... D-do you want to sit and, um, eat?" Carson dared a look and asked, pointing to a bench right outside the shop. He was afraid that if he stood a moment more in the minishop, his teeth might begin to chatter and give him away.

She smiled sweetly up at him and then nodded her head ecclesiastically yes."Okay!" She said as she grabbed your hand and began to pull you out of the store. She pulled you across the way and sat you on a bench next to some heaters. "Feeling better?" She asked with a big curios pair of angelic blue eyes.

Carson frowned. She'd noticed he was cold? But, it was a nice thing for her to do, he thought. "Yeah it's better, thanks." Attempting to come up with a conversation topic, Carson ate more of his cone. He winced after biting into the soft, icy treat, experiencing brain freeze for the first time in a while and smiled again. "You, uhm, which school do you go to?"

Yui licked her sweet, cold cone happily until she heard his voice and she turned all her attention to him. " oh... i go to valevay high school." She said happily. "Where do you go?" She asked looking up at him with a big pair of curios blue eyes.

"Oh," Carson replied softly, but happily. "I was supposed to start there today." He didn't offer more explanation and was rather unsure what to say next. He sat for some moments in silence, perfectly content with finishing off his cone and watching Yui eat hers.

Yui happily ate her ice cream cone in silence for a few minutes. Once it was done she turned to Carson and looked at Carson with a smile on her face. "Well you didn't miss much.... we just passed a ball around.... and some people got hit..." She said the last part below her breath as she blushed at the embarrassing memory.

Carson laughed out loud. "Haha, really? I bet Becky enjoyed seeing that." He thought of his older sibling, who occasionally enjoyed spontaneous physical comedy like that. "But throwing a ball around--that sounds like a lot of fun to me," he said. He wondered what else he could look forward to at high school.

"Yeah maybe but it really hurts..." She said as she started to rub her nose at the memory. 'that guy had a really strong arm...' she thought to herself and then brought her attention back to the boy. "Oh there are lots of fun things in high school! Like making friends." SHe said happily.

"Oh, sorry, were you one that got hit?" At the second part of Yui's statement, Carson nodded. "Yeah, that's why I wanted to go. I don't really know anyone except my sister and the kids..." at the hospital. Carson preferred not to finish the statement. However she took it, she took it.
"Are you new to high school as well, or no?"

"Yeah..." She said with a small smile on her lips. "I was what you call an army brat... we moved too much for us to make friends." She said with a bigger smile on her face, and then she gave him a pair of confused eyes. "well... you can count me as a friend!" She said happily.

Carson beamed. "Great, then. And I haven't moved a lot, but my dad goes everywhere!" Carson smiled. glancing at his phone, he noticed the time. "My sister will panic and/or kill m if I don't get home. See you at school!" With that, Carson was off in a beat and happy as a clam.

The ice-cream shop was full of kids picking up something cold and sweet to enjoy while escaping the heat. Lena squeezed past the line keeping Tesanee close so she wouldn’t get lost, although she was sure Chepe was keeping a good eye on his little sister. Approaching the counter Lena scanned over the many flavors of ice-cream. She had brought enough money with her to treat the three of them for his birthday after all she was the one that dragged them all down there. “They all look so good! I don’t know which one to get!” She exclaimed, leaning slightly against Chepe to see which flavor caught his eye.

Chepe grinned at Lena, putting his arm around her without thinking. It just felt so natural to do it. He looked at all the different flavors. "Hmmm.......I'm not sure." he said. "What do you like?" he asked Lena. "I KNOW what Tes likes." he laughed. "My favorites are bubble gum, or mint chocolate chip." he scratched his head. "I'm not sure which to go with." he laughed. "I'll let you pick for me." he told Lena, his long black hair falling into his bright green eyes yet again.

Tesanee was bouncing on her heels. "MY favorite is Pistachio mixed with cookies and cream ice cream with strawberry syrup and marshmallow creme on it." She grinned. She wondered if Lena would laugh at her favorite flavor, or if she would get ill. She didn't tell people what she liked because of reactions she got.
Tesanee stayed a little way away from them. She really wanted to leave them to spend the day alone. Fortunately she had a plan for that.

Lena hadn’t missed the fact that Chepe had hooked an arm around her. Actually the moment he did a smile spread across her lips. The ice-cream shop was rather crowded and it felt as though Chepe was trying to keep her close, so that she wouldn’t get lost in the sea of people that were trying to get a peek over them at the many different flavors. Although she enjoyed the comforting feeling of being so close to Chepe the fact that Tesanee seemed to move further and further away from them made her a little nervous. She was young and Lena didn’t want to lose sight of her. Not everyone on the island were good trustful people…and if someone snatched the small girl up right under their noses Lena would never forgive herself.

“Oh! Mint Chocolate Chip!” Lena exclaimed -helping Chepe choose his ice-cream. She had leaned in close her soft voice right at his ear so that he could hear her over the giggly eccentric customers. Sliding passed a couple at the register Lena bent over both hands on her knees beside Tesanee. “That sounds absolutely scrumptious.” She said commenting on her choice of ice-cream mixture. “Will you let me try a bite? I might have to ge- ooof” As Lena was speaking a boy who looked the same age as her and Chepe pushed passed them without as much as an “excuse me” almost knocking Lena over into little Tesanee.

Chepe smiled at Lena. Looking over at Tesanee, he said "You need to stick with us okay?" Laughing at a couple people he saw goofing off he turned to Lena and Tesanee again. "Thanks for helping me pick" he grinned. "I never could have decided on my own." When the guy pushed past Lena and Tesanee, almost knocking Lena in to his sister, he didn't think. He quickly moved up behind the guy and grabbed his arm, glaring at him angrily. Chepe had an intimidating look on his face, which was usually all he had to do. "You just shoved a lady who is special to me," he said, "And almost hurt my sister too." He dragged the guy back to Lena and Tesanee. "Apologize to both her and my sister now." he said, in a soft, dangerous voice.

Grinning, Tesanee said, "sure! I don't mind letting you try it." She laughed. "Chepe hates trying my combinations."
When the guy shoved past them Tesanee was shaken up. "That was mean." she mumbled under her breath.

The boy pulled away from Chepe glaring at him. It seemed as though he might have been sizing him up deciding it wouldn’t be smart to pick a fight with him. Turning to the two girls he mumbled an apology before disappearing out the door, quickly creating as much distance as possible between him and Chepe.

Lena giggled nudging Chepe playfully in the side. “You’re cute when you’re mad.” She whispered so his sister wouldn’t overhear. Grabbing Tesanee’s hand Lena approached the register letting her order her odd mixture first. After paying and getting their ice-cream, she knew they wouldn’t be able to find a table in the crowded shop and opted for the umbrella covered tables outside the mall.

Chepe blushed slightly. "No one was going to push you and get away with it." he said, smiling at her. "I couldn't have lived with myself if I had allowed him to not tell you he was sorry." Chepe shook his hair out of his eyes. "People like that really annoy me." He looked at her and smiled. "you look great today."
Tesanee was bouncing around excited about going outside to eat. She always felt uncomfortable in crowded places.
After getting their ice cream, Chepe slipped his arm around Lena again as they headed outside. Once they found a table Chepe, dropped his arm from her waist, to pull out a chair for Lena to sit. He smiled at her, his long hair covering one eye completely and partially covering the other, the slight breeze blowing the rest of his hair around him.