Uh-oh. What happened?
Nothing new. What are your plans this week?
Reading, and binging that teen fantasy show on Netflix.
Nice. Wait, I thought you were going to the party Kyle is throwing?
Eh. Maybe. It doesn’t sound as fun without you.
Whatever. Everyone likes you way better.
True,she replied.
I smiled, feeling a little lighter.Well, if you go, find Leena and tell her congrats on her brown belt.
You should text her that yourself.
She won’t think it’s weird that I remember she took that test, will she?
Why would she think that?
I don’t know.
You think too much. People like you, stop overanalyzing it.
Did people like me? This trip was only adding to my ever-growing list of evidence that maybe people only liked thefiltered version of me, and sometimes not even that. At least I had Willow.But that’s what I do. Overanalyze.
Speaking of people who like you, I hear Dylan is going to that party.
Speaking of people who decided they didn’t like you, is what she should’ve said. Dylan was my ex-boyfriend. We’d broken up the summer before because we mutually decided we were better as friends. I hadn’t seen much of him since, despite our claim to friendship.
And?I texted back.
And, I don’t know. I thought his name might make you feel some kind of way.
What kind of way?
Any kind of way.
I shook my head even though she couldn’t see it.It doesn’t. I guess we made the right choice last year.
You definitely did.
Mom and the others joined me on the RV.Gotta run. I need to be an artist.
***
I was so happy I’d brought my colored pencils. Micro Line black pens were my favorite medium but as we climbed out of the RV and to a hill not far from the parking lot, I knew this sketch would be in color. The setting sun lit the mountains in the background a fiery reddish orange and in the foreground it looked like someone had dumped chalk dust onto all the rocky terrain.Turquoise and purple, white and yellow trailed up the sides of rocks, highlighting their shapes and creating a paint-by-number scene. I imagined a sandboarder in a game, gliding down the hills. She’d collect different points for all the different colors she managed to board on.
“Wow,” Paisley said in awe. “I don’t think this is considered flora or fauna.”
Olivia hooked her arm in Paisley’s. “Maybe we should make it flora, fauna, and terrain.”
“No way,” Paisley said. “No adding more work to my work.”
“No harm has ever come from doing more than expected.”
Paisley huffed out a breath. “I’d be the first to prove that statement wrong.”