"Did you know that butterflies can taste with thier feet?" Adam smiled up at his grand-mother.

"Really?," Edith gasped playfully at Adam, as they both walked in through the door of the largest shopping store in Cherrywood with Samantha tagging along behind them.

They got in and stopped as Edith began scanning the vicinity. Samantha glared at her little brother beside her with her arms crossed on her chest. "You know what I'm gonna start calling you?", she hissed before bent low to meet the little boy's eyes. "Animal Planet."


Adam stuck out his tongue at his big sister and Edith chuckled. "Okay," Edith uttered. "Let me make this shopping a little bit easy and fast for us."



She turned to Samantha and pointed at her. "You," she ordered. "Foodstuffs and groceries, an be back her in three minutes." Samantha rolled her eyes and walked into the sea of people and aisles filled with supplies.



Edith then leaned forward and faced little Adam below her. "And you", she cooed. "..get the fruits."



"Aye-Aye Captain," Adam yelled with an excited smile. Edith chuckled as she watched the little boy run off, before she turned and walked to the pharmaceutical area.

*

As Samantha walked through the aisle pushing the shopping cart before her with shelves of cornflakes, peanut butter, mayonnaise and milk towering over her, she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was following her.

She spun and just saw a fat man reading the labels on a can of green-peas, with another lady at the corner who was scanning the shelf beside her. She spun forward again and immediately caught someone jumping into hiding beside one of the hug shelves.


Samantha blinked her eyes rapidly and rubbed them to make sure she wasn't seeing things. The person was so fast, she couldn't tell whether it was a boy or a girl, but she knew for the person to have been that fast and that agile, he or she had to be quite young.


"Hello?" she uttered.


She wanted to call out her baby brother's name, but she knew the figure she saw was too tall to be Adam. She swallowed hard and kept moving, forgetting she was even shopping. Her attention was fixed on who was hiding by the shelf.

"Hey."

The voice made Samantha jolt in shock. She spun quickly with her eyes wide as saucers.


"Oh"," Brie chuckled. "Sorry if I scared you."

Even though Brie was not a serial killer or a monster or something, she was still shocked to see her anyway. "Hey," Samantha uttered slowly, as she eyed Brie with uncertainty.


Brie chuckled at Samantha's mode of response. "Didn't think we would run into each other again," Brie said. "I mean, what are the odds right?"


Samantha said nothing. She just stared at her, fighting the urge to ask her what she wanted. When Brie didn't get a response, she dropped her shoulders in defeat and sighed.


"Look," she began. "I know I was kinda bitchy the first time we met."

"Kinda?"

"..and I'm sorry," Brie uttered in an apologetic tone.



Samantha raised her brows and opened her mouth, but no words came out. She was really surprised at the fact that Brie, who looked like she was a wild animal, ready to rip her head off two days ago, was looking so timid and calm all of a sudden.

"What happened?"

I mean, sure, it was okay for someone who had offended a person to just turn around and rethink what he or she did as bullshit and then come out and apologise, but this was too.......soon. Plus, something like this didn't really happen in the world Samantha lived in, and especially not among teenage girls like she and Brie.


"Are you gonna say something?," Brie uttered as she eyed the confused girl.


Samantha brought her eyes back to the blonde girl before her and swallowed hard. She was still trying to figure out what was going on. If she was in her High school back in New York right now, this would have qualified as some sort of prank or something, but, Samantha knew the folks in this town could not be that devious.

"Why-why are you doing this?" Samantha stuttered.



Brie gave the girl a puzzled look. "Because I felt bad about, you know, the way I treated you at the lake," the girl said as she raised her shoulders. "It wasn't cool."

Samantha said nothing. She just kept staring at Brie suspiciously. Brie then dropped her shoulders, rolled her eyes and then walked past Samantha to the end of the aisle. She got there and began struggling to pull something or someone out from its hiding place behind the towering shelf.


She kept pulling and pulling, but when it refused to move, she turned and faced whatever was there, glaring at it.



"This was your idea in the first place", Brie hissed at the figure through gritted teeth. "..so get the hell out here, now."



Brie gave one last heavy pull and suddenly, Samantha saw an embarrassed and shocked looking Luke, stagger out of the corner.


Samantha shook her head and pursed her lips as she stared at the embarrassed boy. "I knew it."


As Brie dragged Luke in her direction, he couldn't even look Samantha in the eye. He looked like Brie had dragged him out of the bathroom, butt-naked. Brie dragged him all the way, till they were both face to face with Samantha, and even then, the teenage boy could not look her in the eye. He looked so embarrassed, his face was glowing red.

"So," Brie started, the apologetic tone was long gone now. "Let's get this over with, shall we?"

Samantha looked away from Luke and faced Brie.

"Lukie here," the girl said as she pinched the boy's cheeks. "...has been feeling like crap for the past two days. I noticed it when we hung out at the diner. He wouldn't talk to anyone, hell, he didn't even finish his food and that's what got me worried, 'cause Luke here, is a real feeding machine."


Samantha saw Luke roll his eyes as soon as he heard the last sentence and held herself from smiling.


"Then I went over and asked him what the matter was, and he looked at me with those puppy eyes and said....," then she playful feigned puppy eyes and bent her lips. "...Samantha", Brie said, faking the voice of a child.



Luke raised his face and frowned at Brie with his jaws clenched. Samantha coughed out a laugh and smiled at the blonde girl before her.


"She is hilarious".


"He told me everything and I found out that his present condition was actually my fault, so I thought I should do something about it," Brie explained as she began to rub Luke's belly.


Luke threw her hands off his belly before she faced Samantha with a smirk. "Apologise," she uttered.


Samantha glanced at Luke who was still looking down at his shoes and then she shifted her gaze back to Brie.


"You didn't have to," Samantha shrugged.

Brie gave her an incredulous look. "Are you kidding me?, this dude was a train wreck," Brie scoffed and then she looked over at the boy beside her and began wiggling her brows. "He's obviously crazy about you."

Luke raised his wide eyes to Brie, his cheeks were bright red and then gave a low and heavy whisper. "I'm not."




"Sure," Brie waved him away. "Whatevs".

Samantha gave a quiet chuckle. Luke was right about Brie after all.

"She's kinda cool."

Brie then turned and faced Samantha with a more serious look on her face. She moved over to her and placed her hands on her left shoulder.

"I'm really sorry Samantha," Brie said. "I mean it."

Samantha thought for a while and then she shrugged. "It's okay", she said.


Then Brie pulled her in for a tight hug. "Thank you Samantha," she sighed.


"Sure," Samantha replied as they pulled themselves apart.


"I mean...for the fact that Luke likes you," Brie said as she pushed a strand of her blonde curl back behind her right ear. "I guess that shows how cool you are already."



"Jesus Christ, Brie," Luke hissed again; apparently Brie was getting on his nerves.


"What?," Brie spun to him and shrugged.


Samantha threw her head back in Laughter and then caught Luke's gaze on her. She could tell he was a bit elated to see her smile again.

"Well, I'm done here," Brie said as she slapped Luke on the belly as she walked past him. "I'll leave you love birds to it. Meanwhile, I'll be at the at clothing area stealing some designer shades if anyone needs me," Brie said as she strutted past Samantha and disappeared around the corner.

Samantha chuckled as she watched the blonde girl walk away in a catwalk that was obviously practised.

"I guess you were right..", Samantha said.

Then she turned to face Luke who had managed to look up at her now but still unsure and anxious.

"...she's wonderful", Samantha smiled.


Luke said nothing. He just gave a shy grin.

Samantha stared at the boy for a while. It was funny, but it was as if she was seeing him for the first time. It was as if she had never realised how green his eyes were or how his black-brown curls fell to his forehead. How his face reddened every time he was shy or embarrassed. The way he dug his hands into the pocket of his skinny jeans and the effect the light at the shopping centre had on his skin.

The two teens stood there in silence infront of each other and everything was beginning to look awkward, even though Samantha was the more confident one.

"Wanna help me pick out groceries?" she finally asked.


The boy looked up at her and even though he tried to hide it a little, Samantha could still see the tiny spark of excitement in his eyes.


"Sh-sure," he stuttered.

A smile slowly grew on both thier faces as they stared at each other before they both walked away together down the aisle of towering shelves filled with food supplies.

Thanks for the update.

thanks for the update