Welcome!

[Amanda Foley]

It was a cool, crisp day in Crowne, Massachusetts The wind was blowing hard and all the residents were taking strolls around the lush, Crowne Park. Of course, they were all bundeled up in their winter coats and everything else that could "protect" them from the cold breeze. Not Amanda, though. She was comfortable in a light sweater and jeans. She never minded the cold weather. In fact, she loved it! Warm weather was just too gross and muggy. It also made her hair frizz and well, she did not look good with a white girl 'fro. The young, sixteen year old girl strutted through the magnificant park with her hands stuffed in her pockets. She was enjoying the sound of the wind blowing against the leaves and the birds chirping their tunes, waiting for fly South for the Winter that was approaching. It was only September, but in Crowne, the weather always felt like the oppisite of what it really was. A friend of her's from school rode by on a bike. Amanda waved and giggled at the thought of her friend crashing into a tree or something else that would be comical for her to enjoy. Amanda was such a sweet girl, wasn't she?

"Don't crash!" she yelled out, catching the girl by suprise and making her swerve, almost falling over.

Amanda wasn't that nice to her friends or well, people she considered her friends. She giggled again at the thought, but then forgetting about it a few seconds later. Letting out a deep sigh, her eyes wandered over to the ice cold lake. Sometimes, she just wanted to strip naked and jump in. Who knows? Maybe it would be warm! Then she'd be the one having fun and everyone else would just laugh.

[Ava Caldwell]

Ava was always fond on going to the park. When she was younger, she would play tag or some other active game with her friends, then get a soft pretzel and insist on not sharing even though she could never finish it herself. As she got older, the people changed, but it was still a lot of running around. Sometimes someone would bring along a guitar and they’d start singing and dancing, sometimes they’d go at night and hang around the playground, and sometimes they would just have picnics. Once they all planned to sleep in the park out under the stars, but the cops ended up clearing them out because a neighbor to the park called complaining.
Today was different though. She walked into the park not expecting to hear her friends jamming to Death Cab or playing some sort of thought up on the spot game. She hadn’t texted anyone to see where they were, or called anyone to meet her there. Her cell was in her room at home, ringing for all she knew. If she needed someone to hang out with, a stranger was as good as most of the people who were calling her, right? That was what she had always thought, and it was a pretty hard habit to break. First though, she was going to get her soft pretzel.
It was a ten minute walk across the park to the soft pretzel guy. Her eyes lit up, as he handed it over to her. She took a few bites, relishing the taste. It always reminded her of the simplicity of childhood. After a moment she began scoping out candidates to talk to. There was an old lady feeding birds, which didn’t look too promising. A man tanning with sunglasses on, so she wasn’t sure if he was even awake. She looked around a bit more, making a note that the old lady would due if there was no one else. Her eyes settled on a girl about her age, standing by the lake. Bingo. Hey!” she said, walking over to her with a smile on her face. "You looked like you could use some company. If not at least I know I could." Upon a closer look, she could recognize the girl from school. She wasn't in her grade. Either a junior or a senior. She didn’t know too much else about her.

[Amanda Foley]

Amanda kept her eyes on the lake. She was debating whether or not to go swimming. She would probaly get into a lot of trouble if she did. The young brunette shook the thoughts off and turned around, seeing a familiar girl approaching her. Who was that? She had seen her before, but the name wasn't in her mind. After thinking for a few seconds, she remembered her. They had... oh, what was it? It's a pretty easy class... chemistry together! She was now standing in front of her and Amanda greeted her with a raise of the eyebrows and a, weird, half-smile type thing. She still hadn't come up with her name. If she asked, would she look like a complete bitch and have to apologize like fourty times. Deciding on which to do, she remembered that she hadn't talked yet. She must have looked insane.

"Uh, yeah. I could use some company," she responded, shrugging her shoulders and looking the girl up and down. "I don't want to feel like a complete bitch, but who are you again? I know we have a class together, but you're name isn't coming to me."

[Ava Caldwell]

Ava laughed a bit; embarrassed she forgot to introduce herself. Sometimes she would go on for five or ten minutes, until someone would finally stop to ask her name. Her cheeks would always flush pink. It wasn’t her being vain assuming people knew who she was, it was her being so eager to meet someone new and jump into the conversation quickly that she’d simply forget. “Right, sorry!” she said apologetically, hoping the girl didn’t think she was an idiot. A moment later, she added, “I’m Ava.”
When the girl mentioned they had a class together, she studied her face a bit harder. Then it clicked. “Oh, right. Chemistry? You sit in near the back?” Chemistry was like most of her others classes. She only paid attention when she had to, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise that she didn’t know her name either. Besides she sat near the front of the classroom, clearly a mistake with her constant chatter, which would of made them getting to know each other in there hard.“I’ve got to admit I can’t remember your name either,” she said with a small smile, hoping she wouldn’t be offended.

[Amanda Foley]

Amanda gave the girl a strange look. She seemed to be a dumb blonde, laughing at random moments and then saying weird, ditzy things. Amanda didn't have any ditzy friends; maybe it was good that she had bumped into this blonde. She felt like having a good comic relief that wasn't making jokes about cancer or death. Changing the strange look to a sweet smile, the young brunette pulled her hands out of her pockets and crossed them over her chest. Waiting for her to say her name, Amanda continued to sort through her mind to figure it out... what was it? Ava! Wait, she just said that. Oh well, it was worth the long scan of her amazing brain. Ava. That's right. The words that came out of her new pal's mouth kind of went in one of Amanda's ears and through the other. When she asked for her name, she snapped back into reality, even though she never showed that she went out of it.

"Nice to meet you for the first time, well sort of, Ava. I'm Foley. Amanda Foley," she responded with, grabbing the blonde's hand and shaking it fiercly as she spoke. Hopefully, her way of greetings wouldn't creep the other girl out. It was just how Amanda usually did things. You know, spontaneous! Don't put your hand out for them, just grab their hand and shake like no tommorow. Pulling her hand back, she stuffed it into her pocket and vice-versa with the other.

[Ava Caldwell]

Ava was a bit surprised when the girl grabbed her hand and shook it so intensely. She hadn't expected it, so her hand went kind of limp in response, and as she drew in back to her side she flexed it slightly. She had always been taught that a firm hand shake was important when meeting someone new, but this girl decided to take a different spin on it. Well, it gave her spunk, and that was a quality that she always found endearing in a person. Not to say that she didn’t like the calm, laid back types. She had a handful of friends that were in fact that. But the more ready to go, spirited people really drew her in. She definitely sensed some of that in this girl with her forward greeting.
Her lips curved up into a smile. “Nice to meet you too Amanda,” she replied, letting the name sink in. Sometimes when she first met someone, she’d have trouble remembering names, so she’d think of silly ways to remember them like their name and a word that begins with the same letter. Amanda-Apple. She repeated it twice in her mind, hoping it’d due the trick. Once she knew the name, she wouldn’t forget it. She was actually kind of good with names once she knew them, which was surprising considering she was borderline clueless when it came to people asking her to put a name to faces that had never talked to her.
“So, you came to the park alone?” she asked curiously, wondering if she too had ditched her friends needing some space, or if this was a normal thing for her.