Chapter Text
She and Oona had spent nearly four hours together. After they made up, the other hours had been spent talking. When they finished their shakes, Oona had suggested that they find a place to be that wasn’t in the car, so Ramona drove them to Rockefeller Park which was a short distance from the Shake Shack parking lot. They wandered around with the streetlights illuminating their way.
It was nice. There was a lot to say, a lot to catch up on. Despite not speaking for four months, they had picked back up with no step lost. It was easy, familiar.
By the time Ramona made it home it was five minutes to midnight and apparently Annie had been waiting up. As if her folded arms and glare weren’t enough of a clue to her state, her next words were.
“So where’s my burger Ramona?” Annie says with her eyebrow raised.
“Shit, I knew I was forgetting something.” Ramona says to herself as she goes to hang her coat on the rack and take her shoes off.
“You know, I’ve lived in New York my entire life and I don’t think it’s ever taken me four hours to go grab burgers, especially ones that you forgot to get.” Annie says with an attitude as the girls move into the living room and sit on the large sectional. “What were you actually doing Ramona? Were you with Marissa?” She teasingly pushes
“No.” She says vaguely before saying, “And just for the record, I didn’t forget the burgers, I just forgot to get your burger.”
“And what exactly was so important that you forgot?” Annie says
“Someone is awfully wound up” Ramona says, trying to avoid the question and shift the subject.
Annie shakes her head while she says, “Nuh uh, Ramona, don’t think you’re getting out of this one so easily.”
Ramona rolls her eyes.
“Oh my god, Annie. Just let it go, it’s not important.” she says dismissively
“Who were you with Ramona?” Annie says and silence fills the room for a few seconds before she gasps and says, “Oh my god! Ramona. Are you cheating on your girlfriend?” Annie says concernedly with an emphasis on cheating.
“What the fuck, Annie?” Ramona says in genuine disbelief that her sister actually seems to think that her theory is the case. “Why in the actual hell would I do that?”
“I don’t know!? Why would someone jump on a frozen lake and fall in? People are strange.”
“What an odd thing to say.”
Annie ignores Ramona’s teasing and continues with her sleuthing, “Okay, so if you weren’t with Marissa, and you aren’t cheating on her, what exactly have you been doing for the last four hours?”
Ramona groans as she realizes that Annie is not going to let it go. “Jesus, Annie. If you really must know-”
Annie interrupts, “I must.”
Ramona rolls her eyes as she continues, “I was with Oona.”
“What? Why?” Annie says, trying to avoid revealing her excitement.
“Because she asked me to pick her up?” Ramona says as she shrugs. She says it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Dude, you know what I mean. Like why? What did she want? What were you doing for FOUR hours?” Annie rattles off.
“She texted me and asked me to talk, said that it wasn’t super important so it could wait if I was busy, I wasn’t, but I was hungry so I asked her if she wanted to get food. That’s seriously all that happened. We yelled at each other for a bit and then walked around in Rockefeller Park.” Ramona says.
“Wait, that’s low key, very romantic.”
Ramona makes a face at Annie, “Annie, seriously. We’ve already discussed the fact that I’m not, and I will not be cheating on, Mari.”
“No, yeah, of course,” Annie says with a gesture, “Completely got that part, but it’s a really nice park.”
Ramona tries to stave off a grin, but fails, “Yeah, It is, but it just happened to be super close to the Shake Shack and we didn’t-”
“Wait, Ramona. YOU WENT TO SHAKE SHACK AND HAD THE AUDACITY TO FORGET MY FUCKING BURGER?” Annie yells, “I literally am the one that put you onto ‘the shack’ and you thank me like this?” she says dramatically hurt.
“Oh my fucking god, Annie just DoorDash the fucking burger I’ll even pay if it gets you to let it go.”
Annie pauses at this, forgetting her anger because Ramona has a point, “Okay, so first off, I don’t appreciate your tone. And second off, if anyone is paying, it’s dad.”
Ramona chuckles quietly.
“Okay.” Ramona sighs
“So anyway, you were saying…” Annie says as she pulls out her phone to order her burger.
“I was saying nothing. Oona and I are friends again, end of story.”
“Okay then.”
The subject changes and before long Annie gets her burger and Ramona goes to bed.
_________________
Oona on the other hand doesn’t have it so easy. She’s not used to sleeping at a solid place. On the boat they rock gently, creating a calm movement and sound lulling her to sleep, but in New York, it's not nearly as peaceful. She hears her mom snoring in the other room, Maple’s odd sleep talking, and the cars outside, because somehow at One in the morning there is still traffic.
Oona knows that she doesn’t have a choice but to sleep because Maple will inevitably wake her up with the sun, far too excited for the day at that early in the morning. And then she’ll be out being a tourist.
As she lies awake in the dark she makes a promise to herself. She promises that she will be the best friend that Ramona needs and nothing else. She won’t let her jealousy show, and no one but her has to know she was ever jealous in the first place. No matter how much she hates it, no one can know, especially not Ramona, because if she does, Oona knows that she might trigger something that she’d regret. If best friend was the only title she could have, it was enough, it had to be.
She eventually fell asleep thinking of all the things she might do the next day.
Just as she had suspected, Maple tried to wake her up at 7:25, Oona, however, was not having it. She rolled over and went back to sleep as she heard her mother say, “Maple, honey, let her sleep, she was out late last night. I’ll tell you what. Let’s go downstairs and get breakfast, see if its anything to write home about huh?”
Oona’s dreams after that are filled with pancakes oddly.
When they come back and actually succeed at waking her up around 9:30, Maple declares that they have to get going if they are going to meet her itinerary.
To this Oona responds, “Maple, calm down. We still have a whole month here, you will get to do absolutely everything you want to. I promise.”
“Ugh, fine, but you still only have fifteen because Annie and Ramona will be here soon.” Maple says.
“Ramona’s coming?” Oona asks
“Yeah, Annie invited her and texted me they would be here in 20, so that means, Move it.” She says, and makes her point by stealing Oona’s blanket.
Maple shuts the door and Oona rolls over to scream into her pillow.
She’s dressed in 9 minutes and decides that her hair was too tangled to tame in time, so she runs it under the sink and forces the brush through as many times as she can before Maple comes in and yells at her that it’s time to go for the third time.
Annie and Ramona park their car in the parking lot of the hotel and they make their way to the subway. The day flies by after that.
They visit the big places on Maple’s list. They go to Times Square, and oddly enough they pay an exuberant amount to go to the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum that wasn’t even on Maple’s list, but when she saw it they just had to go. It was fun.
While they’re there, Annie sees the newly installed Kaia Gerber wax figure and teases Oona mercilessly about shooting her shot. She goes blood red and goes anywhere but in that room.
She and Ramona walk around together talking about the celebrities, then she goes with Maple and watches as her face lights up seeing the Frank Sinatra bust, having just become obsessed with his Guys and Dolls movie she found in a random bin at the thrift.
Her mom meshes nicely which surprises her. Isla and Annie bond about teasing her, sharing stories, even Ramona gets along with her, shallowly talking. That one had surprised her the most, especially since she knew that Ramona resented Isla for leaving Oona to deal with it all for herself.
When they left, they went to lunch at a random restaurant they found on the strip. It was good. They walked around and explored for a good while, and later went back to the subway and headed to Annie and Ramona’s for dinner, which Steven had begged his girls to host when he heard that their friends from Sterling Point had come to New York, desperate to make a better impression the second time around.
He tried hard, especially with Oona since the last time they saw each other it had ended in a chaotic few days. They got to know each other and as the night went on, her disdain for the man who robbed her of her best friend faded, albeit gradually.
Then after their early dinner, they all packed into the living room and watched a movie. Connor got home half way through and sat next to his dad. Oona fell asleep on the floor sitting between her mom and Maple. Annie had dozed off slightly but Ramona slapped her awake each time she saw her head start to droop.
It was around eight before the movie was over and they went to take Maple, Isla, and Oona back to the hotel.
With everyone super tired from the long day walking around in the sunny cold they slept earlier than usual, all except Ramona who had neglected her homework all weekend and had to get caught up. That part Oona would only find out the next day when Oona got a text from Ramona complaining about her lacking sleep.
________________________
[Ramona: 12:19pm]
Omg. I got literally no sleep last night it was insane.
[Oona: 12:19pm]
didn’t get in bed til late?
[Ramona: 12:19pm]
No
[Ramona: 12:20pm]
My fucking math teacher is psycho. 45 fucking problems over the weekend, which i had to do yesterday at 2 because i have a fucking life.
[Oona: 12:21pm]
At least you did it i guess?
[Ramona: 12:21pm]
Im so jealous that youre already on break. Its so stupid that in American school theyre hell bent on destroying joy
[Oona: 12:21pm]
Thats why canada does it bttr
[Ramona: 12:22pm]
At least we can both agree on that lol
[Ramona: 12:22pm]
I can honestly say that I miss canada which might seem crazy since so much fucked up shit happened there but its just home
[Ramona: 12:22pm]
Plus, the marina crew is on top. I love my people here, but you guys are my family ya know
[Oona: 12:23pm]
I guess New York hasn’t corrupted you yet huh?
Ramona begins typing again, but that’s when Mari comes up behind and wraps her in a hug kissing her head. This slightly startles her and she jumps. It's just her and Mari today, with their other friends Faith and Jenny away at their robotics competition.
“What are you smiling at?” Marissa asks
“Oona and I were just talking about Canada.” Ramona says
At the mention of Oona, Mari gets slightly defensive, not that she lets Ramona see it. ‘They're just friends nothing else’ she reminds herself and it dumps an ice bucket over her fears. Her tension dissipates quickly as she remembers that she and Ramona are good. Great even
“Oh really? What about it? I feel like you never talk about Sterling Point.” She says as she sits down.
“Oh, just our friends and school. And about how I’m sooo jealous that her and Annie are free for winter break. It sucks that we still have to go another week and a half.” Ramona complains
“Wait, they’re already on break? Maybe I should move to Canada,” Marissa jokes
“God, maybe I should go back,” she says jokingly, but it doesn’t feel like much of a joke, especially since there's probably a part of her that means it.
“Maybe we could go together for spring break, visit. You could show me your Island, since you know, you own an island, which is so fucking cool by the way.” Marissa says for the hundredth time since finding out. She just can't fathom it.
“That might be fun. Who knows though, especially if Mr. Friar doesn’t stop giving us insane fucking homework assignments.” Ramona complains
“Oh my god! Yes. How long did it take you? It took me like 2 hours.” Mari says
“Literally all night. Like three or four hours, seriously.”
Mari gasps, “Oh my god, poor baby. No wonder you were falling asleep in History today.”
“Yeah, no kidding. I bet I could fall asleep standing right now.” Ramona jokes seriously
They talk like that for another ten minutes, but then the lunch bell rings sending them back to yet another endlessly boring class.
________________
The typing bubbles appeared on Oona’s phone, but disappeared after a few seconds. She sighs, assuming that something came up and she wouldn’t get a reply back.
She looks up from her phone and looks out the window at the busy street. When Ramona had texted her, they had just gotten to the small restaurant where they had decided to eat, at Isla’s request.
They told her to go save their table while they ordered, but now, with nothing to do, she just watched.
A few minutes later they walked back and sat down.
“Where’s the food?” Oona asked
“They said they’d bring it out” Isla responded
“Oh, okay.” Oona said sitting back, “So, Maple.. What are we up to today?”
“I haven’t decided yet. Maybe the spyscape museum?” Maple says
“Skyscrapers? Really?” Oona says, unhappy with the prospect of sitting in an architecture museum
“No Oona,” Maple giggles, “Spy. Spyscape museum.”
Isla laughs at her girls’ antics. “What do they have there?”
“Like old spy tech from a long time ago. Like the eighties.” Maple says excitedly
Isla acts wounded at this. “Ooh, way to make your mom feel ancient.”
“Okay, well in her defense the eighties were a long time ago, even if you wouldn’t like to admit that.” Oona teases
“Okay so! After that maybe we just go to the shopping plaza? And maybe at some point I want to go to a Knicks game!” Maple says, changing the subject.
“The Knicks? Like basketball? Since when have you been into sports, Maple?” Oona asks, confused.
“Um, well, I’m not, but did you see how excited the people got last summer? That would be fun to see.”
Before anyone can respond the worker interrupts politely to bring them their food.
They all eat and then make their way to Maple’s spy museum. They’re there for nearly 3 hours where Maple is completely all over the place. Oona and her mom just watch as Maple pulls them from station to station trying out all of the gadgets.
Although Oona was initially skeptical about the whole thing, she ended up having fun. The museum had some little spy laser tag type deal at the end and her and Maple competitively dusted the whole room.
Their sportsmanship however was non existent because they gloated and talked trash all the way back to the entrance.
“Aren’t you Americans supposed to be all about guns? You just got smoked by two Brits.” Oona had joked to one boy around her age, he however did not find it funny and responded
“Get lost you fuckin redcoat.”
Maple and Isla had to hold her back and practically drag her out. She hadn’t really known what it meant, but she knew it was an insult and that was enough to send her flying straight to 100%.
While they were walking she had whispered to Maple, “what the hell is a fucking red coat?”
“Like the British army, when they did,” she pauses to think and comes up with nothing so she finishes quickly, “something to the Americans.” Maple shrugs as she answers.
They make their way around after that. Mostly just walking through and browsing in random stores. They have fun, though.
Oona notices absentmindedly how safe she feels. For the first time in a long time, she’s just content to be. She’s not afraid that she’ll be abandoned again, she’s not worried about school, she’s not worried about the next paycheck, she is just living in the moment. Enjoying her family and the new scenery.
They’re walking when Maple sees the Ice skating rink and begs them to go.
“Wait, no please can we go skating?” Maple begs as they continue walking.
“Maybe we can go in a few days? It’s not super busy so I’m sure we could fit it in, plus don’t you want to invite your friends?” Isla says.
This placates Maple, “okay, I guess.” She pauses “Oona, will you invite Ramona and Annie?”
“Yeah sure. I’ll ask them when we figure out when we’re going” Oona promises.
_____________________
The final bell rings freeing Ramona from the torturously boring day.
She walks with Marissa away from their final class.
“Thank god we’re done,” Ramona sighs
“Literally, I think if I had to listen to one more minute of that lecture, I was going to pass out.”
Ramona laughs, “Right, like how can he make this book MORE boring than reading it the first time. There was literally no value. I love reading and I barely finished it.”
“Shit me too.” Marissa responds as they get to their lockers. “Do you have any plans on Thursday?”
“Um.. Not that I know of, but who knows, Annie could make some. Why?” Ramona asks cooly.
“Well, I was just wondering if you wanted to go out or something? I don’t know what we’d do, but.” Mari shrugs.
“Oh, yeah. For sure. You could come over after school if you want. Or I could come there, whichever.” Ramona says
“Yeah definitely. We could watch that movie you’ve been wanting to see, or.” She trails off.
“Yeah whateve-” Ramona says to Mari before she’s interrupted
“Ramona, let’s go!” Connor yells as he slams her locker shut and slings his arm around her shoulder practically dragging her away.
“I’ve gotta go, I guess.” Ramona says with an awkward wave as she moves further away.
Marissa waves back with a chuckle before turning the opposite way and leaving as well.
Ramona turns to Connor. “What the fuck, dude?”
“What. I’m hungry. That’s always more important than whatever you and the hell beast were talking about.” Connor says as they walk out the door to their car
“Connor, seriously?” Ramona says offendedly
“What?” Connor asks
Ramona shrugs it off and gets in the car, trying her hardest to ignore Connor and his not so subtle digs to her girlfriend.
By the time they make it home, Ramona is half asleep, thanks to one of Connor’s long and boring stories. She beelines straight to her room and crashes. She wakes up around seven just long enough to eat dinner, but it isn’t long before she’s back in bed asleep.