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Hazel skips happily along the sidewalk. She’s heading to Patty Possum’s to hang out with Winn and Jasmine. She’s extra excited about this hang out because she’s going to be officially introducing Dev as her friend. This is going to be so much fun! Dev walks slowly behind her, his au-pairs by his side. He keeps slowing down the closer they get to their destination. At this rate they will never make it on time. She stops, which makes him stop too. She turns to face him, hands on her hips. “Why are you walking so slow Dev? At this pace Patty Possum’s will be closed by the time we get there!”
“Well good, that place stinks” he grumbles, pushing his sunglasses up. “Is Patty Possum too low brow for your refined tastes?” Wanda teases. She giggles at her fairy’s remark, trying and failing to stop herself from going into a full-blown fit of laughter. “Ooo…that’s a good one” Cosmo comments, the comment quickly being followed up a loud boisterous laugh. “No! I mean Yes!” Dev shouts, his face flushed in a mix of embarrassment and anger. “That was pretty good” Peri replies, giggling a little himself. “Don’t you start!” Dev shouts at his fairy. She catches her breathe, taking a moment to recover. She makes eye contact with Dev or well, she makes eye and shade contact. He turns his head away. “Okay what’s the real reason for you not wanting to go?” she asks. He doesn’t answer, instead staring intensely at the ground. “Are you…” Hazel hesitates before asking the question. “Are you scared they won’t like you?” he doesn’t give a response. “Oh, kiddo I’m sure they will love you!” Wanda says. “Yeah! Winn and Jasmine are super cool and nice!” Cosmo replies. “My parents are right, I mean sure you have a really, really tough exterior but you’re a good kid underneath…everything”
“It’s not that simple, they had known me as a bully for an entire year before you guys showed up…”
“Then you just need to show them that you changed” she says, giving him a gentle smile. “But how?” Dev asks, looking up at her, his sunglasses slipping off his nose, not enough to fall but enough to see his pleading blue eyes underneath. “By being the Dev that I know” she says. “But what if they don’t like that Dev either?”
“Trust me, they will” she holds out her hand which Dev hesitantly takes. She then starts to pull him along as they both head towards Patty Possum’s hand in hand. They walk like this for a while before she spots Jasmine and Winn waiting at the entrance of the indoor playground. She lets go of Dev’s hand, rushing up to greet her two other friends with a hug. They both hug her back. They all quickly break away from the hug, bouncing on their heels in excitement. “Oh, I can’t wait to get inside; it feels like it’s been forever since were last here!” Jasmine says excitedly. “Yeah! I can’t wait to see Patty again; she must have missed us since the last time we were here!” Winn says, objectively the most excited out of the bunch. “Oooo this going to be so much fun! We get to eat food, play, hang out with Patty and you two get to officially meet Dev!”
“Yeah, speaking of Dev, I pretty sure he’s trying to sneak away” Jasmine says pointing at him from behind her and sure enough the moment she turns to look at him she catches him mid-step, with a guilty smile he turns back around and walks over to the group. He goes to stand next to her, his au-pairs now hovering above him. “Hi” he says awkwardly, looking at his shoes. “Sup” Winn says with a relaxed look on their face. “Hey” Jasmine says, turning her head to look at him. “We should probably head inside now”
“Good thinking Hazel, we don’t want to waste any more time standing out here” Winn says, opening the door to the playground and heading inside. The rest of the group follows them as they all enter Patty Possum’s Party Playground.
Inside the group is surrounded by blinding techno-coloured lights and the deafening sound of laughing and screaming coming from kids playing on the playground equipment and the various arcade games lining the walls. She and her friends were in awe, well expect for Dev. “This place is so bright and loud!” Dev shouts over the noise. “I know! Isn’t it amazing?” Winn exclaims happily. Dev scoffs. “Ooo Dev you should try the P.R.A.M.B.Y snack” Jasmine says grabbing his arm. He brushes her off, scooting away from her. “What the hell is a Pramby snack?”
“We’re so glad you asked” Winn says as they all walk over to the old gumball machine where the treat was held. The three friends all sing in unison as they spell out the P.R.A.M.B.Y snack acronym, or at least they attempt to sing in unison. “Pizza Crust, Raisins, A Broccoli, Marshmallows, Butterscotch, Yellow Number Five…”
“What is Yellow Number-”
“…Secret Ingredient, Nougat, Another Broccoli and Kelly Corn!”
“That sounds…” The trio look at him beaming in anticipation. “Absolutely disgusting” Dev says, wrinkling his nose. The trio deflate slightly at the comment. “But it’s sooo good, you should try some!” Hazel says holding out a portion for him. He turns his head away from it. “Nope, no way, I am not eating that” he states firmly. She pouts her lips, Winn and Jasmine joining her as they all look at him with pleading eyes. But he doesn’t budge. She signs. “Okay Dev, you don’t have to eat it but it would have been nice if you had just tried it” she says popping the gooey snack in her mouth. They all look at each other in silence unsure of what to say next. “How about we all go and see Patty!” Winn beams. “That’s a great idea!” Jasmine replies gleefully. Hazel nods her head maniacally, equally as excited about the suggestion. Dev raises an eyebrow. “You guys can’t seriously be this excited about some old animatronic right?” they don’t answer instead they all start dragging him towards the stage with grins on their faces. “H-hey!” he protests, yet he still allows them to take him to the main stage area of the indoor playground.
They all take their seats at the table nearest to the stage as they wait for the curtains to lift and for Patty to make her grand entrance. A tired voice comes on the intercom. “Alright Party Possums time to give a big round of applause for Patty Possum and her Party Crew” the curtains lift to reveal a lone Possum animatronic on a skateboard holding a guitar. The other instruments left untouched. Dev leans over to Hazel whispering to her. “Where are the other band members?”
“She’s the only one left” she whispers back. He was about to reply to the comment but she shushes him when music starts to play from the overhead speakers. “How we all doing my Party Possums!?” Patty shouts out to the crowd. The kids cheer in response. “Now today I’m going to be playing a song dedicated to all my amazing friends…” she says gesturing to the crowd. “Feel free to sing along if you know the words…” she then starts strumming her guitar and singing. Hazel, Winn, Jasmine, Cosmo and Wanda all sing along with the animatronic, swaying to the beat of the song. Peri sways along with them enjoying the music even Dev starts to bop to the music, a small smile creeping up his face.
Hazel turns to look at her friends. She will never admit this out loud but she was just as anxious as Dev was about this meet up. She is still anxious but seeing Dev become more relax helps, if only slightly. But what if something goes wrong? What if they end up not liking each other? Then she will have to divide her time between her two bestest friends in the world and her newest friend Dev. She’ll have to plan out not one but two separate friend hangouts! She spent hours planning this hangout! how much more time would she have to spend planning out two super amazing perfect hangouts? She feels her heart thumping against her chest as she takes in shallow shaky breaths.
Or worse, what if they end up liking each other more than her? And decide to ditch her? She’s not cool and collected like Winn, or spontaneous like Jasmine. Of course, they’ll like Dev more, he’s not rigid like she is. She gets up from her seat rushing to the unisex toilets. She will deal with the embarrassment of getting up and sprinting away from a concert later. She just really needs some space right now. Once she gets inside a stall, Cosmo and Wanda transform into their natural fairy forms. “Oh, what’s the matter squirt?” Wanda asks in concern. “Yeah! Why did you suddenly run out like that? Did you not like the music?” Cosmo asks. “No no, the music was fine”
“Then what’s wrong?” Wanda asks again. “You can tell us, were really good at keep secrets” Cosmo adds. They both look at her wide eyed, waiting patiently for her response. She debates with herself on whether she should tell them or not. She doesn’t want to burden them with “thoughts formed from unfounded fears and anxieties surrounding events that have yet to or may never occur” at least that’s how her mother would put it. But at the same time, the idea of her friends not liking each other and/or leaving her almost brings her to tears. Ultimately, she deicides to confession her worries to them. As her mother would say “It’s unhealthy to bottle up one’s emotions as it only leads to the formation of stronger unmanageable emotions later on” if only opening up was as easy as her mum made it out to be.
But before she can form a response, she hears a knock on the stall door. “Hazel? Are you in there?” she hears Jasmine call out. “Um…no one’s in here!” she says in a panic. God why did she say that? Now she knows she’s in here! “We got worried when you ran off” Winn says, God Winn is here too!? “So, we followed you in here” Dev finishes, oh man their all here what is she going to do!? She takes in a breath. She can do this. She just needs to act like everything is fine. Then they all go back to having fun and her friends won’t have to worry about her and silly little problems. She’s got this. Cosmo and Wanda transform back in her fidget toys as she unlocks the door. She sees her three friends standing around the stall as she opens the door and makes her exit. “I’m sorry for worrying you guys like that, I didn’t mean to do that…” she says sheepishly rubbing the back of her head. “Let’s go back to the play area! Oh! Maybe we all go play inside the tubes!” she goes to leave but as she walks pass her friends, she feels a hand grab her. “Hazel” she turns to see Dev holding her by the arm. He moves his sunglasses from his eyes, resting them on top of his head. He stares at her intensely. “Tell us what’s wrong”
“Wrong? Nothing’s wrong! I was just overwhelmed and…” she signs. “It’s embarrassing” she admits. Dev lets go of her arm. “We don’t care if it’s embarrassing, you can tell us” Winn says with a smile on their face. “Yeah, were your friends you can tell us anything” Jasmine reassures. “It’s just…I was- am scared that you guys won’t like each other or…” she shallows, a painful lump forming in her throat as tears threaten to fall “…or that you guys would like each other more and not want to…” she feels the freshly made tears falling down her cheeks. “…be my…my friends anymore” she croaks, fruitlessly trying to wipe the tears away. “Oh, Hazel we would never want to stop being friends with you!” Jasmine exclaims. “Yeah, you’re like the bestest friend ever!” Winn states. “Your funny…”
“Smart…” Jasmine adds. “…And you’re the most forgiving person I have ever meet, even after all the names and the bullying, you for some reason still allowed me to be your friend” Dev says with a smile. “Were all lucky to have someone like you as a friend”
“You guys…” she says pulling them into a hug. Winn and Jasmine immediately hug her back, while Dev stands awkwardly arms glued to his side. She lets go of them, wiping her eyes and sniffling her nose. “Thanks, I really needed to hear that” she says. “Why don’t we all go and play in the tubes now?”
“Yeah!” Jasmine and Winn cheer excitedly. Dev rolls his eyes, a smile on his face. They all head out the toilets. Winn and Jasmine racing on foot to the playground equipment, with Dev riding on top of one his au-pairs. She smiles. She is so lucky to have such amazing friends.