A Lesson in Contentment - Part 1

Fond felicitations to my few faithful Friday Fiction Fans,

I hope your weekend is looking promising. Mine is. The weather has cast aside the cold frosts and cloudy days of winter (again!) and has welcomed the warmer days of spring with a mixture of sunshine and lovely rain. Well, I think the rain will be lovely. It's suppose to rain today, but be sunny the next few days and almost 80º. After it snowed most of the morning and into the afternoon on Tuesday (nothing stuck), we are glad to be back to warmer temperatures and balmy sunshine.

I was going to tell you about my week, but it was mostly a blur. Except Wednesday. Wednesday was one of those days. Things that you thought would hardly take any time took two or three times as long to do. I ran into some major problems with my big "Bike Trip book" project, and then I got called and asked if I could please work nursery at church and help out in "Puggles" since our pastor's wife wasn't going to be there. So, no writing that day. But I did get a little research done for "Dylan's Story." Do you want to know what I had to look up? Let me know in a comment or by email if you do.

Yesterday was my best writing day so far this week. 1,500+ words written. If you haven't checked the Progress bar on the Home Page of Read Another Page, you might want to go check it. :) 

Anyway, that's that and this is this. I wrote this story mostly last week after someone suggested that these characters might have some more interesting stories. She was right. And I hope you enjoy the first part of it today.

A Lesson in Contentment

Part 1

    “Come on, Kels,” Zoe begged. “Say you’ll come.”
    It was a warm, sunny afternoon. School had ended for the summer, and a group of friends were getting together at the skating rink for a party to celebrate their release from the confines of the classroom.
    Shifting the bag of groceries from one arm to the other, Kelsey hesitated. She liked roller skating well enough but didn’t feel like she fit in with the rest of her classmates. “I don’t know,” she began slowly. “I’d feel kind of mean going off to a party and leaving all my sisters at home.”
    “Bring them along,” Zoe invited impulsively.
    Kelsey laughed and tossed her red hair back from her face. “Your group wouldn’t want all eight of us there! Imagine how shocked everyone would be to find the rink full of girls from the other side of the tracks.” She shook her head. “That wouldn’t work, Zoe. Besides, Mama wouldn’t want the younger ones out late.”
    “Then couldn’t you and, who’s the girl right under you?”
    “Lottie.”
    “That’s it–Couldn’t you and Lottie come?”
    Before Kelsey could think of another excuse, a car pulled up before the supermarket where the girls were standing and a horn honked. “Oh, there’s Lauren and Mike. They said they’d pick me up. I’ll have to go now, Zoe. See you later!”
    But Zoe wasn’t to be dissuaded from her purpose and followed her friend out to the car. She had met Lauren before, and even Lauren’s boyfriend, Mike, so she folded her arms on the front window and leaned in to plead her cause. “Lauren, I’m having a party at the skating rink on Friday afternoon, and I want Kelsey to come. Don’t you think she can?”
    Lauren glanced into the back seat where the younger girl had climbed. “Did she say she didn’t want to?”
    Zoe shook her head. “No, she just said she didn’t think it would be fair to go off and have fun without the rest of the girls. I told her Lottie could come too.”
    Kelsey leaned forward and laughed. “After she had invited the whole bunch of us.”
    At that Lauren, and even Zoe, laughed while Mike chuckled.
    “I don’t see why she couldn’t go. Lottie too, if you want her,” Lauren said at last, “if we can get them there.”
    “Oh, don’t worry about that. Wally and I can pick them up,” Zoe said hastily. “And we can bring them home again too. Thanks, Lauren, I knew you’d help me.” Then, not giving Kelsey any chance to back out or come up with another excuse, she called as she stepped away from the car with a wave, “Remember, Kels, three-thirty on Friday. You and Lottie both.”
    Kelsey waved one hand and smiled. The next minute she was leaning forward again as the car pulled away from the curb. “Why on earth did you tell her we could go, Lauren?” she demanded. “We don’t even know if Lottie wants to go!”
    Without turning in her seat, Lauren answered, “Of course Lottie will want to go. You know how much she loves roller skating. Why the two of you can probably skate better than anyone else who will be there.”
    “That’s not the point,” Kelsey sighed.
    “Then what is? Zoe wanted you, and there really isn’t any reason for you not to go. Mother and Dad won’t mind, and you can tell us all about it when you get home. I thought you said you liked Zoe.”
    “I do.” There was a long pause. “It’s just–”
    “Just what?” Lauren prodded, half turning in her seat to look at her younger sister.
    A long sigh preceded the answer. “It’s just that I don’t really know most of the gang she does things with. Yeah, I know some of them, and most of us are in the same class at school, but–” Again she paused.
    “But we live on the other side of the tracks?” Lauren finished for her.
    “Yeah,” Kelsey mumbled. “And,” she added in lower tones, “I don’t like noisy crowds.”
    “Look, Kels,” Mike spoke up for the first time, “I’ll tell you what. You and Lottie go to that party, and I’ll stick around your house. If you can’t stand it after a little while, give the house a ring and I’ll come pick you up.”
    Kelsey’s face brightened. “Really?”
    “Sure thing.”
    “Thanks. I guess we’ll go then, if Lottie wants to. I don’t really want to, but Zoe seems set on us being there for some reason.”

    There was no need to ask Lottie a second time. As soon as she heard about the party, she was wild with excitement. Skating was her passion, and last summer she had talked the owner of the rink into letting her help clean up after parties in exchange for time to skate. Now she could do just about anything on a pair of roller skates.
    “Is Zoe the one who walked in the rain with you the day you went to Miss Olive’s?” she questioned Kelsey.
    Kelsey nodded. She had told the entire story of that visit a dozen times to her sisters.
    “Oh, good, then I know I’ll like her.”

    Friday arrived, and Kelsey began to wish Lauren hadn’t said they could go. Her mother and dad had given their consent right away, especially with Mike’s promise to stick around and pick them up should the party grow too much for them. As Kelsey watched Lottie’s excitement, however, she began to be glad of the invitation, if only to give Lottie a treat. She seldom got to skate with a crowd, and it would be fun to watch her. But when a car horn honked outside, she wished Lottie could go alone.

Have you ever gone to a skating party?

Do you like to roller skate?

Would you be more like Kelsey or Lottie when it comes to crowds?

(Oh, do you want to know what I had to research?)