But when I said I was the last person I didn’t mean that really, I meant that I was the last senior to go up and talk. There was an entire other group of new Ambassadors that needed to report on their journeys and expand their pledges and yada yada yada. More and more people dropped out of girl scouts as they got older and journeys were like the final barrier that held girls back. Like four girls dropped out after the pool party because they didn’t want to declare a journey. So there’s only like 5 11-12th grade ambassadors, and guess which one went first?

“Art has finally come back to Fortuna,” Evelyn said, like in the most humble brag way, “With my help, local artists have painted roads, sidewalks, and a mural is even being prepared on the highschool. And not just that but the lasting seeds of art are being planted in Fortuna through expanded art classes here at the Y and fingerpainting days at the elementary school. And I pledge to keep supporting art and creativity here in Fortuna.”

She hadn’t even said anything that revolutionary. Just that she’s going to keep on doing the same thing for another two years, but everyone clapped and some people even whooped. And she just stood up there and got to take it all in since she’s Mrs. Aveline’s aid she didn’t have a seat to take. But even though she was just standing there soaking up the praise she was getting, Evelyn found a way to look humble. And poised, and graceful, and perfect. God, I wish I could be like her. Sorry for swearing, diary.

The other ambassadors went up and said their stuff and then we went to doing what we always do during girl scout meetings. Some people left in their bikes to sell cookies, other people started working on their badge skills. Something about the entire journey thing ticked me off so I didn’t feel like working on any badges instead I looked over at the children.

At a table near the door, some of the daisies were trying to their hardest, tongues out little brains buzzing, to calculate their cookie sales. The rest of the little girl scouts were out selling their cookies, but these girls had yet to balance their books.

“You girls need some help?” I asked them sweetly.

One of the girls, I think her name’s Madeline, she had short curly hair and blue eyes, held up her binder, “Yeah can you do this for me?”

I laughed and took a seat at their table. The chair was so small my knees almost touched the table, but I smiled regardless.

“I can teach you how to do this, how about that Maddy?”

She looked skeptical but put her binder down. Most of the math she had done, very little math though, was wrong. So I started by erasing that and just looking at the real numbers. Madeline looked distraught, and I get it I must have invalidated like an hour of her hard work.

“Alright, it looks like you’re having some trouble with the decimals so let’s start with that.”

I went on to help her subtract how much the cookies cost to her revenue from cookie sales. Madeline was a nice, cute little girl so she had sold a lot of cookies. It took us like twenty minutes to balance her books, and that included adding in the cost of future cookies and predicting how many cookies she would sell next. For the first part I was just showing her how to do things, and believe me diary that was an uphill battle. But for the last like seven minutes, she seemed to get it, really understanding how to add and subtract decimals.

And I was right about to lean back in my preschool chair and rest on my laurels when someone tapped me on the shoulder.

“Excuse me, can you help me with my sales chart?” It was yet another daisy that needed my help.

I was just about to say yes and go sharpen my pencil when little Madeline spoke up next to me.

“Get your own helper, Sophie! She’s helping me!” I had no idea Madeline could be so rude, “Honestly you’re such a dumb poophead, Sophie she probably can’t even help you!”

Once I recovered from the surprising amount of vile spewing forth from this basically a toddler I stepped in while Sophie started crying.

“Madeline you also had trouble with your chart don’t tease Sophie,” am I starting to sound like a preschool teacher? “And I am perfectly capable of helping both of you so apologize to her, okay?”

I don’t even know why I asked her to apologize to her. She wasn’t sorry, apologizing couldn’t make her sorry. Did Sophie even want an apology? Maybe the teacher vibes went too far I don’t know.

“I’m sorry,” Madeline whispered in the most spiteful way.

I didn’t care and still don’t so I just let it go. Instead, I just pulled up a seat for Sophie and started helping her. It was almost ironic that Madeline called her stupid because she seemed to grasp what a decimal was, and it only took us ten minutes to balance her books instead of twenty. And then I was like, finally I’m finished, but yet another daisy tapped me on the shoulder. And once I was done with that a slightly older brownie tapped me on the shoulder. Then another daisy, then a brownie, then another daisy. And another and another until the meeting was over at six when the Y closed and everyone started to clear out.

Charlie and I helped fold up the chair and tables, but it was Evelyn who had to stay the latest to actually put away all of the snacks and mini chairs and stuff. That was the downside to being the perfect little girl scout I guess.

Mom wasn’t there when I walked into the parking lot, which was weird. She’s usually scooting into the parking lot right at 6:00 pm really excited for me to tell her what happened. I would have thought she would have shown up early today because of all the journey stuff. There isn’t much traffic in town but maybe there was an accident or something.

So I just sat on the curb and texted her where she was. No answer. I played some games on my phone, none of the ones I have require wifi and waited for her. 6:15 rolled around, the latest she had ever been was 6:10. My mind started to race just as Charlie came up behind me.

“Hey, you’re here late, what’s up?” She usually stayed late to talk to Nelson so I wasn’t surprised that she was there. But something about her saying that just made me tear up.

“I don’t know…” I sniffled, “Do you think my mom’s okay?”

Knowing then that something was wrong Charlie sat down next to me and placed a comforting hand on my back.

“Yeah, I’m sure she’s fine. Don’t worry I’ll sit here with you until she comes.”

“Thanks,” I said, and after that, we started playing calculator. I won ten times, she won five times, we tied nine times. Though I think she was going easy on me because I was so close to crying.

Charlie’s dad usually needed her back home by 6:15 to help put her little brother to bed, but she just stayed and played with me, missing her curfew entirely. What did I do to deserve her, honestly if God does exist then I must be blessed. 7:00 came and went, and we were still just sitting there in the curb of the YMCA playing calculator. It got colder and colder, luckily we both had good coats because I heard that it got down to 32F by that point.

My hands were too cold to play calculator so Charlie started talking.

“So the end of summer vacation is even worse for me because I’m still at home and yet it’s so nice outside. But I guess it’s good because sometimes Dad lets me go outside and run around and get the energy out but it’s hard. Sometimes I wish I could just go to school. I’m trying to convince him to send Silas to kindergarten but it’s slow going.”

“Oh I can help you with that, I once convinced my mom that I didn’t have to mow the lawn with a slideshow. Maybe we can make a presentation for your dad, there’s no way he could ignore logic right?”

Charlie burst out laughing, “You’d be surprised how much he can ignore.”

I was about to ask her what she meant by that when I was blinded by the brightest light I had ever seen. It was Nathan’s car, with Nathan behind the wheel and my mom in the passenger’s seat. By this point the sun had set, the stars were out, and the crescent moon was up. The Y was closed and literally no cars were in the parking lot. Completely in disbelief, I looked at Charlie and she just smiled at me, patted me on the back, and smiled. She started walking home and I was glad that at least one of us was going to have a pleasant journey.

Once I was in the backseat Nathan started driving home. He didn’t even speak to me, and neither did Mom, she and Nathan were too invested in themselves I guess. And by themselves I meant Nathan. Unbeknownst to me, there had been a fundraising dinner for robotics, at the same time with my weekly girl scout meeting. And instead of sending Derrick to pick me, Mom just went to the dinner and decided to pick me up an hour late.

I almost couldn’t believe it diary, almost.

“You got to give the speech, Nathaniel I’m so proud of you!” She gushed at my step-brother.

Of course, he faked humble, “It’s not a big deal Mom, everyone gets to speak at one time or another.”

But she just kept praising him. Though she did take a break to acknowledge my existence in between entire paragraphs about Nathan.

“Naomi you should try to join a club too, Nathaniel’s really smart so the robotics club’s great for him but you should try to find something you excel at.” Mom said to me.

Like I hadn’t just promised to tutor a bunch of little kids for girl scouts. Sometimes I don’t know why I try, diary. Anyway, that was how my day went, hopefully, tomorrow I won’t have to sit outside for an hour. Thanks for listening, diary.

Naomi J. Morgan