Naddie and I are first at the bus stop, as per usual. Snowflakes flutter listlessly, silencing the sleepy Sunday estate. Even our dialogue is drowsy until Max appears.

‘Did you have a good time with your uncle yesterday?’ Naddie asks.

‘He offered me a job,’ Max says, lighting up a cigarette.

‘What?’

‘Yeah, a weekend gig at his restaurant. He said I was finally mature enough to work there.’

‘Is he sure about that?’

‘Wow, how supportive of you. Anyway, I said yes. It’ll be awesome earning a bit of extra cash.’

‘I can’t believe you got a job before me,’ Naddie frowns, surprise dissolving her words.

Naddie has been planning to find a part-time job for the past six months to gain work experience ahead of finishing school. Despite being the most organised out of us, these plans have never been planted to outgrow their potential.

The twins show up at the same time as the bus. Though if the bus itself arrived on time, they’d be stuck here for another two hours. As we occupy the back seats, I take in that Jess is silent.

Max takes this in too. Behind Jess, Zach sees and frantically signals to not say anything. But nothing ever stops Max.

‘I guess yesterday didn’t go well?’ he asks.

If looks could kill, Max would never start his new job.

‘Greg wasn’t as nice as before?’ Naddie prompts.

‘He was. In fact, he was the one nice thing about yesterday,’ Jess sighs, and the avalanche of thoughts flows. ‘His friends though, ugh, they were so annoying. I couldn’t stand them and they couldn’t stand me. It was so embarrassing.’ She pouts. ‘I bet they all talked behind my back the second I left, even Greg. I hope I never see him again, it’ll be so awkward.’

‘I told you, you should stop trying new things,’ Zach says.

‘Say it again, I dare you,’ she threatens.

‘I’m sorry it didn’t turn out the way you hoped,’ Naddie says, interrupting Zach’s response.

‘Who needs him and his loser friends? You have us,’ Max says and Jess grins.

‘Maybe we should prank them sometime,’ she suggests as the mischievous witchy glint returns to her gaze.

Before Naddie can extinguish this new fire, the bus stops and Richie gets on. His family moved out of the estate years ago.

With a jolt of the engine, the conversation jumps ahead to the exhibition.

Colourful glass art floats in the gallery, every light and piece placed precisely for the pale space to metamorphose into a dazzling kaleidoscope. We wander in wondrous silence, the six of us alone except for the attendant. Delicate flowers, elements, and animals rest around our heads, a garden of golden glass.

The space is small and the admiration disappears in about ten minutes. But Richie is absorbed in the art, so we watch a documentary film playing on the wall about the glass-making process. Behind the delicate sculptures hides extreme heat, brute force, and hours of focus shattering into a million pieces from one mistake.

I compare it to sitting cross-legged with a laptop, hunched over the screen for hours. How much do ideas of art change with each particular process?

The film restarts and we look over to Richie, happily sketching away, lost in his own world.

‘We’ll have to watch this film five times, won’t we?’ Zach sighs.

‘You think if we leave, he’ll notice?’ Max asks.

‘Not for a few hours,’ Jess says, and the two share a conspiring glance.

‘Come off it, guys, we can lure him away with chocolate,’ Naddie says.

Richie raises his head at the word “chocolate” and we burst out laughing.

‘Just give me a minute to get this right,’ he says and returns to the sketch. ‘Do you see this petal? It has such an elegant rhythm in its texture, it’s amazing.’

Once he finishes, we head over to the arcade, our go-to place in town. It’s now tradition that Naddie keeps count of everyone’s score and the winner’s award is picking a dare for the loser.

The games wash away our sense of time as we drown in their bright noises and flashing lights. Jess wins tonight, though I suspect that Zach let her. He’s usually obsessed with beating high scores, but spends today distracting Max. Instead of laughing it off, Max turns a deep red and flubs every single game.

Jess dares Max to sing out loud on the ride back. This idea gets funnier when we enter the bus and find it full of old people.

Shamelessly, Max stands up and starts singing his head off. Everyone looks so appalled, we struggle to keep a straight face. He pours his soul into the song and we end up joining along, belting our hearts out all the way home.