The town of Lunaria was always a quiet one. Everyone came and went like the drifting sea, which was saying something, since it was situated on the edge of the country of Ardane, which was a small country off the coast of both south west England and north west of France and, with Lunaria being close to France, that means that the weather was always kind, which was a good thing, since Lunaria was known for its beach, which seemed to always have the moonlight shining on its waters. This stunning natural occurrence is how people thought the town gained its name, but no one is truly sure, since those records were lost.

One early evening, by the river that ran through the town, a fox started to stir from his hole. Maybe it was too early, but it was worth trying to hunt for something. But something else caught his attention. A lone bird was sitting by the riverside, staring into the waters. ‘Easy prey’ thought the fox, As the fox got closer, he noticed that the bird didn’t even notice him. As the fox got into position to pounce on his lowly victim, the bird suddenly turned its head around. The bird and the fox met eye to eye. With his eyes widening, the fox slowly backed off, bowing his head as he went. The reason for this was that this bird was NOT prey.

“Ah! It’s sooooooo late!” 

A loud feminine voice echoed around the area, startling the fox even more and he scurried away, whereas the bird hopped into a nearby bush.

“Well, if you didn’t annoy the turd, we wouldn’t be in this mess!” A masculine voice speaks up.

“Are you blaming me? But I didn’t dooooo anything!”

“From where I’m standing? Yes. Yes, you did.”

“Ahhh! Luce! Make him stop, the big meanie is being meaaaaaaan!”

Now coming into view was a short girl with red hair hanging off another girl with long mousy brown hair.

“There, there….” The long haired girl patted her friend's head. “Arlo didn’t mean anything by it….”

“Wait a minute, are you seriously taking HER side?” The masculine voice, which belonged to a man named Arlo, who was sporting short dark hair.

“I’m not taking anyone’s side, actually. I just wanna go home and bathe….” The long haired girl grinned at him.

“Wait, bath?” The other girl pulled back. “I’m in! Besides, it's too late for us to go back, so….” The redhead girl marched off a little, whilst raising a hand to the sky. “Sleep over it is!”

“Duhh huh?” The boy looked both confused and surprised, whilst the other girl just shrugged and followed after her friend.

“EEEEEEE!” The redhead girl squealed as she leaned over the railing to look at the river. “I will never get tired of this view.”

With the trio now coming closer to where the bird was hiding, he could clearly see all three members. All three of them were wearing similar outfits to one another. But, when the bird's eyes noticed the second girl, he tilted his head. For some unknown reason, he felt like he KNOWS her. But that would be impossible. With the urge to move closer being strong, he stepped forward a little bit. In doing so, he made the bush rustle a little bit and made the girl that he was staring at look his way. It was then that he noticed her eyes. A beautiful sea blue. They looked so familiar to him. But how? Seriously, where has he seen those eyes before?

“Oh! Hello there…” The girl that he was staring at moved closer to him and knelt down in front of him. 

“Luce? Who are you talking to?” The other girl came into the picture.

“This bird.”

“A bird? Who…” 

Now with an unwanted closer inspection, the bird noticed that the other girl didn’t have the same vibe that the other girl was giving off. In fact, she was getting in the way.

“Oh! How cute! Although…” The girl tilted her head. “ I never knew a bird could look THAT sour faced.” The girl got closer again whilst the object of his fascination moved back. No… Not you! You don’t interest me! “Oh! I know, I have treats!” The bird narrowed his eyes as he watched this girl take out some sort of ‘candy’ out of her pocket and handed it to him. With the bird starting to get rather annoyed about this girl butting in, instead of taking the candy, he bit her finger.

“Ahh! Ouch!” The girl cried out. “That darn thing bit me! Well that is the last time I’m offering you food, mister!”

“What a waste….”

“Ehhh?” The girl looked surprised as she noticed that the voice seemed to come from the bird, as he moved back into the bush and flew off out of it.

“Junie? You ok there?”

“It looks like you offend the bird kind too.”

“Meh….” The girl stood up and showed her bitten finger to her friends. “Darn thing bit me!”

The boy examined her finger. “You’ll live.”

“But, that thing might have rabies!”

The boy boinked the girl on the head with his arm lightly. “Dimwit! Birds don’t carry rabies!”

“They don’t?” 

“It’s a mammal thing.” The long haired girl piped up.

“Hmmm…. Either way…. Let’s go home.” The girl turned on her heel and headed off.

“I take it she totally means my home, huh?” The other girl pondered and the boy nodded in reply.

—----

My name is Lucette Dailon, I live on the outskirts of the village of Lunaria near the ocean, in a little cottage. I used to live with my parents, but they had to work overseas, so I currently live alone. But that’s not too bad! I mean, I have my two best friends to keep me company. 

Juniper Adler or to us? Junie. A loud mouthed, strong headed ‘rhino’. Her personality scares most people off, but she talked to me on my first day of school many years ago, and well? We ended up hitting it off. Sometimes I don’t even know, but maybe it’s for the best. We are friends now, so why should we know the details about how it happened? Funnily enough, her hair matches her personality. A fiery red, although I was always jealous of how bouncy it can get. It’s a shame that she straightens it mostly. But her dark eyes always reminded me of little chocolates. 

And then there was Arlo Reiser. To some, he was a quiet pretty boy, but to us? He was a pleasure to be with. I was already friends with Junie when we first met. Back then, he didn’t talk to ANYONE. It was like he was logged off from the rest of the world. But Junie, being Junie, kinda ‘forced’ her way in and dragged him along with her antics. I felt sorry for him, and that’s when I striked up a conversation with him. I mostly ended up talking to him when Junie was off in her own world, and that’s how me and him ended up getting to know each other. 

I wouldn’t trade any of these two for anything.

I couldn’t help smiling to myself as I saw Junie swinging her arms happily in front of me. I was daydreaming so much, I didn’t even see her face right up close.

“Yo, Earth to Lucie! Is anyone in that pretty little head of yours?”

“Eh?” 

“My word….” Junie sighed. “Anyway, you are home, so keys?” Junie held out her hand.

True enough, as I looked up, I saw my little cottage that was left to me by my parents. A two story building that was just right. Taking out my keys from my bag, I handed them to her and, with a smile, Junie took them off me and opened the door.

“Are your parents still away?” Arlo questioned, as he stood next to me.

“Yeah. In the letters, they mention that it’s going to take awhile… Work stuff has got them good, y’know?” I shrugged, I didn’t mind really. 

“Letters?” Junie’s head perked up as she put her bag down on the side. “Man, they need to get in the modern era and use phones.”

“Well, there are bad reception on the islands. They tried at least. But it didn’t work.”

“Oh, yeah….” It looked like a light turned on in Junie’s head as she suddenly remembered something. “You did say that. It’s a shame though, I’d really like to meet them. It’s poopy, I keep missing them.”

“Well, that’s what decent members of society are like.” Arlo quipped as he walked past her.

“True, true….. Wait a minute, was that directed at me?!”

“Who knows….” He shrugged his shoulders, as he walked in the direction of the kitchen. “Cookies or muffins?”

“You nasty man….” Junie comically pointed her finger at him. “But cookies!”

Arlo smiled at her, made an ‘ok’ sign with his fingers, and continued walking, heading straight through the door to the kitchen.

“Urghhh…” Junie fumed beside me. “He makes silly little snide quibbles at me, Imma gonna beat his ass!” Somehow, she managed to get a rolled up newspaper and started to make her way to the kitchen.

“Erm, don’t kill him?”

“Ah, nah…. Death is too good for him.” Junie grinned and then winked at me. “Don’t worry, I will bring him back to you in one piece.”

“That’s not what I….” I trailed off, as I realised that there was no point. Junie had already gone into the kitchen. Shortly after, there was a muffled voice and then a bang. Not soon after that, Junie came out of the kitchen, rubbing her hands together, like she was getting dirt off of them.

“Well, that is mission accomplished. Imma gonna take a bath.” 

I watched as she walked past me and up the stairs, towards the bathroom. Sighing to myself, I turned towards the kitchen and walked through the door. Inside the kitchen, was Arlo rubbing his head.

“You ok?”

“Well, I kinda had a run in with a Gorilla, but all is fine.” He grumbled and then smiled at me.

In return, I couldn’t help smiling back at him, since when he smiled at me? He smiled with his entire face, including his pretty blueish purple eyes.

“Don’t trigger her!” I laughed in return.

“Duly noted.”

“But I can’t wait for those cookies, I’ll be upstairs.” I smiled at him again and stepped out of the kitchen.

As I was making my way up the stairs, I heard the familiar voice of Junie again.

“YO! YOU GOT THIS NEW VANILLA SCENT? SWEET!”

Oh yeah, I did buy a vanilla scented gel soap.

“OH! NO! WAS IT EXPENSIVE?! OH POO!”

As I reached the top of the stairs, the door to the bathroom swung open and there was a wet Junie, in a towel, holding up a bottle.

“Oh! Luce! I hope it wasn’t too expensive. I tried to use it a bit, but I may have dropped the bottle and, well….” Junie tried to explain, looking sheepish. I couldn’t help but laugh. 

“It wasn’t expensive. Trust me, you’re fine.”

The amount of relief that was shown on Junie’s face was astounding. As she grinned at me, she retreated back into the bathroom. As I smiled to myself, I walked forward towards my bedroom, which was the first room on the top of the stairs.

My room was one of the cosiest rooms in the house, and actually one of the places where I spent a lot of time. Not only did it overlook the ocean, but you could also see the garden from the balcony. The inside was spacious, the white four poster bed was slightly in the middle of the room with the headboard against the far cream painted wall. Two large ivory coloured wardrobes were placed on either side of the large glass balcony sliding door. Other furniture in the room included a desk, bookcases, a cupboard full of small plushies and ornaments and a light purple sofa. In one corner of the room sat a large amount of medium to large plushies. 

Going over to my bed, I lay face down, waiting for my friends to finish with their business.

“Hey! No napping!”

A voice calls out to me, and a strong whiff of vanilla goes right up my nose. As I moved my head slightly, I saw a figure with their arms by their sides, dressed in just a towel.

“Oh… You’re done!” I leaned on my arms as I pushed myself up, seeing that Junie had finished with her bath.

“Duh! Although….” I saw Junie’s eyes dart behind me. “Your panties are on display….”

“Huh?” I looked at her with a confused face.

“Your panties. You know… Underwear, ladies undergarments….” 

“Hmm?” I looked behind me and, true enough, my skirt had lifted up so much that my black underwear was 100% on show and, considering the fact that my bed was opposite to the door? Anyone who came in would have totally got an eye full. “Ahhh!” I scrambled to sit up and flattened my skirt down.

“Just be glad that I found you instead of the dog downstairs. Although….” Junie pondered. “He probably would have liked the show, although it’s not like he would do anything….” Her face turned to a disgruntled, annoyed mess.

“Errr…. What?” 

“Ah! Nothing!” She waved her hands at me to try and shoo the conversation onto another topic. “Well, Imma gonna change.” I watched her as she grabbed some clothes from the sofa and walked towards the door.

“Y’know, you mentioned that I had my underwear on display, and yet you’re walking around in a towel. With a man under the roof.”

Junie turned around and gave me a small chuckle. “Oh peeeeleaaase, he only wags his tail for one. Plus this is totally a fashion statement. Sexy? Am I right?” She striked a pose. It wasn’t really a fashion pose, but it was more like a superhero pose.

I opened up my mouth to speak, but Junie had knocked the words right out of my mouth. What did she mean by ‘the dog only wagged for one?’ Not long after Junie had left, I saw that the door had opened again, and the whiff of freshly baked cookies went up my nose.

“Oh, they're done?” I asked suddenly, so suddenly that I startled the one who opened the door. There in the doorway, standing taken aback, was Arlo, holding a tray of his freshly made goodies.

“Oh! Errr…. Yes….” Feeling somewhat tongue tied, he walked over and presented them to me. “Sadly though a mandrill took first dibs.”

‘Mandrill?’ Wait, he must mean Junie. Huh.. He called her a gorilla earlier.

“Ah ha, it’s fine!” I took one, and he moved as he placed the others on my desk. As I took a bite, I was overwhelmed by the soft goodness of it. Damn, this boy can cook. However, he only knew how to cook sweets, so can he cook anything else? He was historically bad. “It’s sooo good!”

Before I heard his reply, the door burst open.

“HONEY! I’M HOME!” Junie made herself known by bursting through the door. “What? No applause? Shameful….” She pouted. “Aren’t you bathing too, Luce?”

“Huh? Oh! Yeah…” Scoffing down the rest of the cookie, I scrambled to my wardrobe to grab some stuff and hurried out of the room.