The blaring from Carry's alarm pound her head from the inside. Her fist put a stop to the racket. "It's already eight?"

Groaning as she got up from bed, pushing aside the various articles of clothing and cans of champagne with her feet, and nearly tripping on one of her shoes, she straddled out of her bedroom. A whiff of waffles gets her immediate attention as she turned towards the kitchen to see her daughter preparing a fresh batch.

"Mother, good morning."

"Huh?"

Lucy took a plate stacked with waffles and places it on the dining table. "Just in time, they're as fresh as they can be!"

"What is this supposed to be?"

Gently pushing her mother towards the table full of toppings, she offered her a seat, "Sit down and enjoy breakfast. I have both honey and maple syrup; I don't know which one you like so I bought both. I also sliced some apples and even provided some cinnamon dust."

"I don't understand. What is happening?"

"I got to get ready for school, so just enjoy yourself. Don't worry about me, I already had some earlier." Lucy kissed her mom on the cheek, something Carry was not expecting as she was taken aback. "I'll assume you'll be out tonight too, so I won't make dinner. Just go out and enjoy yourself. I want you to be happy, Mother." Lucy pranced her way toward the room but before entering, "Don't worry, Mom. As long as you are happy, that is all that matters. Isn't love wonderful?"

The bedroom door closed leaving Carry to sit there bewildered with a plate of waffles in front of her, confused about what had taken place.

 

 

 

 

 

Recess couldn't come fast enough as Lucy searched a good spot to sit down and devote all her attention to her phone. Swiping through article after article with one hand, taking notes on her notepad with another.

“Fun ideas for a first-time date?” a familiar voice caused her to turn around with a shocked look.

"Jenny!" she uttered as she stood up and held her phone and notepad close to her.

"What are you studying?" Jenny asked in a condescending matter.

"It's just schoolwork.”

"What teacher teaches you to date in this school?"

"Jenny, you're always being sneaky and nosy."

"It's part of my charm."

"That's not charming, it's rude."

"Whatever you say, Lucy."

Aggravated as she was, an idea sprung up in Lucy's head, "Say, Jenny, about you and your boyfriend. How is it going?"

"We broke up."

"You broke up?"

"Yeah. We had our last fight. I just couldn't believe that he refused to tell his friends about us, so I told him that he has to tell them right now."

"Jenny, I told you not to do that."

"I couldn't help it. I wanted us to be a real couple and you can't be a real couple unless your friends know about it. That's one of the rules of dating you know."

"What rules of dating?"

"I read it in some blog some time ago. Don't remember how it went but it said something about being a 'domineering woman' and that I must 'stand up as an independent woman'. Something like that."

"Okay, but how are you right now?"

"I'm fine."

"You're fine? You're not sad or anything?"

"No. I'm doing okay."

"But I thought you loved him."

"I guess we didn't get to the part where we fell in love. We weren't at that level yet."

“What do you by that?”

She approached Lucy and patted her on the shoulder. "Oh Lucy, you're still too young to understand how love works. Let me, Jenny Jenkins, tell you all about it. You see, when a boy likes a girl, or a girl likes a boy, either way, they ask each other out."

"Yeah, I get that."

"Just listen, okay? Anyway, they start doing romantic things and they get points whenever one does something nice for the other. The more one does nice things, the more points they get. Eventually, you get enough points to redeem it for a ticket. Once you get that ticket, you have to exchange it with the other. Once you do, you have officially leveled up to love status, and you are in love. That's how it works."

With a confused and befuddled look on her face, "Where does the ticket come from?"

"You got to make it yourself, silly. You look at your love notepad and see how many points you have and if it reaches a high enough number, you make a ticket and you exchange it with your boyfriend. Once both accept each other's tickets, you have fallen in love."

"Jenny, where did you read that?"

"Oh... I don't remember. It was a long time ago."

"How long? You must've read that when you were in elementary."

"I guess I did, but don't recall where I read it."

"Sounds more like you played a dating game on your phone."

"Oh, yeah, I used to play a lot of them before I started going for the real thing. Those games really helped me out."

Lucy scoffed, "But still, you broke up with your boyfriend. Are you really okay?"

"Of course, I'm okay."

"Uhh... right... What about Jonah? How is he?"

"I don't know. I broke up with him and never saw him again. He made me so mad I never want to see him ever."

"But you might have hurt his feelings."

"He's a boy. He doesn't have feelings."

"I think you're wrong on that."

"It doesn't matter. It's done. I'll just have to start all over again with another boy."

"Well, I guess if you're okay with it. Anyway, I was hoping you can help me."

"Sure thing. What do you need? I'm an expert in many things."

"Well... I have this other friend who is dating someone."

"It's you, isn't it?"

"No, no, it's another friend I have."

"What's his or her name?"

"David."

"You made that up."

“I'm not making it up. I answered quickly, didn't I?"

"Then what's his last name?"

"Uhh... bu... Butterface."

"Butterface?" Lucy groaned at the stupid answer. "Lucy, there's no point in lying."

"Why do you assume I'm lying?"

"Why else would you be asking these questions? You're too shy to talk to boys and boys think you're a dork."

"But doesn't that prove that I'm not dating anyone?"

"I'm talking about immature childish boys, not handsome college men."

Lucy gave another groan, "Don't just assume things."

"Then tell me, when was the last time you threw a tantrum and got so huffy? You've been acting weird for a while, you know? You get so mad and angry when I mess with you about love. You told me there was this college guy you liked called Johan and you got so defensive about him. You know how girls are when it comes to boys."

“No, I don't.”

“It gets ugly. Girls fight for boys as if they're the last piece of meat on a buffet.”

“That's not me. That sounds terrible.”

“But think about it how you were acting. You get so mad at me whenever I ask you about Johan. That could only mean one thing.”

"You're wrong, Jenny. It's nothing like that. But..."

"But..."

Lucy tisked, "Don't think of anything crazy, okay, but what does one wear on a date?"

Jenny laughed. "Is that it? You need to look sexy for your date?"

"Se...sexy?"

"You can't go out on a date as if you're friends. You got to look super sexy."

"No, I don't. I definitely don't."

Jenny grabbed Lucy by the shoulders, "Alright, I'll help you out. Now listen carefully, okay? You're going to need to do the following in order to have a successful date. First, download as many dating sims as you can."

The school bell rang, "You're going to have to tell me later," said Lucy.

"Okay. Meet me during lunch and we can discuss what we're going to do when we go to my house."

"Oh... right... sure..." Lucy said with a bit of discontent before Jenny ran off.

'Sexy?' Lucy thought to herself as she walked to her class, 'Maybe asking her was a big mistake. After all, she just broke up with her boyfriend and doesn't feel any remorse. I hope the boy she was dating is doing well. After all, when I was in that car and felt like Johan was going to break up with me, my life was practically coming to an end.'