Mickey D's

Her bags, well one bag and one sort of an almost bag, it was an old tote that used to hold Christmas ornaments and still had an inexplicable amount of glitter in the bottom, were locked up at the bus terminal. She'd schlep them one at a time over to the campus and her dorm room when it was Move In Day. For now she was looking for the motel that her mom had paid for. It was in a bad part of town but it had two things going for it; it was crazy cheap and it was the type of place that didn't really care if your parent was with you when you checked in. Blossom had a phone but it was just a phone, no data plan so no maps. She had written down the directions in it though and was following them so no problem.

It was hot, so much hotter than a Montana summer when people started sweating and complaining when it hit 80. That was okay because somewhere not too far away was a beach and the ocean! She'd never seen the ocean and the hints of a salt breeze that occasionally made it this far smelled wonderfully exotic to the teen. Before school started she vowed she was going to get there somehow and it was going to be as wonderful as her daydreams about it. She'd been to Flathead Lake a few times and it was so enormous you couldn't see all of it but it wasn't the ocean, wasn't the beach. Wasn't what Blossom dreamed about.

The heat and a rumbly tummy coincided with the sight of a McDonald's ahead. With no particular haste to get to the motel other than just to be there, she decided she would stop in and get a Happy Meal.

Well at least McDonald's was the same, more or less. The decor was different and they had one of those fancy order it yourself things but Blossom wasn't too sure about i plus you had to have a debit card. She queued up and soon found herself at the front of the line where Jocelyn was working the register. Blossom didn't immediately look her in the face, eyes on the menu instead even though she knew what she wanted. Why did she do that? And why did she act like it wasn't always going to be the same thing?

"Um, hi? May I please have a Happy Meal with a hamburger, plain and dry. Apple slices and white milk? Oh, and a girl toy," she added then smiled as she looked away from the menu into Jocelyn's face.

Ouch. Blossom couldn't help but let her lips express her emotions at seeing the ugly end of the rainbow the black eye must have been. She'd had a few herself, knocking into an elbow or hand accidentally during a stunt. The girl had tried to cover it up with makeup but unless she was willing to do her makeup like Blossom did for cheer competitions or for dance there was just no hiding it. Oh God, stop staring!

"Sorry," she said and looked away.