Too Early

After they finished eating, they put their dishes away and started getting ready for the day.

"Aura, go get dressed! We'll be leaving in fifteen minutes!" Ava said, finishing up with cleaning the dishes.

"Okay, mom!" She gleefully ran up the stairs and into her room, where she changed into a frilly bikini and put a floral white dress over it.

Afterwards, she entered the bathroom, where she brushed her teeth and hair, before putting it into a ponytail.

"Aura! You coming." Ava's voice came from the bottom of the stairs.

"Yeah!"

Aurora finished up, left the bathroom, shut off the lights, and ran downstairs to see her mother dressed in a white sweater and jeans.

"What do you think?" Aurora spun around, showing off her dress.

"I think it looks great on you." Ava smiled.

"Thanks."

"Now let's get in the car; we don't want to be late!" Ava gestured for Aurora to go first, which they did, and she ran to the car as Ava locked the front door, following suit shortly after.

The car drove off, heading towards the water park.

***

By the time they arrived at the water park, the sun had risen and was getting close to its peak. The time was roughly 10:55 am—five minutes before they were said to meet up with some family friends.

Seeing that a few of them had already arrived, they went over to where they were parked and waited.

"Tom! It's been a while…" Alan began conversing with one of them, as did Ava, who was conversing with Tom's wife.

Meanwhile, Aurora talked to their kid, who was a girl around the same age as her.

"Hi, Ashley?" Aurora cheerfully greeted her.

"H-hi!" Ashley responded, quietly.

"Are you excited?"

"Y-yeah... I am!" Ashley shyly smiled.

"Me too!"

All three parties had separate conversations on different topics, with the adults focusing mainly on events happening in their lives and Aurora and Ashley focusing on fun topics, which mainly centered around the water park.

Soon, the others arrived, and they entered the water park after storing their clothes and covering their swimsuits in the car.

Aurora, Ashley, and Sophia were the first ones to reach the top of one of the slides, where they waited for those in front to go first. This slide had a circular tube that could hold up to six people at once.

As it became their turn, they all hopped into the tube along with their moms, leaving their dads to have to go on a separate tube. The man who was standing at the side, managing when we could go and not, then pushed our tube down the slide.

"Weeeee!" Zigzagging back and forth, the tube went quickly down the slide as the three girls yelled in excitement.

It didn't take long for them to reach the bottom, where the tube slowly traversed into the pool of water, where many people were in with some getting out.

"Can we go again? Mom!" Aurora said, smiling.

"Wait for your dad to come down! We'll decide then."

"Okay!"

They waited patiently, and after a few minutes, dad came down, along with the two others. They then decided to go to other slides, which Aurora complained a bit about at first, before agreeing once they said they would go down it later.

After going down dozens of slides and having fun in the pool, the sun began to set, almost bringing the day to a close.

"That was so much fun! We should do it again!" Aurora said, walking in between her parents as she held both of their hands.

"Yeah, it sure was."

Getting into the car, they put towels under them so that the leather seats wouldn't get wet from their swimsuits and headed back home, where Aurora quickly fell asleep after having fun for a long day.

Time flew by, and soon Aurora turned twelve.

The year that was supposed to bring humans to the brink of extinction never happened. Everything remained the same. Nothing abnormal happened as Aurora entered seventh grade, the middle year of middle school.

*Ring, Ring, Ring! The school bell rang, bringing the last class of the day to an end.

After leaving the classroom, Aurora walked with Ashley and Sophia through the hallways towards the front of the school, where the buses were parked.

"Aurora and Sophia, do you want to come over to my place and hang out?" Ashley asked, her pony tail swinging back and forth in her stride.

"Sure, but I'll have to notify my parents." Aurora said.

"Yeah! I'll come too." Sophia, the most cheerful one of the three, said.

After exiting the school, they all boarded the same bus and cramped into the same seat. Aurora then texted her parents.

[Aurora: I'll be staying at Ashley's house for a few hours. I'll be home before dark.]

Several seconds later, she received a message from her mom.

[Mom: Okay, I'm making beef stew and chili for dinner tonight.

[Aurora: Okay.]

Putting her phone away, she chatted with them until they reached Ashley's bus stop, where they got off and headed inside her house.

Ashley placed her backpack down and turned around. "Do you want to watch a movie? I can make some popcorn."

"We'll get the movie ready." Sophia said, grabbing Aurora's hand and walking with her towards the living room.

Aurora sank into the comfy sofa, and Sophia went to go grab the remote before sitting next to Aurora. She then turned on the TV and quickly picked a movie.

"So... Aura... who do you like?" Sophia asked, looking at Aurora with a smile.

"Why so suddenly?"

"Well… I'd think you'd like someone by now. After all, you could get anyone with the beauty you have." Sophia inched her face closer.

Aurora's face turned red. "N-no, no, no, I don't like anyone. I promise."

"Then, why is your face so red?" Sophia asked, "I promise I won't tell anybody. Just tell me what boy you like."

"Its… It's not a boy…"

"Oh, so you like girls?" Sophia said, her interest piqued. "Tell me who she is."

"It's, it's... umm, Ashley."

"You and Ashley, huh! I think you're a perfect match! You have a good eye." Sophia chuckled, "When are you planning on confessing?"

"It's too early."

"What's too early?" Ashley walked in and heard the last few words Aurora said. She had a look of confusion and interest on her face.

"It's, it's nothing."

"Okay. Let's start the movie." Ashley sat down on the other side of Aurora, leaving Aurora in the middle of the two. She handed Aurora the bowl of popcorn as Sophia hit play on the remote.