Six girls in a pickle

Katie sat down on the sofa and frowned unhappily at the side stitch marks on her thighs made by her skin-tight jeans. She poured a little bit of Japanese Cherry Blossom body lotion in her cupped palm and began rubbing them onto her legs. 


Paula turned her head to look behind her and then continued to stare down the balcony. Yesterday, in a fit to get into the holiday spirit, the girls had strung little fairy lights along the balcony railings. They were gleaming red and yellow and blue and orange and green in an alternating fashion now. Paula sighed.


Alexa looked up from the floor where she was sitting and cleaning out her DSLR lenses. "What's wrong Paulie?" she asked good-naturedly.


"Nothing." said Paula absentmindedly, still staring out from the balcony which overlooked a street below. It was empty.


"OOH YE-AH..." Music blasted in from the kitchen where Sandrine was cooking. She stuck her head out from the kitchen door, 'I'm making a Spanish omelette. Any of you guys interested?"


There was a murmured dissent of "Oh no, thanks. We've already had something." Except from Silvia of course. She was staring fixedly at her Psychology notes with rapt attention, the lesser world around her lost to her concentration.


"We have to watch that movie tonight!" said Katie, suddenly remembering. She snapped the Japanese Cherry Blossom body lotion shut and went inside her room to put it away.


"Of course," smiled Alexa, "which reminds me, you did remember to rent it from the video library, right."


"Yeah. Yeah I did." said Paula turning to her with a small smile.


The apartment door swung open and Samarie walked in. Everyone turned their heads and called, "Hi!"


"Hi everyone" Samarie smiled, exhausted as she was. She put her bag down and sat down on the nearest chair, kicking off her shoes and rubbing the soles of her feet. "Ow, the stupid bus stop is miles away, took me twenty minutes to walk back home."


"How was your day at work?" asked Katie brightly, coming out from her room.


"It was good. Although I've had better," smiled Samarie wryly.


"WHY DO YOU DO WHAT YOU DO TO ME YE-AH?!" The kitchen door swung open again and Sandrine poked her head out, "Sammy, you want some Spanish omelette?"


"Uh no, thanks dear, But I won't say no to some tea." Samarie got up and stretched, "I should change out of my work clothes. Hey, I thought we were doing a movie tonight, Silvia, why are you still studying?"


Silvia tore her eyes away from her notes and said, "Just two pages left. Last, I promise. After that, movie!" she pleaded with her wide, bespectacled eyes, looking very sorry for herself. Silvia clearly thought any second not spent studying was a second wasted.


"Dude, I have so much work left. When am I going to do it? What's going to happen to my marketing report?" wailed Alexa, gathering all her camera stuff to put it back.


"You're telling me? I have TWO presentations back to back on the same day followed by a group report submission." said Katie pacing down the hall.


"I have three term papers to write," murmured Paula, more to herself than to anyone else.


Katie went and stood next to her. "Paulie?" she said softly.


"Uh-huh?"


"Do you worry sometimes? That here we are, so far away from home. Doing our thing, being all independent and finding ourselves. What if we're doing it wrong? What if we're just getting lost? Do you  worry about that sometimes? Do you think about it?"


Paula looked at the younger girl, scrutinizing her carefully. These were profound thoughts, even for Katie. 


"All the time," said Paula softly, smiling.


Katie sighed and look out from the balcony, staring into space.


"Okay, my omelette is done!" announced Sandrine coming out from the kitchen balancing a plate and her ipod and mobile phone in the other, "Paula put on the movie and for heaven's sake Silvia, stop studying already!"


Samarie came out of the room, changed into an Angry Birds tee and boxer shorts. "Just give me one minute to make the tea, why don't you set up the laptop till then?"


"I'll do it!" jumped Alexa, running to fetch her laptop. She stopped to rummage in Paula's bag till she found the DVD.


"Lets go," said Katie softly, pulling Paula by the sleeve.


"You go, I'm coming." said Paula.


The other had gathered around the couch. Sandrine was sitting on the L-arm, eating her delicious looking omelette. Katie and Alexa were sprawled on the rest of the sofa and Silvia was on the floor, her knees drawn to her chest. Suddenly, she jumped up and ran to the kitchen. Paula gave one last sigh, tore her eyes away from the balcony and drew up two chairs for Samarie and herself. Samarie came from the kitchen, two steaming cups in both hands, one of which she offered wordlessly to Paula. The other girl smiled and took it while they both sat down.


"We'll start, shall we?" said Alexa.


"Wait till Silvia gets here!" Katie said.


On the cue, Silvia bounded in, packets of chips in her hands. Everyone roared in approval as she grinned from ear to ear. "And there's popcorn too. But that's for after intermission."