I know I said this would be posted yesterday and I am SO incredibly sorry. Between school and planning out the ticket giveaway I'm doing it all just slipped my mind. The first chapters will probably take a bit to get up, but by the end of the month once school is over for me I should(hopefully) be updating fairly regularly.
“What if they say no?” the younger of the two girls
asked, worry laced in the 14 year old’s voice.
“We have a really good argument and your slideshow,
there’s no way they can say no,” A 15 year old brunette with piercing green
eyes assured her friend. Camila and Lauren had been up in Camila’s room for the
better part of an hour, gathering up what they needed to make their proposal to
their parents in hopes they’d get a yes from all four adults. The two girls had
known each other for nearly 10 years so they knew how to work together well,
something they hoped would come in handy while making their presentation.
“Ready?” Lauren asked, grabbing her laptop while Camila
grabbed her flashcards, putting them in their correct order.
“Ready,” The younger girl confirmed. The girls made
their way downstairs where Camila’s mothers and Lauren’s mother and father were
sitting in the living room talking amongst themselves.
“Guys?” Lauren was the first to speak up and catch
the adult’s attention.
“We have something we’d like to talk to you about.”
Lauren and Camila didn’t give the adults much time
to respond as Camila quickly logged on to her
and pulled up the powerpoint
presentation she and Lauren had spent over an hour working on. The opening
photo read
WANDERLUST: An irresistible
desire to travel to understand one’s very existence.
“As you know, I’m starting high school in 3 weeks
and with how fast time has gone by lately before you know it I’ll be walking
across the stage getting my diploma,” Lauren began.
“And I know there’s still 3 years to wait but I
would like to make a request for my graduation present now.”
“And what is that?” Clara, Lauren’s mother asked.
“A trip to London, England and San Juan, Puerto
Rico. A trip for me and Camila the summer before I start my Senior year,” Lauren
replied.
“Honey, that’s a BIG present.” Lauren’s father,
Mike said.
“We know, we did the research,” Camila finally
piped up, switching to the next slide with all of their financial research.
“We looked up flights, hotel fares, food other
spending money and anything else involved and came up with a grand total of
just under $13,000 for the entire trip,” Camila said.
“And Lauren and I think that we will be able to
afford the trip by the end of Lauren’s junior year if you guys would be willing
to split it 4 ways: Lauren, Me, and the two sets of parents.”
“And how do you guys plan to raise your half of the
money? You girls aren’t old enough yet to get proper jobs yet,” Selena, one of Camila’s
mothers said.
“We know. That’s why we’ll stick to babysitting
until we’re old enough to apply for jobs and put every penny of that away. And
even then we’ll still do babysitting and other stuff to make money on our days
off,” Lauren replied.
“I know you guys probably think we’re planning this
too far ahead and by next week we’ll forget all about it but we figure the
sooner we start saving up our money the more likely we’ll get the money we
need.” Camila added.
“Can you girls give us a minute to talk it over?” Camila’s
mother Demi asked and the girls didn’t need to be told twice as they left the
laptop and flashcards for the parents to look over and scurried into the
kitchen.
“I think we did alright,” Lauren beamed, confident
they had a fairly decent argument between their presentation and what was on
the powerpoint they had made.
“That trip is totally ours.”
“You think?” Camila asked.
“Of course. We did the research, explained how we’d
get the money and showed them we looked into everything. We’ve got this in the
bag,” Lauren replied.
“Girls, can you come here, please?” Demi called out
almost 10 minutes later and after crossing their fingers the girls headed back
into the living room.
“First off I’d like to say how impressed we all are
with how much you girls have looked into this,” Demi complimented.
“And we’re all very happy you’re so willing to
raise your portion of the money on your own instead of asking us to pay for the
trip completely.” Mike added.
Money was not much of a concern in either the
Lovato or Jauregui households. Demi was still a very successful singer and
actress (though she mostly stuck to singing now and only did a bit of acting
here and there) and Selena was also still very much into acting and had just
finished a movie only a few weeks earlier. As for Lauren’s parents Mike was one
of the most sought after lawyers in LA and Clara was a Neonatologist at The
Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.
“And if this is something you truly TRULY want...”
Selena continued.
“WE CAN GO?!” Camila squealed.
“You can go,” Clara replied and after giving their
parents a hug and saying thank you so many times they lost count, they grabbed
the laptop and flashcards and headed back up to Camila’s bedroom, now wanting
the next three years to go by incredibly fast.
