Alley Baby

Crushes

When Princeps and I got to the park across the street, Princeps remembered that he needed to go to his house to get something. I sat down at the first picnic table I saw and then I thought. Jessica seemed intrigued when Princeps told her we were coming to the park. Ooh, intrigued. That’s a fancy word! I wondered what new words I would learn that day. Princeps usually asked me which words I had been wanting to learn about. I thought about the words I wanted to learn, and then I remembered a word I had been thinking about ever since I had meet Jessica Treasure.

Princeps came back and I asked him about the word I wanted to learn “When Jessica drag me, girls call you cute.”

“Yeah. I heard.”

“What that mean?” Princeps had been looking at the table this whole time with his hands on it. He looked up. “I’m sorry, what?” he asked, so I repeated the question. “Um,” he said and he squinted one eye. Princeps does this when he’s trying not to do something, but he knows he has to. In this case, he was trying not to tell me what those girls meant by “Cute” but he wasn’t one to lie. “Okay,” he finally said, “They had a crush on me.”

“Crush?” I asked fearfully

“No, not that kind. Um, it means that they like me. They um, want to um… look, Allie, I think this is something you should ask Ed about,” He stammered “Ed knows more about that kind of stuff because he’s older.”

“No,” I stubbornly stated “I ask you.”

“Okay, um, they want to date me when they’re older.”

“Date?” I questioned. Just then, guess who marched up? Jessica treasure, coming to ruin my life. She brightened up when she saw Princeps though. “Hey, Princey-poo!” she called as she walked up to our glass table in the park. She banged her hands on the table and put her stuff right in front of me. Princeps quickly pushed the bag aside. Jessica pulled up a seat and sat to the right of me and the left of Princeps. Princeps kept talking to me. “Date is when two adults go out like, at the movies or something-” He paused. Jessica had leaned over and was putting her face in front of Princeps. He pushed it away casually. Then he continued, “-to spend time with each other.” 

“Ok.” I told him

“But they can’t!” Jessica immediately butted in, “Because I will!”

“Nope” Princeps told her

“And then we’ll get married!”

“Still no.”

“And we’ll live in a mansion and have six kids and three cats and eight bunnies!”

“Not gonna happen.” Princeps turned down Jessica’s dream and brought her back to the real world. Then she noticed I was still there. “Uh,” she asked Princeps in a whisper loud enough for me to hear, “who invited the rug rat?” She probably wanted that to offend me. I just stared at her blankly. Just then, she looked down, “What are you wearing?” I looked down myself. I was wearing a long sleeved orange t-shirt with the peace sign on it, my jeans were a navy blue with holes in the kneecaps. My tennis shoes were taken from the park and they were a lavender purple and my socks were gray green. Then I looked at what Jessica was wearing. A sweetheart topped spaghetti strap baby blue mini-dress with sparkles at the hem and neckline. Pumps that matched the sweet blue color of the dress with stockings as white as snow. Her tiny sleek gloves that went up to her wrist were the same snowy white. Around her neck was a blue chain holding a single pearl that rested right on the top of her sternum. The same huge white pearls made her stud earrings and her millions of bracelets were either made up of the pearls or some blue diamond studded with tiny pearls. She was quite a sight! A blue sparkling ponytail holder held up her hair in a prim and perfect bun. We both turned to Princeps. He was wearing a maroon sleeveless hoodie that showed off his biceps. His jeans were folded at the bottom to form cuffs, and his sneakers were the same maroon as his hoodie. Jessica looked overdressed compared to us and I looked even more dirty than I actually was next to them. Princeps was in the middle. Princeps looked deep in thought. All of a sudden, his face lit up. “Allie!” He exclaimed, “I think I know how we can get you adopted!” I was so excited. Princeps took me away from the park and I think Princeps was glad to be rid of Jessica Treasure. I know I sure was!