Even Forever Doesn't Seem Like Long Enough

"Breakfast!" Mum called as she burst into my room.

I groaned somewhat, "Leave me alone!"

"It's half seven, you told me to wake you up at half seven so here I am," She shrugged, placing the tray over me.

I yawned and turned over so that I was able to eat properly.

"Thanks," I mumbled, "You didn't have to make me breakfast,"

She rose her shoulders once again, "I wanted to. Enjoy," She replied and wandered off out of the room.

After eating my breakfast and getting ready, I landed downstairs at around half eight.

"So what are you doing today Amber?" Ruby asked when I flopped onto the couch beside her.

"I'm going out with Hannah to do some stuff and then I'll be back a bit later on to sleep," I answered.

"What stuff are you going to do with Hannah?"

"Well, you have a choice; you can wait and see or you can come with us and join in,"

She eyed me suspiciously, her eyebrows risen quizzically, "I don't know... The curiosity would kill me but I don't know what I'd be getting myself into if I did agree to whatever it was,"

I shrugged, "Well that's the ultimate question- Do you play it dull or do you be spontaneous and have some fun? You're welcome to come with us but I'm leaving soon so you'd better get ready if you are,"

I pulled myself up from the seat and headed into the kitchen.

"What're you up to today then mum?" I asked, bunking myself up onto the kitchen counter.

"I'm going to do some spring cleaning and I'm going to have a lazy day before I go back to work tomorrow," She responded, sipping at a cup of coffee.

"Are you in work on Wednesday?" I enquired.

"Yeah, why?"

"Just asking,"

"What's happening on Wednesday?"

"I'll tell you on Wednesday morning," I grinned innocently and jumped off the counter, "Are you coming with us Ruby or not?"

"I don't know,"

"Well think! I'm leaving now but I can spare five minutes if you want to get ready,"

She appeared at the living room door and sighed, "Are you going to make me do something ridiculous and embarrassing?"

I shrugged, "There's only one way to find out,"

She stared at me, faltered and caved, "Okay, I'll come with you,"

I smiled, "You've got five minutes,"

She then jumped up the stairs.

She'll have to stick with it now...

Twenty Minutes Later...

Hannah came to the door almost instantly after we knocked.

"Hey, you ready to go?" I asked.

"Yeah," She nodded, "Hey Ruby, I didn't know you were coming with us,"

"Last minute tag along Amber still won't tell me where she's taking me though,"

"You should know by the time we've got back from the shops," I added, "Come on then,"

So we made our way to the shops and into a specific shop that Hannah and I found when we were out the other day.

As we walked into the shop, I thought about the flower shop the other day and that guy that I met.

What was his name?

B... Brendon! That's the one.

He seemed nice...

I think talking to random people is something we should all do because it's funny and, though it makes people uncomfortable, I'm sure it makes them smile or laugh when they look back on it.

"Okay," I began as we stopped in the middle of the shop, "Ruby, go get three buckets while me and Hannah go find the most important thing, we'll meet you at the till,"

Ruby looked at me blankly, "Why do we need buckets?"

"You'll find out soon enough," I grinned mysteriously, "Come on Hannah," I linked her and dragged her off into the aisles.

"She's going to drop out as soon as she finds out what we're doing, you know," Hannah stated as she guided me to the correct aisle.

"She won't. I'll guilt her into it or something- She'll do it," I assured her as we stopped at the shelf we'd come for.

"What colour do you want?" She asked.

"Um... I'll go for orange, get a blue one for Ruby,"

She nodded and picked up an orange, a blue and a yellow box from the shelf.

After Hannah grabbed three of the boxes, two of which I took from her to lighten the load, we headed to the till where Ruby was waiting with three buckets.

She cast a glance down to the boxes in her hands and, once her eyebrow had risen as she read the label, her face fell.

"What are they?" She questioned fearfully, though she knew exactly what they were.

"What do you think they are?" I replied with a dry laugh.

"They look like space hoppers," She replied.

I nodded with a wide grin, "Yep, well done!"

Hannah giggled and took the buckets from Ruby before placing them and the space hoppers on the counter.

"What exactly are we doing with three space hoppers and three buckets?"

"What do you think we're going to do with them?" I smirked.

"I refuse to space hop home with a bucket on my head!" She announced, earning herself some pretty odd looks from the people by us.

I laughed, "Nice imagination Rubes, but no, we're not doing that,"

"So what are we doing?"

Hannah and I exchanged glances.

"Well, on Wednesday, we're going to have a sponsored space-hopper race," I revealed, "In the park by our house,"

She stared at me for a brief second, her face expressionless, before she finally croaked out, "What?"

"Me, you and Hannah are going to go around places and ask people to sponsor us. The money they give us will all go to charity," I explained.

"Which charity is the money going to?" Ruby asked.

"Cancer research and the Children's Hospital down the road for the terminal ward," I replied, smiling gratefully at the cashier as she gave Hannah the change, "So, are you in or out?"

She sighed and I knew that she wouldn't refuse because it was for charity.

"I'm in," She agreed.

I grinned and threw an arm around her shoulder, "I knew you would be,"

I took some of the stuff from Hannah and we wandered out of the shop before making our way to our house to drop off the space hoppers.

We then spent the rest of the day split up and knocking on doors, asking people for money to sponsor us for this event.

We also went over to the Cancer Research Building to see if it was possible for them to arrange someone to come down to judge and help us get some people down there- Which they agreed to so we were pretty much all set for Wednesday.

We also spent all of Tuesday going around getting sponsors too so come Wednesday afternoon we were counting up the money.

"I've got one hundred and twenty two," Ruby finished first.

"Seven, eight, nine... I've got a hundred and thirty," Hannah added.

I finished counting up in my head, "I've got a hundred and forty eight,"

"Christ, that's four hundred! How many houses did we go to?!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Well, I did all of this neighbourhood, Hannah did all the schools and the businesses and you did a few more houses outside the neighbourhood as well as town when you were handing out posters. People were really generous as well, I guessed about three hundred when I was estimating," I explained as I bundled the money together and wrapped an elastic band around it before putting the coins in a small bag.

"Better than the estimate then," Ruby replied.

I nodded, "Way better,"

"I'm actually quite excited; it's going to be hilarious!" Hannah giggled.

"Yeah," I laughed, "We'll have to blow up our space hoppers and make our way down soon 'cause we'll have to set up the course," I said.

"Well we could get ready and go down now so two of us could set up the course and the other could blow up the space hoppers," Ruby suggested.

"That's a good idea actually, I'll go get ready. You're done aren't you Han?"

"Yeah, I'm ready and raring to go," She nodded profusely.

"Could you get the stuff ready while Ruby and I get ourselves together?"

"Yeah sure. The representatives from Cancer Research and the Children's Hospital are going to be getting there in about ten minutes so be quick,"

Ruby and I were fast getting ready and soon we were on our way to the park.

Me and Hannah set up the course while Ruby met up with the representatives and inflated the space hoppers.

"Hey Ruby!" Hannah called over to her as she was inflating the blue hopper.

"What?"

"Don't only inflate yours properly so you can win, love! I'll be having severe words if you do!" She joked.

"I never thought of that! Thanks for the tip!" Ruby laughed in response.

Five minutes later, when Hannah and I were almost done finishing the route, a small crowd of people appeared at the park gates.

"Excuse me?" A lady tapped my shoulder, "Is this the right place for the Cancer Research race?"

I nodded, "Yes it is, the starting line is just over there by the girl with the red hair and the space hopper," I directed.

"Thank you," She smiled and guided her gathering off to Ruby.

"You're welcome," I grinned, turning as I felt another tap on my shoulder and raising my eyebrows at Hannah, "What?"

She smiled in somewhat surprise, "Look," She simply stated, pointing to the park gates.

I lifted my head and saw lots of small groups heading for the park.

"Are they here to watch us piss about on space hoppers?" I questioned with a risen eyebrow.

"I think so," She nodded.

"Well... I didn't think that the turn out would even be about five people,"

"It's for a good cause though so maybe we could pass a bucket around the people while we're racing for extra to give to the charities," Hannah suggested.

"Good idea," I agreed, "Go let Ruby know, I'll finish this off,"

So she wandered over to Ruby and I finished up the course before joining her.

"Have we got a megaphone or a cone or something?" I asked after conversation had stopped.

"Um... Here's a cone," Ruby replied, handing me it.

I smiled and thanked her before shouting into the cone.

"Everybody listen up! The race is going to start in about ten minutes; we'll just give some more people a chance to turn up then we'll start,"

There was a few seconds of silence before more chatter started to rouse from the groups.

"How much have you raised so far?" The Children's Hospital representative asked me.

"About four hundred, but there's still more to come," I smiled.

"Who was it that arranged all of this?"

"Ruby, Hannah and I," I answered.

"I didn't catch your name, sorry,"

I held out my hand, "Amber King,"

She shook it firmly, "Denise Waters,"

"Nice to meet you,"

"Very lovely to meet you- Thank you very much,"

"You're welcome. I just hope what we give will be good enough,"

"It was good enough at fifty," She added.

I laughed and looked over at Ruby.

"Hey Rubes, pass my space hopper please,"

Ruby threw the blue toy at me.

"Cheers," I greeted, "Let's get this show on the road,"

I picked up the cone again.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if I could just have your attention please! The race is about to begin, I'll just explain the basic outline of what's going to happen then we'll get started," I yelled.

The crowd went silent.

"First of all I'd like to thank you all for showing up. Your sponsors were enough but your presence is even better! We've already raised four hundred to split between the two charities but we need your help again. I know you've already given money but I'll make you all a proposition- We're going to give these buckets to the first person on either side of the starting line,"

Hannah and Ruby did this while I spoke.

"You can make any donation you'd like to- However small or large- Don't pass it around yet though! The moment the race starts we want you to pass the bucket down the crowd to the finish line adding your donations along the way. Now here's my bet- If that bucket crosses the finish line before one of us does, I will put one hundred and fifty of my own notes into the pot!"

"Amber what are you doing? You can't afford that!" Ruby frowned.

I nodded, "Yeah I can," I turned back to the crowd, "Do we have a deal?"

They cheered and I smiled.

"Good! Let's get this started!" I announced, ushering Hannah and Ruby to the starting line.

We sat on our space hoppers and waited for one of the representatives to blow the whistle.

"Three, two, one..." The whistle blew and Hannah, Ruby and I hopped with all our might as we had to use all our strength to hold in our laughter.

The crowd were really speedy with their buckets too so we were actually having to try to make it look like we weren't losing purposefully.

Ruby and Hannah were being so competitive I almost rolled off the hopper in laughter.

At the half way point my legs were beginning to ache- I wasn't used to exercise.

Hannah was storming ahead and Ruby was trying vehemently to catch up with her.

I let a giggle slip and then jumped ahead a bit more, soon catching Ruby up.

The crowd were cheering us on and the bucket was about three jumps ahead of Hannah.

So, I sped up the pace and passed Ruby, gaining on Hannah as we approached the finish line.

A smile came on my face as I saw the bucket cross the line when Hannah was about three jumps away.

At this point, I gave two great leaps and I fell over the finish line half a second before Hannah did before rolling off my hopper onto the floor, panting and laughing at the same time.

"You complete dark horse!" Hannah yelled, attempting to be aggressive but failing miserably because she was laughing so much, "I was kicking your arses and then you just come and steal my victory from right under my nose!"

My stomach was hurting but I couldn't stop laughing, "Sorry! I couldn't help it,"

She got to her feet and helped me up from the floor.

Knowing that I'd fallen to the floor, I check my body for scratches or cuts that would bleed. I didn't want to go through that again...

"You alright?" Ruby asked, touching my arm gently as she wandered past.

"Yeah, I'm great," I smiled, heading over to the cone.

I grabbed the cone and spoke to the crowd again.

"Nice job everyone, you've just added another one hundred and fifty as well as your own donations to the pot- Consider this your good deed for the day! Thank you all very much for coming, we appreciate your support for charity and basically giving up fifteen minutes of your lives to watch three girls do a sponsored piss-about on space hoppers. I'm sure Cancer Research and the Children's Hospital will put this money to better use than we ever could. Thanks everyone, have a great night,"

I dropped the cone to the floor again and turned to find Hannah and Ruby counting up the money from the bucket.

I smiled at their concentration and turned to watch the crowd disperse out of the park.

As I did so, my eyes were drawn back to a familiar figure headed my way.

Brendon.

I sent him an unsure smile as he came into hearing distance.

"You're the girl from the flower shop," He stated.

"Yeah Brendon," I made sure he acknowledged the fact that I knew his name.

"It's funny, Amber," Apparently he wanted me to acknowledge it too, "You didn't strike me as the kind of person who was active in charity work,"

I shrugged, "I'm not really. I just wanted to have a space hopper race in a public place and this was the least embarrassing and most beneficial way to do it,"

"That's a very random thing to want to do,"

"Well, I'm quite a spontaneous person,"

He nodded and smiled knowingly, "I can tell,"

"Good, at least I've sort of influenced you somewhat into talking to strangers- You don't exactly strike me as a very impulsive person,"

"Actually, I was on my way home from work and I wanted to see what all this fuss was about,"

"So why did you come over and talk to me?"

He held up a twenty and handed it to me, "So I could contribute my share,"

I felt slightly disappointed.

I hid it well though.

"Thanks," I grinned.

"No need, it was my pleasure. I better get going- Good job on this... Random thing," He greeted heading off after I'd thanked him.

As he turned out of the park, I spun around to see Hannah and Ruby smiling in a teasing manner.

I knew exactly what they were thinking.

"Don't say it- Stop even thinking it," I ordered, "No,"

They giggled childishly and exchanged glances.

"He is actually quite cute," Hannah smirked as she placed all the money she had hold of into the bucket again.

I dropped my head and groaned, "Hannah stop it. How much did we get?"

"Sixty four on top of your one fifty makes two fourteen," Ruby calculated.

I threw Brendon's twenty in, "Two thirty four,"

"Not bad for a completely random act,"

I smiled to myself as we started packing up for home.

To Do List1. Buy flowers for mum and help them understand.
2. Have a space hopper race.

Two down, twenty three to go.

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Now you've gone somewhere else far away
I don't know if I will find you (find you, find you)
But you feel my breath on your neck
Can't believe I'm right behind you (right behind you)

Maroon 5- If I Never See Your Face Again