Friendships Face The Future

The Pike twins and their sweethearts do a conference call.  

Tanner: Are you in Grandpa Mace's room, Whitney?  He's got the same ugly wall. 

Finnick:  That's how lame you are.  Your girlfriend would rather hang with your grandpa. 

Whitney: I'm in the laundry room.  Was gonna use the kitchen table, but Wendy is distracting Wilma in there.  Teaching her to make cookies.  (Changing the subject)  Get a load of this.  My dad wants me to major in mass media and work for him. 

Nakoma:  After his Wilma attitude?  I hope you told him where to stick his cameras and printing press.

Tanner: Hey, now.  He kind of apologized for that. 

Whitney: Only kind of.  But I did tell him I'd think about it.  I wasn't even going to go to college but then I got that scholarship.  Right now I'm majoring in Undecided and getting all the basic stuff done.

Finnick:  Albus got us enrolled for trade school even before graduation.  He's more excited about it than we are.  Said he was beginnning to think he'd have to live forever to keep the rides going.  

Nakoma: Did you hear Four and Tris are already planning a wedding?  The ink's barely dry on our diplomas!  Neither of them is going to college or anything! 

Tanner: He's got a job lined up.  Doing tattoos.  And Tris says flipping burgers is a step up from anything her parents expected her to do.  They'll be all right.  

Nakoma: Oh, yeah, I forgot he apprenticed with his uncle. 

Finnick: His grandpa.  But yeah, they're good to go.  Us?  We got a few years before any serious planning should begin.  All four of us, right, Tanner? 

Tanner: We could talk in general.  Vague stuff.  Like, maybe we should have a double wedding? 

*****

Taylor is out on the deck, getting the gossip from Gabriella.

Gabriella: I may not make it to high school.  Might murder my aunt before then. 

Taylor: Oh, lord.  What's Charlotte doing now?

Gabriella: Well, you know Alex has been wanting to dye her hair since her dad started dating Nova, but her mom had a cow?  She got her mom to promise that if she got straight As all through middle school, she could do anything she wanted with her hair. She got a green mohawk. 

Taylor:  I saw the selfie.  It looks really cute.  But what's that got to do with Aunt Hagface? 

Gabriella: She straight-up forbade me to do anything like that.  In front of my parents. 

Taylor: Did your dad scalp her?

Gabriella (laughing):  I don't think Navajos scalp people, you racist.  

Taylor: Did someone at least slap her?  Cuss her out?

Gabriella: I don't even know.  I came up to our room.  Stayed here until Charlotte left and then I got a lecture about being rude to an adult. 

Taylor: She was rude to you and to your parents.  But you got in trouble. 

Gabriella: Just the lecture, which I've heard about ten million times since she came to town.  Dad did tell me that it's my hair, to do with as I please, but he'd prefer that I keep it the natural color.  (Changing the subject)  I decided to take the college prep courses.  And not just because you are.

Taylor: I told you, it'll be easier than not taking them and then deciding you want to go to college.  

Gabriella: That, and Mom found one of those free on-line courses about the Navajo.  It's really interesting and it blows my mind how little Dad knows of his own heritage.  

****

Nikki is doing the same, but in her room and on a laptop.  

Claudia: I see my little buddy there behind you. 

Nikki: My turn with the babies.  Everyone else is watching some chainsaw murder marathon.  Gross. 

Claudia: Says the zombie show addict.  (Laughs)  Grandma's finally convinced Ben to let me come home on Sunday.  We've been butting heads even worse than normal.

Nikki:  Well, yeah.  She's 500 years old and you've been stuck with her forever. 

Claudia: 500 years old I can deal with.  She's got some really amazing stories.  But the woman is a hermit, Nikki, and she wants me to be a hermit, too! 

Nikki:  I wish you could've stayed here but we already had too many people here.  It never felt like it before, because we're hardly ever all at home, but now it gets really crowded around here.  

Claudia: I'm jealous.  But I'll be home next week, where I can at least wave at people through the window.  I'd be willing to hang with that crybaby Ricky Eaton right now.  

Nikki: Oh, lord, you must be desperate.