#bergen_county

Sam had been out riding, though she comes home on foot.

She knows to wipe her feet on the welcome mat

Her mom gets fussy

She knows.

And she can hear a happy bark from inside. Brown Dog!

As she wipes her feet, and comes in, She is indeed greeted by Brown Dog who bounces at her feet

"Yes, yes. Yes, hello. Yes, I see you."

"We see you too" From the couch, a familiar voice. Lupe's!

"Hi!" May waves from Lupe's side

"Oh shit! Hi!"

She grins first, uncomplicated joy at seeing her friends.

May lights up with delight and moves to hug her! Almost as tall as Sam's mortal side herself!

"I think you grew May..."

She's not changed! Okay, she's changed a little! She has colorful streaks in her hair, just two but that's new

"I think I've hit my peak, but look at you," She gushes

There's a hint of strain at the corners of her smile, the tiniest hitch in her shoulders. But she's fine!

(And yes, likely taller, just a bit)

LUpe says "if you two do that girly high pitch squeal, however ujustified, I may throw up" But Lupe grins "Sam, look who came to v isit for Turkey week?"

"Jeez, you musta flown? How was that?"

"How's California? How's your family? Have you made new friends?'

"Oh my god I have so many stories to tell..." She rattles on "I didn't want to down you guys but at first? I was like 'wow' and then within a day I was MISERABLE... I mean, I really hated it. It seemed like everyone was so snobby or better than thou... like geez, all the bad shit you hear about cali..."" She blushes "I know I should have told you guys the truth but it just sucked to whine when you all had such dreams for me... right?"

Worried. "But it got better?"

"It did" She nods "And it's because of you guys" She rehugs them

Lupe blinks "But we weren't there, didn't even KNOW"

A frown threatens, but is swiftly hidden behind a tight small smile.

"Well, it.. sounds silly, but for a bit I got worried I wwasn't ... worthy of friends? Like maybe I was a loser. Then I remembered who my friends are. You two picked ME as friends. " She says "And we amazons do NOT hang with losers, you two saw something awesome in me, so I had to be awesome. Because Sam always knows when folks are full of bullshit, and Lupe.." A look at their shorter friend "She's got short legs and high standards"

"Oh, already the short jokes start!" Lupe mock snarls but isn't really upset

"Did they ever end?"

"And of course you're worthy of friends. You're the best."

Lupe snorts "Don't make me climb up there..." but a smirk slips

"I'm not the only one," May says "You guys are great and..well, that made me feel better! The next thing I knew, I was just a bit more confident, and I stood up for myself. And... finally I met a friend or two there. Pretty cool folks actually. There's a writer's club there! You're not going to believe this, but when they found out I knew mr. Gardener, they were fans!"

"Mr. Gardener made you cool? Cali really IS weird" Lupe mock mutters

"SO weird."

"I met this chick that's a fan of my mom."

"Ha. I was already cool, because I was made an amazon ..." she says "By you two. Remember? But it was a nice leg up"

"Oh, yeah?" Lupe inquires, "Who's the chick?"

"Her name's Masey. She's in a sorority, so..." A shrug.

"Oh, is Masey cool? " May asks just happy her friend made a friend

"She is! She's into music and dancing, so... you know, maybe we don't have the most in common."

Lupe ponders "Hey, you like Sylvi and she's definitely diff. Cool but diff."

"Oh, for sure."

"I'd love to meet her sometime" May says "She sounds nice."

"She is nice. She invited me to her sorority party for Halloween - so, talk about Amazons..."

"We're they freakishly tall amazons? Or right sized?" Lupe inquires, picking on the tall girls who made the short jokes

"Hey now.." May pokes her Puerto Rican friend

"Fine" Lupe hugs them both "Now, how'd the party go?"

"Well, it's a little fuzzy... but good!"

May looks confused at the fuzzy thing, but rolls with it "I'm glad you had a good time. I went to a tripple film festival with the gang" she says

"The writers?"

"Yeah" she beams "They've been very encouraging. Oh.. oh my gosh, Sam? What did you think of my script?"