Reina's POV

After school, me and my best friends went to hang out at a McDonald's at the Promenada mall as we were seated on the white chairs in front. I was happily munching on my chicken burger, sipping my chocolate milkshake, and bopping about to the music playing. I shook my mini hoop earrings, the pink tinted ends shining bright under my hair which was all done for once.

Gabriela then slurped down some of her strawberry milkshake and started nibbling on one of her pigtails. "Guys I have something to tell you..." she whispered.

"Oo, what is it?" Camelia asked, her eyes widening slightly as she popped a few fries into her mouth.

"I have a little crush on someone in my science class," she said, her voice trembling slightly as she tucked her hands into her lap.

"Pe bune?" Me and Camelia said 'seriously' together in surprise. I leaned across the table while squeezing my milkshake, with my own excitement bubbling up. "What's his name?"

"Alexandru. Let me show you guys some pictures I got of him," she said, a delighted giggle escaping her as her rosy cheeks bloomed with excitement. We then huddled up right beside her, and she showed us some screenshots and recordings of his snapchat. He had brown hair that brushed to the side, and some pimples dotted on his pink cheeks and brown eyes.

"I used my Mamă's phone to record these after playing a game on it, and sent them to myself so he won't know," she said, while her smile grew brighter. She kept hiding her face in her blue school sweater as she proudly showed us her collection. "He's so cute," she squeaked.

"Do you remember to delete from your Mamă's phone?" I asked. Gabriela nodded as she swiped the selfies with excitement, photos of him at school and drinking soda.

"O good!" I said, "Because imagine your mamă is just scrolling through her phone and then she suddenly sees lots of pictures of this kid she's never seen!" I then started laughing while biting into my burger.

"Da I wouldn't want her to start worrying if something was wrong with her phone," Gabriela said and giggled.

I kept looking at the pictures and I don't know why, but his surname made me quietly giggle as it looked similar to the word saliva. But I just covered my mouth so she wouldn't notice.

"Do you guys think you can help me tell him? I'm too shy to do it myself," Gabriela asked.

"Of course! We're going to make some good matchmakers aren't we Reina?" Camelia said, taking a big bite out of her burger.

"Da! He'll be sure to fall in love with you!" I said and Camelia and I fist-bumped each other and twinkled our hands.

"And if he ends up laughing at you, I'll just throw my bag at his face and fight him," Camelia said and smirked. Gabriela started laughing and nodded.

When we finished our food, we dumped it all in the bin and then walked out, linking arms with Camelia in the middle. 

I continued humming while we sprinted down the stairs and walked past the different clothing stores with their glowing storefronts, towards the exit. Little bulbs of lights trailed above us on the ceiling, as I was listening to the music playing. But when Camelia spotted the cosmetics store Sephora, she started dragging us towards it.

"Let's just quickly check out if they have any new makeup stuff," she said excitedly. We then wandered off to the perfume aisle first. I got a cherry-scented one and began spraying it a little. It smelt really nice like fruits that made me think of eating it.

"'This reminds me of when my Mamă gave me deodorant this morning,' I said to both of them, who had other perfumes in their hands.

"Serios?" Camelia asked, her eyebrows lifting in amusement as she came over to inspect the bottle I held.

"Da, she said I was smelly," I said, sulking with the biggest pout.

Camelia suddenly burst out snorting. "Reina stop—" she spluttered out and covered her mouth to contain her giggles, but she continued cackling.

"Then she sprayed me with her deodorant like I was a skunk that snuck into her home," I continued, my head sinking lower as I fought to contain my own erupting giggles.

"What, like bug spray?" Gabriela asked, her brow furrowed in genuine curiosity.

"Da! Right before I got to eat my breakfast," I added with a dramatic sniffle, wiping imaginary tears from the corners of my eyes.

"That's so sad," Gabriela said, as she tucked her hands into her pockets.

I ended up laughing as I couldn't keep a straight face for much longer. "I'm only joking. Actually, she just gave me a little speech and a little spray," I said. I knew Mamă said not to start telling crazy stories, but I couldn't help myself.

"You made it sound like  you were sprayed down with bug spray," Camelia said, as she was giggling on my side.

"I know." I smirked and jingled my little earrings with a cheeky grin.

We then went to where the eyeshadow palettes were and eyed the beautiful colors on display, while Gabriela was crouching at the lip stuff near the bottom. I dabbed some of the blue and pink onto my wrist and admired it shimmering.

"Look how pretty this looks, Gabi," I said. She quickly got up and peered over my hand, with her pigtails resting on her shoulder.

"Looks nice! I think it will really suit you if you wore it!" Gabriela said, nodding away, and held up a thumbs up.

"I wonder if my mamă has this shade. 'But she wouldn't like me going into her makeup stuff.' I pouted and started giggling.

"Me neither," Gabriela giggled too, "But my mamă won't mind this until I'm a bit older," she added and twirled a pink and white lip gloss round her fingers.

Camelia soon came bouncing to us and threw up her arm like it was a display. "Uite!" She pointed to us to look at the stripes of lipstick shades she put on. "I found some shades that I quite like but this one is my favorite!" And showed us the bright red lipstick in the middle of her hand.

"That looks pretty! Are you going to buy it?" I said, admiring her hand.

"Heheh nu. I can't go home with something like this," she chuckled a bit. "I was just trying to see which one would suit me the most."

"I found this lip gloss that I really like," Gabriela perked up and showed us the rose and white lip gloss while checking the price tag. "Luckily I can afford it!" She cheered with her fists balled up and did a little dance.

"You should wear it to school tomorrow so we can see it!" Camelia suggested.

"I will! If I remember to put it on tomorrow morning," Gabriela said, "I wonder if Alexandru will notice them...

"We'll just have to see tomorrow!" Camelia exclaimed.

Then we strolled to the till and waited as Gabriela eagerly paid for her new lip gloss. Then we finally waddled out of Sephora and out of the mall. We roped our arms together as we walked to the bus stop, with streaks of different colors stripping through the paling gray sky, and the tree branches rustling in the wind.

Once Gabriela was on her bus, she waved bye to us as it started driving away. Afterwards I started heading home, walking with Camelia.

When I arrived, I heard Mamă in the kitchen cooking something while I was rushing up to my room to change out of my school uniform. I just decided  to throw on a fuzzy sparkly pink sweater and my grey jogging bottoms. Then went downstairs to check out what was being made since Raiden would still be at his football club.

I stood in the archway, trying to stretch my head to see what she was making, but only saw the ingredients on the counter and her back.

I jumped slightly when she suddenly turned towards me.

"O hei Reina, do you want come help me prepare dinner?" She smiled warmly.

"Sigur," I said 'sure' quietly and then hopped next to her while my hands were folded. I tried not to giggle as she had her work lab coat on but was wearing her fuzzy heart pajamas bottoms.

"I decided to make stuffed peppers for this week," Mamă  announced as she placed the mixing bowl between us. It already had the meat mashed up with some other ingredients. We began scooping up the filling and into the yellow bell peppers that Mamă had on the sides.

"How was school today?"

"It was good," I smiled a little, "After school we went to the mall," I continued, while copying her, scooping up the mixture and stuffing them into the empty bell pepper.

"O lovely! Did you buy anything nice?" 

"Just McDonald's. We did go into Sephora just to look at stuff, but only Gabriela bought something since she has a crush," I said, my smile widening as I began to feel more relaxed.

"Aw, little Gabriela with the pigtails?" she asked. I nodded, and scooped another ball of meat into a bell pepper.

"That's so cute!" She said , which made me laugh.

"Do you also have a little crush?" She asked, leaning in very close to me. I quickly shook my head, my face burning up a little.

"O okay, I was just wondering," she said, picking up another bell pepper to stuff. "I remember when I was around 12 and had my first crush," she added,  brushing some hair behind her ear and began to chuckle.

I suddenly perked my head up, actually surprised to hear something like that from Mamă. "You had a crush?" I stared at her wide-eyed since that was the last thing I thought she was going to tell me.

"Da," she said, licking something off her finger. "It was on a boy from my Grandma Ioana's church. I used to like looking at him when he was walking around. Then I would hide my face with my braid," she continued, her cheeks were slightly puffed out more and a little smile was seeping through.

I slightly leaned in to hear more, as I could never have imagined Mamă as a little girl, blushing over a boy.  Sometimes I feel like she just spawned as an adult that yells too much and is always angry.

"Did you ever talk to him?" I asked.

"Da, even though I was basically forced to." She let out a light chuckle. "I thought I was good at hiding it but my Bunica saw and decided to ambush me when the boy's family just casually came over to her house for lunch."

My eyes sparked open at the thought of being surprised like that. When I looked back at Mamă , she held up her fingers in two air quotes for 'casually' which made me giggle. 

"So you really had your crush just eating lunch with you," I said, trying to hold in my laugh.

"Da. Bunica even innocently suggested for me to sit right next to him, 'Mona, dear, there's an empty seat there,'" She said, and quickly pointed her finger in the air. "Even asked him to pass me some of the food. While I couldn't stop shaking, and Bunica was just chatting to his mamă about the weather, like it was a completely normal dinner."

I was laughing even now and covering my mouth. It sounded so embarrassing that I couldn't stop my giggles from spilling over into spit spilling through my fingers. Mamă was also laughing now under her breath.

"So my dear, that's how I became the next victim of my Bunica's teasing," she chuckled, wiping her hands with a kitchen towel.

"Did you ever see him again?"

"Eh sometimes. When I was staying with my grandparents during the summer I would see him occasionally," she said and then placed the stuffed pepper in the pot. "Those were really fun times."

I watched as she started to pour some tomato puree and water into a beaker. Mamă didn't really talk much about herself or her childhood but it was always interesting to listen to when she did, as I felt like I was seeing a whole different side to her.

Mamă then mixed some sour cream into the beaker, sprinkled with salt and pepper before pouring it over the stuffed peppers in the pan.

"You know, I'm really happy to be doing something like this with you, Reina," Mamă said, shifting her face towards me with a small smile.

"Me too. I'm also enjoying this."

"I remember cooking like this with my dad." She sighed, her eyes gazing fondly at the food.

"Serios?" I asked, as I leaned onto my hands while curiously glancing up at her.

"Mm da. We used to be in the kitchen making stuff together just like this," she continued. Her voice grew lighter and softer, a tone I didn't often hear, as we watched the sauce cascade like a slow waterfall over the peppers. "He would teach me a lot of dishes, and by the time I was your age, I could make a lot of things myself," she murmured as the words quietly left her, floating into the air and fading into the distant memory. Her eyes were sparkling now as they briefly flickering to me, then back to the pot.

"My favorite part was having a taste of everything before it was fully made. I did it so often that my tată ended up carving a little 'M' on the spoon with a green bow just for me," she continued, as she tasted bits of the sauce that slid down her thumb. "I used it more when I became the main cook for me and my tata."

"Aw that sounds really nice Mamă," I finally said. I quickly wiped my face, as my eyes were already welling up. Hearing her talk about doing the same thing with her own dad was so sweet. For once, it was really nice to   imagine Mamă being a normal kid doing things with her own parents. I really wonder what other childhood memories she has. I hope she will share more with me again.

A/N: Hey guys I hope you enjoyed the chapter! So sorry it took so long!

Fun fact: that bunica story was originally non-canon and a part of little random snippets I did for fun, but it fitted so well into this scene I decided to include it 😂😂