The next week passed by without much excitement, other than the obvious. Cherry and I were in my bed, watching some mindless kid's show. She had one of her toys in her mouth and sippy cup with apple juice beside her.
"What's your favorite color?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"Lellow!" She shouted instantly.
"Yellow?" She nodded.
"Like Beyal!" I should've known. Beauty and the Beast was her favorite movie. I perpetually had the songs running through my head. I often caught Cherry singing them too. It was adorable.
"Ah."
"You has a favoite cala?"
"Guess what it is." Between you and me I didn't even have a favorite color until she turned to me with a big grin and her eyes lit up and she said,
"Geen!" I grinned.
"That's right! Good guess!" She grinned and giggled. She crawled over me and dropped out of the bunk. She was gone for a few minutes and then the curtain was pulled back and Emerson put her back in my bunk and left the curtain open. I didn't bother closing it. Cherry was clutching a sheet of paper.
"Heeyah." She held the paper out to me. I took it. There were two people holding hands. One tall, skinny, dressed all in green, me, obviously. The other person, dressed all in yellow, Cherry. The background was green too and almost indistinguishable from me. But I loved it. I wrote her name and the date on the back of it before taping it to the wall.
"I love it. Thank you, Stargazer." I hugged her and kissed the top of her head. She giggled and stuck the straw on her cup into her mouth and started chewing on it.

———

The next morning when I was getting dressed I chose yellow. If she liked yellow then yellow I would be. When I walked to the front of the bus I found Cherry eating yogurt with her fingers.
"Hey, Stargazer. Is that good?" She nodded then looked up and got wide eyed.
"You lellow!" She excitedly.
"I am."
"Is petty." She stuck her fingers in her mouth and sucked on them.
"Thank you." She looked down at her yogurt covered hands and then back up at me.
"Hep me? Pease?" She held her hands up.  I smiled.
"Sure. Let me find a washcloth." I found one and washed her hands and face. "Now, lets go get you dressed." She slid off the bench and grabbed my hand. I sat her in our bunk and unzipped her footies. I pulled a yellow t-shirt with Stitch on it over her head.
"I lellow too!"
"Yeah. Here." I stood her on the floor and pulled her pants up, then sat her back in our bunk while I found her socks. I put her socks and sneakers on and stood her back on the floor.
"Soundcheck!" Sebastian yelled from the back of the bus. Cherry giggled and I turned around. Emerson had put his pageboy cap on her head. It was a little bit too big and fell down over her eyes, but she loved it.
"Deedee! 'Ook!" She looked up so she could see under the hat.
"You're adorable." I crouched and she wrapped one arm around my neck, held her hat on with the other hand. Using my good arm I lifted her off the floor and straightened up. I followed Sebastian off the bus, with Luis following me, talking to Cherry and making faces at her.

———

After soundcheck I started a game of hide and seek with Cherry.
"Cherry? Where are you?" I called as I looked behind equipment cases.
"Did you seriously lose her?" Sebastian asked from behind me. I turned to look at him.
"No I didn't lose her. We're playing hide and seek. I'm it." He looked skeptical. "Stop giving me that look. I didn't lose her."
"Then where is she?"
"Over there." I jabbed my thumb behind me. "You can hear her giggle from outside."
"Fine. Sorry. Please continue." I rolled my eyes, but kept looking for Cherry.
"Cherry?" She giggled and I grinned. "Is she over here?" I looked close to her, but didn't quite find her. "Nope. Maybe . . ." I leaned over the case she was hiding behind. "Found you." She shrieked and ran. I ran after her, scooping her up and blowing a raspberry on her stomach.
"Dop! Dop it! Tittles!" She shrieked with laughter and tried to wiggle out of my arms.
"That's the point, silly." I stopped tickling her and she hugged me.
"'Ove you, Deedee." No feeling compared to the one I got when she told me she loved me.
"Love you too, Stargazer." My life was amazing and only seemed to get better. Until my phone rang. And then everything came crashing down.