F.r.i.e.n.d.s. 2

Jamie had spent the entire afternoon toiling in the kitchen. She was trying to bake a cake. Not from scratch obviously, I mean who does that sort of thing now-a-days anyway?? Although Betty Crocker's cake mix was there to make things easier, she had still found the task to be quite an ordeal!

She had watched Lynne bake many a cake in the past 3 months, and had felt fairly confident about it. But this afternoon, Jamie realised that baking was a lot like driving. It's one thing to watch others do it, it's a whole another when you're the one behind the wheel; especially when there's no one else around. She finally managed to get the stuff into the oven, and thought that the worst was over when it suddenly occurred to her that she couldn't tell what a cake looked like when it was ready! Of course the box says 30 minutes, but we all know that it's never exactly 30 minutes. That specific task was usually assigned to Ree-Ree.

This calls for a quick flash back into the past, to the time when Jamie was staying with the Parsons. I've already mentioned Lynne, Ames and their daughter Nilla. There's another character here, that the reader will be introduced to: Ree-Ree. Jamie had noticed that she was always usually around . She had initially presumed that she was Nilla's best friend or something, but then wondered if she was somehow related to the Parsons.

[ The exact relationship of Ree-Ree with the Parsons , as well as her real name, is unknown to Jamie (to the present day). So, let's leave it at that.]

Anyhoo, every time Lynne had baked a cake, it had been Ree-Ree's job to take it out when it was ready. Jamie realised that she hadn't ever paid attention to that part of the cake-making process. "Great going Jamie!" she said to herself sarcastically.

Just as she was ready to plunge into a sea of despair, she heard her cell phone ring. "Ashton!!" she exclaimed and ran to her room. Ashton had successfully completed his assignment in L.A. and was now travelling for the 2 weeks, between Chicago and NYC. Jamie hadn't heard from him in 3 days, and as she ran to her room, the prospect of hearing his voice after so long, excited her.


"Hey roobear!! Hows you doing?" asked John. It was John. Jamie wasn't disappointed. John was a dear friend she had known for many years now; and she was glad he had called. As for Ashton, well, not hearing from him forever was expected. Jamie was getting used to that.

"Johnster!! Hey!!" Jamie replied. They spoke for about 2 hours, 2 hours and 38 minutes to be precise. They had a bit of catching up to do. John had been busy with a couple of things the past week. There were the usual hospital shifts, plus Mary-Ann, John's girlfriend, had left for Montreal earlier in the day and he had spent the last week helping her shop and pack for the trip. She spent Thanksgiving every year with her folks there, and John usually accompanied her, but this year he couldn't make it, 'cause he had a lot going on in the hospital.

Jamie updated John on Peyton's love life. She had had a really long chat with her the other day. The conversation touched a veriety of topics briefly, but was mostly focussed on her 'Belgian love'. "Peyton should really just stop wasting her time. Really." John laughed. He had such a nice warm laugh, Jamie thought. Just like the kind of the guy he was- nice, warm, friendly, sweet... lovable. Her mind wandered to Faraway Land, to her high school days, to the time when her world revolved her then boyfriend - John.

"and she couldn't stop giggling after that, no matter what we did or said, trust me roo we tried everything... but she had got a classic case of the giggles!" John said. Jamie was lost. This wasn't the first time her thoughts had drifted into the distant past, while on the phone with John.

"Oh! really? wow!" Jamie said, sheepishly. She knew that John was aware of the fact that she hadn't been listening to him. He knew her really well.

"The cake!!" Jamie suddenly screamed, "It's probably ruined by now!" "It's definitely ruined by now" John joked. Jamie ended their conversation abruptly, and headed toward the kitchen. She had to take care of the situation before Aunt found out...

"Else she's going to serve me for dinner tonight!"