The Rainbow Liar

They look innocent enough, Emma and Caroline. Two teenage girls giggled, danced, and swam through the weekend, keeping each other in stitches and driving us crazy. Caroline is Em's friend--"besty" is the term for that now. (BFF too, for all of you texters.) And she went with us for the weekend getaway trip.

Caroline is a hoot. She and Em laugh at the same silly things, jump in on any fun, and pretty much keep us entertained. She tolerates our family and goes along with just about anything--that's why we like to take her along. They drove tractors together, climbed ladders into the hay loft, and whipped soy beans at each other. They square danced, played Nintendo DS for hours in the car, and gave Patrick a run for his money with his soccer ball. They took a billion photos, ate pulled cremes, and practiced emulating Fain's Apalachian accent. Anything goes for these two and they are always stirring up fun.

They are witty and make comments that crack me up, although the morning banter after sleeping on a hotel sofa bed was a little much.

"Caroline, you had your knee up my butt last night!" Em was whining first thing.

"Well, you had your butt on my knee." was Caroline's response. You can't argue with that one.

Em is lucky to have such a friend through those tough middle school years. Having a BFF to share those daily dramas and laughs is essential, as Joe and I don't "understand". They confide, gossip, and giggle through it all and it is good to see. It keeps things in perspective and helps them to sort out the craziness in those difficult teen years. I'm glad that they have each other, although I do have one complaint with Caroline--she is a rainbow liar.

Standing in line at the Milky Way, the ice cream hotspot of Frankfort, Indiana, it started to rain. Not just rain, but giant sized raindrops that almost hurt when they fell on you. The sun was still shining and these ginormous bullets of water started to fall on us. There was a small overhang that we stood under, clinging together, as there wasn't much room on the sidewalk. And then it happened--Caroline said the unthinkable.

"Hey! There's a rainbow!" and we all looked upwards.

The crowd turned. We were peeking out from underneath the overhang, trying to see the rainbow that Caroline saw. All of the other customers were straining their necks, as they heard her claim. But, there was no rainbow. She was just kidding. Lying, actually. About a rainbow. You could almost feel the disappointment amongst the ice-cream-eating crowd, as they were all excited to see it. I'm not sure where that ranks in the list of serious crimes, but I can tell you, people were not happy.

We quickly grabbed our food and got out of there--before the crowd turned into an angry mob. Darn, Caroline! There are many things to lie about, but never, NEVER a rainbow!