Holly and Makayla had begun their day by watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade live. They had never done it before, and just in general, this was probably the first time that they were embracing anything related to the holiday. Holly loved holidays, and especially after Holly and Makayla started a life separate from their parents, the girl had only grown in her enthusiasm for those special days of the year. However, the first Thanksgiving that they were on their own, they were struggling a lot financially, and at that point, didn't even have cable or a television in their studio apartment to watch the parade. Makayla had probably had an exceptionally rough night the night before, so the idea of standing outside in the cold wouldn't have gone over well with her either. Last year, things were still even tighter than they were this year, and given that they had different roommates at the time who both left town, Holly and Makayla had spent the holiday in a quiet manner, almost as if it were a normal day. This year, however, things were different. A few weeks back, Cara had invited them over for Thanksgiving dinner, and ever since then, Holly wouldn't let Makayla go a day without hearing about how excited she was for the holiday. It was the first time in her life that she was going to sit down for a real Thanksgiving dinner, with turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing and everything, and she couldn't keep her excitement over that contained, even if she wanted to.
Although Makayla wasn't all that excited to walk about sixty blocks in the brisk morning to reach the starting point of the parade, she did it anyway. Holly was always an early riser, and while they easily could have taken the subway uptown, Holly had woken up early and with an abundance of energy that Makayla was sure would lead to her waking up Sam or Deja if they didn't leave the apartment. If she had money to spare, she could have taken Holly to get breakfast at a local diner beforehand, to kill off that time, but she didn't, and so they spent a good portion of the morning leisurely walking uptown. It tired Makayla out, but then again, lately she seemed to be in a perpetual state of exhaustion, so that was nothing new to her. Besides, she decided that if she could kill off some of Holly's energy early on in the day, they would all be better off later on.
They watched the parade for a little while, but it seemed fairly short, given how long the walk there, and then back, was. Although Holly pleaded that they take the subway back, Makayla insisted that they walk, and it probably was with good reason, because by the time that they returned to their neighborhood, it was already mid-afternoon, and they weren't even heading straight home following that. They had to stop at the grocery store first. "Which one of the balloons was your favorite, Kay? I wish they had one that was like... a pink or a purple dog, with a lot of fur that was like, really fuzzy, and it was actually not a balloon but a real dog. Wouldn't that have been the best thing about the parade?" Holly mused, standing beside Makayla as they walked through the store. She was doing pretty good today about not touching everything she saw, and it helped immensely that Makayla skipped over turning down the candy aisle.
"Yeah, but you know that pink and purple dogs aren't real."
"If you put hair dye on a white dog, then they would be real. You should get me a white dog, and put red hair dye on it so that it matches me. That would be the best Christmas present ever."
"You know you're not getting a dog for Christmas, or for anything. Stop it with that. Now, what were the things that I told you we needed to pick up from here? We have the lemonade, milk, cereal, bread...?" Makayla never could remember to write out a list on paper herself. She always felt so rushed and unorganized, but she just couldn't help it most of the time. It was like she either didn't have the time to do these things, or she had the time, but not the energy.
"Macaroni and cheese! We almost forgot that and that would have been horrible. And... oh! You said we could get something to bring to Cara's house. I think we should bring cookies, I bet Cara would love that!"
Holly was right, that those were the two things that they were forgetting. Macaroni and cheese and lemonade, combined with an occasional helping of chicken fingers or a grilled cheese, seemed to wholly encompass Holly's diet. Makayla tried to get her to eat better, she really did, but with such a picky taste palate, Makayla didn't have it in her budget to constantly buy new, healthier foods for Holly, only to have her take one bite and refuse to eat anymore. After grabbing a couple of boxes of macaroni and cheese from an aisle, Makayla led Holly towards the freezer section of the store. She could have purchased the box mix, and baked cookies that way, or she could have purchased pre-made cookies, but given her options, the frozen "ready to bake" ones seemed like the best choice. The pre-made cookies would make her look lazy, she thought, and at least with these cookies, she could just brush it off to the high-standards Cara as the chosen dessert because Holly wanted to play a role in baking them. Seeing that they cost $4.50 made her cringe, but she placed them in their basket regardless. Even once they were at the register, and their total came to just over twenty dollars, Makayla tried to act unbothered. It nearly hurt her physically to have to hand the money over to the cashier, knowing that they had used up all of their SNAP benefits for the month a week or so back, but she did it anyway. She barely had any money, but what was she supposed to do? Let her sister starve? Show up to a Thanksgiving dinner, where they would be fed for free, without even a little something to offer? They were poor, but Makayla still had manners, and she knew that that was unacceptable. Cara did a lot for them, more than Makayla could ever thank her for, and even though she knew she wouldn't necessarily be able to relax tonight at her house, she did know, at least, that Holly would be fed, and that for the first time ever, they would actually be having a traditional Thanksgiving.
The grocery store that they were shopping at was only a block or two away from the apartment, so the walk home from here was much shorter. "Who else do you think Cara invited? Maybe Brooklyn? Or Weston? Or Olivi-elle-elle-elle? Or Tony? That would be fun if they came, right? Ooooh, and if Rowan comes, we can tell him how he looked just like the Elf on the Shelf balloon!" She gushed, swinging the light grocery bag she was carrying as she paced a few steps ahead of Makayla on their way up to the fifth floor. Though her legs had been tired a few minutes ago from all of the walking, thinking about how exciting the night was going to be, her energy and enthusiasm negated any lethargy her limbs were feeling for the moment.