Doing what teenagers do Georgia hung over the balustrade at the mall, people watching and slurping a large soda through a straw. She had got her dad to drop her off here in a misguided attempt at teenage independence, because hanging out at malls was what teenagers did. Not hanging out with their dads, watching movies or going to the park. However, most other teenagers had friends. She had to admit that actually hanging with her dad was probably more fun than being here by herself. He’d got her a whole bunch of TV shows and movies about show choirs. Not that the Sonora choir was a show choir, but the DVDs were pretty fun, and already in her head she was rocking out like they were. It had even led to some kind of cool conversations about music. Her dad’s taste was actually halfway decent for someone who was like… old and stuff.
“Hi there.”
Georgia didn’t notice the voice at first. Or rather noticed it, but assumed it was someone greeting a friend in the food court behind her.
“Hello,” they said more insistently. “Earth to the cute girl with the soda.”
She had started to turn at the more insistent hello. But then his second sentence caught her, and she would have given up, but she’d already noticed, out of the corner of her eye, that he seemed to be looking right at her. She actually made the full on stupid move of turning to check he wasn’t talking to someone behind her, before realising she’d had her back to a multi-story drop, which made that severely unlikely.
“Are you talking to me?” she asked.
“You’re a cute girl with a soda, aren’t you?” he asked.