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Frankie was a very peculiar kind of person.
Andi wasn’t one to judge— she did end up working for Park Planet after all —but sometimes, Frankie’s peculiarities manage to surprise Andi, even into adulthood.
As children, Andi remembered sitting through hours of Frankie rambling about the history of Park Planet and Guinevere to her; after all, it was normal for kids to be excited about the things they liked. Park Planet is, at its core, a theme park designed to entertain their primary demographic of children. In fact, it was considered even more abnormal if a child didn’t seem at all interested in the theme park, compared to if they did obsessively. Andi didn’t mind, in the end, Frankie was her best friend.
When she and Frankie reached their teenage years, Andi started getting worried. She saw the appeal in Guinevere and Park Planet as a whole when she was a child, but after the age of 13, it was as if everything about it seemed dull. Maybe even a little childish, even.
Sure, it was nice to wonder and hope about a better future, one where she’d one day be able to work for and go back to Park Planet with Frankie again instead of rotting beneath it, but as the stereotype goes for a teenager going through their puberty years, she felt as if she’s outgrown the idea of Park Planet.
Frankie, on the other hand, didn’t seem to get the memo.
One night after a particularly bad day at school, Andi remembered sitting by Frankie as she cried on her bed. Andi had heard her crying under her bunk and ushered beside her, worried. Frankie had been having a hard time making friends throughout the school year, and it seemed like the weight of it all had finally come down on her “Andi,” Frankie sniffled, choking down a sob, “Am I weird?”
Andi remembered feeling conflicted at being asked such a question. How could she answer truthfully without hurting her best friend’s feelings? Of course Frankie was weird! But that didn’t make her bad, she was just a little different.
“You’re not weird.” She said as she gently stroked Frankie’s back, “Did— did the others say you’re weird?” Her hand stopped, now suddenly hot all over. Andi wasn’t one to normally be described to have a bad temper, but it wasn’t uncommon for Frankie to be picked on in school, especially when it came to her interests, so she was quick to get deeply defensive of her friend.
Frankie sputtered, “What? No, no, they’re not picking on me anymore… I think,” She fidgeted with the hem of her pyjama sleeve, “It’s just…”
Andi watched as Frankie struggled to formulate a proper response, her eyes watering further and her voice wavering, deeply upset, “Why does nobody want to play with me anymore? Or be my friend? Or talk to me?” She whimpered, “I’m trying super hard to do the stuff you told me about making conversations and being myself, but I don’t think it’s working,”
Andi chose not to dwell on Frankie’s oddly juvenile choice of the word ‘play’. They were teenagers now, especially teenagers who lived in M-7, what was there to even play?
“I’m sure there are people out there who want to… play with you, Frankie! You just need to stay true to yourself. After all," gently tucking Frankie’s bangs to the side, Andi leaned so that Frankie could see her face clearly, “You met me, and I’ll always love playing and talking with you. In fact, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Frankie sniffed, her lip quivering to a shy smile, “You mean it?”
“Cross my heart,” Andi wrapped her arms around Frankie, pulling her into a tight hug, “I mean it.”
Frankie never did end up making another friend during school that was willing to embrace her juvenile interests as openly as Andi did, but as time passed, Frankie eventually moved on, and seemed to even start outgrowing her obsessive interest with Park Planet and Guinevere. Sure, while she did end up landing a job as a sort of laborer for Park Planet, the frequency in how Frankie would somehow find a way to insert Guinevere into a conversation seemed to reduce, even.
Everything seemed to turn out well for Frankie in the end, and while Andi didn’t quite approve of the man (Sparky, was his name?) who her friend had to work with occasionally, it beat the gnawing feeling of deep loneliness that constantly radiated off of Frankie in the past. Frankie had found her people, and she had finally matured and let go of her childhood interests, and Andi was happy for her.
…Was what Andi thought before she found a box of binkies, kids books, and toys under Frankie’s bed.
She didn’t mean to snoop, she normally kept to herself, honest! But Frankie’s side of the house had started looking like a pigsty and there was only so much mess that such a small house could handle.
Obviously, the most logical and sensible thing to do was to put down the box, slide it back to where it was, and pretend she never saw it. Clearly, if someone wanted something to be found out about them, they wouldn't have hid it under their bed, but Andi found her hands moving to flip through one of the coloring books in the box anyways.
—sorry, *Guinevere themed coloring book in the box, because of course it was.
Andi’s brows creased worriedly as she gazed upon the doodles of, what seemed to be Frankie, shoddily drawn next to the pre-printed, also shoddily colored Guinevere pictures in the book.
At first, Andi was quick to dismiss the drawings and toys as old childhood keepsakes, maybe possessions to keep for the sake of memories. Frankie was never a sentimental person, as far as Andi could remember, but it could be a possibility. Maybe.
Andi stared at the scribbled orange overalls drawn over, what seemed to be, Frankie.
…But in this instance, it was very much not a possibility. This was definitely new—
“Andi?”
She immediately scrambled to hide as much evidence of her snooping as possible, “Wh— Frankie! You’re home early. I— uh… Didn’t hear the door open.”
Frankie squinted her eyes for a moment, amused in Andi’s seemingly suspicious behavior, “Uh huh… Well, I am quite known for being light on my feet,” She leaned to the side, curious, “What’re you doing, Anders?”
Andi shook her head frantically, “Nothing! I was just cleaning up and—“
“Well obviously you’re cleaning up, I know that,” Frankie interrupted, waving Andi off to properly get a good look at what she seemed to be hiding behind her, “The Andi I know never gets off the… Couch.”
Andi felt her heart stop as she watched Frankie’s face drop. Slowly following Frankie’s gaze, she realized that Frankie’s box had peeked from behind her back.
“Frankie I’m so sorr—“
“Andi, give me the box.”
Andi froze, her head averting from Frankie shamefully as she closed the box and silently handed it to Frankie to be snatched from her grasp.
Frankie was a prideful, loud person. She never shied away from confrontation, and any conflict he had with a person would be resolved immediately and directly. She knew how to speak her mind, and it came to both her own benefit and detriment in the past. It was something Andi loved most about Frankie.
But at that moment, she was silent. Andi watched as her grip tightened on the box, her face away from view.
“I was gonna throw it away soon, honest,” Frankie muttered.
Andi looked up at Frankie, completely taken aback, “…Wait, what? Wh— you don’t need to throw it away!”
“Of course I do, Andi! Just— Just look at it!” Andi briefly glanced back at the box of childish trinkets and pacifiers, “What kind of adult would… Its— Why would… Rrgh!”
Frankie looked away as she scrubbed her face roughly with her hands, exasperated, then nervously bit at the knuckle of her index, “I…” her voice wavered, “I planned to throw it away soon, honest! But… I just—“
Andi stared as Frankie cut herself off, her expression conflicted as if the words had stuck itself in her throat, not daring to leave, “I just… Like how it… fffeels.” She finally forced out.
Andi blinked, glancing back at the box again, “‘Like how it feels’?—“
“It makes me happy!”
Andi dumbfoundedly stared at Frankie, who seemed just as stunned as she was at the outburst, and slowly closed the box again.
“Agh… It’s really complicated, I- I don’t know what came over me Andi, I’ll go outside now, you can throw that all out I’ll be back in a bit, we don’t even have to—“
“Wait, no, Frankie—“ Andi suddenly put a hand on Frankie’s shoulder, pulling her from leaving, “If it really bothers you that I saw your stuff and you don’t want to talk about it anymore, that’s completely fine, I won’t bring it up or anything ever again,” it was her fault anyways for snooping, “but you’re really worrying me, Frankie. You know you can talk to me, right?”
Andi saw Frankie hesitate slightly before turning to face her, “You… Really don’t think I’m weird?” She muttered
“Of course I don’t, Frankie, you’re my friend. A bunch of little dummies and kids books aren’t going to change that, why would you think that?”
“It’s just that…” Frankie’s voice lowered uncharacteristically shyly, “I ‘dunno, sometimes you’d tell me not to talk about Guinevere so much and I thought you didn’t like that.”
Ah, she did do that, didn’t she?
Frankie wasn’t wrong, there were many instances in which her talking about Park Planet became quite excessive, to the point that it was all that came out of her mouth. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to listen to Frankie talk— she loved hearing Frankie talk about anything! —but Andi had grown a bit tired of only talking about Guinevere.
She worried that if she ‘enabled’ Frankie to only talk about the topic in conversation, then maybe Frankie wouldn’t learn how to initiate or carry conversation in any other way. She didn’t like watching Frankie sulk or cry about not being able to connect with her peers, but if Frankie were to have any chance to connect with others, then she’d have to teach her to not always fall back on the topic of Guinevere whenever having a conversation.
Plus, nobody she knew on M-7 really liked Park Planet or Guienevere, let alone talk about them, so it made Frankie’s preferred topic of conversation way harder to use to connect with others.
To realize that her act of trying to help Frankie only hurt her and their friendship made an uncomfortable feeling well up in Andi’s chest, and she felt her hands start to clam up shamefully.
Andi pulled Frankie to a hug, “I didn’t know Guinevere meant that much to you, Frankie. Look, I can’t say I like her as much as you do, but I’ll still never think you’re weird for anything, ever,” Andi pulled away to face Frankie, who looked conflicted, and slid her finger across her chest, “Cross my heart, remember?”
Andi could see Frankie’s eyes get glassy as she nodded, her expression still conflicted as she seemed to stare away from her. Andi followed her trail of sight to realize that she was still staring at her box Andi left by the table, “Even…?”
“Of course, Frankie. ‘Love you no matter what.”
Finally, Andi felt Frankie’s arms wrap around her body, tightly, returning her embrace.