The Ebbingdales Escape PV Linda Ramirez Closed

EmmaLee smiled sweetly as Kaya took some of the candies she recommended and chose a few chocolate candies of her own. EmmaLee, personally, didn't like chocolate all that much except every once in a while. Her favorite chocolate was dark chocolate with almonds, but that wouldn't do well on a summer's day walking around. She did notice that Kaya seemed to like a wide variety of chocolate.

As Kaya picked out her candies in this area, EmmaLee also grabbed a thin, pink box with what looked like sugary, pink roses inside and a purple one. "These are L'Envie en Rose sugar roses. The pink ones are rose flavored and the purple ones are lavender flavored." She explained to Kaya. "Most people put them in tea like sugar cubes, I think that's what they're made for," She giggled a little. "but I've always like to eat the straight from the package."

She nodded happily as Kaya asked if she was ready to move on and they started to explore the rest of the store. "Aside from maybe chocolate, what are some of your favorite candies, Kaya?" She asked. As vast as the selection was, there wasn't a lot much more that she wanted, so she was content to view the other candies and chat with Kaya until she and then their other friends were done.

Kaya looked intrigued by EmmaLee. Certainly, she had a nice taste and it just so happened, everything she was describing till now, Kaya didn't try. But it was never late to try something new and so she grabbed L'Envie en rose as well. Then I should definitely try it as well. She chuckled.

Hearing EmmaLee's question while they're moved to next section, Kaya took a second to think before she could answer. She never thought much about what was her favorite candy before, so this was a great time for her to realize what would be the answer.

That's a good question. Perhaps, some lollipops, toffee and I like those chocolate bars... I can't remember how they were called. What about you? Your choice of sweets is getting me quite intrigued. She looked at EmmaLee with enthusiasm in her eyes and smile on her face.

Since they planned to walk after that she didn't want to take much more candies. So now was the best time for a chat. And then she thought about something that didn't come to her mind before. It was summer and with walking and all the sweets they will have, surely they'd want to drink something at some point, right? Do you think we should get something to drink as well? It's summer and after eating sweets there's a chance we would need it.
@EmmaLee LeDames, Grace and Alura

Since the both of them seemed to have made their final selections, EmmaLee guided them towards the pay counter as they talked. She nodded as Kaya described her favorite candies.

"Lollipops are good. I actually do not have too much of a sweet tooth. It might be the French in me." She said with a giggle. "I like delicate sweet things" She held up her bag of candies that proved her point. "and dark chocolate with almonds. Americans are sometimes um, too heavy on the sugar for me. American buttercream for example 'as far more sugar than it needs to." She said carefully. She didn't want to insult her new friend's taste if she disagreed, but they would definitely have to happily agree to disagree.

She stepped into line as Kaya suggested drinks and nodded as she located a refrigerator near the counter. "That is a great idea!" She said with a smile. "Do you want to grab a couple of waters from over there?" She pointed toward the refrigerator. There was a variety of sodas and energy drinks and sports drinks and juices, but EmmaLee preferred water. "Or a water for me and whatever you would like." She said with a smile.

Kaya smiled. They are indeed way too sweet. I don't buy much sweets usually. Homemade are more nice and less sugary. She giggled. Certainly even in this short period of time, it was obvious they had something in common.

Sure, I'll be real quick. As she said it, she came closer to the refrigerator. After some seconds Kaya grabbed water for EmmaLee and lemon water for herself. Coming back to her, Kaya gave her water.

Since we already finished, we could see if our friends finished too or not yet. Then, where would we go? Kaya asked, intrigued. She was ready to pay for what she chose, but she also tried to use even this time for talking to her new friend.

She looked around for a second, trying to see if she could notice Alura and Grace. However, she didn't see them as there were quite a lot of people in this place. So, she returned her attention to EmmaLee.

How long do we have before your parents will start looking for you? Kaya became suddenly interested. She didn't know if there would be any problems for girls if they would take a bit more time. But she also couldn't stop her excitement in anticipation of what was soon going to happen.
@EmmaLee LeDames, Grace and Alura

EmmaLee nodded and smiled as her new friend agreed with her about sweets being too sweet sometimes. She was so happy to find a new friend so randomly. As Kaya brought EmmaLee her water and the two girls purchased their things, the foreign girl looked up at a clock on the wall over the check out counter and then towards the doorway. She also could not see the other pair of friends but was sure that they would see them quickly once they got back to their meeting point.

"I am sure they are close to done as well. We can just meet them at the entrance liked we planned." EmmaLee said with a smile as she was checked out and then she stepped aside for Kaya to be checked out as well.

"Well, our mothers are expecting us in the women's robes department at 5pm. If it's 10am now, we have plenty of time to do quite a bit of exploring." She said with an excited smile. "Alura wanted to go to the joke department before we left the building though. So we could pop over there," She put a hand to the side of her mouth and whispered conspiratorially near Kaya's ear, "which will probably be quick since she's the only one of us three who wants something from there," Then resumed her usual tone and said, "Then we wanted to see at least the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty." She explained.

"When are your parents expecting you to appear?" She said with a small giggle as they approached the entrance and saw Grace and Alura already waiting for them. The other girls waved and held up their bags with broad smiles. They had also chosen a modest amount of candy for their "trip", but had not had the same forethought to get water as well.

Even if we need to wait, that's okay. We can still discuss something then. Kaya smiled. She didn't mind either option. If they didn't need to wait, they could process with their walking. However, if there was a little waiting first, they could know each other more. Kaya was happy to have her first Hogwarts friend. So far she didn't make any friends from other schools during summer camp or ball.

That sounds awesome! So we have pretty much time yet! She replied with excited smile. She thought about how nice it'll be that they can walk without having to hurry. Then we can go there soon, since she's the only one. Kaya giggled. Amber would be interested in jokes department too, but Kaya wasn't with her bestie today. Maybe some time later Amber would make her more interested in this type of things, but definitely not yet.

My brother is going to pick me up once he'll finish work. That's gonna be around five or six. She giggled enthusiastically, noticing their friends. She thought they didn't look like they thought about water, but that was fine. Kaya couldn't wait when they will get to the other part of their walking. The most exciting one, as far as she was concerned.
@EmmaLee LeDames, Alura and Grace

"That's great!" EmmaLee said with a wide smile as she and Kaya approached the other girls. Once together, the girls headed over to the joke shop. While Alura and, by buddy system, Grace did some serious shopping, Kaya and EmmaLee wandered around and chit-chatted some more until they met up with the other two again at the checkout counter.

The joke department was just as vibrant and larger than life as the candy department, with the added chaos of jokes going off all over the place in order to display themselves. While it did not boast the same extensive stock as the candy department, there was a wide array of every joke that you could possibly imagine. It was not too big of a loss if a certain specialty joke or two was absent from here. There were rows upon rows of colorful boxes and displays stretching much farther back than it looked like the space could allow, but Alura found the two or three things she wanted rather quickly and they were all on their way out of the Ebbingdale's building, discussing their rumbling stomachs.

Grace suggested a restaurant nearby called DIG that served quick, but healthy food and the girls set off to have lunch. All of the girls had a wonderful time chatting and getting to know each other over lunch and made sure to have a filling meal for their inevitable hike around the city. Once lunch was over they made a quick stop at a stall so that Grace and Alura could get their own bottles of water at EmmaLee and Kaya's suggestion.

Finally, the group set off towards the Empire State building. After discussing options over lunch and getting some advice from the friendly and helpful server, the girls decided that the subway was the best route, even though they had to backtrack in order to get to the stop, as that would probably be the quickest and a safer option than four young girls trying to get a car.

For some reason, their server was very adamant about them not taking a car on their own. She was also very pointed about the idea that their parents knew where they were and where they were supposed to be going, even if they didn't have portable telephones, which was a complete shock to the server. "Imagine any little girl these days not havin' a phone, forget four little girls runnin' around the city." She had said with amazement. EmmaLee thought the lady was very nice and appreciated her concern, even if it was a little heavy handed. She even gave them her number to call if they ran into any trouble and couldn't get ahold of their parents. The girls all thanked her for her kindness and headed out of the restaurant and towards the subway station.

Once on the subway and on their way, Grace and EmmaLee had a laugh at how excited Alura became considering her parents didn't really explore the muggle side of New York and she had never been on a subway before. Some of the other passengers giggled as well in polite amusement, assuming that Alura was just another out of towner. Grace had been on the subway several times with her mother on their outings, especially to visit her mother's side of the family, and EmmaLee had been a couple of times when she had accompanied Victor meeting non-magique clients or business partners. So, while still exciting to be on this adventure with their friends and their new friend Kaya, the Subway itself was just a little less thrilling for them.

After an amusing subway ride and another walk from the station to the building, the four girls finally arrived around 12:30PM. It really was a sight, as EmmaLee, Grace, and Alura craned their heads backwards to look at the height. Emmalee hadn't quite been prepared for it to be this tall up close. She knew that at this point in time it's wasn't quite the tallest building in New York any more, but standing next to it and knowing that was a different idea. She turned to her friends a smiled widely, excited to ride their way to the top.

"Shall we go, girls?" She asked, turning her head to look at each of them before looking at the entrance of the building.

Kaya enjoyed the time all the way from passing by joke department to stopping to eat some food and finally getting to the Subway. That was quite exciting to see something like this, although she found it somehow close to the train rides. So while she was definitely closer to her amusement to Alura, she tried to make it less obvious.

After all they finally arrived to the Empire State building. It was fascinating to look at it and realize how actually tall it was. It looked like inside it could be even more exciting though, so Kaya couldn't wait for them to see more. They still had plenty of time and it was making her happy.

She looked around her and at her friends. Definitely. Kaya giggled and looked at them with excitement. For some reason she didn't think about whether it was safe for them to walk like this, but that was okay. She relatively felt safe walking with her friends, despite of the words she heard earlier about how unsafe it could be for them. Luckily their clothes wasn't too outstanding for this side of the world, which was already nice. However, she guessed it might look suspicious for others that they didn't have phones, whatever it meant in non-maj world.
@EmmaLee LeDames, Alura and Grace

The four girls headed into the building and EmmaLee and Grace handled the buying over tickets to the various galleries and observation decks as they were more familiar with non-magique money than Alura and Kaya.

As the girls walked through the galleries displaying the building of the Empire State Building and a section of modern art, they chattered some more and all got to know each other. As fun as this would have been with just Alura and Grace, EmmaLee was really happy that they had met Kaya along the way. She was like some fourth member of their little friendship that they didn't know they had been missing.

As the glass elevator doors opened on the 102nd floor, EmmaLee exited the elevator with her arms spread and twirled out of the contraption towards the 360 degree view windows. "The pamphlet said that you can see eighty miles and six different states from here." She said exuberantly with an ethicistic giggle. Alura ran out of the elevator after her with the same kind of laughter and ran straight to one of the windows, peering out at the city below and the sweeping landscape that was presented before them on the bright August day. Grace came out a little slower and more shyly than her long time friends, willing to look but still a little fearful of the possible drop below no matter how protected they were by the glass. While the other two girls actively roamed around the windows, she hung back and observed the view from a safe distance from them and giggled a quietly at her friends' excitement.

"Oh! I can see the corner of our condo building from 'ere!" EmmaLee said, putting her hand to the window and pointing to a tan building to the north. Alura laughed as she came over and presssed close to the window until she found the building. "Where do you live when you are not at Ilvermorny, Kaya?" EmmaLee asked, turning as Kaya and Grace walked over to where she and Alura were on the observation deck.

Kaya felt a tiny bit shy but also extremely intrigued by how easy it was for Grace and EmmaLee to handle the non-maj money. On the other hand, it was certainly great that at least two in their group knew how to handle it. They would attract too much unwanted attention if they all didn't know anything about those money.

As they reached 102nd floor, Kaya felt so enthusiastic and excited to see everything around, that it didn't take long before she followed Alura and EmmaLee. That's incredible! I can see so much standing here! What she thought but didn't add was that it reminded her of flying on the broom. However, now she was still standing which felt even more exciting.

On the question from EmmaLee, Kaya looked at her, temporary stopping admiring the view. I live in Toronto, Canada. Just came here for some time to prepare for coming studying year. She smiled. What about you? I think I can hear French accent, but you are going to Hogwarts, not French school. She didn't mean it to sound pushing, but she was curious as it wasn't often for someone who clearly could be natural in French to go to Hogwarts. Though even if Kaya was extremely interested in this small detail, she didn't show it. Returning her eyes back to enjoy the view, she made it look like it was simple curiosity and EmmaLee didn't have to explain anything if she didn't want to.
@EmmaLee LeDames, Alura and Grace