Jackie peered around what little she could see of the green, open space of the park. A whole lot of nothing greeted her. Sure, there were a few kids on the swing set and some older guys playing Frisbee. But Jackie was pretty sure Haley hadn't brought her here for either of those things. "Okay, what gives, Haley? You brought me here to go down the slide with you?" The joke thinly veiled Jackie's growing feeling of being messed with. Sometimes, she felt like Haley liked to poke a bit of fun at her.

"Oh ye who doubts more than she observes. Come on, then." Haley yanked Jackie's arm until she followed the older girl across the grass and around a group of trees. There, under the high roof, perched on the picnic benches, was a friend Jackie recognized even from a distance. "Is that Donut?" Haley laughed and continued pulling Jackie toward the picnic tables. "It is! It is Donut. Why didn't you just tell me-"

Haley shrugged rather than answer and threw herself onto one of the wooden benches connected to the tables. "Hey," was all she said to Donut, who nodded back at her without comment. He untangled himself from the picnic table and leaned down to crush Jackie into a friendly hug. The guy was nearly six feet tall and made Jackie feel like a shrimp, but a happy shrimp. As he straightened back up, his hand went automatically to his hair, making sure the greeting hadn't crushed his spikey 'do. Five inch spikes stood up all over his head, and a silver hoop glinted in his nostril.

"Where you been?" he asked as he sat back down. "Waited all afternoon." Donut, whose birth name was still a mystery to both Jackie and Haley, was always short on words, but he made his point clearly just the same. Haley gestured toward Jackie, "She wasn't home! I waited on her porch for, like, ever but she didn't show up. So I climbed through her window to wait. I dunno where she was for so long, but when she finally did show, she was all slow and pulled that stop walking without telling me gag."

Donut smirked. "And then you got a comic." Jackie blinked at him. "Hey! How did you know that?" Haley and Donut laughed at her. Donut was the one to explain, "We just know you is all. Don't panic. Nobody's watching you. That I know of, anyway." He looked around. In the few minutes they had been talking, the park had cleared out. It was nearly dark.

"Wanna play? " Haley asked Jackie. Haley ducked underneath the table and came back up with a handful of paintbrushes. Donut set out a few small buckets on the table on the other side. "What is that," Jackie asked, intrigued.

"Sidewalk paint," Donut responded proudly. "Made it myself. Chalk is for babies, but paint is for pros." He nodded sagely and handed Jackie a paintbrush. "Plus, you don't have to stick to the actual sidewalk with this stuff." To prove his point, Donut went over and painted a rainbow on the kiddie slide. "Plus it washes off, so who can bitch, really? Come on. Let's decorate."