Night time was always the best time!

The brown haired girl held on to her best friend's hand tightly. They were walking back to the campsite where their families were gathered around the campfire roasting marshmallows. Their laughter could be heard in rolling waves through the night. The trees around the two girls created deep shadows among the already dark night, and more than once either Minny or Janine would trip and elicit giggles form both girls.

Finally the light of the campfire could be seen bobbing and weaving through spaces between people. Half of the people in attendance were lit, the other were merely outlines. Minny and Janine squeezed their way into the circle, pushing Joshua over so that they might sit next to eachother in aligned lawn chairs. There were calls of surprise wondering what took them so long, if they had been chased by a bear or if the boogyman had caught them. Then they each received a kabob stick with a marshmallow speared on the end. Minny was careful, she liked her marshmallows toasted golden brown, but not a speck of burn on it. She gently rotated the kabob over the highest peaks of the flame, focusing all her attention on making sure to get an evenly toasted coat. Janine was in no such mood. She stuck her marshmallow deep into the flames, and it almost instantly caught fire. She pulled back and blew on it, dousing the flames.

"Be careful Janine. Let it cool first."

Janine sighed, wiggling the kabob in her impatience to eat the crispy blob. After only a few seconds, her impatience won the day and the marshmallow was removed from the stick and popped into her mouth. Minny watched her friend with a mixture of interest and outrage. Her marshmallow was burnt to a crisp! There was no way it tasted good!

"You're not supposed to burn them Janine." she said, pulling her own stick out of the fire to poke at the marshmallow. The entire surface was a bubbling brown, and she indicated the perfectly toasted thing, saying "You're supposed to toast them, not roast them!"

Janine's eyes narrowed. "I can eat mine however I want!"

Minny's eyes matched her friend's. "Nu uh! That's not how you do it!"

"Girls..." Minny's father warned, pointing his own marshmallow stick at the squabbling children. "There is more than one way to do things. Minny, let Janine cook her marshmallow any way she wants to."

Minny sighed, motioning for the bag of marshmallows. "Fine. But don't touch my awesome marshmallow with your icky burnt one!"

Janine waved her kabob stick threateningly. "I'm gonna burn mine and then play bumper cars with yours!"

There was a moment of tension between the two, and then they both started to laugh. Joshua sighed and shook his head while Janine's mother and Minny's mother muttered about children and their capacity for friendship over arguments. The rest of the night was spent singing songs before dumping water on the flames and going to bed.

Word Count: 506