Ida nodded when Mo mentioned the lack of sleep.
"Well, yeah", she said, "But at least it wasn't on a plane till...like...Thailand or something. I wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway so short the trip is", she said. "When we climbed to...you know...normal altitude or whatever it's called", she explained, "my ears hurt, and the same when we went down. And it always takes me a while to fall asleep", Ida continued, "so there really wouldn't have been time enough anyway", she finished as she took another sip of the coffee, frowned again, and then blushed a bit at her aunt's chuckle.
She was about to object that she could easily drink it, when Mo threw in the remark about herself. That changed Ida's tune, though she tried to keep it casual there was still a badly concealed eagerness in her voice when she replied:
"That'd be great, thank you"
When Mo lit a cig and apologized for it, Ida shrugged. She was used to people smoking. Her mom had only quit a couple of years ago, and some of the kids in the grade above her did it too.
"No big deal", she shrugged, though she had to admit to herself when nearest to honesty that she was quite ambivalent about it. For one thing, she knew that the "cool kids" did it, and she desperately wanted to be cool. But on the other hand, she hated the smell.
Ida wasn't exactly thrilled that Mo would be home a lot. Not because she didn't want to spend time with her aunt, because she did, but because she had gotten used to more or less taking care of herself except for groceries, and bills and meals. The more adults were around her, the more they wanted to interfere with her. And she didn't like THAT. But she was too polite to say that to Mo's face, so she merely smiled and nodded. She did think of Mo as her "cool aunt", so in that sense it wouldn't be that bad anyway.
After a small pause, Ida looked around. "The place hasn't changed much, has it?", she said, looking around at the surroudings. "I mean....I remember that tree there, for some reason", she pointed, before she grinned. "I guess that'll be even more so when we get home, right?"
"So...I mean....what's there to do here...for...for fun, you know?", she asked. She had researched a bit herself, but she also wanted to make conversation, and she was too tired to think of other topics besides small-time stuff.
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