She always had it. For Hannah's whole life, she had attended the same school as Tina and she honestly knew she had never gone without chewing gum. To this day, Hannah, or other people, for that matter, could never understand why.
Tina's friends were able to spot her in the hallways because she always carried gum wrappers in her purse.
The reason Tina had so many wrappers was that she chewed so much gum. She went through a piece every class period, maybe more before and after school. She liked any type of gum, but she absolutely loved the type of gum that had a fruity flavor to it.
The truth was, Tina always kept the fruity gum to herself. Nobody knew why, but she never offered anyone a piece.
Tina's friends were unsure about Tina's fondness for fruity gum, so they tried to speculate why she likes it so much, and why she never shared with anyone.
As Hannah walked down the hallways, she saw Tina rummaging through her purse, where she kept all her different types of gum.
"Hey, Tina," said Hannah.
"Yeah?" asked Tina.
"I wanted to ask you something," said Hannah. "How come you always keep so much gum in your purse?"
"Well," said Tina. "I just like many different types of gum. I often tend to buy a few packets after school. I mostly keep the Trident, Mentos, and Simply Gum types. There's lots of different kinds of gum in my purse. There's bubblegum, chocolate, peppermint, spearmint, cinnamon, and the type of gum that has a fruity flavor to it."
"Wow," muttered Hannah. "That's a lot of gum."
"It sure is," said Tina. "Would you like some?"
"Sure," said Hannah, without hesitating.
"What kind would you like?" asked Tina.
"Peppermint," said Hannah. "I'm not picky."
"Okay," said Tina as she pulled out a stick of peppermint gum from her purse and handed it to Hannah.
Hannah took the stick, opened the wrapper, and popped it into her mouth.
"Peppermint gum isn't quite that bad," thought Hannah as she walked on, chewing the gum. "I didn't want to upset Tina, so I just asked for the gum to be polite.
Hannah was still curious about Tina's fruity gum, but she knew she would find out why Tina liked it, sooner or later.
The next day, Tina sat in first period, and as she unwrapped a stick of gum, she seemed unaware that Hannah caught her in the act. It reminded Hannah of something, so she tapped Tina on the shoulder.
"You still haven't told me about your fruity gum, yet," said Hannah.
"I'll tell you later," said Tina. "In the meantime, you wanna see something cool?"
Tina opened up her notebook, and showed that the back page that all different colored gum foils had been torn up into tiny pieces and plastered to the page.
"Some people say that there's no use for old gum wrappers, but to me, there actually is a use for them. After I tear open the wrappers from sticks of gum, I tear those wrappers into little pieces and stick them to my notebook. Isn't it cool? Like stained glass."
"Nice, I guess," said Hannah.
"You should try it! It's an excellent way to reuse gum wrappers."
"I'm not so sure," thought Hannah. "I still need to know why Tina likes that fruity gum."
A little later, Hannah was still trying to figure out why Tina liked fruity gum so much. As she walked down the halls, she ran into Tina again.
"Hey, Hannah," said Tina. "I heard that you're pretty curious to know about my fruity gum."
"Wha-?!" thought Hannah. "How'd she figure that out? Was it because of my recent suspicions, or maybe someone told her?"
"The reason why I like fruity gum is because of its flavor," said Tina. "Fruity gum has its own unique flavors, and what I really like about it is that the Trident Layers type of gum mixes two different fruit flavors, making one unique flavor. That's what makes fruity gum so good."
"Really?" asked Hannah.
"Yeah," said Tina. "I have a few different kinds in my purse. There's watermelon and tropical fruit, green apple and pineapple, cherry-lime, mixed berry, grape-lemonade, fusion mint, and strawberry-orange."
"Whoa," said Tina. "Those seem like cool combinations."
"You should try some fruity gum," said Tina. "They're the greatest type of gum I've ever tasted, and I bet you would like it as well!"
Hannah stopped and thought for a moment. "I've been offered many different kinds of gum, but Tina never offered me any of her fruity gum. She likes all those cool, juicy flavors, but she's never shared them with me or anyone else. I guess it won't hurt to try some of that fruity gum."
After she thought long and hard, she was ready to try some of Tina's fruity gum.
"I guess I should try some," said Hannah. "Do you have enough to share?"
"Of course!" smiled Tina. "After all, I've got plenty of gum in here to share." She opened her purse and pulled out some of her fruity gum. "Want some, Hannah?"
Hannah nodded. Hesitantly, she took the stick from Tina's hands, tore open the wrapper, and popped it into her mouth.
"Ooh, awesome!" she said as she chewed the gum. "You're right, Tina! Fruity gum is the greatest type of gum you've ever tasted! It's also the greatest type of gum I've tasted, too!"
Tina smiled. "You can keep the wrapper," she told Hannah.
Hannah tore the wrapper into little pieces and saved it all scattered on the back cover of her notebook, because Tina had told her that it was cool to stick colorful pieces of gum wrappers onto paper, and maybe she was right. It was nice of her friend to offer her something she tried for the first time.
Tina walked down the school corridors, offering her friends some pieces of her fruity gum.
It felt good to love both chewing fruity gum and sharing it with others.