The Ad Boy

             I woke up to the tune of the early morning blue birds, singing out their cheerful melodies. I looked on to my new companion, D.C (Dirty Collie). I touched him, but he wouldn't wake up, so I sat my back against the wall and hummed a tune my mother used to sing to me. 

            When D.C. woke up, we walked out of the alleyway and into the winding road, hoping to find something to do with our lives. A sweet scent of cinnamon buns rolled into our nostrils, leaving us even hungrier than before. My stomach growled, and I clutched it, knowing I couldn't get food. D.C whimpered. I could tell he was hungry too. I reached into my pocket. I found $2.72. "This should be enough for that cinnamon bun. Right?" I questioned D.C.

           I followed delightful scent while jingling the coins in my pocket. Once I reached the bakery, I looked over at D.C. and told him to "Heel!” I walked into the small pink store with Valentine's Day decoration all over the walls. There were lace hearts, big hearts, small hearts, velvet hearts, plastic hearts and floral printed hearts all over. I giggled, knowing they emphasized Valentine's Day way too much. I walked up to the display case and looked for one of those cinnamon buns. I picked up an orange try and a pair of tongs and selected a piece of bread and a cinnamon bun. I looked at the bun with the cinnamon mixture as a topping. I just couldn't wait to eat it! I went up to the cash register and paid. Then I headed outside to meet with D.C again.

           "D.C!" I yelled. D.C ran up to me and sat down. I gave him his piece of bread, and I ate my cinnamon bun. I ripped off a piece the cinnamon bread apart of the cinnamon mixture. He quickly accepted it and gobbled it up. Once we finished our quick breakfast.

          "Buy one, get one free!" I heard a voice croak. I turned around to see where the voice was coming from. There, I saw a scrawny boy wearing a red jacket, a checkered scarf, and a green hat. He looked like one of those newspaper boys from the 1980's. He was cold. I could tell because he was shivering all over. I walked over to him and took a flyer and smiled, knowing he couldn't leave his post until he distributed all of those flyers. I examined the flyer and decided to take advantage of the deal by buying some hamburgers for the future. I knew we were going to need it.

           "16 Avery Way. 16 Avery Way." I repeated to myself. I scanned through every road and every path until I found the restaurant. I noticed that it was a small fast food restaurant with a creepy horse mascot near the entrances. I walked over to the automatic glass doors and noticed a sign. Help Wanted! I screamed in happiness and jumped up and down. People stared at me, thinking I belonged in a mental institute. I mouthed sorry, and walked into the restaurant, telling D.C to heal. I walked to the long line of waiting orders and waited patiently. Once the line got shorter and shorter, it was eventually my turn.

            "How can I help you?" the teenager asked irritated. The teenager with a green mohawk and red vest with a We Serve You Best! pin started to drum his fingers against the counter.

           "I-I-I want to speak to the manager." I stuttered. The teenager gave me an insecure look and shook his head.

            "Follow me. I show you to his office." he murmured. I hesitated and looked at the floor, wondering if I'm making the right choice. Will anyone recognize me? Will he bring me back to my aunt? I bombarded myself with a couple of questions before deciding to follow the teenager. The teenager went over to a red door with the sign, The Manager, on it and knocked.

             "Who is it?" a voice bellowed. I moved back one step, afraid, but the teenager gave me a reassuring look, causing me to move forward one step. He turned the golden door knob and we entered the room.

            “What do you want punk?” the manager yelled. By the tone of his voice, I could tell he doesn’t like the teenager. He turned around in his black leather chair and noticed that I wasn’t the teenager. He shamefully apologized and dusted his black suit and polka-dotted tie.

            “Get back to work Ace! Those orders aren’t going to be carried out by themselves!” he yelled at the teenager. He motioned to the chair in front of his desk and I sat down. I sat there awkwardly until he finally spoke.

            “So, little girl. What do you need?” he asked me rudely. Me? A little girl? Yeah right! I starred at the floor. Should I really be doing this? Am I making the right choices? He cleared his throat as a sign of impatientness. I snapped out of my train of thought and replied back.

            “Sorry. I need a job, and I’m wondering if you have any positions available. Any position is good for me.” I quietly replied. The chubby manager looked at me doubtfully and cocked his eyebrows. I wonder what’s he is thinking about. He sighed and then folded his arms together and put them near his chest.

            “How old are you?” he asked me. I knew I had to pick a reasonable number. If you’re younger than 14 you aren’t allowed to get a job, but I couldn’t say a number that makes me look beyond the age I am.

            “I’m going to be 18 after March 12, sir.” I lied in a shaky voice. My true age was really 16. I hope he was dumb enough to fall for my lies. I sat there in my seat, sweating and shaking. Fortunately, he was stupid enough to fall for it. I sighed quietly in relief as I got my job details.

            “You’ll start today. The daily pay is $4.00. You will be handing out flyers. No fooling around and no straying away from the area.  You are not allowed to leave your post until you finish distributing all, and by all, I mean all of your flyers. Understand? Great! Take those flyers from there and hand them out. If you don’t finish by 6:00 PM, you fired. OK?” he explained as he pointed to the flyers. I walked over to the cabinet and took the flyers from the folder. I walked out of the office, into the restaurant, and out of the automatic glass doors.

            “D.C!” I yelled. The dirty collie trotted up towards me and shook his tail.  I motioned my head towards the town plaza, signaling D.C to follow me. As I walked into the city plaza, I tried to find the boy from before. I looked around and caught a glimpse of something checkered. I walked towards the boy and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around with a befuddled look. I held out my tiny stack of flyers and offered to help him in a quiet voice. He rejected my offer in a kind manner and got back to work. I finished distributing my stack of flyers quicker than he did. Without him looking, I took about half of his stack and started handing them out. He looked at me with a confused yet intrigued look and got back to work. Once we finished it was about 6:00 PM. We went back to the restaurant and got our payment. I counted the loose change and bills carefully. I didn’t want to be cheated on. I had to take care of myself and D.C. As I walked out of the restaurant, I felt a tap on my shoulders. I turned around, flipping my hair in the process. There stood the boy that I helped hand out the flyers with. He thanked me for helping him and held out his hand. I shook his hand and smiled.

            “I’m Danny. You are?” he asked me. The way his eyes twinkled near the moonlight made my heart flutter, and my stomach do flips and turns. I moved a piece of hair to the side and smiled.

            “I-I-I’m Adrianna, but you can call me Anna, and that’s D.C” I replied pointing to D.C. Danny smiled and petted D.C. Then we just stood there awkwardly, until he spoke.

            “So, are you going home?” he asked me. I shook my head, trying to hold back my tears.

            “My parents died, and I’m a run away.” I replied, still trying to hold back all of my tears that were about to fall down my face. I looked at him. He looked hurt too for some reason. I wonder why.

            “I’m sorry about that. I’m a run away too.” he croaked. 

By the time the sky darkened to pitch black, we've already known a lot about each other. I sat down on the floor and patted the empty space next to me, motioning him to sit down. I tried to force myself to sleep. To forget about everything and to escape reality, and realize the nightmare was just a dream. I couldn't sleep so I sat up against cold hard wall, slumped my shoulders, slouched and looked at the floor. I knew it wasn't a dream. It was just too real. 

 

 

 

Author's Note

This is my 5th time writing it! I'm really sorry if it's so short! I'm just so frustrated right now! Sorry!

Edited it again...seems so long.

Reviews

[Archia]

I see you've added quite a bit more so I'll give it another review. This is certainly progressing nicely.
Just a few things. "Once we finished our quick breakfast." A line like this is usually followed by something happening, but here it just ends. If it's meant to be for what happens in the next paragraph then those needs to be on the same line.
There's still a few more typos here and there and sometimes the tense changes between past and present. you need to pick on and stick with it.
I enjoyed how this is becoming established. She now has a job, a dog and a new friend.
So ala in all, keep it up because this really is progressing nicely.

[Marie]

This isn't too short; it's about the right length for a chapter. You still need to go back, though, and correct simple mistakes.

[CrimsonBlaze]

Oooh, I can sense something going on with the Anna and Danny!
Besides some typos, this chapter is really good. You said in your Author's Note that it's long. But really, it doesn't matter. You included lots of details that make readers visualize the situation and where the characters are, your vocabulary is easy to understand, and your sentence structure is simple yet sweet to the point. Lastly, I'm looking forward for more. Great job! XD

[Chris Yip]

This is really getting better chapter by chapter. Very clear style of writing with flow and good grammar. Vocabulary is simple and easily understood and read. A good effort so far, with your own style of writing and telling a story. Well done.

[Archia]

This is getting a lot better. (Fifth times a charm). Sometimes the short chapters are the best ones, they say what needs to be said and nothing more, and that is what this does.
The descriptions getting better, but there are still times when it seems more like a recount, like when she's buying the cinnamon bun. There are a few more typos here and there but stories are never without typos, so it's nothing big.
I think that maybe more emphasis on the tune that she was humming might be good. Like if it brought back any memories, since she must be sad if her mother's just died.
I think that D.C is a wonderful name for the dog, I love it.
"There were lace hearts, big hearts, small hearts, velvet hearts, plastic hearts and floral printed hearts all over." For some reason, I don't know why, but I really liked this line.
Anyway, this story is getting better, so keep it up!