Not So Nice to Meet You

Chapter One �" Not So Nice to Meet You

  

            “Are you messing with me? They’re out of town all freaking weekend?” A deep voice asked. I forced my eyes open to glance at the clock. It was seven in the morning. I groaned, rolled over, and hoped that the irritating voices drifting in through my cracked window would go elsewhere.

            “I’m not kidding. My aunt is getting married in New York on Saturday. They leave early Friday morning.” A different voice responded. I growled and threw the covers off, sitting upright. My bright yellow walls burned my eyes; they were this color when we moved in. I had yet to paint them.

            Is it really necessary to sit outside my window cussing and talking so freaking loudly? It’s too early for this, I thought.

            I yawned as I made my way to the bathroom door beside my closet. When we first moved in Dad decided I could have the largest room with the walk in closet and personal bathroom. In return he got the entire second floor to himself, since my room is the only room on the first floor.

            “Honey, are you awake yet?” My dad hollered as he stomped down the stairs.

            “Yeah,” I said and headed to the kitchen, still dressed in my night clothes.

            “Oh, there you are. It’s good you’re up. I forgot to tell you that I’ll be going out of town this weekend for work. You’ll be okay here by yourself, right?” He already knew the answer. He leaves for work almost every other weekend, and occasionally during the week. He’s just being polite because he knows I hate staying home alone. I never really minded before we moved here, but now I have nothing to do while he’s gone. Besides work, that is.

            “Yeah, of course,” I said, and smiled for him before grabbing my toast out of the toaster.

            “Great,” He said and clapped his hands together, “I’ll just throw my suitcase into the car, and you’ll have the house to yourself. Remember,” Not again, I thought to myself, “No parties, no boys, no parties with boys, and behave your self. You know the rules.” He grinned at me as he climbed back up the stairs. He tells me this every time. You’d think he’d have gotten the point that I have no social life by now.

            I started towards my room to get dressed and remembered my brightly colored walls.

            “Hey dad!” I shouted up the stairs. I heard a few creaks above me from him walking.

            “Yeah,” He shouted back.

            “Can I paint my room while you’re gone?” I asked, already knowing he’d say yes.

            “Sure, honey. Don’t make a mess though.” Of course, no messes allowed.

~*~

 

            “So you want purple, right?” The lady asked me from behind the counter. I sighed, how in the world did she ever manage to get hired?

            “No, I want lavender. Not just purple.” I said rudely. I tried being nice, and this was the third time I had to explain that I wanted lavender and I was way past starting to be annoyed.

            “Ah, right.” She said and walked off towards the paint aisles.

            After about twenty more minutes of arguing over the difference between purple and lavender I left the department store with a couple of cans of paint. I checked the clock in my car. S**t, it was already four-thirty. I remembered I had to be at work by five today.

            By the time I got home I had ten minutes to shower and get changed into my uniform. Which is a white shirt with any type of black pants; the customers can’t really see my pants from behind the counter, and Katie could really care less about my pants.

            It took me about five minutes to shower, my personal record. Damn sales lady’s fault that I had to rush in the first place.

            “You’re late.” Katie’s irritating voice greeted me the second I was in the gas station.

            “I know, and I’m sorry.” I said sliding behind the counter and clocking in.

            “Don’t do it again.” She said sternly. She hopped over the counter, sliding her butt across it and struted across the shop to take inventory.

            “Clair, will you restock the candy bars in front of the counter please?” She asked me in a sweet, yet completely fake, voice.

            “Of course.” I said and headed into the back room to grab the boxes of candy. It takes me a total of ten minutes to restock the candy, and soon enough I was standing behind the counter.

            Ding, ding. A lanky boy pushed the door open and stepped inside. He looked around before coming up to the counter.

            “Hi, how can I help you?” The same cheerful voice erupted from my throat once again.

            He looked up from the candy rack. “Are you guys hiring?” He asked slowly, in a tired and bored voice. He’s clearly not that interested in getting a job here.

            “Uh, hold on one second.” I said and called for Katie.

            “What is it?” She asked, emerging from the backroom. She spends most of her time back there.

            “Are we hiring?” I asked her. She looked at me then at the boy in front of the counter who was now staring at her with a bored expression awaiting a response.

            “Actually, we are. Just let me grab the forms and you can apply.” She said.

            What? Is she seriously considering hiring this boy? I shake my head in disbelief.

            “So, Clair, how long have you worked here?” He asked me. I looked up shocked that he knew more than four words and that he knew my name. Oh right, name tag.

            “A few months,” I replied dryly.

            “Oh, well, I’m Josh. See you later.” He said with a half smile as he took the forms from Katie who had just returned with them.

            Great, I’m probably going to have to work with that freak.

~*~

            I grabbed the cans of paint out of the back of my trunk. I didn’t have time to do it before work yesterday. I hauled the first two up the driveway and set them in front of the door and started back to my car for the last two.

            “You need any help?” A voice called out. I looked over. It was one of the voices I’d heard outside of my window early yesterday morning.

            “No, but thank you!” I replied. I heared footsteps behind me anyway and turned around.

            “Are you sure?” He asked. Sweat is covering his forehead.

            “Yeah, I got it. Thank you for offering though.” I said, trying to be nice.

            “Okay. I’m Eric, by the way.” He said offering his hand. I smiled and looked pointedly at my hands carrying two paint cans. “Oh, right, sorry.” He laughed nervously.

            I laughed too. “I’m Clair. Can you?” I motioned towards the door. He turned the knob and pushed it open for me. I set the cans down right next to the door, and turned around to thank him.

            “No problem. Glad I could help. Well, I have to go. Bye.” He said quickly before jogging back across the yard into his house next door. I walked back out to my car to close the trunk and lock it.

            “Hey, you work at the Hank’s Gas right?” Another voice called from behind me. For a second I thought it was Eric.

            I turned around. It was Josh, the guy looking for a job.

            “Yeah,” I answered as I slammed the trunk shut and the car beeped letting me know it was locked.

            I walked back up the driveway once again.

            “So you’re Eric’s new neighbor” He said in a smooth voice. I ignored him, and slammed the door. He was the other voice from yesterday morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reviews

[ConspiracyAnalyst101]

This looks incredibly promising. I'm liking this Clair character, polite enough, but spunky too. I'll have to read the later chapters another time (sadly sleep beckons!) but I must say I am looking forward to them. I can't think of much to offer in the way of CC (constructive criticism). Your grammar is consistent and I can see your writing style is pretty much well set in.
Ummm, if I were to nit-pick? I can't find many descriptive words in terms of Clair's hair, eyes or body. I could have missed one or two (I am rather tired, lol) but just working off what I have here I can't really gather a picture of her.
This is purely working off first impressions though, and just for the sake of offering a perspective. Well, that's all I can think of at the moment :)

Anyways, keep up the awesome writing and awaiting more!
Conspiracy101

[MoriartyMesa]

Not sure I missed the prolog or not, but this is very promising.

[Jessica]

No there's no prologue. Thank you for reading! :)