“Well we could, but it would be much more fun to tell as many people as possible just to get a reaction!” Blake walked into the living room and sat down on the couch, setting his glass of water on the small table next to the arm of the couch.
“No that is just not nice at all!” I followed him into the living room, joining him on the couch and plopping my feet onto the coffee table in front of us, “If you don't tell, I will remember this when the time comes that you do something to embarrass yourself and you don't want any one to know.”
“How about I just tell your mom and then I promise I will not tell a soul.” Blake reached for the remote and turned on the television, flipping through the channels with out really paying any attention to what he was passing.
“Okay, but if you tell someone else, I will personally kill you.” Blake laughed, “You don't think I'm serious, do you?!”
“No, not really. I know you don't have it in you to kill anyone.” Blake settled on a movie that was playing on one of the many channels and put the remote back down, “So do you think your mom would have any problems with you going with my family?”
I looked at the T.V. Screen gathering my thoughts, “I don't think she will, my dad on the other hand might.”
“I thought your parents are divorced and that your dad lives in another state.”
“They are divorced, but right before every major holiday, he will call and ask if I want to spend it with him. I don't think he realizes that not everything is how he thinks it is between us. Just because he has 'turned a new leaf' does not make me any less mad about what he did before he realized that he should try to live a better life.”
“I would ask what went on, but I don't know if you are up to telling me.”
“Thank you for being considerate of my feelings, most people are just nagging me to know. But I promise you that I will tell you eventually. I am just to fired up right now to explain it and I know my mom will be home soon and she doesn't always like to hear about my dad.”
Blake and I took out our homework for our classes and got to work on the assignments, occasionally asking one another questions, but working in silence for the most part. We had been working for a good half hour or so when we heard my mom's car pull up and her opening the door, calling out a greeting as she took off her shoes and jacket.
“We're in the living room doing our homework.” I yelled back in return to her greeting, trying to figure out the problem I was on and not paying much attention to what she had said or how I had phrased my reply.
“Hey Mrs. Pavlick, how was your day?” Blake looked up from his homework to talk to my mom.
“It was okay, how was your guys' day?” Mom sat down on the recliner across the room from us, curling her feet onto the chair.
“It was as good as it can get when we had to go to school, but at least it is Friday!” Blake grabbed his backpack and began putting his binders and pencils away.
“Well it couldn't have been that bad,” Mom was always the optimistic, and from the way she talked about high school, she never really went to high school. She thought that all the kids got along and that there were never any problems. When she noticed that Blake was putting away his stuff, she asked him about it, “You're not going home are you? You know that you can stay for dinner anytime you want!”
“Nah, I 'm not going, I am just done with my homework and wanted to make sure to put all my stuff away now so that I don't lose any of it.”
“That is a good idea! I wish Lena was more like you, she is always misplacing her school work.”
“Okay mom, no need to start comparing us. We are different people and no matter how much you want me to be like him, it will most likely never happen.” I put my homework on the table and stood up, stretching out my legs and my back, “I'm going to go make dinner now, it should be ready in about an hour.”
“Thank you for remembering Lena!” Mom walked over to me and gave me a quick hug and a kiss, “I am going to be in the office finishing up some paper work, would you mind calling me in when dinner is ready?”
I nodded as I walked into the kitchen and took down the book that the recipe was in, “Hey Blake, would you mind helping me make dinner?”
“Sure! So long as you trust me with a knife!” Blake followed me into the kitchen and threw away his bag of chips, “What do you need me to do?”
“First we should both wash our hands, I don't know about you, but I don't want homework tainting our food.”
Blake rolled his eyes as he turned on the sink and squirted soap onto his hands, “Eww, your soap smells girly...”
“Well what do you expect when you wash your hands in a house that only two girls live in?”
“Good point, but this soap is way more girly scented than I would expect you or your mom to like!” Blake moved away from the sink and dried his hands on the towel.
“Blake, it is not that girly, it is lavender scented. There is more girly scented stuff out there than lavender.” I washed my hands and dried them while Blake just rolled his eyes mouthing, whatever.
I walked back over to the counter that had the recipe for tonight’s dinner on it and read through the directions to make sure I did not forget to turn on the oven. Oven preheating, I walked over to the fridge and started to grab the cold ingredients the recipe called for, “Blake would you read what the recipe calls for and grab the non-refrigerated stuff we need, please and thank you.”
“I guess...”
I rolled my eyes at Blake and walked over to the stove, my arms pull of food. I set it all down and began the calming process of preparing a meal. I instructed Blake on what I needed him to do, and soon we were working in a comfortable silence, hardly getting into one an others way.
An hour later, Blake and I had prepared a rather delicious looking meal, “if you want to, you can dish yourself up some food while I go get my mom.”
“It's fine, I'll just wait for you two, I wouldn't want to start eating on my own and without the owners of the house.”
I nodded and ran to get my mom from her office, “Mom, dinner's ready.”
Friday, November 12, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Chapter 1 Part 2
The next smell that hit you was the smell of bread. Next to the coffee, that was my favorite smell in the whole world. I loved the way it smelled warm no matter how long ago the bread had been baked. I loved the way that no matter what other smells were polluting the air, the bread smell still managed to make the air smell fresh and home like.
I inhaled a deep breath full of coffee, cookies and bread, “So Blake, what do you think of this glorious piece of heaven?”
Blake took his own lung full of the savory air, “I think it smells amazing,” Blake’s eyes widened when he saw the plate full of cookies, “And they give out free food if you buy anything on the menu!”
I laughed as I watched Blake take it all in, “I’m sure they had some type of coffee shop by where you lived. This can’t all be new to you can it?”
“Sure they had coffee shops around me, but none of them were quite like this.”
“Well, why don’t we go up and order our lunch and you can tell me whether or not this place has better coffee and food then your coffee shops back home.”
Blake followed me up to the counter, eyes glued on the menu board, “Lena, I don’t know what to get! Everything on here sounds so good!”
The worker behind the counter laughed, “First time customer?”
I nodded, “I am ashamed to say that he has never tasted the ambrosia you so kindly give away to us mere mortals, I bow down to you oh great coffee Gods.”
“Is that Lena?!” I heard a voice ask from the kitchen off the left of the small store.
“It is Lena; she has brought in a friend. Quick get the brainwashing stuff out while we can, we don’t want to let this one get away!”
Blake was still looking at the board, trying to figure out what he wanted to get, “Lena, you have to help me out somehow. There are so many choices that I have no idea what to pick.”
I laughed, “Well there’s a book of all the drinks over there on the counter, but I don’t know what to tell you, I still have problems deciding and I have been coming here for a year now. But food wise, it is all really good, so whatever you choose, you will like it.”
A few minutes later, Blake and I were sitting at a table in the corner of the upstairs section. Our coffees were sitting in front of us, being pushed aside for something with more substance. No disrespect to coffee, but there are a few rare occasions where my stomach needs something more substantial than just a cup of coffee. I wish that were not true, but there is this stupid ‘theory’ going around that the human body needs to eat certain things to develop, mature and function properly, and unfortunately coffee does not contain all of these ‘important’ groups. I know it is really crazy and completely unacceptable, but I try to take good care of my body in some ways.
“You were right, this place is amazing. I am so glad you were kind enough to share it with me. If I were you I would keep it to myself!” Blake exclaimed through a mouth of food.
“Well I would keep it to myself, but if I did that, it would end up having to close down because there is no way that I could supply a small business with my caffeine addiction… Yet.”
Blake laughed and finished shoving the rest of his lunch down his throat, “So I asked you to come to lunch with me by ourselves because I had to tell you something, but before I told you, I want you to prove to me that you really can read minds.”
I swallowed the bite of food that I was chewing, I had more manners then some people, “How else can I prove it? I already did in the best way I could. What other ways are there?”
Blake smiled, “Well I want you to read the minds of everyone in this coffee shop.”
“Hell no, if I did that, it would sound too much like a scene from a certain overrated movie about sparkly vampires, whose title I refuse to mention. And there is no way I am stooping to that level.” I was appalled that he would dare make me do something that would relate to that movie. Sure I didn’t mind the book, but the movie was hideous.
“Well how else are you supposed to prove to me that you can read minds?” Blake asked, looking at me as if the world depended on my mind reading abilities.
“Like I said earlier, I already read your mind, and that is the best way I can think of proving to you that I can in fact read minds,” I picked up my coffee cup and took a sip from it, avoiding Blake’s gray-green eyes, “Anyways, if I did read the minds of everyone that is currently in here, how would you know that I was telling the truth. I could just be pulling random things out of my ass.”
Blake thought for a moment, staring into space biting the lid of his coffee cup absentmindedly, “You have a point, but I need to know if this morning was just luck, or not. I want you to read my mind again.”
I scanned his thoughts for a half second, not wanting to encroach on his privacy, “You are a little nervous about letting me drive your car later tonight, but you have confidence that I will not do any major harm to it that you cannot fix.”
Blake grinned sheepishly, “Sorry, I am a little nervous, but anyone would be,” Blake took a drink of his coffee and looked at me seriously, “Now it is my turn to tell you my secret.”
“It is about damn time, I have been waiting for this all day. You can’t tell me something like that at the start of the day and expect me not to pester you all day!”
“I know, but this is really important that only you hear, and you have to promise me that you will not tell anyone else about it. There are some people that if they find out, they will try to hurt me and possibly you.”
“Blake you are freaking me out. What do you have to tell me that is so important it could get us harmed?”
Blake looked around suspiciously, “Okay, well you know how you said earlier that you could read minds?”
I nodded; it was kind of hard to forget about something like that, especially considering the fact that it took place less than five hours ago, “What about it? Just hurry up and tell me whatever you need to tell me already. I want to know and your secrecy is getting a little old.”
“Well if you would just be patient, I would tell you,” Blake took a deep breath and looked around the table we were sitting at one more time, “I have been able to do something kind of similar to that for quite a while. I can’t remember when I first noticed what I could do, but I know it was a long time ago.”
I was about to yell at Blake to spit out whatever he was going to say when I saw the person who had helped us out at the counter walking over to our table, “The boss man says I have to kick you out. Something about him not wanting you guys here when he knows you should be in school. Sorry guys.”
I wanted to slap him. Blake was just about to spit it out when he had to walk up and interrupt him. Now I have to wait for him to build up the courage and say it again. I knew there was a reason I disliked most people as much as I did.
Blake smiled and picked up what was left of his drink, “That’s fine, we’ll just finish our conversation on our way back.”
I grabbed my drink and yelled a quick good bye to the people I knew there, not wanting to miss my chance of hearing what Blake had to say, “So what is it that you can do?”
“I can make people do stuff they normally would not do on their own just by using my mind,” Blake unlocked his car doors and opened my door up for me. I sat in the passenger seat waiting for Blake to get in the car to hear the end of his story, “When I first noticed what I can do, I just passed it off as good luck. I did that for a few years until I noticed that I was getting everything I wanted almost as soon as I said I wanted it.
“I loved it at first, but then I started thinking about how it could be considered cheating and immoral if anyone found out what I could do,” Blake accelerated as he got onto the main road to get to our neighborhood, “So for quite a while I wouldn’t ever say what I wanted and I did my best not to make people do something I wanted them to do.”
I was quite for a minute wondering whether or not I should believe this. It was hard to believe, but so was my telling him that I could read minds. I studied his face to see if there were any traces of him lying, “Okay, if you can make people to do stuff, I want you to make me do something.”
Blake sat in silence for a few seconds, just looking out of the front windshield, “Okay, but I am just going to do something simple, nothing serious.”
“Well I would hope you wouldn’t make me do something serious, I don’t want to involuntarily kill myself of tell you one of my darkest secrets. That would just be awkward.” While I was talking, I had absentmindedly reached over to the stereo and was now changing it to a different station. “Did you make me do that? I don’t remember ever deciding to turn on any music.”
Blake grinned, “Yeah, I made you do that. It’s freaky huh?”
I nodded in agreement, “You haven’t made me do anything else have you?”
“The only other thing I have made you do was tell me what was on your mind this morning because I knew something was up and I wanted to know why,” Blake glanced over at me quickly, an accusing look on his face, “Speaking of which, you didn’t tell me what your job was. You said that I wouldn’t understand it until I knew what you could do, so now that I know, you need to tell me.”
“I was wondering how long it would take you to realize that I never told you.”
“Now you are just avoiding the subject. Tell me what it is, please.”
“Me, avoid the subject, never!”
“ Lena,” I do not think I had ever hear my name sound so menacing, except for some of the times my mom said it, “You are starting to make me mad. You should tell me or you may regret it later.”
“What are you going to do to me that will make me regret it?” I looked over at him just in time to see the glare he gave me. I knew that I should probably stop avoiding the subject and tell him now, “I am not sure how much I can tell you about it, but I can tell you the gist of it. I work as a sort of lie detector for the local F.B.I. office. The only difference is I can always tell when the person is lying. There are no mistakes when they use me.”
“And you are modest too,” Blake smiled and moved his arm out of the way when I tried to hit it, “But how do you make it seem real. It’s not like they can just have you sitting in there when they interview a subject, interjecting after every statement whether it is true or not.”
“No, when they go to have to interviews, they hook them up to one of the ‘real’ lie detectors that everyone has seen at least once in their life and they have me act as the technician recording the information.”
“What happens if you say that the person is lying but the read out from the machine says that they are telling the truth. I can’t imagine that would go well with the higher ups.”
“Everyone who should know about what I can do does, and they always inform new people who have never dealt with me what the situation is.”
“That sounds really confusing… But it makes sense. Now I can understand why you were so tired this morning.”
“Yeah, it is a nice job with good pay, but there are some nights when I just wish it would already end.”
Blake pulled into our neighborhood and slowed, “So we have about 25 minutes until we would normally get home, so what do you want to do until then at the very latest?”
“Well I guess we could go see a movie or something…” I knew what Blake wanted to do, and I was nervous about doing it.
“There’s nothing playing now,” Blake pulled into a church parking lot, “Why don’t we practice your driving since we have the time!”
I groaned, “Do we have to?”
“Not if you do not want to. I will not make you do anything that you don’t want to do. I just think it would be good for you to know how to.” Blake turned off the car and looked over at me, judging my reaction to his words.
“I guess I will do it, I know I want to learn, I am just nervous about doing something to ruin your car.” I took off my seat belt and opened the passenger door to get out. The air was crisp, and leaves were rustling on the ground. I walked around the back of the car, hoping to calm down just a little more before I got behind the wheel.
Blake was standing by the driver side door, holding it open, “Don’t worry Lena, you will do just fine. And there isn’t anything you can do to my car that can’t be fixed.” Blake gave me a quick, encouraging hug before he closed the door and jogged to the passenger side of the car.
I put my seatbelt on and was just about the start the car when Blake stopped me, “Before you start the car, I want you to tell me the order of your pedals from left to right.”
“Clutch, brake and gas,” I looked over at Blake, “What was the point in that?”
“I wanted to make sure that you knew where all the pedals are. Now, do you know what the clutch does?”
“Well I know you use it when you are going to shift gears, but that is about all I know. Again, why am I getting quizzed on this stuff?”
“Again, I want you to know the basics of what you are doing, and what everything does before you start driving. You may not think it now, but knowing how the thing you are using works does make you feel more confident when you get around to using it.”
“Well then you should tell me everything now, because chances are, I don’t know what it does or how it works,” I knew I sounded meaner then I meant, “Sorry, I did not mean to sound that rude, I am just nervous.”
Blake smiled encouragingly, “It is ok, I know I was just as nervous when my dad taught me how to drive a clutch, but I have faith that you can do it. It is not nearly as hard as it seems.”
I smiled, Blake always knew what to say to make you feel better, “Okay, why don’t we get down to business?”
“Okay, so the clutch pedal, when you push it down, makes it so that the spinning engine is disconnected from the wheels long enough for you to switch gears without letting the teeth in the gears grind on each other and wear down. When you release the clutch, it connects them again, but with the new gear in place.”
“Okay, so basically for about half a second your wheels are not attached to anything at all…”
“Well they’re still attached to the rest of your car, but they aren’t attached to the engine.”
“That doesn’t sound any less scary… Are you sure that this is safe?”
“Perfectly,” Blake handed me the keys, “First make sure that you can reach all the pedals, and make any adjustments to your seat, mirrors and wheel if you need to.”
I checked all the mirrors and slid my seat forward, unlike Blake, I was not six foot two, “I feel like I am in drivers ed. again. Although I think it will be a little easier with you as a teacher, I won’t have worry about grades.”
Blake laughed and rolled his eyes, “I’ll try and be nicer than the teachers at school, and luckily it will not be very hard.
“Okay, now before you start the car, always make sure it is in park. Once you are sure it’s in park, I want you to push the clutch down as far as it will go, then put it in neutral, start the car and then take your foot off the clutch.”
I stuck the keys in the ignition and looked at the gear shift to make sure it was in park; fortunately I had driven with Blake enough to know where all the positions were in his car. I pushed the clutch down, put it in neutral and then I turned the keys in the ignition and listened to the engine purr to life, as soon as the car was started up I looked over at Blake while I took my foot off the clutch, “Okay, now what?”
“Okay, I want you to put your foot back on the clutch and shift to first gear while you ease onto the accelerator then as soon as you are done shifting gears, you need to take your foot off the clutch.”
I did what Blake told me and we started moving, “This isn’t as hard as everyone says it is, sure it takes a little concentration, but it is actually pretty easy!”
We spent about a half hour driving around, then Blake looked at the clock and smiled at me, “Now I want you to drive us to your house.”
I looked at him for a moment, making sure he was being serious, “Okay… I guess it is better practice than just driving around a church parking lot.”
I successfully drove us to my house without causing damage to the car, us, any pedestrians, parked cars or any yard fixtures. I pulled into my driveway, put the car in park, turned off the engine and look over at Blake, “Look at that! I am a professional driver! I got that down in no time!”
“You did do very well, and it took you less time getting the hang of it than even I did.” Blake sounded a little bitter about that, but I could tell he was happy for me, and proud that he could teach someone like me, who is very hard to teach, how to do something like that.
I opened the door and popped the trunk so I could grab my backpack out of the trunk, “Thanks for teaching me how to drive. Now if I ever have to take a dead body somewhere and don’t want the blood stains and rancid smell in my car, I can just borrow your car!”
Blake walked around to the back of the car and grabbed his stuff, “You know Lena, there are times when I worry about you and wonder why I ever thought to be your friend. Right now is one of those times…”
“Gee, thanks so much. I’m glad I could be of service to you. There has to be something that gets your mind working.” I closed the trunk, tossed Blake his keys and walked up the sidewalk to the front door.
“Isn’t it sad that the thing that gets me thinking the most is you?” Blake asked as he pocketed his keys and walked up to the door.
“Not sad, but a little strange,” I grabbed my keys out of my backpack and opened the front door, “I was going to invite you over, but since you kind of already invited yourself I guess there is not much I can do.”
“You could offer me a drink, some food and offer to do my homework for me.” Blake replied as he put his backpack on the floor next to our front door and slipped out of his shoes.
“If I do those things for you will you do them for me when I go over to your house?” I put my keys into the key bowl on the table in the entry way and put my backpack down before I took off my shoes.
“Well I would offer you a drink and food, but I would not do your homework for you.” Blake walked into my kitchen and opened up the fridge and proceeded to raid the interior of my fridge for something to eat, “You need to buy more food. There is nothing to eat in here, do you and your mom just starve to death?”
I rolled my eyes walked into the kitchen, “Are you thirsty?”
“Yeah, I’ll just have a glass of ice water, thanks!” Blake’s voice was muffled due to the fact that he had found his way into the pantry and was standing in the middle of the small, closet sized space.
I grabbed down two glasses and walked to the freezer to put ice in them, “How are you possibly hungry when we just at lunch thirty five minutes ago?” I walked back over the sink and filled up the glasses and set Blake’s down on the counter next to the sink. Some mumbled nonsense drifted out of the pantry, but I was not entirely sure if it was actually English. Between the mouth full of food and the accent, it was pretty much impossible to decipher whatever it was that Blake had just tried to say to me, “Do you want to try and say that again without the food in your mouth? Believe it or not, it is really, really had to understand you when your mouth is jam-packed with food. Plus, it is not at all attractive.”
Blake walked out of the pantry with a full bag of potato chips in his arms, “I said, ‘There is always a way that I can be hungry, no matter how long ago I ate.’ I am a growing boy after all!”
I laughed, “I wish we could say that you are finished growing, but you are probably right.”
“Of course I’m right, I am always right!” Blake walked over to me, not pausing to stuff a handful of chips in his mouth, and grabbed his water glass, “So, I was wondering if you would like to come with my family to Ireland for the Thanksgiving break. My parents are the one who suggested it, and I think it would be nice to have someone there to talk to beside the little kids.”
I was stunned, “Your parents want me to go to Ireland with you guys?!? I have only known you for six months and they want to take me to your family’s Thanksgiving celebration?”
Blake started laughing and almost spilled his drink, “Are you being serious? You think I’m taking you over for Thanksgiving dinner?”
“Um, yeah… Considering you just invited me over for Thanksgiving break, I figured it would be for Thanksgiving dinner.” I was confused, why did Blake find this so funny?
“Lena Thanksgiving is an American holiday; my family and I are not American.”
My cheeks began to get hot, “Oh god, I feel so stupid now,” I buried my face in my hands, “Can we pretend this never happened, please?”
I inhaled a deep breath full of coffee, cookies and bread, “So Blake, what do you think of this glorious piece of heaven?”
Blake took his own lung full of the savory air, “I think it smells amazing,” Blake’s eyes widened when he saw the plate full of cookies, “And they give out free food if you buy anything on the menu!”
I laughed as I watched Blake take it all in, “I’m sure they had some type of coffee shop by where you lived. This can’t all be new to you can it?”
“Sure they had coffee shops around me, but none of them were quite like this.”
“Well, why don’t we go up and order our lunch and you can tell me whether or not this place has better coffee and food then your coffee shops back home.”
Blake followed me up to the counter, eyes glued on the menu board, “Lena, I don’t know what to get! Everything on here sounds so good!”
The worker behind the counter laughed, “First time customer?”
I nodded, “I am ashamed to say that he has never tasted the ambrosia you so kindly give away to us mere mortals, I bow down to you oh great coffee Gods.”
“Is that Lena?!” I heard a voice ask from the kitchen off the left of the small store.
“It is Lena; she has brought in a friend. Quick get the brainwashing stuff out while we can, we don’t want to let this one get away!”
Blake was still looking at the board, trying to figure out what he wanted to get, “Lena, you have to help me out somehow. There are so many choices that I have no idea what to pick.”
I laughed, “Well there’s a book of all the drinks over there on the counter, but I don’t know what to tell you, I still have problems deciding and I have been coming here for a year now. But food wise, it is all really good, so whatever you choose, you will like it.”
A few minutes later, Blake and I were sitting at a table in the corner of the upstairs section. Our coffees were sitting in front of us, being pushed aside for something with more substance. No disrespect to coffee, but there are a few rare occasions where my stomach needs something more substantial than just a cup of coffee. I wish that were not true, but there is this stupid ‘theory’ going around that the human body needs to eat certain things to develop, mature and function properly, and unfortunately coffee does not contain all of these ‘important’ groups. I know it is really crazy and completely unacceptable, but I try to take good care of my body in some ways.
“You were right, this place is amazing. I am so glad you were kind enough to share it with me. If I were you I would keep it to myself!” Blake exclaimed through a mouth of food.
“Well I would keep it to myself, but if I did that, it would end up having to close down because there is no way that I could supply a small business with my caffeine addiction… Yet.”
Blake laughed and finished shoving the rest of his lunch down his throat, “So I asked you to come to lunch with me by ourselves because I had to tell you something, but before I told you, I want you to prove to me that you really can read minds.”
I swallowed the bite of food that I was chewing, I had more manners then some people, “How else can I prove it? I already did in the best way I could. What other ways are there?”
Blake smiled, “Well I want you to read the minds of everyone in this coffee shop.”
“Hell no, if I did that, it would sound too much like a scene from a certain overrated movie about sparkly vampires, whose title I refuse to mention. And there is no way I am stooping to that level.” I was appalled that he would dare make me do something that would relate to that movie. Sure I didn’t mind the book, but the movie was hideous.
“Well how else are you supposed to prove to me that you can read minds?” Blake asked, looking at me as if the world depended on my mind reading abilities.
“Like I said earlier, I already read your mind, and that is the best way I can think of proving to you that I can in fact read minds,” I picked up my coffee cup and took a sip from it, avoiding Blake’s gray-green eyes, “Anyways, if I did read the minds of everyone that is currently in here, how would you know that I was telling the truth. I could just be pulling random things out of my ass.”
Blake thought for a moment, staring into space biting the lid of his coffee cup absentmindedly, “You have a point, but I need to know if this morning was just luck, or not. I want you to read my mind again.”
I scanned his thoughts for a half second, not wanting to encroach on his privacy, “You are a little nervous about letting me drive your car later tonight, but you have confidence that I will not do any major harm to it that you cannot fix.”
Blake grinned sheepishly, “Sorry, I am a little nervous, but anyone would be,” Blake took a drink of his coffee and looked at me seriously, “Now it is my turn to tell you my secret.”
“It is about damn time, I have been waiting for this all day. You can’t tell me something like that at the start of the day and expect me not to pester you all day!”
“I know, but this is really important that only you hear, and you have to promise me that you will not tell anyone else about it. There are some people that if they find out, they will try to hurt me and possibly you.”
“Blake you are freaking me out. What do you have to tell me that is so important it could get us harmed?”
Blake looked around suspiciously, “Okay, well you know how you said earlier that you could read minds?”
I nodded; it was kind of hard to forget about something like that, especially considering the fact that it took place less than five hours ago, “What about it? Just hurry up and tell me whatever you need to tell me already. I want to know and your secrecy is getting a little old.”
“Well if you would just be patient, I would tell you,” Blake took a deep breath and looked around the table we were sitting at one more time, “I have been able to do something kind of similar to that for quite a while. I can’t remember when I first noticed what I could do, but I know it was a long time ago.”
I was about to yell at Blake to spit out whatever he was going to say when I saw the person who had helped us out at the counter walking over to our table, “The boss man says I have to kick you out. Something about him not wanting you guys here when he knows you should be in school. Sorry guys.”
I wanted to slap him. Blake was just about to spit it out when he had to walk up and interrupt him. Now I have to wait for him to build up the courage and say it again. I knew there was a reason I disliked most people as much as I did.
Blake smiled and picked up what was left of his drink, “That’s fine, we’ll just finish our conversation on our way back.”
I grabbed my drink and yelled a quick good bye to the people I knew there, not wanting to miss my chance of hearing what Blake had to say, “So what is it that you can do?”
“I can make people do stuff they normally would not do on their own just by using my mind,” Blake unlocked his car doors and opened my door up for me. I sat in the passenger seat waiting for Blake to get in the car to hear the end of his story, “When I first noticed what I can do, I just passed it off as good luck. I did that for a few years until I noticed that I was getting everything I wanted almost as soon as I said I wanted it.
“I loved it at first, but then I started thinking about how it could be considered cheating and immoral if anyone found out what I could do,” Blake accelerated as he got onto the main road to get to our neighborhood, “So for quite a while I wouldn’t ever say what I wanted and I did my best not to make people do something I wanted them to do.”
I was quite for a minute wondering whether or not I should believe this. It was hard to believe, but so was my telling him that I could read minds. I studied his face to see if there were any traces of him lying, “Okay, if you can make people to do stuff, I want you to make me do something.”
Blake sat in silence for a few seconds, just looking out of the front windshield, “Okay, but I am just going to do something simple, nothing serious.”
“Well I would hope you wouldn’t make me do something serious, I don’t want to involuntarily kill myself of tell you one of my darkest secrets. That would just be awkward.” While I was talking, I had absentmindedly reached over to the stereo and was now changing it to a different station. “Did you make me do that? I don’t remember ever deciding to turn on any music.”
Blake grinned, “Yeah, I made you do that. It’s freaky huh?”
I nodded in agreement, “You haven’t made me do anything else have you?”
“The only other thing I have made you do was tell me what was on your mind this morning because I knew something was up and I wanted to know why,” Blake glanced over at me quickly, an accusing look on his face, “Speaking of which, you didn’t tell me what your job was. You said that I wouldn’t understand it until I knew what you could do, so now that I know, you need to tell me.”
“I was wondering how long it would take you to realize that I never told you.”
“Now you are just avoiding the subject. Tell me what it is, please.”
“Me, avoid the subject, never!”
“ Lena,” I do not think I had ever hear my name sound so menacing, except for some of the times my mom said it, “You are starting to make me mad. You should tell me or you may regret it later.”
“What are you going to do to me that will make me regret it?” I looked over at him just in time to see the glare he gave me. I knew that I should probably stop avoiding the subject and tell him now, “I am not sure how much I can tell you about it, but I can tell you the gist of it. I work as a sort of lie detector for the local F.B.I. office. The only difference is I can always tell when the person is lying. There are no mistakes when they use me.”
“And you are modest too,” Blake smiled and moved his arm out of the way when I tried to hit it, “But how do you make it seem real. It’s not like they can just have you sitting in there when they interview a subject, interjecting after every statement whether it is true or not.”
“No, when they go to have to interviews, they hook them up to one of the ‘real’ lie detectors that everyone has seen at least once in their life and they have me act as the technician recording the information.”
“What happens if you say that the person is lying but the read out from the machine says that they are telling the truth. I can’t imagine that would go well with the higher ups.”
“Everyone who should know about what I can do does, and they always inform new people who have never dealt with me what the situation is.”
“That sounds really confusing… But it makes sense. Now I can understand why you were so tired this morning.”
“Yeah, it is a nice job with good pay, but there are some nights when I just wish it would already end.”
Blake pulled into our neighborhood and slowed, “So we have about 25 minutes until we would normally get home, so what do you want to do until then at the very latest?”
“Well I guess we could go see a movie or something…” I knew what Blake wanted to do, and I was nervous about doing it.
“There’s nothing playing now,” Blake pulled into a church parking lot, “Why don’t we practice your driving since we have the time!”
I groaned, “Do we have to?”
“Not if you do not want to. I will not make you do anything that you don’t want to do. I just think it would be good for you to know how to.” Blake turned off the car and looked over at me, judging my reaction to his words.
“I guess I will do it, I know I want to learn, I am just nervous about doing something to ruin your car.” I took off my seat belt and opened the passenger door to get out. The air was crisp, and leaves were rustling on the ground. I walked around the back of the car, hoping to calm down just a little more before I got behind the wheel.
Blake was standing by the driver side door, holding it open, “Don’t worry Lena, you will do just fine. And there isn’t anything you can do to my car that can’t be fixed.” Blake gave me a quick, encouraging hug before he closed the door and jogged to the passenger side of the car.
I put my seatbelt on and was just about the start the car when Blake stopped me, “Before you start the car, I want you to tell me the order of your pedals from left to right.”
“Clutch, brake and gas,” I looked over at Blake, “What was the point in that?”
“I wanted to make sure that you knew where all the pedals are. Now, do you know what the clutch does?”
“Well I know you use it when you are going to shift gears, but that is about all I know. Again, why am I getting quizzed on this stuff?”
“Again, I want you to know the basics of what you are doing, and what everything does before you start driving. You may not think it now, but knowing how the thing you are using works does make you feel more confident when you get around to using it.”
“Well then you should tell me everything now, because chances are, I don’t know what it does or how it works,” I knew I sounded meaner then I meant, “Sorry, I did not mean to sound that rude, I am just nervous.”
Blake smiled encouragingly, “It is ok, I know I was just as nervous when my dad taught me how to drive a clutch, but I have faith that you can do it. It is not nearly as hard as it seems.”
I smiled, Blake always knew what to say to make you feel better, “Okay, why don’t we get down to business?”
“Okay, so the clutch pedal, when you push it down, makes it so that the spinning engine is disconnected from the wheels long enough for you to switch gears without letting the teeth in the gears grind on each other and wear down. When you release the clutch, it connects them again, but with the new gear in place.”
“Okay, so basically for about half a second your wheels are not attached to anything at all…”
“Well they’re still attached to the rest of your car, but they aren’t attached to the engine.”
“That doesn’t sound any less scary… Are you sure that this is safe?”
“Perfectly,” Blake handed me the keys, “First make sure that you can reach all the pedals, and make any adjustments to your seat, mirrors and wheel if you need to.”
I checked all the mirrors and slid my seat forward, unlike Blake, I was not six foot two, “I feel like I am in drivers ed. again. Although I think it will be a little easier with you as a teacher, I won’t have worry about grades.”
Blake laughed and rolled his eyes, “I’ll try and be nicer than the teachers at school, and luckily it will not be very hard.
“Okay, now before you start the car, always make sure it is in park. Once you are sure it’s in park, I want you to push the clutch down as far as it will go, then put it in neutral, start the car and then take your foot off the clutch.”
I stuck the keys in the ignition and looked at the gear shift to make sure it was in park; fortunately I had driven with Blake enough to know where all the positions were in his car. I pushed the clutch down, put it in neutral and then I turned the keys in the ignition and listened to the engine purr to life, as soon as the car was started up I looked over at Blake while I took my foot off the clutch, “Okay, now what?”
“Okay, I want you to put your foot back on the clutch and shift to first gear while you ease onto the accelerator then as soon as you are done shifting gears, you need to take your foot off the clutch.”
I did what Blake told me and we started moving, “This isn’t as hard as everyone says it is, sure it takes a little concentration, but it is actually pretty easy!”
We spent about a half hour driving around, then Blake looked at the clock and smiled at me, “Now I want you to drive us to your house.”
I looked at him for a moment, making sure he was being serious, “Okay… I guess it is better practice than just driving around a church parking lot.”
I successfully drove us to my house without causing damage to the car, us, any pedestrians, parked cars or any yard fixtures. I pulled into my driveway, put the car in park, turned off the engine and look over at Blake, “Look at that! I am a professional driver! I got that down in no time!”
“You did do very well, and it took you less time getting the hang of it than even I did.” Blake sounded a little bitter about that, but I could tell he was happy for me, and proud that he could teach someone like me, who is very hard to teach, how to do something like that.
I opened the door and popped the trunk so I could grab my backpack out of the trunk, “Thanks for teaching me how to drive. Now if I ever have to take a dead body somewhere and don’t want the blood stains and rancid smell in my car, I can just borrow your car!”
Blake walked around to the back of the car and grabbed his stuff, “You know Lena, there are times when I worry about you and wonder why I ever thought to be your friend. Right now is one of those times…”
“Gee, thanks so much. I’m glad I could be of service to you. There has to be something that gets your mind working.” I closed the trunk, tossed Blake his keys and walked up the sidewalk to the front door.
“Isn’t it sad that the thing that gets me thinking the most is you?” Blake asked as he pocketed his keys and walked up to the door.
“Not sad, but a little strange,” I grabbed my keys out of my backpack and opened the front door, “I was going to invite you over, but since you kind of already invited yourself I guess there is not much I can do.”
“You could offer me a drink, some food and offer to do my homework for me.” Blake replied as he put his backpack on the floor next to our front door and slipped out of his shoes.
“If I do those things for you will you do them for me when I go over to your house?” I put my keys into the key bowl on the table in the entry way and put my backpack down before I took off my shoes.
“Well I would offer you a drink and food, but I would not do your homework for you.” Blake walked into my kitchen and opened up the fridge and proceeded to raid the interior of my fridge for something to eat, “You need to buy more food. There is nothing to eat in here, do you and your mom just starve to death?”
I rolled my eyes walked into the kitchen, “Are you thirsty?”
“Yeah, I’ll just have a glass of ice water, thanks!” Blake’s voice was muffled due to the fact that he had found his way into the pantry and was standing in the middle of the small, closet sized space.
I grabbed down two glasses and walked to the freezer to put ice in them, “How are you possibly hungry when we just at lunch thirty five minutes ago?” I walked back over the sink and filled up the glasses and set Blake’s down on the counter next to the sink. Some mumbled nonsense drifted out of the pantry, but I was not entirely sure if it was actually English. Between the mouth full of food and the accent, it was pretty much impossible to decipher whatever it was that Blake had just tried to say to me, “Do you want to try and say that again without the food in your mouth? Believe it or not, it is really, really had to understand you when your mouth is jam-packed with food. Plus, it is not at all attractive.”
Blake walked out of the pantry with a full bag of potato chips in his arms, “I said, ‘There is always a way that I can be hungry, no matter how long ago I ate.’ I am a growing boy after all!”
I laughed, “I wish we could say that you are finished growing, but you are probably right.”
“Of course I’m right, I am always right!” Blake walked over to me, not pausing to stuff a handful of chips in his mouth, and grabbed his water glass, “So, I was wondering if you would like to come with my family to Ireland for the Thanksgiving break. My parents are the one who suggested it, and I think it would be nice to have someone there to talk to beside the little kids.”
I was stunned, “Your parents want me to go to Ireland with you guys?!? I have only known you for six months and they want to take me to your family’s Thanksgiving celebration?”
Blake started laughing and almost spilled his drink, “Are you being serious? You think I’m taking you over for Thanksgiving dinner?”
“Um, yeah… Considering you just invited me over for Thanksgiving break, I figured it would be for Thanksgiving dinner.” I was confused, why did Blake find this so funny?
“Lena Thanksgiving is an American holiday; my family and I are not American.”
My cheeks began to get hot, “Oh god, I feel so stupid now,” I buried my face in my hands, “Can we pretend this never happened, please?”
Chapter 1 Part 1
I woke up to the smell of coffee and an assortment of breakfast foods. My stomach growled and tried to leap out of my body to run down to the kitchen in search of the glorious smell.
I ungracefully tried to kick my way out of the cocoon of blankets and sheets, but I was failing. Flailing until my feet were out, I began to wonder why my mom was making breakfast. She never makes me breakfast on a school morning. I thumped my feet on the floor and did a zombie like shuffle towards the door, stubbing my toes on at least three things in the process.
“Has hell finally frozen over and you’re celebrating by making me breakfast?” I asked groggily when I walked into the kitchen, not even looking at my mom, just at the coffee pot by the sink.
“Look… I’m making eggs. There’s no deeper meaning to anything I’m doing here. It’s breakfast, plain and simple.” My mom turned back around to face the stove where she was cooking me eggs and French toast. I knew she was lying.
Normally I wouldn’t have a problem with her making me breakfast, but I knew she wanted to know where I was last night considering the fact that I didn’t get in until one in the morning on a school night. And I would love to tell her, but there was a slight problem. If I told her, she would kill me before I even got out the whole story.
“Look mom, I was out working.” I sat down at the table with my cup of steaming coffee and grabbed the newspaper sitting on the table.
“I never asked where you were or what you were doing,” she brought over two plates of breakfast and gave one to me and sat down across from me, “Why were you working so late, I don’t like where ever you were, working a 16 year old until one in the morning is obscene! You need to quit as soon as you can.”
I rolled my eyes, it didn’t surprise me that she wouldn’t understand and demand things from me, “Mom, I can’t quit, they need me and I enjoy it. Anyways, it’s not like they’re forcing me to work that late. I decided to.”
“Glenna I don’t feel like you’re safe there.” she looked up at me, her eyes pleading.
“Mom,” I sighed, “You don’t understand, this is the best job for me, and I am perfectly safe. Plus, I am working my way up very fast; I am so close to getting a promotion!” I silently added that the only thing stopping me was a simple birthday.
Mom looked defeated, “I still don’t like it, but if it makes you happy then I guess I’ll deal.”
I smiled and picked up my now empty plate, “Thanks mom, one day I’ll be able to tell you all about my job.”
“Don’t forget that tonight you have to make dinner!”
I smiled and nodded as I walked back to my bedroom to quickly get ready for the day. I mindlessly tossed on whatever clothes I grabbed, and threw them on rapidity. I ran into the bathroom next to my room and quickly brushed my teeth while I grabbed out my makeup. Now I may not be a super girly-girl, but I sure did love make up, I had an extensive collection of just about every type of makeup you could imagine. I did my makeup in yet another new way that highlighted the gold flecks in my dark brown eyes and put my bag of goodies away.
I grabbed my brush and ran it through my long, straight black hair, not really paying attention to anything. After my hair was brushed, I tossed it up in a messy bun and pinned back the bangs I was slowly growing out.
When I was all done, I went back to my bedroom and gathered my school stuff in my backpack and grabbed my phone to tell Blake that I was ready whenever he was. I sat down at my computer desk thinking about when I should tell my mom about my job, and when I should tell Blake that whole truth.
I was so lost in thought that I didn’t hear Blake honk the horn on his car until he was holding it down so it was a continuous noise. I muttered some very unkind things under my breath about him as I grabbed my backpack and walked down the stairs.
“Bye Mom! I’ll see you later!” I yelled as I walked out the door.
Her reply was lost in the slamming of the door and the yells from Blake as soon as he saw me.
“Hurry up Lena! We have things to see, people to do!”
“You know, I thought that you’d be above that saying, but apparently they say it in Ireland too…” I quickly slid into his dark blue, 2011 Camaro. I know, I know, really a brand new Camaro for a 16 year old? Really? Well that’s what I thought when I first saw him pull into the school parking lot the first day of school. But it turns out that he was new here and his parents wanted him to fit in so they bought him whatever car he wanted. Well Blake isn’t an idiot. He knew all about American cars and knew his parents didn’t know a thing about any type of cars. So along came the Camaro.
“Just ‘cause I am from a different country doesn’t mean I am any different from other guys!” Blake said as he drove down the street, his thick Irish accent was hard to understand if you weren’t used to it.
“A girl can hope can she not?” I reached over and turned on Blake’s stereo knowing I would like whatever he had in.
“You can, but you’ll only be disappointed,” Blake pointed out as he slowed to stop at the stop light. Blake turned and looked at me, smiling, “So how is the beautiful Lena today?”
“Well I don’t know what type of stuff you’ve been doing to think I was beautiful, but I guess other than that I a fine, but tired.”
Blake looked at me, piercing me with his grey-green eyes, “I am going to ignore the fact that you said you weren’t beautiful and not start that fight this morning. Why are you so tired all the time?”
I took a deep breath and wished for the best of luck, “I need to tell you something about me before you can understand my job.”
Blake accelerated, “Well go ahead and say it now, we don’t have all day.”
“Before I tell you, you need to promise not to tell anyone about this,” I looked over at Blake to make sure he nodded, “Ok, here goes nothing. Since the beginning of this year, I have somehow been able to read peoples’ minds…” I looked away then, finding sudden interest in the world zooming by outside.
“Right and I am the Queen of England. Really Lena what does that have to do with anything, and why do you expect me to believe it?”
“Because it’s true, and I wouldn’t ever lie to you. Plus if you don’t believe it then you can’t understand my job and why I am always so tried. I am trying to tell you something nobody knows about me, and you don’t believe me.”
“If you can read minds, then why don’t you tell me what I am thinking at this very moment?”
Sadly this didn’t surprise me, I knew that whoever I told would ask this sooner or later, “You don’t believe that I am telling the truth and you are trying to remember whether or not you had breakfast.”
Blake sat in silence for a few seconds. Great, he probably thinks I am some messed up crazy person and now he’s not going to talk to me.
“That is so cool!” Blake turned to smile at me quickly, and then paled a little “Wait, have you been listening to everything I think about?”
I laughed, I knew that this one would be said too, “No, not anymore. When I first started hearing peoples thoughts I couldn’t control it, but now I have it under control enough to only hear when I want to.”
Blake turned into the school parking lot and grabbed the first spot he saw, “That’s good; it would have been a little weird if you knew every single thing I thought about.”
I smiled, “Why Blake, are you thinking about bad stuff?”
Blake laughed and combed his fingers through his slightly curly brown hair, “Funny funny Lena, I just wanted to make sure I still had my privacy.”
I unbuckled my seat belt and stepped out of the car, the noises of high school students loud and clear. I sighed and walked with Blake to the doors of the school, ignoring all the things shouted at us. I had to feel bad for Blake because even though he didn’t look like the stereotypical Irish, he still got quite a few taunts about him being a leprechaun or always drunk off his ass. I don’t know how he handled it, but he never gave them the reaction they were looking for, let alone any reaction. I admired him for that; I don’t know that I would be able to do that if I were in his position.
“How do you do it Blake?” I asked as we passed another group of assholes who thought it would be funny to try and put a sparkly, green top hat on him.
“Do what? Ignore them?” I nodded when he looked at me, “I guess I just don’t pay any attention to them. I know all that they want is for me to fit into their close-minded stereotypes of Irish people, so I don’t do anything about it and let them do what they want, because for the most part they don’t know a thing they are talking about.”
“You are amazing. I think you are the coolest person here.” I gave Blake one of those awkward side hugs as we walked down the crowded hallway to our first class.
“Well I’m glad you’re finally seeing the truth about me. I’d hate to have to hide things from you, especially my amazing-ness.” Blake smiled, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.
I wasn’t paying attention and accidently heard one of Blake’s thoughts, she told me her secret, now when should I tell her mine?
Blake looked over at me and looked worried, “Are you okay Lena?”
It took a minute to realize that he had been trying to say something to me, “Yeah, just heard something and it took me off guard, ‘cause I thought that I had it under control.”
“Okay, just don’t do that again, I thought you were starting to listen to all those things people are saying about me.” Blake tightened the arm around my shoulder, and helped navigate the way through the crowded hallway.
“I would never listen to the things they are saying about you, let alone leave you all alone in hell hole of a high school, seriously, what kind of evil do you think I am?” I ignored the snide comments coming from the people that had overheard what I had just said and walked through the door to first period English.
Normally I did not mind English as a subject, but the teacher I had this year made it absolutely unbearable. I swear she didn’t know a single thing she was teaching us, she was one of the new teachers that got hired without having her experience looked at. I am pretty sure that I could teach the class better then she could ever dream of. The only thing that made it slightly bearable was the fact that Blake was in my class. In fact, he was the only thing that made any of my classes bearable.
“Okay class, sit down and take out the light green language books,” I did not see how Mrs. Rayle could be so happy when she knows that the class is just going to act up and piss her off with their incessant talking and teasing, “Today we are going to be talking about nouns and pronouns!”
I rolled my eyes and looked on the board to see what the assignment was so that I could finish it and read a book of my choice where I was not constantly pointing out the parts of speech in each sentence. Call me crazy, but I actually read for enjoyment.
I was just finishing the first problem when I hear Mrs. Rayle call my name, “Lena, would you like to tell us what you are doing instead of listening to how to complete the assignment?”
I laughed in my head about how uppity she sounded, “Well Mrs. Rayle, I was doing the assignment, I figured that since I knew how to do it, that I would go ahead and start in on it.”
Mrs. Rayle looked at me in astonishment, “You are doing the assignment? Well then, go ahead and finish up. Thank you for showing some initiative and doing something on your own.”
Ignoring the snarky comments from the people sitting around me, I got back to work on the assignment. Not a minute later, I felt a piece of paper hitting my arm, repeatedly. I looked down to my elbow and saw that it was a note with my name on the front in Blake’s handwriting. I picked it up and unfolded it, trying not to let Mrs. Rayle see it for fear of her taking it to put it in her drawer never to be seen again, or worse, to read it to the class. Knowing Blake, it probably wasn’t something either one of us wanted the class to hear.
I need to tell you something at lunch, so we can either go somewhere for lunch, or we can to find a place to be by ourselves. Either way it can only be you and me.
I looked back at Blake and mouthed my response back to him, but I was getting the evil eye from Mrs. Rayle, so I wrote back to him, all the while thinking that this seemed very much like something a fourth grader would do. Passing notes behind the teachers back, tsk-tsk.
I don’t know if I feel safe being alone with you… Just kidding, I trust you with my life. I guess we can go out to lunch, where do you want to go?
I looked back towards Mrs. Rayle’s desk to make sure that she was preoccupied with whatever she always looked at during class. There were bets going around on what she looked at, and about every ten minutes a student would go to her desk to take a look at what it was, but no one was ever successful. Seeing that she was busy, I passed the note back to Blake.
While I waited for his reply, I quickly finished the assignment and turned it in. When I got back to my desk, the note was tucked into my binder, positioned so that you would not see it if you weren’t looking for it, but if you were, it stuck out like a sore thumb. I am not sure how Blake managed that, but I applaud his creativeness. I grabbed the note and read it.
Um, preferably somewhere there isn’t bound to be people we know. I just do not want this conversation overheard.
To say I was confused was an understatement, what could Blake have to say that he wouldn’t want other people to hear? My mind was racing with the possibilities of where this could go, none of them looked too bright.
Well there is coffee shop that is really out of the way, I am sure we could go there. The only problem with that is we would either have to be late for fourth, or we’d just have to skip it all together.
I passed the note back to Blake and pulled out my book, enjoying listening to everyone complain about how hard the assignment was, and how Mrs. Rayle gives us way too much homework. I rolled my eyes and began reading my book. I was quickly lost in the mini world sitting in front of me that I practically jumped out of my seat when Blake sat down in the seat next to mine and started to talk.
“So the diner that you mentioned is just fine with me, but I need your help on this assignment! The assignment is just busy work so I have a hard time convincing myself to finish it. Help me please.”
I laughed and closed my book, “Sure, what number are you on?”
“Well about that, I kind of haven’t really started.” Blake sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, grinning innocently.
“Okay then, first you need to open your book to page 414 and get out a piece of paper.”
The rest of the classes up until lunch went about the same, except for in our Auto class, I was the one asking Blake to help me finish. It wasn’t that I did not want to do the work; it was just that I needed help finding some of the stuff to work on. Luckily, Blake knew quite a bit about cars so he was always able to help me and do his own work.
Math, our last class before lunch, seemed to go on forever. Seriously when will we ever use this stuff in real life? I sat at my desk and attempted to do my math assignment, but unfortunately math was not my strong subject. I moved over to sit by Blake, knowing that I wouldn’t get in trouble for two reasons. One, this teacher didn’t care where you sat, after she went over the new stuff, so long as you made it look like you were doing your homework. Two, this teacher never really paid attention to what was going on in her class, she would occasionally ask if we were working, but none of us was stupid enough to tell her that we were actually just talking to our friends with our assignment in front of us. There was one person, who made that mistake the first week of school, and the whole class hated her for it, needless to say she sits silently in the front of the room with her friends.
“Please tell me you understand this, because it you don’t I may have to scream…” I sighed and plopped my books down on the desk next to Blake, wincing when they made an ear shattering noise.
“I do get it, but we don’t have long enough for me to explain it in a way that would actually make sense to you, so I will explain it to you after school.”
“Oh thank God we became friends, if it weren’t for you I would probably be on my way to the principal’s office to then be taken away to some padded cell.” I quickly hugged Blake and positioned my assignment and my body just right so that if our teacher looked over it looked like I was really doing my assignment.
Blake laughed, “Well that is bound to happen someday, and I am just making sure that it doesn’t happen prematurely.”
“You’re so funny,” sarcasm seeped through my words, “You’ve only known me for what, three months now and you are already cracking those jokes? Those are more like five month material. It’s the same concept as dating, there are some things that you just don’t do on the first date, and cracking those jokes is one of them.”
“There are times when you confuse me Lena, and right now is one of them. You should have come with an instruction booklet. Had you come with one of those, it would save me from many a headache.”
“Keep this up Madigan, and…. Damn, I can’t say what I wanted to cause you are the one with the car today.”
“Why do you think I only push your buttons when I am the one driving?”
“Good point. Why do you have to be so right all the time?”
“Because one of us has to be, and you don’t seem to be too consistent so I decided to let that responsibility fall to me. It will save you some exertion.”
“You keep this up and you will be walking to school tomorrow, because I get to drive and choose who gets in my car and who does not!”
“Wow Lena, did it really take you that long to realize that you could use that as a threat?”
“So what if it did, at least I said it now and not when we are eating or tomorrow morning like you know I probably would have. I just don’t know what got into me to make me think of a comeback like that so quickly!”
Blake laughed half heartedly, “I don’t know Lena, maybe being so tired is making you more able to say things you normally wouldn’t.”
“I doubt that, if anything would result from my tiredness, it would not be something like that. More realistically it would be something stupid like an inability to walk without tripping or not being able to talk in full, coherent sentences.”
“But you already do both of those, so why would a lack of sleep do that to you?”
Blake ducked down before my half-assed slap actually hit him, “You had best be glad I like you, otherwise you would not have gotten off so easily!”
Blake was about to say something back to me, but the bell rang, excusing us to lunch. Blake and I hung back in the class room awhile waiting for the halls to clear out enough for us to at least walk through them. While we were waiting, I put my books, pencils and folders back into my backpack, organizing the backpack slightly as I went. When the halls were finally clear enough to walk in, I followed Blake out into the parking lot to his car.
“Since you know where we are going, do you want to drive?” Blake was holding the keys out to me as we stood by his car.
My jaw dropped a little, a guy was actually going to let me drive his brand spanking new car without even questioning it, “Are you sure you want to let me drive your baby?”
“Why not, I trust you not to kill her, and I will be right next to you in the passenger seat. What do we have to worry about?”
“Well if you trust me I guess I can, but what type of transmission does it have?” I looked at the car like it could eat me up, “I only know how to drive automatic.”
“In that case, it looks like I am driving, but when we get home today I am teaching you how to drive a stick.” Blake opened my door for me and then walked around to his door and started the car.
“You can teach me, but I have to make dinner tonight, so the time space will be limited.” I was a little nervous. I was going to be taught how to drive a stick by my best friend in his brand new car.
“That’s fine; we can take however long you need. I just want you to know how to drive a stick in case of an emergency. Better to be prepared and never need a skill then not know what to do when something depends on it,” Blake backed out of the spot and looked at me, “So where to?”
“Okay, when we go to leave the parking lot, turn right.”
“Ha-ha! You are like my own GPS, except you don’t have the same accent as the voices do.”
“Very funny, now, when you get to the intersection, turn left then keep going straight.”
The rest of the drive to the coffee shop was spent in Blake giving me tips about driving a stick. I do not think that I actually understood any of what he was saying, but I acted like I did. Most of what he said went in one ear and out the other. I knew he was just trying to be nice and teach me something new, but I did not understand the majority of what he was trying to tell me. But I made sure to make it look like I was paying perfect attention to every word he was saying. He would be none the wiser to my lack of attention.
“Is this the place where we are supposed to be going for lunch?” Blake asked as he pulled into a small parking lot next to a row of equally small stores.
“Yeah, it is the one that says Java the Hut,” I pointed to the store with the sign that matched the name I just spouted out, “Just so you know before you go in, the whole store isn’t themed around Star Wars, but some of the drinks and foods are. Also the owner of the store is really into Star Wars so I’d watch what you say around him if he is in today.”
Blake looked up at the sign, which was a green blob that was supposed to look like Jabba the Hut, but whoever made the sign obviously was not on their A game when they made it, “I think I am a little worried.”
“What are you worried about, this place is perfectly normal, and all the workers except for the owner act like normal people, they hardly ever dress up in Star Wars garb. I have only ever seen then dressed like that twice, and one of the two times was during Halloween, so they had an excuse.”
Blake shook his head vehemently, “No, I’m not worried about everyone being freaks; I am more concerned about the fact that I didn’t know about this place! Seriously, they mixed my two favorite things together: coffee and Star Wars!”
Blake parked the car and practically jumped out of the car and ran halfway to the doors of the store, then remembered about me, “Hurry up Lena! We need to get in there!”
“Blake, calm down, it is not going anywhere. Just take a deep breath and relax,” I closed my car door and walked up to where Blake was standing in the middle of the road, “Please tell me that you aren’t always this excited about Star Wars…”
“I’m not, it’s just that I am surprised that this is the first time I have ever heard about this, and that it was not mentioned anywhere when I was looking online at the stuff to do when I finally got here. If this were on the list of attractions, I most definitely would not have been so bitter about coming here.”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed his arm, “Come on my little Star Wars geek, let’s go get us some food, I am starved, and the only thing that will fix my grumbling tummy would be a great big croissant with honey butter, and a great big cup of coffee. Maybe even a piece of pumpkin bread for dessert.”
As soon as I opened the door, the intruding noise of the coffee grinder filled my ears, relaxing me instantly. The further in we walked, the better the shop smelled. When you first got in, you could only smell the bitter sweet smell of the coffee, but as you got in further, you could pick out more smells. First it was the sweet smell of the home-made chocolate chip cookies sitting on top of the display case with a sign sitting on the plate behind all the cookies that read ‘Free with a purchase of anything on the menu.’
I ungracefully tried to kick my way out of the cocoon of blankets and sheets, but I was failing. Flailing until my feet were out, I began to wonder why my mom was making breakfast. She never makes me breakfast on a school morning. I thumped my feet on the floor and did a zombie like shuffle towards the door, stubbing my toes on at least three things in the process.
“Has hell finally frozen over and you’re celebrating by making me breakfast?” I asked groggily when I walked into the kitchen, not even looking at my mom, just at the coffee pot by the sink.
“Look… I’m making eggs. There’s no deeper meaning to anything I’m doing here. It’s breakfast, plain and simple.” My mom turned back around to face the stove where she was cooking me eggs and French toast. I knew she was lying.
Normally I wouldn’t have a problem with her making me breakfast, but I knew she wanted to know where I was last night considering the fact that I didn’t get in until one in the morning on a school night. And I would love to tell her, but there was a slight problem. If I told her, she would kill me before I even got out the whole story.
“Look mom, I was out working.” I sat down at the table with my cup of steaming coffee and grabbed the newspaper sitting on the table.
“I never asked where you were or what you were doing,” she brought over two plates of breakfast and gave one to me and sat down across from me, “Why were you working so late, I don’t like where ever you were, working a 16 year old until one in the morning is obscene! You need to quit as soon as you can.”
I rolled my eyes, it didn’t surprise me that she wouldn’t understand and demand things from me, “Mom, I can’t quit, they need me and I enjoy it. Anyways, it’s not like they’re forcing me to work that late. I decided to.”
“Glenna I don’t feel like you’re safe there.” she looked up at me, her eyes pleading.
“Mom,” I sighed, “You don’t understand, this is the best job for me, and I am perfectly safe. Plus, I am working my way up very fast; I am so close to getting a promotion!” I silently added that the only thing stopping me was a simple birthday.
Mom looked defeated, “I still don’t like it, but if it makes you happy then I guess I’ll deal.”
I smiled and picked up my now empty plate, “Thanks mom, one day I’ll be able to tell you all about my job.”
“Don’t forget that tonight you have to make dinner!”
I smiled and nodded as I walked back to my bedroom to quickly get ready for the day. I mindlessly tossed on whatever clothes I grabbed, and threw them on rapidity. I ran into the bathroom next to my room and quickly brushed my teeth while I grabbed out my makeup. Now I may not be a super girly-girl, but I sure did love make up, I had an extensive collection of just about every type of makeup you could imagine. I did my makeup in yet another new way that highlighted the gold flecks in my dark brown eyes and put my bag of goodies away.
I grabbed my brush and ran it through my long, straight black hair, not really paying attention to anything. After my hair was brushed, I tossed it up in a messy bun and pinned back the bangs I was slowly growing out.
When I was all done, I went back to my bedroom and gathered my school stuff in my backpack and grabbed my phone to tell Blake that I was ready whenever he was. I sat down at my computer desk thinking about when I should tell my mom about my job, and when I should tell Blake that whole truth.
I was so lost in thought that I didn’t hear Blake honk the horn on his car until he was holding it down so it was a continuous noise. I muttered some very unkind things under my breath about him as I grabbed my backpack and walked down the stairs.
“Bye Mom! I’ll see you later!” I yelled as I walked out the door.
Her reply was lost in the slamming of the door and the yells from Blake as soon as he saw me.
“Hurry up Lena! We have things to see, people to do!”
“You know, I thought that you’d be above that saying, but apparently they say it in Ireland too…” I quickly slid into his dark blue, 2011 Camaro. I know, I know, really a brand new Camaro for a 16 year old? Really? Well that’s what I thought when I first saw him pull into the school parking lot the first day of school. But it turns out that he was new here and his parents wanted him to fit in so they bought him whatever car he wanted. Well Blake isn’t an idiot. He knew all about American cars and knew his parents didn’t know a thing about any type of cars. So along came the Camaro.
“Just ‘cause I am from a different country doesn’t mean I am any different from other guys!” Blake said as he drove down the street, his thick Irish accent was hard to understand if you weren’t used to it.
“A girl can hope can she not?” I reached over and turned on Blake’s stereo knowing I would like whatever he had in.
“You can, but you’ll only be disappointed,” Blake pointed out as he slowed to stop at the stop light. Blake turned and looked at me, smiling, “So how is the beautiful Lena today?”
“Well I don’t know what type of stuff you’ve been doing to think I was beautiful, but I guess other than that I a fine, but tired.”
Blake looked at me, piercing me with his grey-green eyes, “I am going to ignore the fact that you said you weren’t beautiful and not start that fight this morning. Why are you so tired all the time?”
I took a deep breath and wished for the best of luck, “I need to tell you something about me before you can understand my job.”
Blake accelerated, “Well go ahead and say it now, we don’t have all day.”
“Before I tell you, you need to promise not to tell anyone about this,” I looked over at Blake to make sure he nodded, “Ok, here goes nothing. Since the beginning of this year, I have somehow been able to read peoples’ minds…” I looked away then, finding sudden interest in the world zooming by outside.
“Right and I am the Queen of England. Really Lena what does that have to do with anything, and why do you expect me to believe it?”
“Because it’s true, and I wouldn’t ever lie to you. Plus if you don’t believe it then you can’t understand my job and why I am always so tried. I am trying to tell you something nobody knows about me, and you don’t believe me.”
“If you can read minds, then why don’t you tell me what I am thinking at this very moment?”
Sadly this didn’t surprise me, I knew that whoever I told would ask this sooner or later, “You don’t believe that I am telling the truth and you are trying to remember whether or not you had breakfast.”
Blake sat in silence for a few seconds. Great, he probably thinks I am some messed up crazy person and now he’s not going to talk to me.
“That is so cool!” Blake turned to smile at me quickly, and then paled a little “Wait, have you been listening to everything I think about?”
I laughed, I knew that this one would be said too, “No, not anymore. When I first started hearing peoples thoughts I couldn’t control it, but now I have it under control enough to only hear when I want to.”
Blake turned into the school parking lot and grabbed the first spot he saw, “That’s good; it would have been a little weird if you knew every single thing I thought about.”
I smiled, “Why Blake, are you thinking about bad stuff?”
Blake laughed and combed his fingers through his slightly curly brown hair, “Funny funny Lena, I just wanted to make sure I still had my privacy.”
I unbuckled my seat belt and stepped out of the car, the noises of high school students loud and clear. I sighed and walked with Blake to the doors of the school, ignoring all the things shouted at us. I had to feel bad for Blake because even though he didn’t look like the stereotypical Irish, he still got quite a few taunts about him being a leprechaun or always drunk off his ass. I don’t know how he handled it, but he never gave them the reaction they were looking for, let alone any reaction. I admired him for that; I don’t know that I would be able to do that if I were in his position.
“How do you do it Blake?” I asked as we passed another group of assholes who thought it would be funny to try and put a sparkly, green top hat on him.
“Do what? Ignore them?” I nodded when he looked at me, “I guess I just don’t pay any attention to them. I know all that they want is for me to fit into their close-minded stereotypes of Irish people, so I don’t do anything about it and let them do what they want, because for the most part they don’t know a thing they are talking about.”
“You are amazing. I think you are the coolest person here.” I gave Blake one of those awkward side hugs as we walked down the crowded hallway to our first class.
“Well I’m glad you’re finally seeing the truth about me. I’d hate to have to hide things from you, especially my amazing-ness.” Blake smiled, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.
I wasn’t paying attention and accidently heard one of Blake’s thoughts, she told me her secret, now when should I tell her mine?
Blake looked over at me and looked worried, “Are you okay Lena?”
It took a minute to realize that he had been trying to say something to me, “Yeah, just heard something and it took me off guard, ‘cause I thought that I had it under control.”
“Okay, just don’t do that again, I thought you were starting to listen to all those things people are saying about me.” Blake tightened the arm around my shoulder, and helped navigate the way through the crowded hallway.
“I would never listen to the things they are saying about you, let alone leave you all alone in hell hole of a high school, seriously, what kind of evil do you think I am?” I ignored the snide comments coming from the people that had overheard what I had just said and walked through the door to first period English.
Normally I did not mind English as a subject, but the teacher I had this year made it absolutely unbearable. I swear she didn’t know a single thing she was teaching us, she was one of the new teachers that got hired without having her experience looked at. I am pretty sure that I could teach the class better then she could ever dream of. The only thing that made it slightly bearable was the fact that Blake was in my class. In fact, he was the only thing that made any of my classes bearable.
“Okay class, sit down and take out the light green language books,” I did not see how Mrs. Rayle could be so happy when she knows that the class is just going to act up and piss her off with their incessant talking and teasing, “Today we are going to be talking about nouns and pronouns!”
I rolled my eyes and looked on the board to see what the assignment was so that I could finish it and read a book of my choice where I was not constantly pointing out the parts of speech in each sentence. Call me crazy, but I actually read for enjoyment.
I was just finishing the first problem when I hear Mrs. Rayle call my name, “Lena, would you like to tell us what you are doing instead of listening to how to complete the assignment?”
I laughed in my head about how uppity she sounded, “Well Mrs. Rayle, I was doing the assignment, I figured that since I knew how to do it, that I would go ahead and start in on it.”
Mrs. Rayle looked at me in astonishment, “You are doing the assignment? Well then, go ahead and finish up. Thank you for showing some initiative and doing something on your own.”
Ignoring the snarky comments from the people sitting around me, I got back to work on the assignment. Not a minute later, I felt a piece of paper hitting my arm, repeatedly. I looked down to my elbow and saw that it was a note with my name on the front in Blake’s handwriting. I picked it up and unfolded it, trying not to let Mrs. Rayle see it for fear of her taking it to put it in her drawer never to be seen again, or worse, to read it to the class. Knowing Blake, it probably wasn’t something either one of us wanted the class to hear.
I need to tell you something at lunch, so we can either go somewhere for lunch, or we can to find a place to be by ourselves. Either way it can only be you and me.
I looked back at Blake and mouthed my response back to him, but I was getting the evil eye from Mrs. Rayle, so I wrote back to him, all the while thinking that this seemed very much like something a fourth grader would do. Passing notes behind the teachers back, tsk-tsk.
I don’t know if I feel safe being alone with you… Just kidding, I trust you with my life. I guess we can go out to lunch, where do you want to go?
I looked back towards Mrs. Rayle’s desk to make sure that she was preoccupied with whatever she always looked at during class. There were bets going around on what she looked at, and about every ten minutes a student would go to her desk to take a look at what it was, but no one was ever successful. Seeing that she was busy, I passed the note back to Blake.
While I waited for his reply, I quickly finished the assignment and turned it in. When I got back to my desk, the note was tucked into my binder, positioned so that you would not see it if you weren’t looking for it, but if you were, it stuck out like a sore thumb. I am not sure how Blake managed that, but I applaud his creativeness. I grabbed the note and read it.
Um, preferably somewhere there isn’t bound to be people we know. I just do not want this conversation overheard.
To say I was confused was an understatement, what could Blake have to say that he wouldn’t want other people to hear? My mind was racing with the possibilities of where this could go, none of them looked too bright.
Well there is coffee shop that is really out of the way, I am sure we could go there. The only problem with that is we would either have to be late for fourth, or we’d just have to skip it all together.
I passed the note back to Blake and pulled out my book, enjoying listening to everyone complain about how hard the assignment was, and how Mrs. Rayle gives us way too much homework. I rolled my eyes and began reading my book. I was quickly lost in the mini world sitting in front of me that I practically jumped out of my seat when Blake sat down in the seat next to mine and started to talk.
“So the diner that you mentioned is just fine with me, but I need your help on this assignment! The assignment is just busy work so I have a hard time convincing myself to finish it. Help me please.”
I laughed and closed my book, “Sure, what number are you on?”
“Well about that, I kind of haven’t really started.” Blake sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, grinning innocently.
“Okay then, first you need to open your book to page 414 and get out a piece of paper.”
The rest of the classes up until lunch went about the same, except for in our Auto class, I was the one asking Blake to help me finish. It wasn’t that I did not want to do the work; it was just that I needed help finding some of the stuff to work on. Luckily, Blake knew quite a bit about cars so he was always able to help me and do his own work.
Math, our last class before lunch, seemed to go on forever. Seriously when will we ever use this stuff in real life? I sat at my desk and attempted to do my math assignment, but unfortunately math was not my strong subject. I moved over to sit by Blake, knowing that I wouldn’t get in trouble for two reasons. One, this teacher didn’t care where you sat, after she went over the new stuff, so long as you made it look like you were doing your homework. Two, this teacher never really paid attention to what was going on in her class, she would occasionally ask if we were working, but none of us was stupid enough to tell her that we were actually just talking to our friends with our assignment in front of us. There was one person, who made that mistake the first week of school, and the whole class hated her for it, needless to say she sits silently in the front of the room with her friends.
“Please tell me you understand this, because it you don’t I may have to scream…” I sighed and plopped my books down on the desk next to Blake, wincing when they made an ear shattering noise.
“I do get it, but we don’t have long enough for me to explain it in a way that would actually make sense to you, so I will explain it to you after school.”
“Oh thank God we became friends, if it weren’t for you I would probably be on my way to the principal’s office to then be taken away to some padded cell.” I quickly hugged Blake and positioned my assignment and my body just right so that if our teacher looked over it looked like I was really doing my assignment.
Blake laughed, “Well that is bound to happen someday, and I am just making sure that it doesn’t happen prematurely.”
“You’re so funny,” sarcasm seeped through my words, “You’ve only known me for what, three months now and you are already cracking those jokes? Those are more like five month material. It’s the same concept as dating, there are some things that you just don’t do on the first date, and cracking those jokes is one of them.”
“There are times when you confuse me Lena, and right now is one of them. You should have come with an instruction booklet. Had you come with one of those, it would save me from many a headache.”
“Keep this up Madigan, and…. Damn, I can’t say what I wanted to cause you are the one with the car today.”
“Why do you think I only push your buttons when I am the one driving?”
“Good point. Why do you have to be so right all the time?”
“Because one of us has to be, and you don’t seem to be too consistent so I decided to let that responsibility fall to me. It will save you some exertion.”
“You keep this up and you will be walking to school tomorrow, because I get to drive and choose who gets in my car and who does not!”
“Wow Lena, did it really take you that long to realize that you could use that as a threat?”
“So what if it did, at least I said it now and not when we are eating or tomorrow morning like you know I probably would have. I just don’t know what got into me to make me think of a comeback like that so quickly!”
Blake laughed half heartedly, “I don’t know Lena, maybe being so tired is making you more able to say things you normally wouldn’t.”
“I doubt that, if anything would result from my tiredness, it would not be something like that. More realistically it would be something stupid like an inability to walk without tripping or not being able to talk in full, coherent sentences.”
“But you already do both of those, so why would a lack of sleep do that to you?”
Blake ducked down before my half-assed slap actually hit him, “You had best be glad I like you, otherwise you would not have gotten off so easily!”
Blake was about to say something back to me, but the bell rang, excusing us to lunch. Blake and I hung back in the class room awhile waiting for the halls to clear out enough for us to at least walk through them. While we were waiting, I put my books, pencils and folders back into my backpack, organizing the backpack slightly as I went. When the halls were finally clear enough to walk in, I followed Blake out into the parking lot to his car.
“Since you know where we are going, do you want to drive?” Blake was holding the keys out to me as we stood by his car.
My jaw dropped a little, a guy was actually going to let me drive his brand spanking new car without even questioning it, “Are you sure you want to let me drive your baby?”
“Why not, I trust you not to kill her, and I will be right next to you in the passenger seat. What do we have to worry about?”
“Well if you trust me I guess I can, but what type of transmission does it have?” I looked at the car like it could eat me up, “I only know how to drive automatic.”
“In that case, it looks like I am driving, but when we get home today I am teaching you how to drive a stick.” Blake opened my door for me and then walked around to his door and started the car.
“You can teach me, but I have to make dinner tonight, so the time space will be limited.” I was a little nervous. I was going to be taught how to drive a stick by my best friend in his brand new car.
“That’s fine; we can take however long you need. I just want you to know how to drive a stick in case of an emergency. Better to be prepared and never need a skill then not know what to do when something depends on it,” Blake backed out of the spot and looked at me, “So where to?”
“Okay, when we go to leave the parking lot, turn right.”
“Ha-ha! You are like my own GPS, except you don’t have the same accent as the voices do.”
“Very funny, now, when you get to the intersection, turn left then keep going straight.”
The rest of the drive to the coffee shop was spent in Blake giving me tips about driving a stick. I do not think that I actually understood any of what he was saying, but I acted like I did. Most of what he said went in one ear and out the other. I knew he was just trying to be nice and teach me something new, but I did not understand the majority of what he was trying to tell me. But I made sure to make it look like I was paying perfect attention to every word he was saying. He would be none the wiser to my lack of attention.
“Is this the place where we are supposed to be going for lunch?” Blake asked as he pulled into a small parking lot next to a row of equally small stores.
“Yeah, it is the one that says Java the Hut,” I pointed to the store with the sign that matched the name I just spouted out, “Just so you know before you go in, the whole store isn’t themed around Star Wars, but some of the drinks and foods are. Also the owner of the store is really into Star Wars so I’d watch what you say around him if he is in today.”
Blake looked up at the sign, which was a green blob that was supposed to look like Jabba the Hut, but whoever made the sign obviously was not on their A game when they made it, “I think I am a little worried.”
“What are you worried about, this place is perfectly normal, and all the workers except for the owner act like normal people, they hardly ever dress up in Star Wars garb. I have only ever seen then dressed like that twice, and one of the two times was during Halloween, so they had an excuse.”
Blake shook his head vehemently, “No, I’m not worried about everyone being freaks; I am more concerned about the fact that I didn’t know about this place! Seriously, they mixed my two favorite things together: coffee and Star Wars!”
Blake parked the car and practically jumped out of the car and ran halfway to the doors of the store, then remembered about me, “Hurry up Lena! We need to get in there!”
“Blake, calm down, it is not going anywhere. Just take a deep breath and relax,” I closed my car door and walked up to where Blake was standing in the middle of the road, “Please tell me that you aren’t always this excited about Star Wars…”
“I’m not, it’s just that I am surprised that this is the first time I have ever heard about this, and that it was not mentioned anywhere when I was looking online at the stuff to do when I finally got here. If this were on the list of attractions, I most definitely would not have been so bitter about coming here.”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed his arm, “Come on my little Star Wars geek, let’s go get us some food, I am starved, and the only thing that will fix my grumbling tummy would be a great big croissant with honey butter, and a great big cup of coffee. Maybe even a piece of pumpkin bread for dessert.”
As soon as I opened the door, the intruding noise of the coffee grinder filled my ears, relaxing me instantly. The further in we walked, the better the shop smelled. When you first got in, you could only smell the bitter sweet smell of the coffee, but as you got in further, you could pick out more smells. First it was the sweet smell of the home-made chocolate chip cookies sitting on top of the display case with a sign sitting on the plate behind all the cookies that read ‘Free with a purchase of anything on the menu.’
NaNo Prologue
Prologue
My face was burning; whatever they had me against was coarse and uncomfortable. I heard faint voices, but I could not make out the words or who they belonged to. I tried to move and sit up, but my wrists were tied to my ankles. I tried to look around and see where I was, but everything was black. I closed my eyes for a second and opened them back up, hoping that I could get used to the dark, but the dark that was around me was not normal darkness. I rubbed my head on my shoulder hoping to find a blindfold around my eyes, but there was nothing there.
My breathing quickened, I had no clue where I was, or what I had been doing last. I felt my heart trying to beat its way out of my chest. I was afraid for the first time in a long time. I did not like no knowing where I was.
I tried to make some sort of noise to see if there was someone with me, but all that I could muster was a small squeak. I was sure that no one would be able to hear me, if there even was someone near me.
“Lena, is that you?” This voice sounded very familiar and sounded a lot closer than the other voices I was hearing. I let out another squeak and nodded my head just in case this person could see, but could not hear me.
“Lena, oh thank God you are okay, I thought they killed you. Is everything okay? Is there anything wrong with you?”
I tried to make the words I wanted to say come out, but the only sounds that were coming out of my mouth were grunts and squeaks.
“Here, drink some of this,” I felt a cold cup hit my lips, and then an equally cold liquid slid down my throat, “There you go, now try talking again.”
The words got stuck in my throat for a minute, but I was soon able to speak, “I-I can’t see. I know there isn’t anything on my face, but I can’t see anything.”
“Shit, this is not good.” Blake was cut off mid-sentence by a voice that was not at all familiar to me and sounded slightly accented.
“Well well well, it looks like the both of you are now awake,” I heard footsteps coming closer to me, and then I heard a noise that sounded like old knees when they bend, “Would you mind telling me why you are here or should I just call in the guards to do away with you. After all, we do not tolerate spies.”
My face was burning; whatever they had me against was coarse and uncomfortable. I heard faint voices, but I could not make out the words or who they belonged to. I tried to move and sit up, but my wrists were tied to my ankles. I tried to look around and see where I was, but everything was black. I closed my eyes for a second and opened them back up, hoping that I could get used to the dark, but the dark that was around me was not normal darkness. I rubbed my head on my shoulder hoping to find a blindfold around my eyes, but there was nothing there.
My breathing quickened, I had no clue where I was, or what I had been doing last. I felt my heart trying to beat its way out of my chest. I was afraid for the first time in a long time. I did not like no knowing where I was.
I tried to make some sort of noise to see if there was someone with me, but all that I could muster was a small squeak. I was sure that no one would be able to hear me, if there even was someone near me.
“Lena, is that you?” This voice sounded very familiar and sounded a lot closer than the other voices I was hearing. I let out another squeak and nodded my head just in case this person could see, but could not hear me.
“Lena, oh thank God you are okay, I thought they killed you. Is everything okay? Is there anything wrong with you?”
I tried to make the words I wanted to say come out, but the only sounds that were coming out of my mouth were grunts and squeaks.
“Here, drink some of this,” I felt a cold cup hit my lips, and then an equally cold liquid slid down my throat, “There you go, now try talking again.”
The words got stuck in my throat for a minute, but I was soon able to speak, “I-I can’t see. I know there isn’t anything on my face, but I can’t see anything.”
“Shit, this is not good.” Blake was cut off mid-sentence by a voice that was not at all familiar to me and sounded slightly accented.
“Well well well, it looks like the both of you are now awake,” I heard footsteps coming closer to me, and then I heard a noise that sounded like old knees when they bend, “Would you mind telling me why you are here or should I just call in the guards to do away with you. After all, we do not tolerate spies.”
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