I watched Joey Potter scowl at another customer as she poured them their drink and inwardly chuckled. It never failed to amuse me how she managed to get away with being so sullen. As she wandered over I grinned at her and asked how the hell she managed to get away with being so surly and not get fired. She shrugged "who knows…" and scuffed past me into the kitchen. This was going to be a long day.
Living in the creek was one slow day after another, especially at this time of year. Flies hung over the water watching as young Josephine Potter and I ferried cream teas, egg mayonnaise sandwiches and lukewarm coffee to old locals and the poor, poor tourists who think a quiet retreat here will provide any sort of pleasure. The café we work at is on the edge of the creek in the main tourist part in central Capeside, Joey just started here a few weeks ago after a fire at her family restaurant. All of us in Capeside knew about the fire and the gossip surrounding how it happened and what's going on in her family, but I've tried not to talk too much about it or anything that might make her feel bad. We've all got problems with our families, the only difference is a giant fire directed all our attention to the Potters. I've worked here at Daily Catch for a couple of summers now. The days are long, the pay is crappy, but what else am I going to do? Summer in Capeside is long, humid and boring.
Joey and I are both entering into our junior year of high school in September. Sophomore year sucked. I still didn't really make any friends, my grades were average and I spent lunch time listening to music on my portable CD player in the library. Joey and I didn't speak much - we had some of the same classes, but she always seemed to be pouting and storming round the hallways fighting with Dawson Leery or scowling at Pacey Witter. Those guys and I never really hung out or anything, but I know them in that way that everybody in a small school in a small town know each other. I had to sit next to Dawson in English for a while and he drove me up the wall; Pacey and I are usually in the same lower sets for lessons, getting the same shitty grades in the same tests. There's a mutual understanding that we're both pretty un remarkable and that forms a weird sort of failure's bond. There's always so much gossip about Pacey, whether he's dating a teacher or spitting in their faces. In some ways I'm jealous of how much seems to happen to him. This past year he'd been dating a girl called Andie, but I think she's left Capeside for the summer. She always seemed really sweet, if a little geeky.
In the middle of this daydream about Joey's circle of friends, I come to focus her staring me in the face,
"What are you doing? I need you to make this coffee! That couple have been waiting like ten minutes."
"oh, shit, sorry, hang on…"
I wonder over to the coffee machine and start it up, searching my mind for a way to start conversation.
"So, where's Andie Mcphee gone for the summer? Are her and Pacey still dating?"
"Oh, you know, it's best not to ask. It's not such a great situation."
With the coffee teetering on the rim of the cup, just edging slightly over and running down into the saucer, I practically drop it onto the table in front of the customer. Totally oblivious to them I head back over to the counter Joey is mindlessly wiping.
"Is Jack around this summer?"
Jack is Andie's brother. I've never really spoken to him, but I heard Mr Peterson made him read out some poem about him being gay and Pacey spat at Mr Peterson. I'm not in their class, I don\t think I was even in the same part of the building when it all happened, but news travels fast. Just as quickly as the whole of Capeside saw The Ice House burning down, people heard about Mr Peterson and Pacey defending Jack. When I heard this bit of gossip it piqued my interest more than the usual – I couldn't believe someone at Capeside Junior High had actually written a poem about being gay, let alone read it aloud to his class. It made me want to find him and talk to him, like this one action was a flicker of light, a potential lifeline in the middle of no where.
"Yeah Jack is around, with Andie having to leave and the stuff that's been happening with mr Peterson he's having a hard time. We haven't really spoken so much lately."
"Oh how come?" and with her undeniable skill, Joey ends the conversation with a tilted head and a shrug.