A Foreign Love.
Chapter 1:
Alrighty. This is my brand new story, A Foreign Love! Basically, Katniss is a 20-year-old student who gets a job as an apprentice designer to Cinna, who owns a major modeling agency in England. She isn't too fond of her new job, but will that all change upon meeting her new co-worker? This is rated T, but may change to M just to be safe, I'm not 100% sure that anything actually R rated will happen, yet. Because quite frankly, I'm not fabulous at writing that kind of stuff. We'll just have to see where this takes us. I hope you enjoy this though:)
Katniss' POV:
"You need to get ready! We're leaving in an hour! It's going to be a big, big, big day!"
I rolled my eyes at the high-pitch sound of my aunt Effie's voice. She's once again yelling at my uncle Haymitch to get his lazy ass off the couch. Ever since Prim and I moved in with them, this sort of thing happened everyday.
I stuffed the last of my things into my suitcase and hauled it to the top of the stairs. I returned to my room, a little bearer than 30 minutes ago. I took my phone in its charger to text my best friend, Madge. She's the only person I can fathom speaking to right now.
'Hey Madge-y padg-y'
Immediately I got a response. 'Kat! Oh, I'm going to miss you so much! You have to call me every night!'
I rolled my eyes at her. Madge over exaggerates everything. I'm only going to be gone for ten days, two weeks at the most.
I type back a quick response letting Madge know I'll text her once we've landed.
I'm going to England for roughly two weeks to start my new job. At a modeling agency. As a designer.
But this isn't an ordinary modeling agency. This agency belongs to Cinna Moohre. The Cinna Moohre.
And he has chosen me to be his apprentice designer.
Why? I'm still trying to figure that out for myself.
In early June I finished my third year in college at a small arts school up in New York. The main reason that was my college was because it was one of the only schools I could afford to go to. Plus, it was close to home.
In July, I got a call from Cinna's agency. The man on the phone told me that Cinna had seen some of my work on a visit to the States in search of a new designer, and has considered me for an open position at the agency. I kindly thanked them for even considering me, and left it at that. Who would've thought they would actually pick me?
And that's how I became the apprentice designer of Cinna Moohre.
"Katniss! We're leaving for the airport now! Don't want to be late for your big, big, big, day!"
I sighed and trudged down our stairs with my suitcase in hand. Prim and uncle Haymitch were already waiting in Effie's black Lincoln SUV.
"We don't want to miss our plane, now, do we?" Effie called out, ushering me out the door and to her car.
I settled in the back seat next to Prim. I knew she was excited about going to England. If it weren't for the fact that I was going on a "business trip," we wouldn't we going at all.
Sure, Effie had the money to take us around the world, if she wanted to. But she doesn't, because she believes in "saving it for emergencies."
If it were up to me, I would be about to board a plane to England alone right now. But Effie doesn't trust me enough yet to let me travel out of state, nonetheless out of the country.
The drive to the airport is shorter than I remember. I climbed out of the shiny car to help Prim with her bags. All three of them.
I smiled at my baby sister, always overpacking, even for a night away when we were younger. It gives me a sense of familiarity, though. It reminds me of the time our family went camping together, for two nights away in the woods. Prim brought two bags filled with stuffed animals and too many blankets to count. I remember my father laughing at her, teasing her about all of her stuff she brought everywhere, including a little, yellow bunny Prim brought wherever she went for a full five and a half years.
I shook my head to clear it of my thoughts. I would sometimes get lost in my memories of good times with my parents and Prim, before...
I swallowed hard, returning to Prim, and Effie, and Haymitch. My "new family."
I trudged after the group, Effie's heels clicking sharply on the airport's shiny floor. We were headed towards security before moving on to our boarding gate.
If things had worked out like I had planned, I would've been moving out right about now instead of practically dropping out of college to be a designer at a big, fancy, modeling agency.
I hadn't wanted to be a designer anyways. Actually, I didn't know what I'd be at all. I was just going to be taking it day by day, making sure Prim was safe and well-fed.
But there're no worries about half starving to death anymore, now that my constantly drunk uncle and up-tight aunt were taking care of us.
Well, mostly taking care of Prim.
I put my bag onto the moving metal rack along with the bin with my boots, bracelets, keys, and phone in it.
Prim was right in front of me, taking off all of her jewelry and belt and placing them in her gray bin. Afterwards, she turned around to face me.
"Katniss! Oh, I'm so excited to be going to England! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity! Are you excited about starting your new job? I know this isn't exactly what you planned but... I know you'll make it work. Besides, you might meet a cute guy there!" Prim chattered about our trip. I rolled my eyes at her last sentence. Ever since I was about 17, Effie and Prim have been trying to set me up with every guy around my age. Luckily, Haymitch could care les about my love life. Or any aspect of my life, really.
"Prim... Just give up on that, already." No guy will ever find me attractive enough, intriguing enough, or remotely nice enough to date.
Prim rolled her eyes at me. "Katniss, you're beautiful. A bit stubborn and cold at times, but generally a good person. You put up a wall between everyone else and you. Let someone in other than me, auntie, and uncle for once!"
"Mmmhmm."
I stepped into the scanner so they could check me for any "illegal substances or weapons."
When I got through clear, I grabbed my bag, and bin full of my things from the rack.
The buzzer from the scanner went off behind me and I turned around to see Haymitch wrestling a security guard for his flask of alcohol back.
"Sir, you cannot bring this onto the plane with you. It could have an illegal substance in it, and we can't be sure it is right now." The guard said to him.
"Oh, shut up! It's damn whiskey!" Haymitch yelled trying to grab the flask back.
Effie tried to intervene. "Excuse me! Haymitch, you're making quite a scene over here! Why don't you just give the man the flask? We can get you a new one later."
"I want this one." He growled.
Eventually the security guard got a hold of the flask and confiscated it, letting us free to catch our plane.
Once we arrived at the correct gate, passengers were already boarding. I handed the woman at the gate my ticket, as she wished us all a safe flight.
I found my seat, a row behind Prim, Effie, and Haymitch. I had a middle seat, but nobody else was in my row yet. I silently prayed nobody would show up to claim the seats.
I settled into my seat after putting my carry-on in the storage space above me.
A few minutes later two guys came down the isle, looking flustered. And lucky me, they stopped in front of my row.
They shoved their bags under the seats, and both sat on either side of me.
"Well, hello there." One with dark hair and a thick British accent said to me.
I feigned off the urge to roll my eyes at his attempt to flirt with me.
"I'm Gale. Gale Hawthorne." He said to me.
"And that," Gale pointed to the blonde boy sitting on the opposite side of me, "Is Cato Hadley."
"It's lovely to meet you. If you don't mind me asking, but what is your name?" This Cato guy asked me.
"Ummm... I'm Katniss."
"Katniss. That's a beautiful name for a beautiful lady. Don't you agree Gale?" Cato said to his friend.
"Of course I agree, Cato. We don't have women like you back in England!" He commented.
Cato jumped in, "You see, I'm from California. All we have over there are bleached blondes in skimpy bikinis and insanely muscular surfer chicks."
"Don't you think that's a bit stereotypical?" I shot back at him.
"Stereotypical, maybe, but true!" He laughed along with Gale. I slumped down into my seat further.
"Would you like something to eat or drink?" A stewardess stopped her cart of refreshments to ask us.
"Umm, yeah. I'll have pretzels and some diet Coke." I answered her.
"Vodka, please." Cato piped up.
"Make it two." Gale winked at the stewardess. She noticeably blushed and handed the men their drinks.
It didn't take long for the two boys to become at least tipsy. They were stumbling over their words and laughing loudly at everything. Eventually I told the stewardess to stop giving them drinks when the boys asked.
I rubbed my temples and closed my eyes, fighting off the migraine I felt coming on from these two idiots yelling over me.
"So, Katniss. Tell me about yourself." Gale attempted to chat me up, slurring every other word.
"I'd rather not, considering I just met you." I replied rather coldly.
"Where are you headed?"
"London."
"So are we! You see, I've got a place in London, and Cato is visiting for a while." Gale said, overly cheery.
"That's great." I replied sarcastically. I decided I've had enough of these two, and put my headphones in my ears. I put my music on shuffle to try and drown out the noise around me.
When the pilot told us we'd be landing shortly, I stopped the music and finished the last of my diet Coke.
"So, Katniss. Any interest in meeting up sometime? I'd like to get your number, so we could stay in contact with each other." Gale asked me, turning on his charm.
"Ummm... I'll be here for only about two weeks. Not much longer. So..."
"Oh that's quite all right! We could do something during those two weeks! Here. I'll just give you my number. Save us some time." Gale scribbled down seven numbers and his name on a napkin before shoving it in my hand.
"And here's mine." Cato gave me another napkin of his own.
Finally, the plane landed in London, and I rushed to grab my carry-on bag before high tailing it out of the plane.
"Bye, Katniss! Hope to see you around soon!" Gale and Cato wave to me as we parted ways. I rolled my eyes at them. As if.
I walked to baggage claim with Prim, trailing behind Effie and Haymitch, who was looking a little disheveled, stumbling over his own two feet.
We grabbed our bags and headed to the rental car Effie had set up for us while we're here.
"So, Katniss. Who were those boys you were sitting with?" Prim prodded once in the car.
I sighed. "I really don't want to talk about it. One of them is just an annoying Brit, and his friend isn't much better."
I ignored anymore questions for the rest of the drive, just wanting to get to the hotel and crash. It was about two in the morning here, which would be about nine at night in New York.
Once we pulled into the hotel I lugged my bags to the elevator, and up to the rooms the woman at the desk gave us.
Lucky, I had my own suite while the other three were sharing one room down the hall. I enjoyed my privacy, and most of the time I needed it more than anything.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow morning. I need sleep. Night." I mumbled to everyone else.
"Goodnight, Katniss, dear." Effie called after me.
I gave a dismissive wave to the trio, and unlocked my suite with the room key.
Once I entered the room, I tossed my bags next to the door. I was about to collapse on the queen sized bed, until a paper sitting on the desk caught my eye.
I picked it up and quickly scanned it. The note was addressed to me and was written on stationary with a fancy 'C' at the top.
Katniss-
I hope you've settled in nicely at your suite. After all, you'll be staying there for a while. I would love for you to become acquainted with a few others from the agency. Tomorrow morning I will be sending one of my assistants to bring you to me for a meeting, around ten. We will go over the ground rules and standard expectations from you, starting off slow on your first day. I should let you get some sleep, so you'll be fresh for tomorrow.
Until then,
Cinna Moorhe
Before I could even process anything written before me, my eyes began to flutter shut.
I stumbled into the large bed and flopped down onto the fluffy sheets.
I can deal with everything else in the morning.
Aaaaand there's chappie uno. I really hoped you enjoyed it! I worked hard on it, and I think it'll be really fun to write:) thank you a bunch for reading, and I'd love for you guys to tell me how you like it so far! Until next chapter...