Karen laid her head down on her desk. She was in the same cramped room she had been in for the past two months, the fan she had placed in the window succeeded in blowing hot air on to her face and nothing else. She cursed the person that decided not to make air conditioning during the construction of her little building while her bones seemed to melt into her skin.
Her room was basically the entire building with the exception of a bathroom, closet and about five feet of a room for her bed. Considering she was over 5'7 it was a large problem. She had an arrangement of odd and cluttered things on her desk. It was a way to keep her occupied on Monday-Fridays from morning until around 2:30-3:00.
It really was an exhausting job, boarder patrol especially during the week ends when floods of people would burst through her doors. (Quite literally sometimes, they'd replaced it twice last month). She wasn't allowed a radio or an mp3 player, computer, TV, or pizza parties and only two bathroom breaks. It was the bathroom breaks part that really pissed her off.
She lifted her head as she heard some frantic knocking.
"Ug." She groaned getting up while trying to rub the red line off her forehead from the desk. She opened the door and young girl thirteen to fifteen burst through the door. She was breathing heavy, there was a small scratch on her cheek but she was otherwise unharmed.
"Oh my gosh there's a freaking monster chasing me and-" The young girl cried but Karen raised her hand to silence her. She had picked up her clipboard and sat back down at her desk. The young girl stood there stunned at her nonchalant manor.
"Is the monster dead? Did I kill it? You know I found this really weird sword thing-"
"Yeah, yeah take a seat please." Karen had begun to chew on the end of her red pen. The girl slowly sat down looking around confused. "Now for starters I will need to know your name." She began to tap her feet on the top of her desk. The girl wrinkled her nose at Karen's large, mud crusted hiking boots. Despite her "battle", not a hair on her blonde head was out of place, her outfit wasn't wrinkled and still perfectly flattering. Karen on the other hand was wearing her sweats and large flannel shirt that had previously belong to her uncle.
"It's Celeste Alyssa Rose Ferguson, but I prefer to go by Rose." She began. Karen made a few check marks on her clipboard. Rose tried to peak at what she was writing, Karen raised an eyebrow and angled her clipboard a bit.
"Now tell me, what happened to you that made you come to this part of New York?" She continued. Rose however decided to stand up and attempt to see her sheet of paper.
"What are you writing? What's going on?" She demanded in what she thought was a forceful tone. Karen rolled her eyes.
"Just answer the question." She said in what she knew was a calm but scary voice. Rose sat back down and crossed her legs.
"Well you see I was in my class room, learning about the Greek myths when I noticed something really weird in the hallway. I decided to go check it out," She began happily looking over at Karen who was now playing with the bobble head Yoda on her desk. She furrowed her eyebrows a bit and continued. "It was a huge monster! Because I'm learning mythology I automatically recognized that it was actually a Minotaur. I was totally freaking out but then I grabbed my headband."
"What one should always do at a time of distress." Karen mumbled whilst taking notes. Rose cocked her head towards her.
"What was that?" She asked. Karen waved her hand as a signal to continue. "So it turned into this really big sword thing and I began to use it not so good, but then I had this magically rush of talent and I totally-" Karen stood up, nearly making her rolling chair fly into the wall behind her.
"That's all we need to hear. Thank you." She said motioning to the door Rose. Rose staid rooted to the spot.
"What do you mean? I'm not leaving until I get my answer. And what were you writing anyway? Why can't I just be normal again?" She melodramatically cried. Karen gripped her arm and began to drag her out of the room. Rose stood her ground though and began to hit Karen's arm until she let go.
"Well now I have to call security. I really don't want to do that, its paperwork and frankly the guard this week is a bitch so can you just leave?" Rose shook her head. Karen gave her a come on look but she stomped the ground defiantly.
Karen sighed and raised her fingers to her lips. She let out a loud whistle and went back to her desk. She began to sort through paperwork while Rose looked around anxiously. She played with the end of her hair and kept checking behind her.
"Um, was that it? Is security not coming?" She asked Karen who looked up at her from her desk. She sighed and said:
"Patience, patience." While filing another sheet of paper with a large, red MS stamped on it. Suddenly there was a rumpling out side the building. Rose jumped and let out a small cry.
Karen, on the other hand, had donned a bike helmet and was sitting in a corner opposite of Rose. The rumbling turned into more of a muffled grunt or two. The door was sprung open a few hinges popping off ("We just got it fixed! I swear you're more of a problem then them!" Karen shrieked) and what appeared to be a man was standing in the door way. Rose screamed and reached for her headband, she fumbled with it until it turned into a pure silver sword with green emerald embellishments on the hilt Greek lettering on the sword that read 'fight with power and justice'. But by that long unnecessary description the man was revealed to be just a large, burly woman. She held an axe in her hands and her acid wash jean jacked with her cropped blonde hair just spelled trouble to Rose.
"W-what's going on? WHO ARE YOU CRAZY PEOPLE?" She shakily stood with her sword pointed at the amazonesque girl.
"I am Bernice thank you, that is Karen and we are apart of an elite team-"
"Elite? More like the only one's who would take the job." Karen said, Bernice let out a huff of annoyance and turned back to Rose.
"Yes an elite team of people who specialize in filtering out those that have potential and those like…you." She said waiting a bit too long before she said 'you'. Rose let out a pained gasp.
"You guys are crazy! I don't even want to go to your crazy camp anymore!" She dropped her sword and ran out of the room, possibly crying. Bernice shrugged and placed her axe on Karen's desk and going to retrieve the fallen sword.
"Why is at always when you're on security I get the difficult ones?" Karen asked gingerly picking the axe up and throwing it on the floor. She winced when she heard the impact it made and went to inspect the damages.
"Cause you're lucky? Besides, Tobs wouldn't actually hurt a fly." Bernice picked up the sword and attempted to cut her finger with it. The blade went right through. She rolled her eyes and stood back up.
"Another Wapon?" Karen asked gesturing to the sword. She nodded. Karen sighed. "Shame, Toby's birthday's coming up. I still need to get him a present…"
"Well be a pal and take it down to the C&A?" Bernice tried. Karen put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow.
"I'm the only Filter, you know I can't leave." Bernice groaned and gripped her axe along with the Wapon. She needed to take it to the Collection and Artillery(C&A) cellar beneath the Big House. There it could be properly stored by Toby and Collin, two boys that were on the team as well. Before Bernice could leave another girl ran into the room. She was about as big as Bernice's left leg and had black hair down to the floor.
"Hi my name is Miko! I'm 13 years old and I go to Sunnydale Middle School in New York City. I love to song write, read, write, sing, dance, act, do ballet, be crazy and random lol, eat SUGARR and hang out with my friends. I have ADHD and dyslexia. My best friend is named Sandra-" Karen had laid her head on her desk again, letting her ginger hair flip into her face.
"Have fun." Bernice chuckled as she left Karen to the mercy of a dreaded character bio. She walked into the sunny camp and was greeted by a short boy (but since Bernice is 6'3 everybody seemed small to her, not to mention her body-builder body).
This boy had tight corkscrew curls popping out of his head and dark green glasses perched on his nose. She looked at his Rainbow Dash shirt with a raised eyebrow.
"Um, nice shirt?" She asked with a giggle. Toby scoffed. He was part time security, part time C&A organizer. In other words-he wasn't that good at either.
"Be quiet." He muttered grabbing at the sword, "I hope there's not another Wapon to store, poor Collin is going mad with the new system." His face fell as he saw the ridiculously embellished weapon. Bernice smiled, even though everybody knew Applejack was the best character.
"Sorry," She shrugged. Toby grabbed it and went back to a large cellar door on the side of the big house. He flung open the doors and hurriedly went down. Bernice decided to clomp down with him, making quite the ruckus.
The C&A was filled with what looked like an endless amount of unbelievably detailed and impossible weapons. Guns that shot sunlight, Golden arrows of mist and love, machetes that turned into wands, the possibilities were endless.
Collin was a short, brown boy in need of a good nap. He was currently shelving arrows by the Dewy Decimal system and he had a stack the size of a small bear behind him. He gratefully looked at Toby.
"Jumpin' Jefferies! You're here! I need you to categorize the arrows by name, no by size, no by ability…maybe it should be by name." He said automatically going back to shelving.
"We've got a 04-EM." Toby explained spinning the hilt of the sword.
"Another sword decorated with emeralds? Goodness llama mama I'm getting sick of those. You know, sorting the arrows by power that really makes more sense." Collin said not turning away from his shelf. Toby tossed it carelessly to a section with lots of simmering green emeralds that looked like the color of the sea…when it's not being blue. He walked over to Collin and began to sort the arrows with him.
Meanwhile Bernice was getting into the Weapons department(not Wapons). She was marveling at the large bazooka that was labeled "EMERGENCY'S ONLY! DON'T USE UNLESS IN DIRE PERIL! THIS MEANS YOU BERNICE!". She didn't really appreciate the fact that Collin singled her out as the only one that would use a bazooka for recreational purposes. She had a love for violence, in her mind, it really was the only way to get think done. Especially when it came to Sues.
xxx
"You have a Japanese name but you're not Japanese? Really?" Karen was really having a hard time with this one.
"Well it means warrior and I'm a warrior so it makes sense ok!" Little Keiko cried out, her pure black hair to her waist getting caught in her fists. Karen let out a sigh. She really shouldn't have become a filter. She had come so far, only to have to deal with these idiotic little…
"Well, domo arigato Mr. Roboto, good bye." She said tossing her out the door. Luckily most of them were only 90-110 lbs. She went back to her desk and began to look at the calendar. It was themed "Trains" it was a bad gift from Bernice last year. It was more amusing then anything she had seen today. Ug, only January. Another year of this stupid job. She really wished sometimes she was still…
"What's happening tomorrow?" Karen jumped. The wo/man Bernice had snuck up on her. "It's circled in red!"
"Nothing is happening! You need to get out!" She tired in vain to push Bernice away, but she barely noticed it.
"No, it says don't forget….damn your handwriting is small! Kar, what's happening that day?"
"NOTHING! Now please for God's sake get the hell out of my office!"
"Pushy! Geez, its not like the end of the world is coming. You really over react to much." Bernice said grabbing her ax that she had laid on the desk (knocking off all of Karen's Lord of The Rings themed pens) and kicked down the door.
Karen collapsed down on to her chair. If only they knew…
Heeeeey! So I promise, pinkie promise, that I'll be updating more often from now on! Any fans of NatW I have the next few chapters written I just have to get them beta'd!
So please review!