Friday, 15th 1999
I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock beeping loudly and repeatedly, I groaned in protest and reluctantly sat up in my large white bed. The bright yellow sunlight hit my face and entered my eyes causing me to flinch a little bit
"I hate mornings!" I said to myself as I slowly got to my feet.
I stretched my arms and yawned, it was eight o'clock in the morning and I had to get to school or my mother would complain to me about my education, my father had already found a new job as a doctor at the St Mary's hospital. He was also a doctor back in Ohio, my mother worked at a floral shop on weekends and I sometimes helped by delivering things to the few people who lived around us including my mother's new best friend Mrs Baker.
"Candice are you getting ready for school?, I don't want you to be late…, again!" my mother called
I sighed and rolled my eyes
"yes mom, I'm up and getting ready!" I called
I walked over to my wardrobe and picked out a suitable outfit to wear, one that was not too flashy but not too boring either, my own style I guess. I quickly put it on and got my hair ready as well as putting on a little bit of make-up
"Candice!, do you want breakfast?, it's pancakes!" my mother called
I shrieked in my mind at the thought of my mother's pancakes. They were absolutely horrible, but I never had the courage to tell my mother that, upsetting her was the last thing I wanted to do.
"No mom, I'm fine, I'll get something at school later toady" I shouted as I looked at myself in the mirror
"okay, do you want me to drive you to school?" my mother called once again
I smiled and nodded
"yeah, that'll be great mom!" I called.
I then put on my white shoes and grabbed my schoolbag, I wasn't popular at school, and never was back in Ohio, lots of cheeky and un-respectful friends seemed like a nightmare to me and I liked to keep things normal and not so public. I did have a few close friends, who I could trust, one of them was a boy named Ashton. He was a cool guy, really sweet, then there was the most popular boy in school. Chad Baker, the son of my mother's friend Mrs Baker, my secret crush, he was gorgeous but I wouldn't dare go near him. The fear of getting rejected always lingered in my mind.
"Candice!, hurry up!, you're going to be late!" my mother called
I suddenly snapped back into reality, I blinked a few times, that's when I remembered my father was getting me a dog, I smiled at the thought of a cute little golden retriever bounding towards me with those large chocolate coloured eyes.
"Yeah, um, I'm just coming mom!" I called as I ran out of my bedroom happily with the satisfying thought of the puppy lingering in my mind
As I quickly made my way down the spiral staircase in my home I saw my mother in our living room with about fifty different coloured vases with all different types of flowers in them.
"Wow!, did you move the floral shop into our house or do you just have a lot of caring, flower friendly friends?" I asked in shock
My mother huffed and shook her head
"nope these are all for delivery, all of them!" she said looking quite surprised about the situation herself.
I cocked an eyebrow in disbelief
"mom, I don't think there is enough people in Odessa for all these flowers!" I said as my eyes followed the beautiful and unique colours of each individual flower.
My mother removed her glasses and placed them down on the small wooden coffee table and scratched her head of blonde curls
"time for school Candice, lets just worry about delivering these flowers after school" my mother said
I raised my head to look at her and frowned
"wait, I'm delivering these?…" I asked, hoping the answer would be no.
My mother smiled and laughed
"well I'll deliver half and you deliver half, how does that sound?" she asked
I nodded and smiled but was dreading the delivery in my mind
"great!" I lied.
My mother giggled and gave me the thumbs up happily
"now hurry up, lets go!" my mother said clapping her hands as she followed me out of the house to the driveway towards the car.
__________________________________________________________________________________
I arrived outside my high school looking outside my mother's car's window at all the people entering the school entrance, sighed and turned to look at my mother
"see you after school honey, and your father might have a surprise for you!" my mother said smiling happily.
I gasped and smiled
"are you serious?, a dog?, today?, I thought that it was going to be about a month before I got one!" I said surprised
My mother laughed and shook her head
"well, not anymore, so look forward to seeing your puppy when you get home!" my mother said kissing my cheek before I got out of the car.
I nodded and got out of the car and headed towards the school, my smile grew larger as I entered the large doors to the high school
"this is amazing!" I whispered quietly to myself as I headed towards my first classroom.
I flicked a blonde curl out of my face as I opened the door to my first class, English, I yawned at the thought of it as I stepped inside to be met by everybody's stare. My teacher Mr McHenry smiled at me with those huge yellow cracked teeth, I didn't want to get too close to him, I could smell his breath already and it wasn't a pleasant smell. That's for sure. I made my way to the back of the English classroom where I sat down beside my best friend Ashton
"hey, what's up?" he whispered
I shrugged my shoulders and turned to face him
"I'm getting a dog after school!, how great's that?!" I whispered excitedly
Ashton frowned at me like I was nuts or something, he didn't think that having a dog was that interesting as he lived with them all his life on a farm quite far from where I lived.
"What?, I haven't had a dog before and it's going to be great!" I said smiling
Ashton smiled at me, he had large icy blue eyes and dark hair with tanned skin, quite a good looking boy but the footballer, Chad Baker was totally my type.
"Well that's cool, if you think it's cool then so do I!, hey you coming out after school?" Ashton asked
I sighed
"nope!, I have to deliver flowers…" I said not looking impressed
Ashton huffed and seemed down after I said that, and I have to admit I kind of felt sorry for him.
"You can help…, if you want of course" I offered
He smiled and nodded
"sure, I'll help!, got nothing else to do" he replyed smiling
I nodded
"so what type of dog are you getting?" Ashton asked, trying to make a conversation instead of listening to Mr McHenry the yellow teeth, boring English teacher.
"I think it's a golden retriever, I hope it is!" I said happily
Ashton rested his head in one of his hands and smiled at me as I talked and talked and talked, then the bell rang loudly.
"Well, see you after school" Ahton said as he got up out of his seat and continued to walk out of class smiling back at me
I nodded and smiled back, he was really sweet and a good friend. The type of person you would want to be around.
__________________________________________________________________________________