Starting Over A Convincing Story

Two weeks had gone and it was now coming up to the beginning of March. Flowers were beginning to bloom and a sense of spring was in the air. Satine had found herself a job at a garden centre. She absolutely loved being surrounded by plants and flowers and was willing to do whatever was asked of her. However, she had one request - that she was allowed to leave promptly at three o'clock so that she could be home in time to greet Christian. Jim the owner, who was an old man, agreed. One day he let her out half an hour earlier. Satine decided to walk home via Phyl's school. She stood outside for about ten minutes before the building seemed to burst and release a lot of people. Satine spotted Phyl straight away. She could recognise that smile anywhere, it was Christian's. Dodging past people, she made her way up to Phyl and the three friends whom she was with.

'Hey, Phyl.' Satine said. Phyl looked up and flashed an even bigger smile.

'Satine! What are you doing here? I thought you didn't finish until three.'

'Jim let me out early. So I decided I would come and meet you.'

'That's really sweet of you. You aren't doing this for my father, are you?' Gerald had found out about the incident in the attic and Phyl's punishment for being 'so stupid' was to be grounded for three weeks. That meant she had to come straight home after school.

'Of course not. Now come on, you don't want your punishment to go on for any longer than necessary.' Phyl waved goodbye as Satine dragged her down the road.

'Hey, this isn't the way home.' Phyl said when she realised they were going in the completely opposite direction.

'Who says we're going home?'

***

Christian leaned back in his chair and stretched. Finally the meeting was over. He had just spent the last 4 hours listening to his father trying to win over some clients. Gerald was in real estate and Christian had reluctantly agreed to work for him, only because he wanted to make enough money to get a house for him and Satine. He rose and picked up his briefcase.

'Christian, care to join us?' One of the men asked. They were going to go to a sleazy bar, full of rich, snobby people. 'Erm...' He really wanted to get home to Satine.

'Come on, Son.' Gerald walked up and put his arm around his shoulders. 'I'll explain to Satine.' Christian finally gave in. He knew his father would have killed him if he didn't.

***

Phyl groaned and slumped down in her seat. Satine looked at her curiously.

'What's wrong?' Phyl didn't say anything but gestured towards the door with her head. Satine turned to see Christian and Gerald settle themselves at a table near the door with two other men.

'Oh no.' Satine sighed. They would both be in trouble now. Phyl with her father for not being at home and Satine with Christian for being in a 'sleazy bar' without him - he was afraid that someone would try and come onto her. 'I hope they don't see us.'

'See us? Honey, Christian could spot you out in a room of people who all looked like you. We haven't got a h- Oh no!'

'What? What?!' Satine hissed frantically, not daring to turn around.

'Father and Christian have both gone to the bar...they are ordering drinks....They're going back...walking...walking...They've seen us! Hide!' Phyl tried to disguise herself behind a pot plant. Satine looked at her shaking her head.

'Oh, hello - Christian! Mr Helington!' Satine sounded generally shocked to see them. She stood up and Phyl stood next to her. 'W-What are you doing here?'

'I was about to ask you that same question.' Christian folded his arms across his chest and looked at his wife.

'Erm...' Satine looked helplessly at Phyl who just looked blank. 'This morning I woke up and realised that I had never been to one of these bars before. I thought that since I was supposed to be one of them then I'd better find out how they spend their time

'Yes.' Phyl suddenly came to life. 'Today I was given an essay in English about bars in the rich parts of London. When Satine told me about her desire, we decided to kill two birds with one stone.' Gerald and Christian just looked at them, not convinced.

'How can this moment get any worse?' Satine whispered under her breath. Suddenly the door flew open and about ten rowdy men walked in.

'Satine, Phyl!' The front one shouted out, pleased to see them. 'We missed you last night.'

'That's how.' Phyl replied. Gerald and Christian looked at them both, not amused. 'Oh, gosh, is that the time. We'd better get going. Come on, Satine.' Phyl grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the door. As they walked past the rowdy men they cheered. Just as they were about to leave, one of the men whom Christian and Gerald had been sitting with stood up and blocked their path.

'Excuse me. Satine is it?' He asked, looking at her. She nodded. 'Pardon the intrusion but I was wondering if we could ask you a question.'

'Certainly.' Satine said, unsure of what they were going to ask or whether she could answer.

'Those two gentlemen, whom you obviously know, are trying to convince us to buy a property for us to use for business that is in a not very nice part of London. Frankly, they aren't doing very good convincing. Maybe you could tell us why we should buy.' He sat down again. By now the bar had gone silent as they waited for Satine's answer.

'When I was growing up I came from a stuffy, upper-middle class family. I had everything I could ever want until one day it was all taken away by one man. I suddenly led the life of a lower class person and I loved it. Not what I did, obviously, but my lifestyle. I didn't have to curtsey, smile politely or try and remember which fork I should be eating with at dinner. I could be myself. A little while ago I came back to a stuffy, upper-middle class family. But this time I see it from a better angle. I've had the chance to see life from the other perspective. Some would say it was the bad perspective but I say it's the better one. Until you've had to live at the same level as the homeless, you don't appreciate what you have. On the surface I am a stuffy, upper-middle class lady but underneath I am one of them. The people who you describe as not very nice are people who are no different from your or I. They laugh, they cry, they have houses, they fall in love and they grieve. We shouldn't allow money to get in the way of that. I guess what I'm trying to say is...don't judge people until you've had a chance to see it from their view.'

There was silence and the two men looked at each other. The man who had spoken previously stood up. Then he started to clap and everyone joined in except Satine, Gerald and Christian. He looked at Satine and then over at Gerald and Christian who were standing nervously.

'Mr Helington,' Gerald looked up, 'I don't know how you know this woman but she does a better job than you at convincing people...Congratulations, Satine, you've got a deal.' He shook her hand. Satine grinned and turned to look at Christian. He gave her a thumbs up and she knew he had forgiven her.

A/N: At the moment the chapters just seem to be on their own. If anyone could give me an idea which could be carried out for several chapters then I would be most grateful.