"Miss Amena! Miss Amena Senshia!" "Miss Amena" turned to the speaker and smiled.
"Yes Mr. Bhramaputra?"
"Oh, yes Ms. Amena. I have favorite to ask of you." He stated in his stilted Indian accent.
"Favor?"
"Yes. That. We haff a new student. We was wondering if you
could show him around. He has much of the same classes as you. Very
much a much-achiever."
Ami smiled and affirmed that she would show the new student around and that she was glad to do so.
She waited by the locker while Mr. Bhramaputra ran to retrieve the new student. A few minutes later, the Indian teacher turned around the corner with a slim blond boy in tow. He was straightening his backpack strap and Ami noticed that he had long, beautiful, luscious strawberry blond hair. Whoa. Where did that come from? Ami mused about her strange thoughts about the kid's hair. He looked up and caught her eye. They smiled at each other. He reached his hand out and introduced himself as "Zohar" in a deep, soft voice.
Bhramaputra beamed and jumped in. "Verry good name. Very good. Means "brilliance" in Hindi. Very nice."
Zohar smiled and turned to Ami.
"Um, just call me Zo. Kinda like Joe. But um…not." He stopped and fiddled with his backpack strap.
"My name is Amena, but you can call me Ami. Its very nice to meet you. Your first class is U.S. History? So is mine." Zo smiled and they both turned to walk in the direction of the classroom. Bhramaputra beamed after them. "Very nice." He said cheerily.
"Hey Mina. Can you sign this? Remember the job I told you about? The owner of the arcade, Andrew, oh...Andrew…" Serena trailed off as she thought of the cute arcade manager with All-American good looks.
"Ahem."
"Oh, yeah. So, I talked to him and he said he needed someone to help him man the booths after school while he took care of the bar."
Mina signed the sheet and sighed in relief. She had been glad that Serena had given up the idea of working at En Nihilo. Not only was she too young. She was….too young. Mina cleared her head of thoughts of En Nihilo and concentrated on Lita's recipe card. It had been two years since Lita had left. The house felt empty and Mina missed Lita and Rei's company. Rei was now at Columbia with Jay. She was working on a Bachelor's in History. She wanted to go to Law School later. And Mina? Mina thought bitterly She's stuck in a rut. And she can't get out. Mina had tried other jobs but because of her lack of college education, there were not to many options. She just wanted to get out of Vinny's grasp. She thought of the toughened old waitresses that worked the bar. They never got out of the rut. They were hard as nails. She thought of the time she and Lita had passed by a girl on sidewalk who was randomly kicking posts, signs, rocks in her way with a livid expression on her face. Lita wanted to go up to her and ask "Excuse me, are you angry at the world?" Thankfully, Mina restrained her. Only one more year, the twins will graduate. Then I'll get out. I will get out. She turned her attention once again, back to her recipe.
Serena skipped to the arcade, smiling at strangers on the sidewalk and steering around bugs and worms on the way, feeling generally benevolent. She swung the doors wide open and plopped herself on a stool. Andrew walked to he and she couldn't help but gaze at his sparkling baby blues and achingly beautiful lips stretched out into a smile.
"… tract with you?"
" Wha..hu?"
"The contract. Did you get your mom to sign it. "
Serena inwardly cringed. "Uh, yeah. Something like that."
"She has a different last name." He said absently, wiping the table while reading the contract.
"Uh," Serena scratched the back of her head "she's my guardian."
"Oh." He looked up and sensed her closing off. "Okay. Great! Can you start on Friday? At 3:05?"
Serena smiled and forcefully pushed back her thoughts from her past into the present. "Yes. 3:05. See you then!." Without a glance backward, she meandered out the arcade and down the street.
Puzzled by her sudden mood change, Andrew stood there for a while and then shook his head. He looked around the crowd in the arcade. A huge grin broke out on his face and he raised his dirty rag in a salute towards the door.
"Hey Darien!"
A.N. Yeah Darien and Zoicite arrive! Um…don't own anything blah blah. You know the drill.
