Chapter Fifteen

A Blooming Love

Don't own Dr. Phil, Elm Creek Animal Hospital, or Cap'n Crunch. I do own Jacques, though.

Will woke up Monday morning to hearing a door close and something starting outside. It sounded like Miss Sims' car that day they went to the grocery store. He rolled over and looked at the red numbers on the clock on his bedside. It was 7:00, just like he thought.

Will knew that he probably wouldn't go back to bed. He was one of those people that once he woke up, he stayed awake, whether it was 4:00 or 11:00. He laid in a blue cocoon of sheets. The future – actually, the present – was a lot more different than what was now known as the past. Women worked? They were treated as equals? They wore men's clothing? What else had happened during the last three hundred years that he wasn't aware of?

He got out of bed and went to the kitchen and made an English muffin, just like he had watched Miss Sims do the past few days. He got some butter from – what was it called? – the refrigerator and spread some on when it was done.

He sat down at the table and saw a long note on a piece of lined, yellow paper and picked it up while having breakfast. It read,

Good morning, Will!

Or is it late morning? It depends, I guess. I hope I didn't wake you up when I was getting ready. I tried to be quiet. If you did, sorry. I'm a light sleeper, too.

I'm sure you know how to make breakfast. If you don't remember, take an English muffin, split it in two, put it in the toaster oven, and press the "Toast" button.

The television is set to channel four. I don't think you know how to change it yet, but it's the only channel I thought might entertain you through the day. There's the news, a talk show, a game show, some soap operas (which are sort of like movies – if you're curious, watch it at 11:00), and, my favorite, Dr. Phil at 3:00. It's a show about a psychologist, which is basically someone who helps a person through a loss or an unfaithful spouse, sometimes through addiction or trauma.

I should be home by 5:00. For lunch, you can have a sandwich or something else. I'll talk to you then!

Kate

Why did Will feel captivated by even looking at her handwriting? It was very neat and looked like a girl wrote it. How long had it taken her to write it?Had she been in a hurry? Was she as excited as he was to see her again?

Will didn't know how long he was looking at Miss Sims' note. It was like looking at her. Was she wearing that pink grapefruit perfume that, if he got close enough, he could smell? Was her medium brown hair down, cascading past her shoulders? He longed to touch it...it looked soft. Her hair smelled good, like cucumbers.

Miss Sims was just beautiful all around. She had the most beautiful green eyes he had ever seen in his life. They were like emeralds...two beautiful, green emeralds looking at him...And her lips...they were the kind that every man wanted to kiss. They were like Elizabeth's, only he no longer wanted to place his lips on her's. Now it was all about Miss Sims'.

Will was in love with her. There was no way around it. He knew he was falling too hard and too fast into the canyon of love, and even though he would like to hold on to a tree branch to catch himself, there would be none. He hoped that, since he was falling so hard, that someone would be there to catch him before he hit the ground.

Would that person be Miss Sims?

Melissa hadn't been at work for fifteen minutes and already she was bored. It was Monday morning on a June day when school for first through eleventh graders was still in session. She wondered why she was even forced to work in a cramped room in a veterinarian office, sorting documents and answering the phone, when it was a Monday and everyone else was at work, just like her, so really, no one would be taking their pet into the vet's!

Melissa had started working at vet's office a year ago ever since she realized that she wanted to be a veterinarian, so she got a job at Elm Creek Animal Hospital. Her main job was to answer the phone, schedule appointments, and file documents. She didn't care for it, but she knew that if she was going to actually be a vet, this would be a great place to get her foot in the door.

She sipped on her coffee that she brought from home. It was about the only thing that she could make right. Especially after nearly burning the house down last night with the grease fire last night, she was extra paranoid. Really, how could Jack distract her like that? Had he even seen the fire? If he did...Actually, if he did any more damage to the house...

After online shopping for twenty minutes, she looked at the clock, which was actually a tabby cat with the clock on it's stomach and a swinging table. It even had an evil grin on it's face. When Melissa had started working here, it had scared her at first. Even today she couldn't look at it longer for more than half a minute without thinking that it was going to pounce off the wall and claw her alive.

It can not be not even 8:30, Melissa thought as she drummed a pen against the desk. If they're going to keep me here, at least keep me busy!

To pass the time for at least a few minutes, she opened up a search engine and took a personality quiz.

Melissa's Blog Entry

I had nothing to do at work to do for the first half hour, so I took a personality test. I couldn't help it...I had to...curiosity!

What Pirates of the Caribbean Are You?

You are Will Turner! You're determined and get things done. You have a hard time trusting people, but you're very generous and rarely put yourself first.

I guess most of it's true. Except I didn't have that hard of a time trusting Jack. He's the only person that I've felt comfortable with the first time I've met them. But that's pretty much me.

Love,
Melissa Rose

Jack woke up, and he realized was without Melissa or food. The food, that was normal. Melissa couldn't cook for her life. He hadn't had a good meal in...well, not before he met Melissa. Not for a while, actually.

Melissa...what was it about him that made her like him? Well, she was a girl. That was always a good start. But she looked like a good girl, something that he usually tried to steer away from. The girl had confessed that she hadn't even cursed! Bugger...why did she get stuck with the good girl?

But, on the other hand, there was some persuasion that he could do. He could get her to loosen up. Her moral code was tighter than those corsets that Lizzy used to wear.

He and The Whelp might get 'long, he thought. If he could do something as extraordinary as time travel...which he can't. 'Cause I'm Captain Jack Sparrow. And he's...The Whelp.

Jack heard his stomach growl. He trudged up the stairs and went into the cupboard for cereal. He grabbed the first box he saw, opened it, and stuck his hand in. Nope, it wasn't cold. It must be okay to eat, then. He figured that it was the milk that made it cold.

This isn't that bad, he thought. I mean, if ya like cereal...

He looked at the box and saw that it said "Cap'n Crunch." He slowly stopped chewing and looked at the man on the cover. He looked like an old version of Norrington.

Captain, he thought in disgrace. You're not a true captain. You're a priss just like he used to be. Ye're probably not even a pirate captain. Don't even live in th' Caribbean! Ye're probably some goody two shoes that would hunt us...Get that smile off of ye're face!

Jack threw the cereal on the ground and stomped on the box. "Cap'n Crunch...that's prob'ly not even ye're real name! And ye're on a box of cereal! I deserve my own box!"

Jack realized that his hate towards Cap'n Crunch, wherever he may be, equaled in his lust towards Melissa.

Kate loved modeling. She loved how she got to play a different part every time. In the past, she had done a book cover for one of her mom's friends where she had to play a drug addict, which was very hard for her to do. But other times it was more light, like the time she had done her first (and only, so far) magazine shoot as a carefree girl, or the time she had to do a shoot for a nightclub advertisement when she was about to kiss a cute guy.

At the same time, it was all mental. You had to act. You had to make the people believe whatever you were trying to get across. Like the nightclub advertisement: it was last December, when she was still with her ex, Scott, and they were as close as ever. Even when she had to pretend like she was going to kiss him, she thought that it was Scott that she wanted to kiss, not some stranger who, well, wasn't Scott.

Today's assignment for Kate: single. She had to wear a knee-skimming red halter dress with a sweetheart neckline with red peep-toe heels. And as beautiful and glamorous as Kate felt in it, she was not supposed to act like the next Hollywood starlet, nor a tease. She was supposed act like a single girl, which was different than being a starlet or a tease. Single girls were happy and had fun and were carefree, and sometimes flirty when they felt like it.

That's sort of how Kate felt now. She felt happy because she was thinking of Will, who she couldn't wait to get home to and see. And she felt like she was having fun and was carefree because she was doing what she loved: modeling.

She met the photographer, who had been worked with her at least fifteen times before. His name was Jacques who had moved from France three years ago, as cliche as it was to have a French photographer.

"Ah, Miz Kate," Jacques said in his thick accent, kissing both cheeks. "Such pleasure to see such beauty again."

She smiled. "Why, thank you."

And so began her work. Modeling was a lot harder than people thought. It was hard to look bubbly and keep that smile from not hurting after twenty frames.

Think that Will's the camera, Kate thought, feeling her smile relaxing and not hurting as much.

Kate's Blog Entry

Jacques let me use his computer while he's printing off my picture for me. I get to show it to Will. It's great! Work was pretty cool today. That dress was so soft...but my feet hurt...I guess there is a price for beauty...

XOXO,

Kate