Everything was turning out great for Katie so far. She was recently given her very own name-tag, and she was now qualified to become an official full-fledged dentist, just like her father; granted, it was inevitable, but she still couldn't help but feel massively giddy about all of this. She wanted to scream out to the world how happy she was right now. Now, one would probably say that a moment such as this warrants going out to the club and celebrating; but since she wasn't much of a club-goer, Katie decided to celebrate home.
Currently, hours after her meeting at her father's office, Katie was up in her bedroom, admiring herself in her new uniform while standing in front of her bedroom mirror. Her uniform was a white coat with a tooth printed on one part of the chest area, and underneath it was a light-blue collared-shirt with black dress-pants; so, it was what one would expect out of what an actual dentist wears, no more, no less. She also had music playing on her phone as she was doing a few poses in her own reflection; most of which was nothing but pop-punk songs that she listens to on a daily basis.
Now, as fun as this was for the young tomboy, Katie's father unfortunately wasn't too thrilled at the fact that she was playing her music super loud; almost a similar volume to how loud their new neighbor had on his radio last night. "My word, Kathryn, could you please turn that blasted music down!" Maxwell asked with his voice raised, opening the door to his daughter's bedroom.
"Oh, shit..." Katie muttered before walking over to her bed, which was where her phone was; and then turned the volume down on it. "S-Sorry about that, dad..." The tomboy says with a nervous chuckle. "I...didn't expect something like this would be an issue..."
"I understand that you're having fun up here, dear; but I would prefer that you don't have Nancy come over and complain at us again."
"Alright, alright...I'll keep my music down..."
It was at this point, Maxwell had immediately took notice that his daughter was wearing the dental-uniform that he had given her yesterday evening; a sad smile dawned on his face when he sees it. "My word, dear..." The father says softly. "Ever since you were just five years old, you told me that my job fascinated you so much that you wanted to become a dentist just like me when you grew up; and now here you are...my little girl, all grown up, and now ready to work alongside me at the job she's been prepared for her entire life." He then let out a sigh. "Oh, how time flies..."
Katie's smile turned into a confused, yet worried, look. "Is everything okay, dad?" She asked her father.
"I-It's nothing, dear..." Maxwell then paused for a few seconds, wiping one of his already misty eyes, before proceeding to say something that immediately caught his daughter's attention; and not in a good way. "I wish Emily was still with us right now..."
It was after she heard that name being mentioned that any expression Katie currently had faltered into grief and depression. Emily; that was her mother's name...or in this case, her late mother, as she had recently lost her life to a terminal illness a few months back. To this day, Katie didn't want to believe that what happened back in January while she was out of town didn't truly happen, and that her mother had up and decided to leave them; but at the end of the day, she just had to face it...her mom was gone, from her and her dad's life. The thought of it pained her greatly.
"She would've been so proud of you, dear..." Maxwell says through a whisper, causing his daughter to almost tear up at her father's comment.
Instead of letting her emotions get the better of her, Katie held herself together and chose to put on a sad smile, deciding to comfort her father despite everything that had happened. "I believe she already is, dad." The tomboy says in a soft, sincere voice.
"I...suppose she is..." Maxwell then started to wipe a tear from one of his already misty eyes, before pulling himself together and letting out a sigh. "My apologies, Kathryn; it's just...difficult not to notice that she isn't present with us, most of the time..."
"I-I know, but...it's not like we can stay focused on it for the rest of our lives, right?"
After hearing that said, Maxwell gave his daughter a weird look; it wasn't anger, but it looked more like he was feeling sorry for the younger dentist. "You seem rather...nonchalant about what happened to your mother, Kathryn..." He commented with a hint of concern in his voice. "Are...you alright, dear?"
"I'm totally fine, dad." Katie answered before crossing her arms and biting her bottom lip. "I mean...yeah, it sucks that mom's gone and all, but...I'm over it now."
"Are you sure you're alright, Kathryn?" Maxwell asked again, clearly not buying into what his daughter was saying.
"Of course." The tomboy then took off her dental-coat and hung it back up into her closet. "I, uh...think I'm just gonna go to bed now."
"Very well then." Maxwell reluctantly accepted; despite the fact that he knew his daughter was depressed, he chose not persist in questioning her about her feelings; because he knew that Katie was quick to deny she's depressed whenever she's asked, no matter how much she claims otherwise. "I will...see you in the morning then, dear." He gently took a hold of the doorknob of the tomboy's door, stepping out of the bedroom. "Good night."
"Good night, dad." After that was said, Maxwell closed the door and headed back to his room, leaving his daughter by her lonesome once again.
"So, Tad's making you give some new guy the grand tour of the Boardwalk tomorrow?" Chaz asked on the phone with his girlfriend, as the former was currently watching something on the television in his bedroom. "I'm guessing Goth Boy, Justice, and Yuki all turned him down when he asked them, huh?"
"I guess so..." Summer replied as she let out an irritated sigh. "I'm not surprised he that Goth Boy refused to do it; Justice hates going down to the shore, unless he's fishing for crabs; and as for Yuki... his here's no way that Tad would put her in charge of showing newbies around, knowing she'll probably threaten to bite their face for the hell of it. So, that just leaves me to do it."
"Do you know who this new guy is?"
"No; the description he gave about him was vague. The only two things that Tad had mentioned about the guy is that he moved here from California last week, and that he's going to be working at the 'Surf Shop'."
"I'm more surprised that I haven't even heard that some new guy's gonna be working there, because usually nothing escapes my notice, anywhere, anytime."
"Well, Tad's been a bit more silent around you lately, obviously because of that 'flaming-hoop incident'..."
"Hey, your boss should be glad that everyone involved, including the bystanders, made it out of the parking-lot unscathed-"
"You still nearly injured someone in their car while they were trying to get away from the fire that you caused."
"In my defense, I didn't know it was going to be super windy that day-"
"It knocked over because you didn't fully screw one of the bottom screws."
"Well...then that's Tim's fault, not mine."
"I heard that!" Tim shouts from outside the bedroom.
"I'm just saying, dude." Chaz shouts back to his best friend, before resuming his conversation with Summer. "Look, it really doesn't matter who's fault it is, or what happened that day, all that truly matters is that nobody died thanks to that incident and Tad should just move past it at this point."
"Then speak to him about it." Summer told the biker. "I can't speak for my own boss."
"I'll make sure to talk to him the moment I show up tomorrow."
"Anyway, it's getting late." Summer reminded her boyfriend. "I'll call you in the morning, okay?"
"Good night then, babe."
"Good night, Chaz." After that was said, their phone-call came to an end, which was also when Tim decided to enter the room.
"Well, it's not everyday that I see you watching 'The Wizard of Oz' without Renee around." Tim stated as he stared at his best friend's television.
"Eh, the old man had some video-tapes laying around in a wooden box in one of his closets; so, I decided to look through them, see if they're working properly, and I'm hoping to hand these over to Renee, or her school if they're willing to let the kids watch some of these." Chaz explained as his best friend went over to the box of tapes he was referring to. "So far, most of them are in mint condition."
"Your little cousin's still in the second grade, dude; I don't think her teacher would allow her students to watch something like 'Journey to the Center of the Earth'."
"Well, it is educational..."
"That's not what our second-grade teacher said when you once brought that to school." Tim stated with a smirk on his face.
"Hey, it was better than anything she's made us watch." Chaz then sat down onto his bed, placing the box he had aside. "If the teacher turns them down, then I'll just hand these over to that antique store that's right across the street from our work."
"That definitely sounds more reasonable." Tim then went over to his best friend's window, where straight ahead of him, he could see one part of the curtain that was slightly open; not only that, but he could see someone's eye staring at them through the small gap. "Well, would you look at that..."
"What's up?" Chaz asked him as he went over to the window, standing next to his best friend.
"It looks like that valedictorian you were talking about is trying to get another good view of you, it seems." Tim pointed at the small gap in the curtain, only for Katie to immediately close it before Chaz could notice her. "So, I'm guessing that now is probably the perfect time for us to talk to her, yes?"
"It looks like it." Chaz gently moves his best friend aside so he can get to his bedroom window, opening it up once he was close to it. "Let me talk to her first though; it's probably for the best anyway, since I was the first one between the both of us who she's seen."
"Alright then."
Chaz leans forward out the window, waving a hand in order to get the tomboy's attention from across the way. Eventually, Katie peeked through another gap in the curtain again, taking notice of the biker waving for her; this, in turn, prompts her to open her own window and leaned out of it, which was when a conversation began between the two. "Hey there, neighbor!" The biker says, greeting the tomboy.
"Uh...hey, new guy..." Katie said awkwardly, waving a hand at the biker. "I, uh...assume that you're still kinda peeved about last night, aren't you?"
"Don't worry about that, dude; I'm not mad at you for it." Chaz reassured her.
"Oh, then...that's good." Katie says as a smile appears on her face. "I'm glad that this issue was resolved within a matter of seconds."
Right before the tomboy could pull herself back into her house, Chaz held up a hand, prompting her to stop. "I'm not done, Katie; there's still more stuff that I want to talk to you about."
"What do you-" Katie paused almost immediately when she suddenly realized what the biker had just said to her, or one specific part anyway. "Wait a minute...how do you know my name?!"
"I found out about you through Liberty Martin; she used to be one of my classmates back when we were in high-school together." Chaz paused for a second, noticing the strange look that the tomboy was now giving him. "It's unbelievable, I know; but you and I used to attend the Royal Academy together, even though we've never interacted with each other anywhere around that time. So, anyways, the name's Chaz; Chaz McFreely."
"Chaz McFreely?" Katie asked, seemingly intrigued, as if she had already heard his name before. "You know...I think one of my closest friends mentioned someone like you, claiming that you're one of the coolest and sexiest men that she's ever seen."
"Oh...well, I wouldn't say that I'm the sexiest, but I'll take credit for being the 'coolest' person to have ever walked the halls of that school."
"Give it a rest already, Fonzie..." It was after she made this sarcastic remark that Katie suddenly noticed the biker's friend behind him. "Say, who's your companion there?"
"Oh, hi, my name's Timothy McOwens; but you can just call me Tim." The blue-haired man stated, before holding out a hand. "It's nice to meet you, Katie."
"You do realize that we're approximately ten feet and twelve inches away from each other, meaning that we're unable to shake hands; right?"
"Oh, right..." Tim pulled himself back into the house, turning his head towards his best friend so that he can tell him something. "This girl's got some interesting vocabulary, doesn't she?"
"Well, she was a bit of a genius, according to what Liberty said." Chaz whispered to him, before turning his attention back over to Katie, deciding to revert the topic back what they were previously talking about. "Anyway, I was also told that not only are you one of the smartest girls from that school, but also one of the coolest; just like me."
"Well, I believe that 'being cool' is a bit of a subjective term, to be fair." Katie says with a chuckle at the end of her sentence, before suddenly confused. "But...what does that have to do with anything?"
"What do you think?" Chaz asked rhetorically. "You're cool, I'm cool, it only makes sense that the two of us should hang out together sometime."
Katie was a bit hesitant about this, clearly giving the biker a lot of uncertainty before stating something to him regarding his logic. "Coolness seems like a rather shallow benefactor to be a reason for you to hang out with someone, don't you think?" The tomboy told the biker with her arms crossed. "Besides, I wouldn't really consider myself 'cool', let alone be considered one of the popular kids; I would probably describe myself as someone who's...well, a bookworm; someone I doubt that an individual, such as yourself, would find any value in."
"You're acting like we're still in high-school by calling yourself a bookworm, Kate." The biker joked as he shook his head. "Also, you dress totally cool for a girl who claims to have her head in the books."
"Okay, you made a good point there..." Katie admits as she leaned against her window-sill. "Also, I guess me having a fascination for skateboarding contradicts my point as well."
"A bookworm who skateboards, you say?" Chaz asked, intrigued after hearing that bit of information coming from the studious tomboy. "Now there's a combination I've never heard of before."
"Do you like to skateboard too?"
"Personally, I'm into bikes and motorcycles more, but I am down to ride and do a few tricks on a skateboard from time to time." Chaz then turned his head towards his best friend, still talking to Katie as he did. "I can't say the same thing for Tim though, since he's not into doing stuff that's totally extreme like I do."
"Do you still have your board with you?"
"I...should've brought it along with me before I moved out of my uncle's house..." Chaz said softly to himself, while rubbing his chin.
"I'll tell you what; if you still have your board, then I'll come over with mine and you can prove to me how 'cool and extreme' you really are."
"The motorcycle out front isn't enough prove already?"
"You guys can have an arcade for a room in that house, and I would still need proof to know you guys are cool."
"Then let's talk more about this tomorrow afternoon, after Tim and I get a few errands done."
"Then it's a deal." The two held out each other's hand, prepared to shake on it...only for both of them to realize that they couldn't reach each other due to how far they were. "Let's just shake hands tomorrow too."
"Good idea." Chaz agreed while nodding his head.
"Kathryn, who are you talking to?!" Maxwell's voice could be heard from somewhere outside the tomboy's bedroom.
"It's nobody, dad!" Katie told her father, before facing the biker one more time. "I gotta go now."
"Alright, it was nice talking to ya, Kate." Chaz says as he pulled himself back out of his window.
"You too!" The tomboy shouted back, before she pulled herself back into her own house.
Meanwhile...
Out in the town, Crystal was sitting at a booth-table that was in some random bar that was in the middle of town, with a few applications laid out in front of her; most of which were obviously from some of the pharmacies she had stopped at moments prior. Now, granted, this was probably a terrible idea for someone like her to be doing for a lot of reasons, most of which included having her drink spill on all of the papers, or someone might just come by and take all of them; but thankfully, it didn't look like the bar was too busy for her to be doing this, especially since she's had done stuff on paper-related here before, and none of those times did she have anything bad happen. This bar was also where she liked to go in order to think, so there was that reason too.
As Crystal just remained sitting there, looking through all the papers that she had out in front of her, someone who was just passing by her table sat down beside her. "Wow...I didn't know you were back." The person said in a very monotone voice.
Crystal turned her head to look at the woman who was now sitting next to her; the person has long black hair that reached halfway down her back, and was wearing purple eyeshadow with black lipstick, as well as a black dress. "Long time no see, Violet." The rebel greeted the goth girl, while keeping her eyes focused on her papers. "How's the...warehouse, or wherever it is that you work at?"
"You mean my family's flower shop?" Violet asked in an irritated tone of voice, before noticing the papers that were all over the table. "What are you doing anyway?"
"It's called 'paperwork', Nightshade; what do you think it is?" Crystal asked sarcastically, not moving her eyes away from her application she was currently writing on. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm applying for a spot at one of the pharmacies around town; and from the looks of it, I'm pretty much applying for practically all of them and hoping that one of them gives me a call to say that I'm hired."
"Okay, but why are you doing that here though?" Violet asked in confusion. "Shouldn't you be doing these at home?"
"I could, but 'do I want to deal with the bullshit of my sisters while I'm doing it?' is the real question here." Crystal then turned to face her goth friend, speaking her next sentence in a more sarcastic, yet dry, tone of voice. "I believe we already know what the answer to that is, now do we?"
"I'm just gonna say 'yes', because I don't want to spend all night listening to you about how much you hate your cheerleading sisters for the millionth time in a row."
"Right..." Crystal then puts her pen aside, now giving the goth girl a weird look. "Say, what are you doing here anyway?" She asked. "You're not the kind of girl who goes out to the bar."
"I know, but it's just that-" Violet's eyes peered over to the bar-counter that was a few feet away from them, before proceeding to explain her reasons on why she was here. "I don't know if anyone had already told you about this yet, but...me and Lord Daniel broke up."
"So I've heard." Crystal stated bluntly. "Goth Boy and Yuki had already informed me about this, Vi."
"Okay..." Violet said before glancing over to the bar's front-counter once again. "Well, recently, I've got my mind set on this...new guy who just came to town-"
"Someone who works down at Gino's Pizzeria."
"True; but he also works at the town's construction site, Ol' Gabby's junkyard, and...believe it or not, here."
"Your new crush works here?" Crystal leaned herself forward, far enough to take a look at the bartender to see who her friend was interested in. "That blue-haired dude's the guy you want to date next?"
"Yep, he's the one."
"You'd have a better chance at making me believe that my ex-boyfriend is your new boyfriend." The rebel says jokingly, before her smile faltered immediately after. "I don't see a relationship between you and blue hair over there working out."
"Really?" Violet then asked in an unamused tone. "This is coming from the girl who only had one boyfriend, and that guy turned out to be a psycho and a thief; and your relationship with him didn't even last as long as mine and Daniel's was. No offense, but you're not one to talk here about relationships turning sour here, Crystal."
"Whatever..." Crystal returned her focus back over to her applications, letting out an annoyed sigh as she did. "If you want blue hair to be your new boyfriend, then go right ahead; but don't say I didn't have my doubts about him if he breaks your heart after the first week or two."
"Whatever you say..." Violet stood up from the table, now deciding to go ask out the bartender rather than continue to hear more of the rebel's mocking.
Note: So, it looks like Chaz and Katie finally met each other, and it seems that they are on good terms so far. Also, I wanted to add a part with Crystal at the end there since I felt like the chapter, despite their first time meeting was lengthy enough, still felt a little too short; so, there's that.
So, let's see what reviews we have here then...
lordgemini: Well, Chaz wasn't really wanting to sue Katie was that, he was actually wanting to go to the latter's house and talk about it; Tim only brought up suing because he just made a random thought out of the blue. Funny enough, them meeting via 'Chaz went to the Morris's House to complain' was almost how the two met, chapters prior even; but I changed my mind, believing that them meeting like that was a bit rushed.
So, that should be it for now. We'll be entering the next day for Katie and Crystal in the next chapter, but I plan on having another character be in the focus this time. I'll see you all next time, my fellow readers.