A Morning Girl
Author's Note: Thanks for all the favorites, comments, and story alerts. I'm really happy that you guys are enjoying the story so far and I hope you enjoy this next chapter. Thanks again!
Chapter Three
The next two days were dedicated entirely to two things: shopping and college.
It didn't take long to pack away all of my clothes. I had two dressers and a decent-sized closet, so there was a place for everything. Packing away my "nerd loot" on the other hand took a little longer, if only because I wasn't entirely sure where to put all my books, games, consoles, and DVD's. Unfortunately my very pink room did not come with book shelves, so I had to make do. I put my comic books on the desk where my new laptop was sitting, and I arranged all of my other books and novels ontop of one of the dressers. My gaming consules, DVD's and games went downstairs into the living room, since my bedroom didn't come with a television. When everything was situated, I took the keys to the rusty Redneckmobile and decided to head out into town. It may have looked a bit junky, but it ran pretty smooth.
Unfortunately, a smooth ride is very little help when you have virtually no sense of direction whatsoever.
It was a good thing that I had a cellphone on me. I usually don't care much for talking on the phone or texting, but it was definately a "must have!" for me while I was driving. When it comes to following directions while traveling, I am something of a complete retard, and I'm sure my father could attest to that. I called him probably every five minutes asking him where to go whenever I got lost. I either passed all the right streets, or made all of the wrong turns, or he told me the name of a street and I confused it for something completely different... yeah. It was a hassel. I certainly love the man for not losing his patience because I know that hearing that phone go off every ten seconds must have been driving him fucking nuts.
But eventually, I finally found myself in the area that housed a small collection of shops and stores. It was as close to a mini mall as Forks could afford, apparently. And because my priorities were not entirely sorted out in order, I set out to buy that fuck-ton of posters that I mentioned earlier. School supplies was important but my very pink room needed to be dealt with as soon as possible.
I parked my truck infront of a very obscure shop. The windows were covered in posters from White Zombie covers to large pictures of the Graverobber from Repo! A Genetic Opera. The door had a wide variety of skull stickers, naked animated women, and one very large upside-down pentagram.
"Huh, very My Immortal-esqe." I muttered to myself. "But it looks like the right place to get posters..."
Without hesitation, I pushed open the door and stepped into what appeared to be the Christian idea of Hell: black walls covered in a collage of posters and band flyers, red lights illuminating an otherwise very dark establishment, goth and metal merchandise hanging here and there, and Godsmack roaring over the speakers. In the far back of the shop was a wide variety of lingerie, corsets, and fetish items. The wall closest to me had a large collection of DVD's and CD's. Every other shelf in the store held incenses, candles, and plenty of accessories.
"Can I help you?"
The voice from behind me sounded unusually sweet in a place like this. I turned around to see a short, stocky woman with very dark skin wearing a corset and a spiked collar while the rest of her clothes followed a black and red color scheme. It was too dark to observe her make up, but she did have dark red lips and very messy eye make-up. Most interesting was her hair: though it was clearly artificial, she teased it in a way where it looked natural, but still carried an edge look.
I was already thinking about applying for a job here. Especially if the employees are encouraged to dress like it's Halloween. I could dig it.
"Uh, yeah..." I said. "I'm looking for some posters. You see, my room is very pink..."
Before I could get another word out, the girl turned on her heel and began to walk away from me. She gestured with her hand for me to follow, and so I did. She led me pass the music and DVD's and we stepped into a cornor near the bondage section. Next to the wide variety of awkard looking sex toys was the poster display. She gestured to it and nodded at me.
"If you need more help, let me know." she said, then pointed in another direction. "I'll be at the cash register."
"Okay, thanks!" I said as she walked away. Trying my best to ignore the sex toys (which was quite hard to do, some of those looked very painful), I began to flip through the posters.
"Let's see..." I whispered. "My room is kinda big, so... I guess I'll just have to take a whole bunch..."
To my surprise, their selection of posters was more than satisfactory, if not very surprising: "Wow, this place came with a Deadpool poster? I'm totally applying here..." I said to myself before taking the poster. "Heath Ledger Joker, of course!" I collected that one as well. "Rob Zombie's face, always good.... t.A.T.u., also very good... FUCK YEAH, SUPERBAD!"
It's moments like these where I was thankful that this store came with very loud music. I assumed that nobody heard me in this place, for if they did, I would've felt like a complete moron.
"Yeah... I'm buying the Superbad one for sure..." I found the poster and added it to the collection. And then I stumbled across a few rotten eggs. "Oh what the hell is this shit? Muse? MCR? Fuck Muse! And fuck MCR too!" I muttered, then rose an eyebrow at the next poster I stumbled across. "...Robert Pattinson, huh? Never heard of him... kinda creepy looking... ooooh, The Lost Boys! Nice..."
To say that the poster selection was totally awesome would be an understatement, even if it did have a few other posters I didn't care for (Evanescence, Pirates of the Caribbean, and couple Tim Burton posters that I've seen far too many times to find them appealing). To make matters even better, there were even posters of Legend of Zelda, Castlevania, Tomb Raider, and even Tifa Lockheart. Not one poster of Cloud Strife or Sephiroth, but one great big awesome poster of Tifa Lockheart. Epic win.
So with my huge selection of posters under my arm, I hauled them all the way to the cash register where I saw the employee who, judging by her name tag, went by the name of Mindy. She took one look at all of the posters, then looked back up at me with a very non-chalant expression.
"...You must really have one pink room..." she said. I nodded, and she turned away from me to grab something off of a shelf. When she turned back, she set down a skull candle-holder that was about the size of her fist. Inside was an already lit red candle. "Want to line your room with some of these? They're on sale."
"Maybe next time." I lied. Skulls and candles were pleasant and all, but I really didn't feel the need to turn my room into the aborted child of Spencer's Gifts and Hot Topic.
She rang up my posters and I paid her the money. As she bagged the posters for me, a newer song came on. To her clear displeasure, it was a new Paramore song. Personally I didn't mind the band too much, but this certainly was not the case for her. And to make matters worse, the door swung open rather obnoxiously, and a very loud voice boomed from over the music.
"Mah-therfock! Turn tha' shat off, goddamnye!"
I wasn't entirely sure if the accent was Irish or drunk. As it turns out, the accent belonged to a very tall, lean girl with bleach blonde hair and hot pink bangs. Her nose, cheeks, and bare arms were covered in freckles and her eyebrows had a ginger tone. The moment I smelled the alcohol eminated from her and then spotted a shamrock in the midst of the many tattoos on her arms, I had a feeling the accent was a combination of both Irish and drunk. Shame on me for reinforcing a stereotype.
"Rosie, you know you have a big mouth when you're louder than the music in here." Mindy said, still as non-chalant and uncaring as ever.
Rosie, as Mindy called her, stumbled over towards the counter and leaned against it, flashing a very mischievious grin. Up close you could see that she wore very little make up, took little time or effort to groom and primp her hair, and had a developing beer gut. Despite all that, there was really nothing entirely revolting about her, even though she was very loud. She reached over the counter and fumbled with something hidden from my view. Mindy clearly didn't care enough to stop her, and within seconds, a new song came on. To reinforce this stereotype further, it was the Celtic Cowboys with their song, "Kiss My Irish Ass." After the song came on, Rosie glanced over in my direction. She towered about a foot and an half over me, but did not look all that intimidating.
"Ain't seen ye 'round 'ere" she said, crossing her arms. "Ye new?"
I nodded. "Yeah, just moved in from Arizona."
"Oh yeah, I kin buy tha'." Rosie nodded, looking me over. "Lotsa tan people in Arizona, yeah? Ye an Indian?"
I chuckled. "Native American, yes. Half."
This made Rosie laugh for some reason, and I soon discovered why. "Ye visitin' tha' La Push reservation or somethin'? They got themselves a lot o' sexy Indian boys over in those parts. Much hotter than the pasty fockers we got 'round 'ere!"
Yes, I'm sure my mom would attest to that one. "No," I said, shaking my head. "I'm staying with my dad. Moved here to go to college. My first day is tomorrow."
"No shit! Which one?" Rosie stood straight and clearly looked excited. When I told her I would be attending Peninsula College, she started laughing again. "Yer shittin' me! Tha's where I'm goin'! Gonna be majorin' in art bein' as tha's tha only thing I'm good at apart from crashin' frat parties." then she jerked her thumb in Mindy's direction. "She goes there too. I think she's gonna be some kinda scary librarian when she grows up or something. Wha' else can ye get with a major in Philos'phy?"
Mindy responded by very casually raising her arm and giving Rosie the middle finger. Neither of them seem to take much offense to it though. It was probably how they bonded. Rosie stretched out and then pushed herself off of the counter. "Anyways, I'm gonna do some runnin' around an' buy school shit at the las' minute."
"I hope you mean that literally, because if you are driving..." Mindy began, but Rosie cut her off.
"I ain't drivin' shit, Mum." was the response. "I got a skateboard, which I ain't ridin' too well 'cause it's fockin' rainin'."
"Well..." I spoke up. "I have a truck and I have to get school supplies too, if you want a ride."
Her reaction was not entirely what I was expecting. She hooked one arm around my shoulders and gave Mindy a very cheesy grin. "Ya see this shit?" she chuckled. "Makin' friends ev'rywhere I go. Must be me charmin' personality."
"Must be." I said, but Mindy didn't look too convinced.
"...Doubt it." was all she said. Then she reached behind her again and pulled out a small box. "Your order came in, by the way. I assume this is why you're here."
Rosie's arm left my shoulders and she latched onto the box very quickly. "Aw snap! This is good news! Thank ye very much, Miss Mindy, yer my own personal brand o'..."
"If you finish that sentence in the way I think you are going to, I will slap you in the mouth." was Mindy's response, and Rosie simply waved her hand at her.
"Ah, fock it." she muttered, then looked at me. "C'mon then, le's go."
Attending college with Rosie was definately one of the most interesting experiences in Forks, second only to Charlie's reaction when he walked into my room on my first day of class and saw the collection of posters. There was something he found quite disturbing when he opened the door to my once very cute room and found Rob Zombie staring at him. But the poster he found the most offensive was the Superbad poster.
"Isn't that the movie with the two cops and that McMuffin kid?" he said, looking completely unamused. "Dumbest movie I ever saw in my life."
"It's McLovin. And come on, Daddy! You mean to tell me you're not a Superbad cop?" I said, then altered my voice to mimic his. "This is Officer Charlie Swan! Come out with your hands out! I assume you all have guns and crack!"
He responded by cuffing me upside my head. I only laughed it off. I did feel the need to make a mental note on how much cooler the police had become since that movie came out but I decided not to jinx it. After I grabbed something to eat, I took off in the truck to begin my first day of school. Because it was the first day for everybody, the classes were relatively short for the first week. We were each given a syllabus and a list of books and supplies that we would need. Most of these I had already acquired with my trip with Rosie, but there was some art equipment for our drawing classes that we needed to buy at certain shops.
The schedule consisted of three prerequisites and two elective classes. I had a drawing class, math class in geometry, and a psychology class with Rosie. The other two were classes in geology and one about the works of William Shakespeare. It looked as though it was going to be a relatively interesting semester. By the end of my first week, I had a few simple assignments to do and a few sketchbook pages to fill out, and I was fortunate enough to have a three day weekend. The best benefit of college is having fewer classes a day and fewer days of school.
"So how's that drawing class of yours?" Dad asked when I came home on a Thursday night.
"Kinda boring. We're starting off with basic stuff: drawing spheres, shading, still-life. Hopefully it'll pick up." was my response. I put away my bag, changed into some more comfortable clothes and then came back downstairs to join Dad on the couch. He was watching the end of a baseball game and I was eating some leftover steak and cobbler he brought home from the diner.
"But you're liking school so far?" he asked after taking a drink of his beer.
I nodded. "Yeah, it's a lot different from high school, but I'm liking it so far."
There was a few moments of silence between us. I'm not big on baseball and never enjoyed watching sports, but I didn't quite feel like leaving him be. After spending an entire week with Rosie, it was a nice change to be mellow for a little bit. After the game ended, Dad changed the channel just as an episode of Two and a Half Men came on, and halfway through the opening song, he remembered something.
"Oh! I almost forgot!" he said, getting my attention. "Do you remember Mrs. Applegate?"
Of all the cloudy memories I had of my childhood years in Forks, I remembered this one clearly. "She used to be my babysitter!"
"Yeah, I saw her today at the diner." was his response. "I told her you were in town and she was really excited. Said she would love to meet you again."
"Oh, that would be great! I haven't seen her in forever!" I smiled so big that unfortunately some of the food fell out of my mouth. After recieving a very odd look from my father, I wiped my chin and smiled again. "What is she doing?"
"She's a teacher over at Forks High School." he said. "You should pay her a visit tomorrow. You have the day off, right?"
"Oh yeah, that's right... that's a great idea, actually. I'll swing by during lunchtime and say hi! See if she recognizes me."
If I would have known that visiting Forks High School was going to potentially change my life forever, I would have happily stayed home that day.
