Chapter 10: Boring Shifts && Football Games

Author's Note:: Ok, first let me thank my fantastic and forgiving reviewers who gave me the inspiration to finish and publish this sooner than I thought I would. Second, I'd like to celebrate for a minute. The setup is DONE and the plot can begin! I'm so excited, because I have a lot of wonderful things planned for all of you who have stuck with the story so far. It should be quite an adventure.

What Happened Last

"We're having a Halloween party on Friday at Pogue's house. Do you wanna come?"

"Sounds great."

October 29th, 2006

Apparently there weren't a lot of people in Ipswich who wanted to buy groceries at 4:30 in the afternoon on a Wednesday. When Junia had gotten to work there had been a small amount of back-up in the lines, but now there was pretty much nobody in the entire store. Only a few people were wandering around the store with half-full carts, and most of the others were headed straight to the Express lines. Junia stood at her register station, cleaning every nook and cranny she could find with a rag that had at one point been damp, but now was just turning cold. It felt like it had been four hours since she had come to work, not an hour and a half.

As Junia stood up from where she had been bent over, cleaning the bottom of the cash register stand, she was hit in the head with something. She looked down and found a waded up piece of paper with a big blue ten on it that had once been used to hold a roll of dimes. She picked it up, glancing at her surroundings, searching for the culprit. She wasn't that hard to find. Monica Kim was standing casually facing her own cash register with her head turned to Junia.

Junia held up the piece of paper, her eyebrows raised.

"I hate when it's like this." Monica responded. She had been working at Peville's for the past three years as she had been a student at Spenser Academy. She had graduated last year was taking a gap year before heading off to University of Pennsylvania next fall. "Mostly I wanted to take a break before I had to go to school for another four years. I just told my parents I wanted to work for my education, instead of having them pay for everything. There's nothing a parent wants to hear more than their kid wanting to take responsibility. So my dad convince my mom to let me do it. This is going to be the easiest year of my life." Monica sounded so sure of her decision, it reminded Junia of her fighting to go to Spenser. "Have you been watching the football game?"

"The what?" Junia asked.

"Do you ever look out the window? There's a touch football game going on across the street. It's pretty good." Monica looked over her shoulder and out the window. Junia followed her gaze to watch a bunch of guys running around the field. She had been too engrossed in her cleaning and own thoughts about what she was going to be for Halloween and how to get to the party, to bother looking out the window for an outside source of entertainment.

"I didn't notice." Junia commented, looking back over to Monica. "I didn't know you liked football." There were a lot of things Junia didn't know about Monica, but she wouldn't have pegged her as a sports type of girl.

"I don't." Well that sorted that out. "But I do like hot guys, and you have to admit…" Monica trailed off looking outside again "they are pretty good looking." Junia also turned to look, absent-mindedly moving her rag over the bagging surface in small circles as she followed the game. A boy ran down to one side of the field towards what she could only guess was marked out as the end zone. He leapt up as the football went hurdling through the air and caught the ball, somehow managing to land on his feet while keeping possession of the ball. After this feat he started victory lap, in which he threw the football towards the ground and ran around with pointer fingers high in the air, giving selective teammates high fives. Monica was right; these guys were good looking. He turned so that he was no longer facing away from her so that she could see his profile. He was familiar. It didn't take Junia long to place a name to the face, and as he turned fully around to confirm what she already knew, his name was ringing through her head. Reid. She quickly looked back down at what she had been doing, washing off the counter with more energy than she had previously, her face feeling hot. A young mother juggling her toddler stepped into Junia's queue.

"Hi. Thank you for shopping at Peville's Grocery." Junia greeted, placing the rag under the counter "Did you find everything alright?"

"Yes." The mother gave a quick smile as she tried to put the items up onto the conveyer belt while keeping her boy's little fingers off of the candy. "Liam." She scolded, grabbing his hand away as he threatened to pull all of the Snickers down into the line. The boy turned and faced Junia, a scowl on his face. It was comical how serious he was about it. The mother looked hassled, and Junia felt like she should make an attempt to help.

"Hi, there." she looked at the little boy who turned to look up at her.

"Hi." He said shortly, a frown still somewhat in place.

"I like your shirt." Junia smiled, pointing at the boys grey shirt with little multicolored sedans driving on lines across it.

"I like cars." He grinned, a complete change of mood.

"Me too." Junia lied as she began to ring up the items. "What kind of car is your favorite?"

"Green ones. Green means go!" he shouted. "Vroom! Vroom!"

"Liam." His mother said, warning.

"I'm sorry." Junia apologized, changing her voice into a stage whisper as she addressed the boy. "I like green ones too." Junia's bike was mint green. "That'll be 43.76." she turned to tell the mother. The mother moved over to the pin pad and began filling it out.

"Would you like a sticker?" Junia asked Liam. He nodded. Junia reached under the counter for a "Paid" sticker and handed it to the boy who looked positively thrilled.

"Thank you." The mother said.

"It's no problem. He's very cute." Junia looked over at the mother, smiling. Her gaze went over the mother's shoulder and out the windows, straight to where she saw Reid looking at her. He stood, gazing into the windows as the rest of the circle that he was in huddled. He had to be looking at her, their eyes were locked. Junia's stomach turned over, and she felt her heart began to quicken a little. The woman had turned to talk to Liam for a second in the middle of paying, leaving Junia stuck in Reid's stare. He smiled, and she turned away to the sound of the receipt exiting the computer. She ripped it out, attempting to get her heart back into it's normal pace.

"Have a great day, ma'am." Junia said before turning to look at the little boy. "And you too sir."

"Thank you, you too." The mother responded. The pair walked out, the little boy holding his mother's hand jabbering to her the entire time. Junia looked back outside. Reid had joined a huddle.

"So, who are you looking at?" Monica asked, startling Junia a little bit so that she whipped her head back to face Monica. "Is it the guy with the blue shirt and the jeans and black pointy hair? Do you think he's from Italy? I mean, seriously, who's that tan in October? I bet he has an accent." Monica rambled a little looking back out the window. Junia was almost ready to breathe a sigh of relief when Monica looked back over at her. "So?"

"I wasn't really looking at anyone. Just smiling because of the little boy. He was so adorable." Junia tried to change the topic.

"Bull." Monica challenged. "Come on, I don't even go to Spenser anymore. It's not like I can tell people or whatever."

"Why would you tell anyone anything? It's not like I'm interested in one of them."

"Ooooh, you are. Otherwise you wouldn't have brought it up, or tried avoiding the conversation." Monica said, turning to fully face Junia. "Come on, tell me. Which one? Just if it's the guy in the purple hoodie, lie to me. He's…ehhhh." She made a face.

"Well, even though it's nothing. I was looking at the blonde guy. In the grey hoodie." Junia added. She felt her heart pick up again. She returned to the cleaning, trying to distract herself.

"Reid?" Monica said after a moment. It must have taken her some time to locate him out the window. "You like Reid Garwin?"

"What? No. I just think he's ….attractive." That was a lame defense.

"Let me tell you," Monica said, capturing Junia's attention with her tone. "You could do a lot worse than Reid Garwin. He's on the swim team you know, so he's…" she gestured oddly, in a way that Junia didn't quite understand. "Built." She finished her sentence.

"Yeah. I heard he's a bit of a…" Junia trailed off, hoping to catch some bit of information.

"Smart ass? Yeah, a little bit. But it's pretty funny, and most of the people he targets deserve it." It gave some information, but not a lot. "At least, that's what I gathered based on one elective I had with him two years ago." An elderly man walked into Monica's line, and Junia gestured for her to help him.

"Hi. Thanks for shopping at Peville's Grocery. Did you find everything okay, sir?" Monica asked. Junia turned her attention back to the window, Reid was in the middle of a play, running after a guy who had the ball. If only this would continue until the end of her shift.

Ending Thoughts:: Due to the length of this chapter when I finished it, I broke it into two parts. So still consider this to be Part 1.