Okay at last I get to this story but look on the bright side, school is almost over and I only have a few days to go until the ultimate freedom is here!
Chapter 1
It's been nearly nine years since that night and I've grown up a lot since then. I was already working my butt off every day and getting straight A's. To anyone I was a Goth who had a bright future ahead of them.
That's right I said Goth, I decided a long time ago not to be brainwashed by the propaganda of the media who make people think that their so called 'fashion' designs were what's 'in' and 'cool'.
When all they really were was nothing more than trampy looking clothes that looked more like underwear and made girls act like total sluts out in public. Guys are even worse drooling over a girl because of how they look instead of their personality. Uh! What makes boys think that it's ok to judge a girl by how pretty she was anyway…?
I have had way too many boys hit on me at the café where I work. They'd walk up to me with a stupid cocky grin and start flirting with me thinking that they could get my number or e-mail.
HA! Fat chance. I did date this one guy because my friend Vicky kept on nagging me to do it. So I did and I'll admit it was fun at first, we had a lot in common. Then I found out that he was nothing more than a big phony who put on a different act for different girls so that he could get on their good side (and under their skirts). I told that loser off and dumped him head on when he asked me to be his girlfriend at this really nice restaurant.
It was so awesome! When the food came I dumped it all over him that ought to show that perv not to mess with me. It took all of the boys in town at least three years to get it through their shallow minds that I wasn't going to date anyone of them. Especially, after I gave this a guy a broken wrist, and nose for feeling me up.
I would have gladly given the jerk more than just a broken nose, but Vicky and a few of the employees at the Jade Dragon (now Clare's Gourmet Cafe) held on to me until I calmed down. Clare threatened to have me cleaning toilets for a year if I ever did something like that again.
It wasn't because she cared about me but rather about her precious little reputation as the owner of the café. She just didn't want me to ruin her good name and the business.
The roller rink she sold a year ago because she said that it was hiddious and smelled bad. What do you expect when you don't hire someone to clean it every three days.
She is always yelling at me that I ought to be more like my cousins. But they are two of the top five people I never wanted to be like, and that I didn't like, or rather I loathe them with cell in my body.
I think of plenty of people I dislike right off the top of my head without even trying. People who couldn't see past outer appearances and judged someone right then and there without having had said one word to them!
Believe me; I get plenty of that because of my dark clothing, make-up, and out look on life. Especially from-
"SAM!!!!"
Speak of the Devil herself…
I sat up from bed and looked at the speaker on my night stand. I scolded for a moment, this was the second time I had been interrupted this morning and I am already tired from having to stay up until three in the morning to finish my book report for Lancer.
Uh... Why I even had to learn about the consept behind symbolysim and theatrical influince in the complete works of Shakesphere was beyond me. Sure I liked the guys plays but believe me, if you had to sit through reading about nothing but concept for more or less and hour everyday for three weeks straight you'd be ready to pull your own eyeballs out from sheer boredom.
That and, I didn't get home last night until at least one in the morning since Clare had me working double night shift at both the cafe and the roller rink. I was ready to drop dead and go to sleep for the next three years. But no! I had that stupid assignment to do. If I ever wanted to get as far away as possible from Clare and the clones I had to make sure I got a scholarship to college. Clare made it very clear that she wasn't going to waste money on 'a pathetic excuse' like me.
So now I have to either save up the money on my minimum wage jobs or get a scholar ship. Either way, I have to work my butt off...
Emerging from the comfort of my bed, I stood up and stretched my stiff body. Four hours of sleep is defienetly not enough for a person. It's times like this that I hate morning more than I hate-
"SAM!!!"
"COMING!!!" I yelled back grinding my teeth so much that I nearly chipped a tooth. Too bad for me I was so focused on how much I hated my gaurdian that I failed to see my favorite pair of boots on the floor and ended up flat on my face and anging my knee on m night stand. Cringing in pain I got up and picked up a pair of clean clothes and slid them on.
A black corset with a purple spider in the middle, a black skirt with purple plaid stripes on it, and finally my boots. Flattening my black hair, which was standing up in all direction and was currently a tangled mess. I haven't looked in the mirror but I bet I probably looked like hell right about now.
I closed the door to my room behind me making sure that I had my key around my neck, satisfy that I had it I shut the door behind me. Now people might ask why did a teenage girl need to lock her bedroom door everytime she left it. Well the answer is pretty obvious.
The clones were always coming into my room and taking my things or my homework and nver giving them back and when I told on them Aunt Clare would just accuse me of hiding my things to get new ones! As if! I don't believe in material possesions. I only like a few things but those spoiled air-heads, who have everything, always want anything they don't need and don't have just to show it off in front of everyone.
Getting a lock was the only way that I could be sure that everything in there wouldn't end up in their royal highnesses' rooms. Amazing what lengths a girl has to go to to get some privacy in this high class barbie house.
Since, my room was on the third floor I had three flights of stairs to climb down from, that didn't help improve my already worse than usual mood. A vibrating sensation came from the beeper at my side, glancing down I saw it said 'pool'. Like I didn't already know that Clare wanted her breakfest by the pool as she did every morning.
Yawning as I made my way around the kitchen to get her breakfast that consisted of whole wheat low-fat toast, baked bagels with light cream cheese, and finally the main course, Swedish goat meat with a side of freshly imported Japanese carp.
I shudderred as I had to handle the raw meat out of the fridge. The smell made me want to gag but I held it in and stopped breathing through my nose and only breathed through my mouth. Still just the thought of touching a dead animal and eating it made my eyes water.
As if it wasn't bad enough that Clare made me cook this stuff and touch it with my hands, considering I'm a vegeterian. But that's Clare for you, as sensitive to others as stampeding elephant. God only knows her butt was as big as one. Which explains why she's trying out this new diet that she heard a bout at one of those social parties for the wealthy.
Ever since she turned forty and got her first wrinkle she's become obsessed about mainting her figure and looking young for as long as possible. The goat and carp were supposed to help her lose wieght and prevent wrinkles. Since the diet had food imported from around the world it was only for those who could afford it.
Clare just loved to show off her money in fron of everyone, from the cars in the garage to the her clothes, make-up, shoes, even the way she talked just seemed to say 'I'm richer and better than you are'. Personally it made me sick to see people like that walk around thinking they had the right to treat people like dirt.
Hey what's that smell? Oh crap! I pulled myself out of my thoughts to see that Clare's breakfast was almost burnt. A second longer and I would have served Clare a very crispy piece of toast. Flipping the pan over so that the goat slid onto the plate, I breathed a sigh in relief. The fish didn't look burnt at all only one side was a bit black but that could easily pass off for some pepper, and the goat was... well... Honestly I couldn't tell the difference since it still looked its nasty original state only it smelled slightly better.
I put the plate on a tray with a glass of freshly squeezed Mexican orange juice and a bowl of bran cereal with a heart shaped strawberry in the middle. The tray was pretty easy to carry considering I've been doing this for years under Clare's care. If she was going to have a burden like me then it better be able to carry a simple tray every morning.
I pushed the back door open with my foot and steeped out into the backyard where my gaurdian was busy tanning in her new disigner bathing suite while reading this week's issue of 'Aging yet Young and Beautiful'. She didn't need to turn around to see me coming with her food. It was like she had some kind of radar...
Wouldn't surprise me with all the plastic surgery she's had these past few years. I swear, she has got to be half flesh and half plastic...
"About time you came," Again she starts to criticize me, an it's not even eight yet. I held my tounge back and only said. "Sorry," I placed the food next to her and stood back, "Anything else?" This was pretty much the same routine every day, no matter how much I wanted to slap that fake face of hers and shove all of that plastic nose job right up her-
"No," she replied waving me off, "Now go," I turned to leave when she addressed me again, "Oh and Sam I need you to work today at the cafe before you go to school."
I fought the urge to roll my eyes, of course she wanted me to work, she always wants me to work. Instead, I just walked away grabbing my back pack that I had left by the door for a quick escape and rounded the corner so I could just leave through the front yard.
Just as I was walking a gallon of water almost splashed my feet and nearly soaked my shoes. I turned to see who had done that and caught sight of the clones in the pool in what was supose to be water ballay and dance. But to me it just looked like tey were trying to call for help and drown each other at the same time. I bit my lip from laughing out loud at them.
"Sorry about that!"
I knew that voice anywhere and turned to greet him. "Hey Josh!"
"Hey Sam!" He called back before turning back to try to intruct, key word try, Tina and Nina on how to not look like a couple of drowning ducks in floral pink bathing suits. As if that was possible...
As I closed the gate I could hear him say, "Okay, ladies one more time. It's step, step, spin, duck, flip, and then emerge gracefully out of the water into a swan..." I chuckled to myself at the sound of shrieks and insults being flung into the air.
"Tina! Stop slashing me you idiot!"
"Well maybe I wouldn't be slashing you if you'd stick to the routine!"
"Oh and like you're sticking to the routine!?
"Uh. Yeah...I AM!"
"HA! You look like more like a dancing monkey in a pink tutu."
"Why You Little-!"
After that came the sound of what sounded like they were in one of their hissy fits with each other. Normally I'd love to watch... but unlike them I actually had to work. Still maybe I should think about taping their fights...
It be so cool to put them on Youtube too...
Shaking my head from my thoughts I headed to my grandmother's car, which is now my car. It was one of those things that survived the fire but only because it was at the shop. It was also one of those things that Clare gave to me saying I was a perfect match to 'that old piece of junk'.
She probably didn't want to buy me a car either.
I didn't mind.
I liked the car and it was one of the things that kept me close to her.
When I have one of those rare moments to myself, I like to drive around town or around the block like I used to do with my grandma. The wind hitting my face felt good and there's this old road that leads into the woods where nobody goes.
Good. No one to get in my way when I hit over the speed limit.
This my sound corny, but it almost makes me feel like I'm flying...
For just a few seconds nothing matters and all that I have to care about is not to burn out the engine. Otherwise I'd have to manually restar the engine, and sometimes it doesn't start up and I'd have to push it all the way to the nearest gas station or wait for the engine to cool down a bit.
So what if my car wasn't the latest or even one of those gas eating buckets of colored metal that only abused our planets resources and polluted the air and killed off the ozone layer. I pulled in for one of those second hand bio-egines about a few months ago and I can honestly say that I don't have to spend as much cash on gas than most people in this town.
I've tried to get some of the local car dealerships to switch or to sell more evironmental friendly cars but they all just laughed in my face saying that I should just go and take my little petition to someone else or to go hug a tree. One of them even had the gall to call me 'babe'!
That sexiest sorry excuse for a-!
Unfortunetly I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I hadn't noticed that it was almost eight and I had only about ten minutes to get to work. Just as I when I had alomst reached my car the sprinklers came on. I yelped in surprise and ran to the faucet to turn them off. The hem of my skirt was soaked and so was part of the back of my shirt.
My fingers fumbled as I tried to turn the water off. "SAM leave the water on!" Clare called out from her spot by the pool.
"But we need to conserve water! We're in the middle of a draught!" I yelled back irritated.
"So that's not my problem, besides we already conserved water. I didn't have the car washed twice yesterday and I didn't have the lawn watered last night!"
"BUT-!"
"Look, we already saved some water and we have the money so why is it my problem!"
Reluclantly, I turned the water back on. I scowled in the back of my head because of my so called gaurdian's carelessness. Mayor Masters had said that this would be one of the harshest druaghts that Amity has had in over fifty years and she was just using up all of the water when others were doing all that they could to help the city.
But that's Clare for you. Shallow as an empty kiddie pool.
I climbd into my car and started th engine. It sputtered to life after a few try's, as I pulled out of the driveway I shook my head in disgust at the sight of Clare's house. It was literally the only green you could see for at least three blocks. As I drove to the cafe I could see dead and bare lawns with grass that crinkled in the wind and looked more like someone had taken a brown marker and colored over every lawn.
The gardens, that my neighbors thought so highly of, were now reduced to only a few flowers here and there in pots and some that were lucky enough to have grown in the shade. Even those looked like they were just about ready to wither and die. Kinda like the meat loaf on Thursdays at my school...
The sun beat down hard as I drove to work, and since the radio was only playing stupid sublimital advertisment, it did nothing to help my alredy befouled mood. By the time I pulled into the parking lot I was hot, sweaty, cranky and my knee still hurt from this morning.
At least my clothes were dried now.
The sight of the cafe made me want to hurl more than handling raw meat. Ever since Clare took over she turned it into some sort of, of... I can't even describe it but picture Polly Pocket combine with My Little Pony set back in the fifties and it was still worse than that!
The outside looked like a classic fifties diner, which, normall wouldn't have bugged me since I actually find that sort of retro stuff kinda of cool. But not when it's painted 'poodle pink'. At least she kept the huge bay windows that I liked to loo out of when I was little and just watch th cars and people go by.
And the cafe no longer had shelves that covered half the walls full of books that ranged between cooking to even mythological theories and advance scientific studies. Clare had decided that books weren't as important and that books were more for nerds instead of customers.
Instead there was now booths under tiny chandaliers that hung from the ceiling on one wall, and on the other there was a juke box with some of the most annoying songs ever! There was no longer any good bands on it anymore like Linkin Park, Green Day, or Dumpty Humpty.
The jingle of the bell that hung over the door announce my arrival to the staff. "Hey Sam!" they chorused together. I waved back and got to work cleaning the tables and floors. I was almost done with table six and sat down for a five minute break and tried to study for my history test today. When a familiar voice grabbed my attention.
"Sam?"
I turned to greet the person, "Hey Vicky," I said casually.
"Don't you 'hey Vicky' me, what are you doing here? You should be in school." She placed one hand on her hip and with the other she pointed to my open text book.
"Clare wanted me to-"
Vicky held her hand up to silence me, "Say no more, look Sam, you'll never get into college if you're stuck in this poodle palace."
"But-"
"She's right Sam," Greg, the head chef said with his Latin accent, "You should be in school."
Soon Randy, Flora, and Kie joined in stopping what they were doing for a second.
Flora was nearly fifty-four, but she had more energy than meets the eye. Despite her grey hair, few wrinkle, and small, fragile looking frame. She walked over to my with a tray of clean dishes and wagged her finger at me, "You better stop cleaning right now before I have to make you," she positioned the tray and huffed away muttering, "Just ain't right to have young people working like slaves, just ain't right..."
"I know you need the money, but what's the point of saving for college if you don't go to school once in a while." Kie added looking up (or down) from his work at fixing a light.
Randy looked at his watch, he took away the mop in my hands and hel it out of my reach so I couldn't get it from him, "You're going to be late if you don't hurry."
I opened my mouth to argue but closed when I saw the gleam and defiant look on Vicky's face and sighed, "Thanks you guys."
"No problem, and don't you worry about Clare, I'll handle her," she ushered me out the door.
I shook my head grateful that I had a friend like her. Vicky was not someone who you'd want to get mad. The fiery Hawian had been sort of a mother to me ever sinc my grandma passed away and was always looking out for me. The people who worked at the cafe were more of family than Clare ever was or ever will be.
I stopped and slapped my head when I realized that I had left behind my book. Turning around I saw Vicky leaning against the door with my book in her hand. "Forgetting something?" she saud innocently.
"Hehe, thanks Vicky," I said meekly blushing a bit. My watched started to beep which could only mean one thing... "Oh man I'm going to be late!" Grabbing my book I sprinted to my car and started it up. Within five seconds I was pulling out of the parking lot. "See-ya Vicky!" I waved good-bye.
"Good Luck on your test today!" she answered back.
It looked like my luck was changing a bit since I got to school with a few minutes to spare. I breath in relief, now all I had to do was find a parking space...
That's chapter two and now it's time to soak my fingers in some ice and start worrying about what I got on my finals. So far I did pretty good in science the rest is a mystery and I'm scared to find out. At least schools almost out and I won't have to worry about this sort of stuff until August. The next stories I'll update will be Burdens and Who is He. Now... where's that ice...?
Special thanks to Ali Phantom for being my beta-reader