Chapter 3: Familiar Faces

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Clare woke to the sound of her alarm. 9:00AM time to start a day full of work. She decided to surprise her dad when he got home tonight with a clean house to make him feel a little better.

With a tired sigh she threw the covers off her bed and went into the bathroom. After cleaning up and throwing some clothes on for the day she made her bed and headed downstairs.

Her first job of the day was making breakfast. Her dad had already left, so she only had to make food for herself. Clare threw some bread into the toaster and grabbed a plate and some butter.

After finishing her toast she decided she would start with the messy kitchen. She stacked as many plates, cups, forks and knives in the dish washer as she could possibly fit and started the wash. The rest of the plates were done by hand and dried, then neatly put away.

She smiled and looked at her finished work. Her dad would be so happy when he came home.

Her next task was the laundry. It was the worst it had been in a long time. She traveled into the laundry room, when she got a text from Eli. "Hey, Edwards. When do I get to see you again?" Clare smiled. She quickly responded "I'm not sure if I can today, got a lot of house work to be done" she waited until she heard her ringtone again. "Alright. Tell me if you finish early, I'll treat you to dinner" Clare smiled. As much as she wanted to go see Eli tonight she had no idea how long the laundry would take. She looked at the massive pile. Better get to work.

She started with light colors. Loading in pants and shirts. She put in the soap, the last of the soap. With a heavy sigh she hit the start button on the machine. Of course they would be out. She slipped on her shoes and walked to the nearest Ready Mart.

She scanned the isles until she found what she was looking for. Right as she was about to go to check out she heard a voice.

"Excuse me, but are you Clare, Clare Edwards?"

Clare slowly turned around. She saw a tall boy with light hair. He wore a red shirt, jeans and hiking boots. There was something familiar about this boy. "Do I know you?" she asked trying not to sound rude.

"Actually yes" he said with a large smile "I'm not sure if you remember me but, its Jake, Jake Martin!"

Clare's mouth dropped instantly. Her eyes widened, "Jake?" she said "What are you doing here?"

Jakes smile instantly turned into a grin. "After all these years, Clare Edwards doesn't even say hello" he joked.

She chuckled at his remark and rolled her eyes. "fine, Jake! Hello! How are you" she said with a hint of sarcasm.

He laughed. "Clare Edwards is being sarcastic? What has this world come to?" he joked smiling again.

Clare laughed. "So how are you?" she said.

Jakes face turned serious. "It's been hard without my mom. I find myself alone a lot, but I'm pulling through." he looked into Clares sympathetic eyes. "I'm fine Clare, really. How is your family?"

Clare sighed. "My family is nothing like it used to be." Jakes face turned to confusion. "My parents recently went through a divorce" she said.

"Oh I'm sorry" he said not knowing how to respond. "How are you? How is Darcy?"

She smiled "I'm fine, it was hard at first but I've got lots of people to help me" Clare said thinking about Adam, Alli, and of course Eli. "Darcy is building schools in Kenya, so we haven't really talked to her recently."

"Well at least your doing alright." he said with a smile "We should hang out sometime, you know catch up."

Clare smiled "I'd like that, are you free now? We could head over to the Dot?"

Jake looked toward the door. He smiled and looked back at Clare "Sure, I'm gonna need someone to show me around" Clare laughed.

"lets go!" she said linking arms with him. She felt like she was younger, when they used to go everywhere together. They always had their arms linked and they were always laughing. She lead Jake out the door and towards the Dot, excited to see him again.