InsaneJournal

Characters: Kate Fuller, Richie Gecko.
Location: Richie’s building; La Habra.
Time: October 20, late afternoon.
Warnings: TBA.
Summary: Getting a job.
Status: Closed, incomplete.

Senior year should have meant nights spent pouring over editions of Cosmo that they bought in the midst of giggling fits; a quartet of girls in a truck heading to A&W for hamburgers while their homework had been unceremoniously dumped beneath their feet. Calculus tests and biology notes and analyses on Hamet instead of floor mats. Their parents would all chastise them for not being more worried about their academics, since this was their last year before they were to be sent out into the world, but all of the stern gazes and lectures were weightless. Most of them already knew that they were assured to get into the school of their choice. Recommendations had already been written. Grades had been exceptional—especially for Kate—up until this point. Nights could be spent trying their first shots of tequila in someone’s basement, planning for prom, and laughing at the silly articles in a trashy magazine—and nobody had to feel worried or stressed unless they were hung-over for church service on Sunday morning.

This was not going to be the senior year she’d envisioned.

She’d skipped church the morning before, feeling righteous and justified all the while until night descended and the guilt began to prickle; eventually she found her cross pendant in one of the unpacked boxes, put it on its chain, and asked for forgiveness. The school and the classes and the people were nothing like that perfect little setup she and her friends had imagined for themselves—a year-long party to celebrate their youth before being catapulted into their futures. The rest of her friends, back home, they still had that year, that time to evolve into the first variation of adults they would become, but tragedy had thrust Kate there, and before she was ready (though two months ago, she might have said she was ready), childhood and innocence were gone, home was gone, and this was what was left. Memories of things that hadn’t happened were far and away better than anything that had ever actually happened. A divine comedy, or something like that.

Kate stood before the locksmith’s building with a near-empty plastic cup of horchata dangling from her fingers. Her aunt wasn’t supportive. Rather than accepting Kate wanting to get a job, she encouraged her niece to join clubs, try out for the volleyball team, join the church youth group or volunteer to help with Sunday school. In spite, Kate had declined all these suggestions, instead forging ahead with her original idea: get a job, make money, graduate, and then whatever. Work hard and stay busy and don’t give up. Although her aunt had given her a lacklustre blessing in the morning, wishing her feigned good luck, it was only because she anticipated—incorrectly—the types of places Kate would be seeking a job. The Abercrombies and the Starbucks of the world. Instead, Kate had stopped into hole-in-the-wall shops to talk to owners about work. And this was the last stop.

Her lips circled around the hot-pink straw and slurped up the last few drops of horchata before she disposed of the cup in the trash outside. Despite the anxiety that had radiated her off her first few attempts, she had calmed down quite a bit, was feeling more confident; having adopted a “no harm in trying” attitude about the whole thing. She pushed open the door to the building and peered inside, but didn’t spot anyone—not a customer nor the owner. The door shut behind her with a surprisingly ungracious thud, announcing her presence before she even said a word. “Hello?” She called into the room as she approached the counter, her head still craning to try and catch a glimpse of whoever was working.