"I can try and ask around for you," I offer.
"Please." She looks at me with a smile that shows her dimples. "That would help so much." I could ask Andrew if his sister, Alex, would want to join. She looks like the type of girl that would be fond of cheerleading.
* * * *
At last, the bell rings and that means it's time for English class with Andrew. I'm so psyched to see him! I've been waiting to see him since he left Caroline's party. Now, it's just a matter of minutes away. I want to run to the classroom, but instead I try to pace myself as best as I can.
I walk into the classroom and I look around for Andrew. I can't find him anywhere. Where is he? Maybe he'll be here in a few minutes.
I find a seat in the back of the room and wait patiently.
The final bell rings and he still isn't in class. He must not be in school because I didn't see him at breakfast either. Why is he missing school? I was looking forward to seeing his glorious eyes and his endless smile. Where is he?
* * * *
It's the end of the day and I haven't seen Andrew, William, or Alex. I wonder why they're all out of school on the same day. I hope everything is OK. My first day of work starts at 3:30 p.m. I have to find Caroline in school and tell her I have to drop her off at home and then go to work.
On the way home I can't help but ask her about the Madsen brother. "Did you see William today?"
"Nope," she says like she's aggravated about it. She had been looking forward to seeing him.
"Andrew wasn't in school either. I wonder why," I admit.
"Me too," she says.
I drop Lynns off at home and head right to work. As I pull into the parking lot of "New to You" I start to get nervous. "It's OK," I whisper to myself. "Everything is going to be fine. It's just work." I look in the mirror and put my hair into a ponytail. It's kind of difficult to manage doing in a car, but when I finish putting it up, it actually looks decent enough for my first day of work.
I walk inside the store and it's not that big. I've only been in this store once and it was to fill out a job application. I didn't take the time to observe my surroundings.
It's very organized. Men's, women's, baby's clothes and shoes are in their own aisles right next to each other. The dressing rooms are at the back of the store. On the opposite side is random miscellaneous things consisting of dishes, electronics (video games, TV's, radio's, etc.), decorations for houses, etc. In the middle of the store is a selection of jewelry and purses, and the front desk and cash register is right next to the front door.
I go to the front desk and see Sydney Paigee. It's a relief off of my shoulders to see someone I sort of know that works here. That will definitely ease my nerves. "Nina," Sydney shouts.
"Hey, Sydney," I say back to her.
"I see you're on the schedule to work today," she says while looking at a piece of paper on the front desk.
"Yes. It's my first day here," I say and immediately regret it because it's an obvious fact that it's my first day here.
"Guess what?" She says.
"What?" I say with a curious look on my face.
"Our supervisor told me that I'm going to be training you," she grins.
Relief crosses my mind and face. I smile and walk over to her. "What first?" I ask.
"I'll take you to the employees lounge so you can put your belongings there." She walks me to the back near the dressing rooms and she types in a code on the wall that allows us access into the room. "Remember these numbers: 2, 5, 0, 4."
"I'll try," I laugh.
The employee's lounge is small consisting of a couple of tables and chairs. I hang up my sweatshirt in the closet and set my purse in there too. Sydney hands me a grey shirt to put on that says the store's name on it and a name tag with my name printed on it. "This is where we punch in to start work," she says, pointing to this machine on a table. "Here's your time card," she holds up a small yellow slip and shows me how to use the machine. "I'm going to start you off with something easy and simple today since it's your first day."
"Thanks," I say. "With what?"
"You're going to be working the dressing rooms for most of your shift. All you do is count the number of clothes everyone has, give them a number tag, and unlock a dressing room for them. Simple, right?" She asks with a smile.
"Very," I answer.
"Later, I will teach you how to use the cash register and all of that fun junk," Sydney jokes.
"OK."
"Finally, I have a friend that works here. My shifts were starting to get boring without anyone to gossip with," she winks.
She shows me around, explaining how things work around the store. Then, she sends me off to the dressing rooms to start working.
* * * *
I've been here for a few hours and it's been slow and dragging. I just sit here waiting for customers to come up and let me count their clothes. Am I really getting paid for this? I'll take it.
I hear the bell ring from the door opening. I look to see who it is and there she is, Alex. She wasn't in school today, but she has time to go shopping. It doesn't make any sense. Maybe they were just skipping school like most teenagers do.
Ten minutes later, Alex comes up with a handful of clothes. I guess it's true about her having a shopping addiction. "How many do you have?" I ask.
She begins to count them, "One, two, three, four, five, six," she says out loud. As she is counting out loud I notice she has these red stains on her shirt. It looks like blood. "I have just six."
"Hear you go." I hand her a card with the number six on it and I go and unlock a dressing room for her.
She's just about to shut the door, but she stops. "Are you Nina?" She asks.
"Yes, I am."
"My brother was right, you are tremendously pretty," she says while looking at me.
"Andrew?" I ask.
"Yes, he likes you," she confesses. I just smile at her because I have no idea what to say. I can't believe he actually likes me and he told his sister about me. "It's weird because he never likes any girls. Well, not since we moved here," she admits. "I'm his sister, Alex. It's nice to meet you."
"I know who you are. He told me about you," I admit.
"All good things I hope," she smiles and shuts the door. When she smiled I noticed that she has red liquid stained on her teeth. It looks just like the stain that's on her shirt. It looks like blood. That's odd.
She opens the door and hands me the number tag. "Nice to meet you, Nina," she says and walks away.
"You too," I say back. I'm still disoriented mentally about the red stains. It could be anything though. I don't understand why I'm making a big deal about it.
* * * *
My first day of work went pretty good. It was slow most of the time and kind of boring, but it's better than sitting at my house doing homework or doing absolutely nothing at all. I'm glad Sydney works there too. She's nice and helpful. I think I could actually start liking the concept of going to work since I have a friend there and I'll be making money, which is always an exceptional thing.
CHAPTER 6
Party Time
Dear Diary,
Most of the time I feel lost in this world, like I don't belong. Sometimes I feel like I live a life that's a dream, like I'm living a lie.
I put my headphones in my ears and listen to music while I dream about having a different life, being a different person. I dream about a life full of happiness and peace. A life where fear and sadness doesn't exist. It makes me happy. And then, I take my headphones out and come back to face reality. I realize that it's just a dream, it's not real and it never will be. That's the worst part, but at least I have those 20- 30 minutes of happiness in a whole different world. World, dream, same thing.
I can't believe it's already been a week since my sister's birthday, since the last time I saw Andrew. I haven't seen him whatsoever. He hasn't been in school for a week and I haven't heard from him. I've been speculating where he's been.
Love
, Nina
* * * *
It's finally Saturday! This week has gone by quickly. School is the usual, just a re-run everyday. I go to all of my classes and then after school I go to work with Sydney. Caroline goes to cheerleading practice with Kali. Syd always keeps me entertained with her random out bursts of gossip.
Kali invited Caroline and me to her "Back to School Party". Everyone is suppose to be going. It's the highlight of going back to school each year. I've never been invited to one of these parties before this. I usually enjoy keeping myself company and avoiding the existing people around me.
She's popular in school because of cheerleading and her parents are extremely rich. They let her go to their home away from home, a cabin in the woods located in Charlotte and throw parties whenever she wants too.
Before I can start getting ready for the party, I have to work the afternoon shift for a few hours, which I don't mind at all.
"Are you going to Kali's party tonight?" I ask Syd while we're just sitting here reading magazines because the store is sluggish today.
"Kali Lexington's back to school party?" She asks.
"Yes."
"No," she says without even looking up from the magazine she's reading.
"Why not?" I ask, kind of mixed up. Everyone is going to Kali's party.
"I wasn't invited and I don't hang out with that crowd," she clarifies.
"I'm sure Kali wouldn't mind if you came with me," I say with a somewhat convincing smile.
"I'm not really into the party scene," she says, still not looking up from her magazine.
"Please, come with me. Caroline is probably going to take off with Kali and leave me twiddling my thumbs all by myself," I say with a cheerless face. "Come on. We'll have fun!"
"I'll go if you promise to never say "twiddling" again!" She says and we both start laughing.
"Deal!"
* * * *
Caroline convinces me to dress up and go all out tonight. She keeps telling me that we only live once, so live it up to the highest level. I can't believe it, but my little sister sounds right.
Lynns decides to play dress up with me. I'm not very keen in the fact that she's doing this to me. The closest I've ever gotten to heels were my wedges I have. Those are the only type of heels I can actually walk in, sometimes.
Caroline makes me put on a black dress that is far above my knees and it has pink stripes in the middle. She puts me in the only heels I can walk in, black wedges. My hair is perfectly straight and she did my make up, which I wear very little, with smokey eyes and pink lipstick.
I look into the mirror and my jaw drops. I don't look like myself at all, and I barley recognize the girl staring back at me in the mirror. I look different, beautiful.
"I'm so good!" Caroline says with confidence.
"I look," I break-off into silence and look at myself in the mirror, "amazing, Lynns."
* * * *
I'm not so surprised to pull up to Kali's cabin in Charlotte and see cars lined up everywhere down the dirt road. I'm starting to get nervous about the way I'm dressed. I hope I don't look to dressed up. Caroline's next to me shaking in excitement. "This is going to be so fun!"
I park on the side of the dirt road and we get out of the car and begin to walk to the party. I get a couple of feet away from my car and I already roll my ankle from the wedges. "This was such a bad idea," I say. "We have to walk back to the car."
"No, you look amazing!" Lynns says, trying to convince me, but it just isn't working.
"I'm going to end up in the hospital with a broken leg," I say with a chuckle.
"Let's go!" She says in an agitated tone.
"I brought boots because I had a feeling this would happen." We walk back to the car and I change into my warm black boots. This feels much better and safer!
It takes us about five minutes to walk to the cabin. It feels like the longest, most nerve wrecking minutes of my life. I'm not used to being around big crowds like this. I've always just kept to myself.
Kali's outside greeting everyone with a red cup. She looks over at us and screams the Kali scream. A loud piercing noise runs through my ears. "YAAAAAAY, you made it, girls!"
My ears start to ring like someone just rang a bell right beside both of my ears. Caroline makes it worse with her screaming. "HEEEEEEY!"
"Here is a red cup for both of you ladies," Kali says as she's handing us both a cup.
I take a sip and instantly spit it back into the cup. "Kali! What is this?" I shout.
"It's beer. What else would be in a pretty red cup?" She says sarcastically.
I dump it out onto the grass. "I don't drink, and I'm driving."
"No drinking and driving! You're a smart cookie," she says with a wink. I think she's already drunk.
Caroline begins to drink and I try to stop her because she shouldn't be drinking, but she pushes me away. My sister will do anything to fit in. Seeing her drink is making me regret even considering and showing up to this party.
We go inside the cabin and it's completely filled with people. I spot Sydney sitting by herself on a couch in the living room.
I walk over to her and before I get to the couch some guy comes up to me. "Hi, beautiful," this random guy says.
"Hi," I say back with a very bewildered facial expression.
He reaches his hand out to shake mine, "I'm Nathan Russe." I recognize him from school. I think he's on the football team.
"I'm Nina." I reach my hand out to greet his, "Mckay."
"I know who you are. You're one of Kali's friends," he says.
"That's me," I say and pretend to spot Sydney. I wave to her and try to cut off the conversation with Nathan. "It was nice to meet you," I say and begin to walk away.
"Nice meeting you too, beautiful," he says and gives me this awful wink. He's cute, but the alcohol on his breath and the hideous facial expressions he shows makes him look like a bum. Hearing the tone in his voice I know exactly what he wants. He doesn't want to get to know me. He wants to compliment his way into my pants. Disgusting.
I walk over to Syd and flop myself down on the couch. "This was a bad idea," I say.
"Tell me about it," she says with a smirk on her face.
We sit there in silence, just watching the drunk fools talk and joke around. It looks like they're having fun, but I wonder if they know how ridiculous they look. Some girls are just a mess, stumbling their way from room to room and trying to be the center of attention with the boys. I don't think they realize that they seriously look like a drunken hot mess. Others are too drunk to even realize that they're making absolutely no sense in the conversation they're trying to have. I should invest some money into a video camera and record all of them so I can put it on youtube.com.
Syd pretends to yawn and reaches her hands up in the air. She sits up straight and begins to talk, "Well, it's time for me to hit the hay."
"You're leaving already?" I ask.
"I told you I would come here, but I never said how long I would stay." She laughs at herself. Syd always seems to make herself laugh. She doesn't care if anyone else laughs at her jokes. As long as her jokes make her laugh, that's all that matters to her.
"OK, leave me here with a bunch of fools all by myself."
"You'll be busy soon, carrying your drunk sister home if you don't cut her off now," she says as she gets up off the couch.
"I'll see you at work Monday."
She leaves me all by myself. I think I'm the only sober one here. Luckily Kali is enforcing a "no drinking and driving" rule.
I sit on the couch for about a half hour staring around me at all of the belligerent drunks everywhere. It's quite amusing for the time being.
I look over and see a blond girl sitting on the floor. She looks wasted. I think she drank way too much. Her friends are huddling around her and trying to have a conversation. "He hates me. I wish he would just love me," the blond girl cries hysterically.
"He loves you with all of his heart. Just give
him time to respond to your text. I know he will," the blond girl's friend says. Let me get this straight. The blond girl is sitting on the floor crying her eyes out in front of all of these people because some guy didn't text her back. Now, she thinks he hates her. She's humiliating herself. I'm glad I decided against drinking.
I look over toward the front door and I'm absolutely blown away when Andrew, William, and Alex walk in. His eyes instantly meet mine. He smiles at me and starts walking over toward me.
"I thought you would be here," he says with a never ending smile and his face lit up like the moon in the sky. He came here to see me. That's making me even more nervous.
"Kali convinced me," I admit.
"She can be very persuasive." Andrew looks me up and down. "You look," he falls into silence, "quite lovely tonight, Nina."
I feel the bright red color start covering my face. "Thank you."
"Your sister can barely walk. I think you should take her home," William says as he walks up to us just to give me some startling news.
"Already?" I ask. I was going to go check on her, but I didn't think she would drink so much.
"I'll help you," Andrew offers.
We follow William to the room where he seen Caroline last. "Where is she?" I ask. I can barely hear my own voice over the music and the people screaming.
"She has to be around here somewhere. I just saw her in the kitchen a minute ago," William says.
We start checking all of the rooms, starting with the bathroom. She's no where to be found. We go outside to see if she's stumbling around anywhere.
All of a sudden, Andrew and William take off running. I start to follow them and have no idea why they're running. It's hard to keep up with them because they're just way too fast. Then, I hear it. A girl screaming. I run as fast as I can to where I hear the screaming of the girl.
I spot the Madsen brothers running toward the girl that's crying for help. I keep running and take a closer look at the young girl. It's Caroline. She's down the dirt road a ways. She's leaning against a car on the side of the road. Some older guy is putting his hands all over her. He's holding her and trying to kiss her. Lynns can barely stand up straight.
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