Planets: Chapter Two: Food for Cheap (Part Two)

Kelsi entered the classroom just as the bell rang then did an about face and walked out the door towards the local grocery store (Food for Cheap) where she worked. The only thing more annoying than the store’s ridiculous mascot, Charlie the Chick (“Cheep, cheep, cheap food at Food for Cheap!) Was the fact that Kelsi had to do all the rotten jobs (mop the floor, wash the windows, re-stock food) instead of doing the easy jobs like ringing up food. (Yet another problem because of her technology “curse.”)
“Hey Lorna!” Kelsi considerably brightened as she saw her best friend walk in and put on her “Food for Cheap” apron on.
“Hey! Do you think I’d get in trouble if I put an arrow through Charlie’s head and cross out his eyes to make him dead?” Lorna smiled, pointing at the cartoon Charlie on her apron.
“Wouldn’t risk it, can you risk losing your job and college fund?” Kelsi asked, already knowing that Lorna would say no. Her greatest ambition in life was to go to college and become a science major.
Lorna shook her head. “To bad though, it would have been so refreshing!” She put her sunshine colored hair up with a bright yellow scrunchie.
“Girls!” Mr Merah, the assistant manager scolded. “You know your jobs! Get to work!”
“Yes sir!” Kelsi said as she and Lorna gathered together an eclectic assortment of mops, brooms, rags and cleaning solutions.
She and Lorna would work side by side down each aisle, talking the whole time.
“Do you remember your real parents?” Kelsi asked Lorna. Like Kelsi, Lorna was an orphan but had come to the orphanage when she was five. Lorna had been adopted by a couple with a large family (seven kids) that wanted an even eight but were unable to have more. She and Kelsi had become inseparable when Lorna was at the orphanage for a few months and had been best friends ever since.
“A little. I remember her telling me that she was sending me on a mission to save someone,” Lorna laughed, sounding like a chorus of tiny bells.
“What did she look like?” Kelsi scrubbed a particularly stained linoleum tile.
“I mostly remember what she was like, she was kind, her voice was soft. I do remember that she had long hair though. It was dark brown and hung around her face in soft waves.”
“Clean-up on aisle twelve,” Olivia’s voice came over the intercom. Kelsi sighed as she took a mop and bucket to aisle twelve. Mud was all over the floor as well as a dozen eggs. Kelsi quickly mopped up the mess and hurried back to Lorna.
“There’s something better than this, right?” Kelsi questioned, fearing the answer.
“Why do you think I’m going to college?” Lorna smiled then took Kelsi by the shoulders, her face completely serious. “Life stinks right now, but it’ll get better.”
“It just feels like I’ll never have a home, that I’ll be stuck here with no one that loves me,” Kelsi’s voice began to waver but she quickly got a hold of it.
“You’ll go home, I know it,” Lorna soothingly said.
But where is home? Kelsi wondered but decided she should fix the boxes on the cereal display then voice her concerns.
The two quietly worked together for the next three hours, sometimes talking about a new read or something someone said. “Home” was a subject that didn’t come up again but was still fresh in their minds. It always was though.
The shift ended and Kelsi began to walk home in the dying daylight. She’d come again tomorrow, the only day she didn’t work was Sunday. Her paycheck came tomorrow and the pennies she earned at Food for Cheap would be given to Matron. The money would then go to the bank, but for what? College was always a possibility but was it a worthwhile one? Kelsi valued education but she was by no means top of her class. The money she earned from Food for Cheap might cover books and tuition at a community college but what about housing? Scholarships were as out of her reach as a happy family and even college courses over the Internet were out because of “the curse.”
Stop wallowing in self-pity! Kelsi scolded herself as she climbed the stone-hewn stairs to the orphanage.
Laughter of yong girls playing tag was heard and Kelsi instantly brightened. They sounded so happy and carefree.
“Kelsi, can you help me?” Tara came up to Kelsi and tugged on her shirt.
“Sure,” Kelsi dropped her bag onto the ground and sat on a fallen log. “What’s the problem?”
“Long division,” Tara made a face. “I don’t get it.”
“Okay,’ Kelsi explained it several different times, patiently correcting and praising whenever it was needed. After watching Tara go through half her 30 math problems step-by-step, Kelsi got up to leave. “If you need any more help, just find me.”
“Okay, thanks!” Kelsi heard Tara yell as she pushed the giant oak door open.
St Bradwock’s had been around for (what seemed like) hundreds of years. Kelsi was sure that one of these days it would just crumble into a pile of stones. It had been around for so long because it was very sturdily built, most of it was made of granite rocks. Sometimes Kelsi felt a weird vibe come from the building, like something devastating had happened in the stone building, ages and ages before it had become a orphanage. Not something creepy, like a gruesome murder, but something terribly sad and life, no, world shattering. She knew it sounded insane, how could she know what happened years ago, but she knew she was right. When she got feelings like this there was no way she was wrong.
The old orphanage was almost like a maze, its labyrinth-like hallways often stranded yong girls trying to find their way back to their bedrooms after dinner. The girls would usually cry, waiting for an older girl to find them then guide them back to their room. Luckily, Kelsi knew the hallways as well as she knew the back of her own hand. Fourteen years at St. Bradwock’s had definitely been helpful in that category, she had even found a couple of secret hiding spots, some of them know of by others, some (she was pretty sure) long forgotten.
The winding staircase to the sleeping quarters creaked loudly. Quickly looking behind her, Kelsi felt her heart skip a beat. Even though she knew she wasn’t doing anything wrong, Kelsi always felt like she needed to be on her guard. At the orphanage it felt like the walls had eyes and ears. If anyone did anything it spread through the orphanage like wildfire. Though some girls, like Olivia, liked to be the center of attention, Kelsi liked to keep a low profile.
She finally reached the smaller dormitory where the girls fourteen and up slept. The dormitory for the high school girls were more private than the rooms for the younger girls. Floral quilts divided the rooms during the summer. When the blankets were needed during the winter thin, holey sheets were often used instead. Blankets were very scarce during the winter because the heating system frequently went on the fritz.