Planets: Chapter Three: Weekend of "Fun" (Part Two)

“‘Bye,” Kelsi took off her apron and placed it back on the peg then tucked her envelope inside her thin sweater. A muffled noise came from her throat. Her hand flew to her head and she stopped, leaning against the door of Food for Cheap.
“Kelsi? Are you okay?” Lorna worriedly asked.
“It’s not much, my head just started to hurt,” she grimaced as a new wave a pain swept through her head. “I just need to get back to the orphanage.” She took off running though her head felt like it was going to explode. Blindly stumbling over rocks and stumps, she arrived to the orphanage, tears streaming down her face as she struggled to get to the dormitory. Climbing the winding staircases she finally made it to curtained bed and threw herself on the bed. Her face was red and puffy from crying. The pain had begun to slowly course through her whole body. As each second passed the pain didn’t ebb away as she thought it would, it only grew more and more intense. Writhing in pain on her bed, Kelsi bit down on a pillow, trying to keep her sobbing cries from being heard.
As quickly as the pain had come, it left, leaving an exhausted Kelsi. She slowly sat up, gasping for breath when the dinner bell rung. Her stomach angrily growled making her realize that she had only had three hard-boiled eggs and a cafeteria cookie since lunchtime yesterday. Making her way down the staircase slowly, she clung to the wall, trying to avoid the throngs of girls thundering down the staircase. She took her place at one of the long wooden tables and smiled at the food. Tonight’s dinner was more substantial then usual. A thick bean soup was served with turnips and cornbread. The fatigue that had overcome Kelsi minutes ago soon melted away as she relished every steaming bite.
“What do you think about the report we have to do for Miss Apeed’s class?” Olivia asked on of her platinum blonde minions. “Combining English AND History for one assignment? What a drag.” She gave one of her perfected eye-rolls.
Kelsi silently laughed. They were going to have to do two assignments anyways. At least this way they could just turn the same report in twice.
“I don’t know,” said Paula, the second most fashionable minion since first place was taken by Olivia. “My report is going to be on how fashion has changed on Nesserum.”
“Good idea, I wish I had thought of it,” Olivia’s face fell. “I guess I’ll have to do something like how the geography has changed.” Her lip trembled.
Kelsi could smell fake tears coming.
“You can use it, Olivia. I can think of a new idea,” Paula reluctantly offered.
A high pitched squeal filled the room. “Thank you SO much, Paula! I don’t know how to thank you!”
“Don’t mention it,” Paula knew better than to expect a favor from Olivia. Many a girl had been kicked out of Olivia’s social group for less.
Kelsi snorted. Olivia’s crowd was unbelievably predictable. She quickly downed the rest of her bean soup before she headed up stairs again. Even though the food restored her some what she still wanted to get to bed early. While brushing her teeth she noticed a loose brick in the bathroom. She looked at the brick curiously and carefully pried it out with her fingers. The mortar had crumbled away gradually over time but this wasn’t the first time someone had taken it out.
Kelsi reached behind the brick and her eyes got as big as saucers. In the palm of her hand was a medallion that was slightly larger than a bottle cap. It was made of the finest gold and a thin chain was connected to it. Strange letters circled around an engraving of a bridge, the same bridge that Kelsi dreamed of. Kelsi was floored. Sparkling in the florescent lighting was evidence that someone else knew about the bridge.
Taking care to not touch the light switch, Kelsi tucked the cold necklace into her pocket after replacing the brick and went to her bed. She was happy that the week was over. Too many puzzling things had happened. Next week would hopefully be saner, it couldn’t get much crazier, right?

Band Festival at EAC

Woot! There was a very fun band day/ festival at EAC (Eastern Arizona College) today and our band preformed there! We got an Excellent (the order, from best to worst is: Superior, Excellent, Good, Participent) which is good and bad. It's good because it's better than what we got during marching season (we got a (wince) Good) but bad because we broke the six-year Superior streak (sob.) Oh well. I was the only baritone unfortunatly, and the judges complainted that there wasn't enough low brass. (I really tried but I just couldn't be heard over the 13 flutes!) I guess I need to play "stronger" from now on. I'm feeling a little loopy right now. I think waking up at 5:30 is getting to me. (Thatcher, where EAC is, is two hours away.) I'm off to bed! (I hope this post makes sense! :)

Conclusion to Contest Story

Well everyone, the contest results came back, if anyone's interested. Sadly, I didn't win anything, I guess I'll just have to try again this year! Now that I know what's expected of me, I think I'll do better. I do, after all, have almost a whole year now to think of ideas instead of two monthes :)

Planets: Chapter Three: Weekend of "Fun" (Part One)

Chapter Three: Weekend of "Fun"

The sun beat down on Kelsi’s back and she could feel sweat dripping from the nape of her neck. She angrily yanked at a stubborn weed then began to dig around it, hoping she would loosen the dirt around the weed. The smell of wet dirt hung heavily in the air, almost as heavy as Kelsi’s over-sized tee-shirt felt. The bitter smeel of turnips mingled with the sweet smelling dirt, making Kelsi want to gag. Turnips must have been her least favorite vegetable, probably because they seemed to thrive in the orphanage soil. She shook a muddy turnip, dirt flying everywhere, and placed it in a large, overflowing basket. She glanced at the sun, the only way she could tell what time it was since she couldn’t wear a watch. Her shift started in thirty minutes. Hefting the heavy basket, she swiftly walked to the kitchen entrance and dropped the basket by the sink. Dashing to the bathroom, she scrubbed her arms and face then promptly dunked her hair into the sink She rubbed a palmful of 2 in 1 shampoo/conditioner into her scalp and quickly rinsed her hair. After putting a clean pair of jeans and a black tee-shirt on, she unwound her hair from the towel and began to speed-braid her hair. Slipping on her shoes she began the familiar walk toward Food For Cheap.
“Ding-dong!” Sang the door as she walked into the building. Once she got in the backroom she sighed a sigh of relief. Luckily she was on time. Tardiness was NOT something that Mr. Merah tolerated. Kelsi tied on her stained smock and began to walk out the door when she heard an all too frequent voice.
“You and Lorna are working on the widows today. You also need to put up our new winter posters. Olivia and Allie will be working at the cash register,” Mr. Merah informed Kelsi.
“Okay,” Kelsi walked to the only windows the concrete building had. The giant windows were streaked with mud. Rain had come last night and instead of cleaning, it just made things worse. Kelsi was surprised it hadn’t snowed, the unusually cold fall already felt like winter, it might as look like it. Lorna was already scrubbing the filthy windows with newspaper, a cheaper and sturdier solution than paper towels.
“Hiya! Ready to work?” Lorna looked up for a second then scraped off a fleck of dirt that was stuck on the glass window.
“I’ve been working all morning, what’s a little more?” Kelsi tore a piece of paper from the obituaries and glanced at the black and white pictures. “Henrietta Nellie Perkton died on Tuesday. She left her entire fortune to her hamster.”
“Her hamster?”
“Yep, her hamster,” Kelsi tried not to laugh. Every now and then Lorna and Kelsi would try to come up with an outrageous comment and see who would crack first.
“That’s one wealthy hamster. I wish I was a hamster,” Lorna looked at the picture of Henrietta Nellie Perkton wistfully.
Kelsi couldn’t take it any longer and started laughing hysterically. She leaned on the glass of the window for support then quickly jumped back. She frowned at the window.
“Darn fingerprints,” she dunked a sponge into a pail of window cleanser then rubbed it on the window (spray bottles always clogged up when she used them) and vigorously scrubbed. Soon two of the four windows were sparkling clean.
“I had the weirdest dream the other night,” Kelsi randomly said.
“Yeah? I’m always up for dream stories,” Lorna replied.
“Well, I was trying to get to this house but there was a basket of a dozen eggs balanced on my head. They weren’t regular chicken eggs either, they were ostrich eggs so they were really heavy and I couldn’t drop them. I was waking really slowly but I hadn’t cracked one yet. Suddenly, hoards of clowns were chasing after me! I tried to run but the eggs teetered like they were going to fall. I was stumbling across huge rocks, clinging to my basket for dear life as the clown’s smiles loomed closer and closer when they surrounded me and . . . I woke up.”
“My, that’s some dream!” All the windows were clean now and Lorna had begun to tape up the new winter posters. The poster that she was putting up was of a shivering Charlie advertizing some hot cocoa that was on sale. “Of course that isn’t as bad as the dream I had of a zillion Charlie the Chicks chasing after me chanting, ‘Cheep, cheep, cheap food at Food for Cheap!’ Now THAT’S a nightmare!”
Kelsi smiled. Somehow Lorna could always make her feel at ease. It was silent for a while as the two put up the dreaded Charlie posters.
“Do you have dreams very often?” Lorna suddenly asked.
“Sometimes. I don’t always remember them though,” replied Kelsi.
“What about reoccurring dreams? Do you ever have those?”
“Sometimes,” Kelsi looked very puzzled now.
“What are they about?” Lorna pried.
Kelsi raised an eyebrow. Lorna usually didn’t ask this many questions, especially when Kelsi didn’t want to answer them. “I do have one dream,” Kelsi began but was interrupted by Mr. Merah.
“Great work girls, everything’s good until Monday. You can go home now,” he began to walk away.
“Wait!” Kelsi exclaimed. “Don’t we get our paychecks today?”
Mr. Merah began to search his pockets. “I nearly forgot,” he handed Lorna and Kelsi one envelope each. “See you two on Monday.”