Planets: Chapter Three: Weekend of "Fun" (revised)

Last revised chapter! Woopee! Next chapter is something absolutly new! I know that I'm at least excited (especially since the next chapter's pretty good!) Anyways, here you go!

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. Bitter smelling 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. Glancing at the sun, the only way she could tell what time it was since she couldn’t wear a watch, she decided that 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 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? Anyways, a little hard work never killed anyone, right?” Kelsi tore a piece of paper from the obituaries and glanced at the black and white pictures. “Henrietta Nellie Perkton died on Tuesday. (Not by washing windows, I might add. It was a heart attack.) 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. Often times the pressure of everyday life made her crack, once she started laughing, she was off. She leaned on the glass of the window for support then quickly jumped back. She frowned at the window.
“Darn fingerprints,” she spritzed the window with knock-off glass cleanser 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.”
“‘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, then leaned 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 her exhausted and confused.
What just happened? 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. She started on the turnips, her least favorite part of the meal, to find that even they tasted good to her starving, aching body. The fatigue that had overcome her 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 Noel, 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,” Noel 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,” Noel 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. Guess what they’re going to talk about next, the school dance this weekend. She silently predicted.
“So, who are you going to go to the dance with?” Samantha, the second most funny girl in the group, since first place was taken by Olivia, asked.
Wow, I’m good. Kelsi moved on to her bean soup and started to crumble her cornbread up into it.
“Gilbert Pecue,” Olivia said nonchalantly. The other girls sighed appreciably.
“How did you get a date with him?” Heather, the girl that was allowed to tag along, enviously questioned.
“How?” Olivia snickered condescendingly. “My dear, I never have to try. Boys just come to me. Oh and by the way,” her voice became slightly threatening, “you would do best to not question anything I do, understood?”
Heather nodded, terror-stricken by the frigid tone in Olivia’s voice.
“So,” Olivia’s voice instantly warmed. “The dress I’m wearing has gold,”
Kelsi had heard all she wanted. 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 delicate chain was connected to it. Perplexing letters circled around an engraving of a bridge, the same bridge of which she dreamed. 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 the pocket of her pink kitty bespeckled pajamas, replaced the brick and went to her bed. She was happy that the week was over. Too many bizarre things had happened. Next week would hopefully be saner, it couldn’t get much crazier, right?