By: heyjayyay
2014-09-04
Summary:
Lauren is sentenced to 1000 hours of community service and it's pretty damn horrible... until it's not.
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1000 Hours
Her dark boots slammed down on the kickstand as she parked her motorcycle on the side of the tattered building. She hadn't been there since she was a little girl. She shook the memory out of her head with a sigh. Her shoes clunked lazily as they collided with the pavement. It was just another day. She told herself. 1000 hours. It'll be over before you know it.
It wasn't like she was necessarily doing something she hated. Not like she used to, anyway. What she did before, she definitely hated that. But it wasn't like she had a choice. Not like she had one now either, though.
The door smacked behind her like a gavel. Guilty.
She was momentarily blinded as a dirty-blonde haired woman greeted her. She scowled as her cousin's arms were thrown over her shoulders, jumping into her and causing Lauren to stumble back.
"I'm so glad you're here." Ally greeted after their bodies had collided. "I've been worried about you." The older girl said, genuinely concerned. "Ever since the..."
"Yeah." Lauren cut off coolly, pushing the smaller girl off of her, brushing her black leather sleeves off. "Let's just get this over with." She huffed, pushing past her cousin and trudging over to the back room where an apron and name tag were waiting for her.
928 Hours
The tasks seemed mundane, dragging the day on and on. She would constantly glance at the clock, and each time, it seemed to be "poo time." Walk one dog, pick up its shit. Walk another dog, pick up its shit. Clean the cages, pick up more shit. Empty the litter box. Shit. Shit. Shit.
The smell of animal feces and wet dog may have almost been worse than the stench of the smoke and alcohol she was used to being around. Almost.
Sometimes it wasn't too bad. Sometimes she didn't have to wash the dogs or sweep the floors. Sometimes, she got to take the animals into the play area to give them a little human interaction. She tried her hardest never to let Ally see her crack a smile when she did. And she did a pretty good job of it. Her cousin would simply walk by, smile, and continue on with her own work.
Lauren liked being with animals. They were loyal and couldn't talk back. Even if they didn't enjoy her company, they didn't have a damn say in it. It was kind of nice to have someone around that didn't have anything bad to say about you, even if they wanted to, they couldn't.
836 Hours
She could get used to this, possibly. Ally had let her keep charge of the shelter a few times while she went out to buy food and other supplies for the animals. Things could change. And they did. Unfortunately.
That morning, a tiny girl with pampered hands and adorned in pearls came flouncing in.
"Can I help you?" Lauren glowered. The girl was probably looking for a small dog to stuff into that purse of hers. Lauren narrowed her eyes at the bag. Whatever poor dog would be shoved into that purse would suffer years of annoying baby talk, she concluded. This girl would probably dress it in fluffy tutus and stick her face up in its grill, ooo-ing and ahh-ing at it.
She inwardly cringed out of pity for the sucker she decided to adopt.
To her surprise, the girl didn't seem interested in adopting. Instead, she took a pastel flower pen from her bag and grabbed an application from the pile on the front counter.
