Mining For People

Chapter 2

The next morning, I began to prepare myself; both mentally and physically. A touch of makeup here, a few deep breaths there, and finally I was ready to go. I stepped out of my apartment, and began to walk to the stairs. There was a lift, but I didn't want to use it. Why? 'Cause it stinked of sweat.
I jumped two stairs at a time as I started to question my life choices. However, I only had about 3 seconds of doing this before I decided to high five the cold concrete floor- with my face. I realised that I'd accidentally taken three steps, and that had caused me to trip and face plant. I heard a snort from the left of me, and understood that someone was laughing at me. 'I will admit,' I thought to myself as I slowly stood up, 'that maybe having my face smooshed against the floor looked funny, but it sure as hell hurt. And this dude can find it out himself.' As I turned in the direction of the noise, I began to clench and unclench my fists in preparation of them hitting some idiot's face. And then, I stopped. Cause staring right down at me, was a teenage kid. Probably only two or three years older than me, but he was at least a head and a half taller than me, with biceps twice the size of my own arms. I know I wasn't exactly built like a bodybuilder, but I wasn't a twig either. This dude, though, had the build of a... well, a very strong man.
Instead of losing any pride and dignity that I had managed to keep hold of throughout the entire ordeal, I chose to simply let it go for once. I know, right, shocking.
So I scowled at the muscular man, picked up my phone which had fallen out of my pocket during the fall, and walked out of the doors, greeting the cold air of outside with a slight frown creasing my forehead.

Finally, I arrived outside the Social Services Centre. It was a tall, grey building with splashes of paint decorating the exterior in an attempt to look more inviting. The paint had obviously been there for several years, so it had dulled considerably(this means it failed, and looked more like a miserable motel that no one wanted to go in). Sighing, I plastered a fake smile on my face and pulled on the doors that were clearly labelled 'push'. How embarrassing.
I was blushing profusely by the time I had entered the reception, noticing that several people had seen my door-opening fail.
"Hey. So, um, I received a letter yesterday, saying that I needed to go here to meet my real parents." I handed the letters to the receptionist with a tight smile. She chewed louder on her gum in reply.
"K.-*chew*- Just-*chew*- sit down somewhere. -*chew*- Someone'll -*chew*- tell you -*chew*-   what to do." She looked away, uninterested in me. Rolling my eyes, I sat down in the seat farthest from the reception desk. I looked at my surroundings properly for the first time. The  yellow colour had almost completely faded from the walls, leaving a disgusting yellow tint, and pictures were hanging on by only one or two nails. The metal chair legs of the waiting seats had chipped, the fabric scrappy and worn. Overall, not a nice place. The people weren't much better. A balding man sat with his phone, while his chubby wife ate KFC in a paper bag. On another seat, a teenage boy played on a Nintendo as an older woman tried to encourage him to play online Scrabble, and a young girl sat on the floor at their feet with plastic horses to amuse herself with. And finally, there was the woman with makeup literally plastered across her face, talking loudly into a phone that clearly wasn't even turned on. "Well, I'm sorry, if he doesn't want to accept a payment of £1,000,000,000 for a house that isn't even worth £10, then I can always just pull out and find another estate agent to help me find my seventh house!" She huffed, looking around and making sure everyone was watching her. Stupid attention seeker.

I waited for a few minutes, staring blankly into space and imagining my parents' reactions when they saw me. It was strange to say 'parents'. They weren't really, not until I had gotten to know them more. So for now, I would refer to them as parents, but not in spirit, only in mind.
Finally, I heard my name. "Uhh, -*chew*- Miss Lux Remeber -*chew*-?" I stand up. The receptionist pointed to a doorway to the left of the desk and I went through it, closing the door behind me.

Inside, it was much more colourful, with pictures and posters of happy families. There were two sofas, and a desk with a spinny chair that was currently holding a large, smiling woman with a floral dress, short brown curly hair, and thick black glasses. I also noticed that there was another door leading to somewhere else.

"Lux? Are you Lux? What am I saying, of course you are!" She said cheerfully, turning to face me, then her computer. "So, it says here that you want to find your biological parents? That's great! Let's see, who are they? Oooh, Diomone! Aren't you lucky?" Miss Hurrinne, as her name tag said, never seeming to shut up.

It was getting really, really annoying. Keep calm. Keep calm. Breathe. I repeated over and over in my head, willing my intrusive thoughts to go away, and hoping I didn't do anything stupid, like throw her out of the window. I just needed to make sure my impulsive thoughts didn't come to me. Intrusive was fine, those I could control. Impulsive? Well, let's just say the last time I let my impulsive thoughts loose, a man may have gotten a concussion. It was really his fault, I mean, who on earth would go walking under trees with such a shiny bald head? It was almost as if he had been asking me to throw a flower pot as his head. So I did.

Miss Hurrinne finally decided to stop wasting my precious time and call the Diomone business to inform them of my presence. Well, I assume that's what she did. She walked into the other room to make the call with the door closed, so I didn't hear what she said. When she did come out, she was all smiles. Looks like it went well, I guess. "They're on their way, so just stay here until they arrive. I'm sure it'll be soon."
Like I was going to go anywhere. I needed money. I had a plan. Plan+need money+rich family=MONEY. See? A simple equation, am I right?
I sank into one of the leather armchairs surrounding the desk when indicated to by Miss Hurrinne.

I was obviously bored and in dire need of something to do, so I sighed loudly. Like, really loudly. Well, it drew Miss Hurrinne's attention at least, so she smiled and gave me a pack of mint gum from somewhere in her desk. I opened it (also loudly) and sighed (again, loudly) because the gum was blue. Not blueberry flavoured gum(does that even exist?) blue, but moldy blue.
Even so, I popped 4 in my mouth and chewed. (Imagine this in Dora the explorer's voice) Can you guess how I chewed them? That's right, loudly! Aren't you such a clever clogs?

After what seemed like a long time, the phone on Miss Hurrinne's desk started to ring with an annoying buzzing sound. It was like there was a very angry bee inside the phone.
Oh well, I hoped the bee stung her ear. If it did, however, I didn't hear an 'Ow'. Instead I heard a; 'Yes, send them in please.' So... yippee... my biological family is here.... never been so excited before in my life...

The door handle turned. The door opened. In stepped a couple. They looked at me. I looked at them. Miss Hurrinne's desk chair let out a squeaky groan as she lent forward to see the family drama. I turned to glare at her. So did the couple. Miss Hurrinne decided to leave us and waddled to into the waiting room, but she patted my head before she left. I cleared my throat. The man cleared his. The woman stood there awkwardly clutching a fancy shmancy bag. I opened my mouth and said; "Frog" 'cause it was the first thing that came into my mind. Then I ran around the desk and sat in Miss Hurrinne's chair, because it looked surprisingly comfortable, and I had wanted to sit in it since I first saw it.

Fimally, the woman started to speak. "Lux? Honeybunkins? Cutiepoo?"

Yeah, no. The nicknames have to go....

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Toodles!