This Hard Life

Chapter 7: Planting Seeds

Chapter 7

I awoke the next morning to Grace poking me in the side.

“Hey, sweetie. How did you sleep,” I asked groggily.

“Okay, your alarm clock woke me up. Who’s that,” she replied, and I looked over my shoulder to see Scott still sleeping. He looked so cute!

“That’s a friend. Remember we met him yesterday in the pharmacy?”

“Oh.”

“Okay, let’s get you dressed,” I said and got up and went to our bedroom.

Grace picked out what she wanted to wear, and since it didn’t match whatsoever I switched her pink shorts for purple ones to go with her Disney Princess t-shirt. After she started getting dressed, I gathered my clothes for the day before I headed to the bathroom.

As I was walking out of my bedroom door, I noticed that Scott was still sleeping.

“Hey, Scott, it’s time to wake up,” I said gently as I shook his shoulder. Not too long after his sea blue eyes opened.

“Morning,” he murmured and closed his eyes once more.

“Hey, don’t you go back to sleep mister! We both have school today, remember?” I then pulled away the blankets that were keeping him warm. This seemed to get his attention because his eyes shot right open.

“Those were warm!”

“Yeah, and so is the school during the day since we don’t have any air conditioning in there. So why don’t you wake up and once I’m done getting changed in the bathroom you can somehow get cleaned up,” I said and he nodded, comprehending.

I then went into the bathroom to change. I took off my tangerine shirt and skinny jeans and traded them for a red V-neck tee and khaki shorts. I quickly brushed my hair and put it in a ponytail and washed my face. With the majority of the makeup from last night off, I went to put some fresh eyeliner on. As I was curving the pencil on my eye lid, I made sure that I was doing it very, very lightly; trying to go for a natural look.

When I was done getting ready for the day, I went out to the bathroom to go to the kitchen for breakfast. It was Friday, and on Friday Gracie and I always have scrambled eggs with cheese. Of course, we always had a glass of chocolate milk as well.

I passed Scott as he headed to the bathroom.

“Oh you had clothes? I didn’t know that,” I commented.

“Yeah, remember when I said that my mom thought I was spending the night with Brian? Well, I was actually going to spend the night with Brian before I decided to hang with you.”

“Oh, cool. Do you like scrambled eggs with cheese?”

“Love them.”

“Awesome, go get changed then by them breakfast should be ready,” I said before he turned and went into the bathroom.

Gracie came out of our room with her hairbrush in her hand as I was pulling out the eggs and cheese.

“Charlotte, I can’t brush my hair,” she said.

“Okay, I need to make breakfast first and then I will help you.”

As I was mixing the raw eggs and cheese together, Grace started acting like normal again; talking my ear off. I nodded at everything she said, and she continued. After school I was planning to take her to the hospital again so my mom and I would be able to tell her everything together.

“Charlotte, do you like that guy?” she asked suddenly.

I was startled by her question, but as I was stirring the eggs in the skillet I answered, “Yes, Gracie, I do like him. Do you like him?”

“Yup, he’s really nice! He told me that he has a sister and that I could meet her! I can make a new friend, Charlotte!”

“I know you can.” It was nice to see her enthusiastic this morning after what happened last night.

I heard the bathroom door open just as I was turning off the burners to the stove. I pulled out the chocolate milk, and started making it for Grace and me.

“Hey, I don’t know if you like chocolate milk, but it’s our version of coffee here. So help yourself to the milk and syrup.”

“Okay,” Scott said and then he joined me next to the counter. He took the milk jug just as I was done pouring it in both of our glasses. When his hand touched mine, I felt a surge of electricity soar through me. I think he felt the same thing, because then his cerulean eyes met my chocolate eyes. I then remembered how great last night was, minus my breakdown, and I wanted to relive it over and over again.

I jumped back into reality when his eyes shifted down to his glass before he started filling it.

Breakfast went swimmingly. Grace was absolutely smitten with Scott. She talked to him more than she talked to me. Afterwards, I combed her curly ginger hair and put it into a French Braid. Then, I told Grace to quickly gather her school stuff, while I did the same. Shortly thereafter, Scott was in the car next to me while Grace was in the back seat, still chatting. She didn’t seem to want to get out of the car when I was at her school, but she ended up doing so when I threatened to ground her until the end of eternity.

At 7:30 in the morning, Scott and I arrived at our own school. There were a few people who couldn’t help but stare at us as we walked in together, hand in hand. We had about twenty minutes until first period started, but I had to meet Claire in the library as soon as possible, so after I was done gathering my books in my locker, Scott and I parted ways until fourth period where we apparently had gym together. Great, just my luck.

As I entered the school’s library, Claire was waiting for me with a table, and she didn’t look too thrilled.

“Hey,” I said as I set my books down and took my seat.

“Hi, so how was your night?”

“I had fun at dinner. Last night was great unt-”

“Oh, I’m glad you had a grand ‘ol time. Now what’s going on with Scott? You only met him yesterday!”

“He came over and we talked about stuff.”

“People said that you walked into school with him today.”

“Okay, so what?”

“Um, I wrote on Facebook that I was going to dinner with you, Brian, and Scott. If they saw you two walking into school together, do you know what they’ll think?”

I was shocked at the way this conversation was going.

“I don’t know Claire, what will these stuck up, selfish people think? Why don’t you tell me,” I snapped.

“You know I heard someone say that you’re a skank. Some people think that you really aren’t a goodie, goodie. People are thinking that it’s all just an act.”

“Guess what, Claire? I really don’t care what people think about me.”

“Clearly, since you know walk in with a guy you just met yesterday in a pharmacy, looking so love-struck it makes me want to barf!”

“Why are we having this conversation? I thought you wanted to set the two of us up!”

“Yeah, after you guys hung out a couple of times; not right away, you don’t even know anything about him!”

“What’s the difference if I’m taken to him now or in two weeks?”

“Do you even know anything about him?” At my silence, she nodded; looking pleased, and added, “Mmhmm, that’s what I thought.” She then got up from her chair and left the library.

Maybe she is right? What do I know about him? Am I rushing into this way too fast?