Half Empty

Chapter 1 - The Girl in the Black Jacket.

"So Mrs Harley, here's your keys, I will come about later with some muffins!" Said a rather excitable elderly woman with wavey blonde hair to my mother.
"Oh, Miss Casper you don't have to do that! Really, we are fine-" My mother replied, setting down the first box of our kitchen items on the bottom step of our new stairs.
"No! I insist! It's a Petalgrave tradition, every new family gets a handmade muffin basket." She chirped, her over-happy grin looks like it was about to cut through her own cheeks. She quickly spun around to smile at me, as though she heard my thoughts, I smiled sarcastically back.
I took the boxes for my room to the soon-to-be bedroom of Toby and then put on a dark blue hoodie that partly hid my wild black hair and jogged downstairs.
"You need me mum?" I shouted and looked at the ceiling for a reply.
"No, babe, go get a coffee at that cafe down te road, bet the cool kids hang there innit?" She replied with a chuckle at the end.
"Mum, please don't. But yeah I'll go, see you later," I looked at my trainers; they weren't anything expensive or fanshionable, just plain white and black trainers. I swang around the banister and grabbed the keys from the kitchen counter.
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"Erm, tea please. No milk, no sugar," I stuttered at the waitress who stared at me over her thin, green glasses.
"'Kay Hun, I'll be back in a sec," She wrote something on her pad of paper and then spun on her heal and walked away quickly.
I put my earphones in and played my favourite playlist on my phone. Most people say that the songs I listen to would make them angry but strangely, I find them relaxing.
My tea appeared infront of me all of a sudden and I think I jumped 20 centimetres from my seat but I nodded thankfully to the waitress and sipped at my cup.
The teacup was quite beautiful, a creamy colour with brown tribal patterns dancing around the rim. But not the brown that consists with crap and mud but the soft hazelnut brown that u see when wheat is soothed with the rays of a setting sun in just the right place.
I was so lost in my thoughts of the teacup that I never noticed a girl standing on her tiptoes over me. I gasped and scrambled and scratched at my headphones to take them out. She giggled happily and rolled back on her heals.
"C-can I hel-help you?" I stuttered.
"Yes." She stood next to me in silence for a few seconds then pointed to the chair and sat in it when I nodded awkwardly.
"You new here? I haven't seen you before. What's your name?" She insisted, putting her elbows heavily on the table and resting her chin on her hands. Her light brown hair hung in ringlets on her shoulders.Her hair was beautiful, it was the same colour as the brown on my teacup and her black jacket seemed to show it off.
"Erm, yeah... I'm new, just arrived this morning," I said, biting nervously at the inside of my cheek and putting my hands on my knees and clenching a fist of my joggers.
"New is a bit of a strange name. Where are you from?" She said, obviously trying to make me laugh.
I grinned with half my mouth and said,"My name's Toby."
"I'm Zara." She laughed,"How long have you been here on your own for? You've drunk a lot of your tea."
"It's only half empty," I said raising one eyebrow.
"I would say it's half full," She looked down at my tea,"It sounds happier don't you think? Sounds like there is a chance for it to become more than expected."