The Urban Princesses: Pocahontas

Chapter 2

John's POV

"Go long!"

Thomas ran back quickly on the bus, tripping a few times and having the catch himself on the cheap leather seats.

I drew my arm back and threw it, the ball soaring through the air.

The bus screeched to a halt just before Thomas's hands could make contact will the ball and he fell forward onto his face.

Half the bus broke out into fits of laughter, including myself as Thomas's struggled to his feet, blushing.

"Keep it down back there!" Mr. Radcliffe screamed. "Unless you want to be on insulation duty!"

Everyone was silent other than the nervous murmurs of boys discussing how terrible insulation duty was. I looked down at the little cuts on my hands from the fiberglass, remembering the day that I had been messing around with Thomas and had been put on installing the insulation. It was the dreaded job that everyone avoided yet somehow always ended up with.

"You all right?" I asked, helping Thomas up.

He rubbed his head, grimacing. "Yeah, I'm fine."

I plopped down into a seat next to him, pulling a bag of Doritos from my backpack. I offered them to him and he nodded, taking it.

"Jamestown, eh?" Thomas commented, looking out the window at the sign we had passed. "What's so special here?"

I shrugged. "Hunting season is pretty popular, plus I heard they're building a Transformers themed water park."

"Bingo." He said, munching on Doritos.

Mr. Radcliffe was the prestigious owner of the Deluxury hotel chain, and was always setting up shop where the business was. To keep it cheap, he hired a ragtag group of eighteen year old boys to build them for him along with a few experienced contractors, which meant a lot of moving around for me. But I wasn't complaining, the work experience looked good on a resume and it's not like I had anyone to go home to anyway.

"Another town," Thomas sighed.

"Another town." I mumbled.

The bus pulled into the motel parking lot where we would be staying for the next eight months. I sighed. New town, new school, new set of people who were guaranteed to hate me. Nobody liked the transfers, we didn't fit in. Everyone had their cliques and way of doings things and when you get a bunch of nomad construction workers mixed into the bunch, no one was happy. We just upset the balance of everything, but I wasn't going to let that get in the way of my education.

I got my duffel bag from under the bus, carrying Thomas's for him too.

Mr. Ratcliffe waddled down the steps of the bus, his hair covered chin raised high in the air like the prude he was. "Alright, there's a bus stop down the corner, be there at seven thirty tomorrow morning and good luck at school." He said lazily like he always did before getting back on the bus and riding away to his five star Marriott that he was too cheap to ever let us stay at. I've lived most of my life in motels, but then again, I wasn't paying for them and that's all that mattered.

"I call the room by the vending machine!" One of my friends yelled, causing all of us to rush into the beaten up motel.

Thomas and I found a room close to the exit hidden in the corner of the floor Ratcliffe had reserved for us. It was nice to be away from the craziness the other guys brought.

"I don't know, John," Thomas sighed, changing his shirt. "I think this could be a good place."

"Let's hope not, we both know we're going to have to leave soon enough."

"Who said that?" He smirked.

I rolled my eyes. "Don't be ridiculous. What do you think we're going to do? Ditch Ratcliffe? We don't have any money."

"We have enough to sustain ourselves for a month, and we can find jobs. Come on, John, if it turns out to be nice, you know we should take the opportunity."

"If it's nice."

"Hey, I already saw at least six pretty girls on the way here."

"Whatever, Thomas." I walked over the the window, opening the dusty curtains to let the milky sunshine streamed in.

Even though on the inside, I was hoping he was right.

Thomas and I ordered pizza and watched NCIS on the staticky television set.

"So, what family's poor land are we tearing down now?" I asked, taking a bite out of my pizza.

"I heard Ratcliffe talking about some summer resort owned by this widower," Thomas answered. "nice water view, only five minutes from the water park, in a nice area, it's gold."

I sighed, feeling bad for the poor widower who would soon have his land taken away. He had no chance of keeping it. Ratcliffe always got what he wanted one way or another.

"Don't feel so bad, John, they usually get a good sum of money for it."

"Yeah, but what's money against tradition? Most places we have taken have been passed down from generation to generation, you can't put a price on the past."

He laughed. "Well according to the ten last properties we bought, you can." He wiped his greasy hands on his pants then leaned over and turned the lamp off. "Big day tomorrow, gotta rest up."

First day of the next six months, and I hope it would be a good one.

****

I wish I could be like John and GO LONG (with my chapters)

We have a winner of last week's challenge! bluefairy77 guessed almost all of the hidden Divergent names and she even found some I hadn't realized I put in there! I will sadly admit, I might've slacked on a few of the stories and forgot to put them in there which I didn't realize until she messaged me but I could've sworn I put them in there. It was frustrating and a pain in the butt to look for and she did a really great job!

More challenges and facts in the next update on Thursday!

-RavenclawMaven1198