Claire's Promise

Chapter 4

The thought of getting a job was now constantly running through my head, it affected my work and kept me up at night.

"Claire Wistner" a lady called, she sounded bored out of her mind.

I stood up from the bench in the hall and walked into a room a few feet away.

In the room was a few more chairs; a few other kids were already in the room waiting for their own needs to be met. I took a seat and waited for my name to be called.

As I went into my thoughts, focused on the clock hanging above the doorway into the guidance counselor's office, I realized that getting Colby out of the house was my only goal.

I snapped away from the clock and looked around at the faces in the room with me, none of them comforting, they were barely familiar.

My hands twitched as a thought crossed my mind, I hate people.

I never had any friends, I avoided people the best I could.

I felt annoyance swell in my chest as I thought of how they complained about not having cool phones and not being allowed to go to parties. Their petty concerns were why I hated them.

I got my frustration under control and went back to thinking about a job.

Finally I was called into the guidance counselor's office. As I came in he smiled and invited me to take a seat.

I sat down with my hands in my jacket pockets and looked the man in the eye. He was pretty young compared to the other people working at the school; his light brown hair didn't have a spot of grey in it.

He pulled a pen from his tan suit pocket and clicked it before beginning his interrogation.

"So, Miss Wistner" he began; "I see you are getting mostly B's, the occasional A, not bad."

I didn't react to his comment; though he didn't react to my still face.

"Do you know why you are here?" He asked.

"No" I responded.

"Mrs. Pettleburg wanted you to see me, she was concerned about your initiative in school" he explained.

Ugh... her, I thought to myself. Of course that math teacher would be behind all of this.

"So I just want to ask you some questions about your academic plans" he said.

"Alright" I replied.

The man pulled a paper off the top of his stack and placed it at the bottom; he readied himself to write and then asked "what are your interests?"

I paused for a moment; what were my interests? I tried to think of things I did and I recalled my doodling during class, I had drawn cats. Do I like cats? Do I like animals? Do I like drawing?

I realized the counselor was now looking at me so I quickly said "I enjoy drawing."

He nodded and jotted down some notes; even though I was sitting up straight he was too far away and the room was too dark for me to see what he wrote.

"Alright... next question... do you have any career interests?" He asked.

I froze again as nothing immediately jumped to mind, getting a job meant getting Colby out of the house, and that was the most important thing in my life. Even then I hadn't considered anything; I just planned on getting some fast food job or something that would get me out ASAP.