I am the storm

Chapter 19 | The purple tulips

When I awoke the next morning I was dreary from my heavy slumber, the time was seven forty a.m. and almost immediately in my head I remembered that I had to work experience from nine a.m. until four thirty p.m. at the local garden centre.

Rubbing my eyes I opened up my cupboard and retrieved a pair of light brown pants and the garden centre's uniform. The uniform was a dark green t-shirt with the name of the garden centre 'Flowers and Flora' along with my own name below that 'Alexis Monroe' both stitched with a fine golden thread in a fancy writing style. Along with my uniform and pants I grabbed my brown boots and laced them up.

After the encounter with Piggy Piggy last night I had not eaten anything but luckily I had the left over lasagne from my visit to Lizzie's house.

I walked downstairs and searched through the fridge to find the box of three pieces of cold lasagne, so I removed the plastic lid and grabbed a small plate. Using a fork I scooped one piece I the lasagne from the box to the plate, not wanting to eat cold lasagne for breakfast I heated the food up in the microwave.

After the food had been heated up I used a fork to wolf down the meal having plentiful bites of the food, until eventually my plate was completely empty. The meal itself was awful tasting but food was food and I knew that my Dad hated it when I didn't eat.

After that I walked to the bathroom and proceeded to brush my teeth to avoid any bad smelling breath later in the day, replacing any foul odour with the refreshing smell of a minty toothpaste.

When I finished brushing my teeth I checked the time and saw it was eight twenty three a.m. meaning I had around forty minutes until I had to be at Flowers and Flora garden centre for my work experience.

Not wanting to be late for my shift I grabbed: my mobile phone, the PTD, my pocket knife and taser. Then I walked downstairs opened the door and walked out locking the door behind me.

The walk to Flowers and Flora was consumed with the ever present sense that Piggy Piggy could attack at any moment, and he had proved that!

After last night I knew I had to be more vigilant of my surrounding since I hadn't even noticed Piggy Piggy following me and Patricia, if it weren't for Patricia warning me the situation could of been completely different.

Every corner I turned slowed my heart beat in anticipation for a worse case scenario of walking into Piggy Piggy. Instead of letting fear control me I tried to walk with courage pushing away all my paranoid thoughts until eventually, I reached Flowers and Flora.

My body relaxed from its tensed state when I was greeted by the familiar glass walled building of Flowers and Flora. The entrance was a green arch covered in climbing ivy and decorated with pink, red and white flowers. Above the arch was the green sign with 'Flowers and Flora' written and illuminated in a golden lights.

Inside the garden centre there was a huge room with three of the walls made of glass and the last one left open to an outside area, inside the massive room was a counter where the customers could pay for the flowers and ornaments they would buy. While the rest of the room was filled with rows and rows of flowers on shelves and incorporated into colourful displays.

Sat at the counter was a woman she looked to be in her late sixties, early seventies with long grey hair tied in a ponytail on her head accompanying her brown eyes and slightly wrinkled skin. The woman wore the Flowers and Flora uniform with her name stitched on, it read 'Dorris Morse.'

Dorris had worked at the garden centre for well over thirty years but she didn't just work here she owned the store. She had accepted my application about two months ago and since then I had worked on every fortnight on Saturday and Sunday. Part of the job at Flowers and Flora was selling flowers and ornaments for the people of Pine Wood Valley.