"You can give Puck and Andy new names too if you want? It's not like Puck and Andy are their permanent names." At the suggestion of new names, my mind began to automatically spit out any name from Caesar to Fifi, but none of the names that did come to mind seemed fitting for two little puppies that liked to chase and sniff their own butts than sniffing out food.
"Like what? I've named one thing, and it was a teddy bear you sent to me through the mail," I wasn't in the habit of naming things, sure there were pet names, but everyone had a pet name for something.
"I don't know? What was the name of your teddy bear?" My lips quirked as the question brought a memory to my mind. I hadn't been the most creative child, and it had shown in the name I had picked for my precious teddy bear sent from afar.
"Teddy," I said quietly and watched Declan's reaction. For a moment he looked as if he'd misheard so I repeated the name, the second time it took him a little while to digest it. I was sitting near him trying to keep the smile off of my face but failed miserably once Declan began to laugh, it was so lame it was funny.
"We need to work on your naming techniques; I will accept most anything that is acceptable in the realm of names. No cheating though! That means you're not allowed to call the puppies, Dog, Pup, Puppy or any variation of that. Let's see, no Brownie, Brown, Cocoa, Boy, Girl, Blackie, Spottie or even Midnight! So think of something beyond those names." Frowning, I looked down at the two pups who were still asleep in their cage and tried to think up names for either, but none came to mind.
"I think I'll leave it for a while, at least until they are at home. Have you told Trisha that we're bringing animals back?" Declan nodded, I wasn't sure if it was in answer to my first statement or the subsequent question.
"Yeah, I called Trisha just before. She's not happy about the school singling you out or that you left, but she'll be down there tomorrow to exchange words with the principal or whoever spoke with you." Shaking my head I stood from my chair, the last thing I wanted was Trisha stepping in and fighting my problems. I didn't need anyone else sticking up for me and had already formed a plan of how I was going to teach the principal not to call me a whore-ish.
"Seriously Declan, she doesn't have to go down to the school. I've got this." Declan looked doubtful and suspicious of what I might have planned but shook his head.
"It's up to Trisha what she does, but if you want her to stay out of things, then you'll gonna have to tell her yourself." I didn't like the thought of telling Trisha what to do, but I wasn't her kid, or her responsibility so wasn't about to let her go barging down to the school. Chances were she'd just make things worse anyway and so far things had been tolerable not to mention there weren't that many days left of school.
"Fine, but I don't know why. There aren't that many days of school left anyway," I tried to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal, but really, it was a huge deal. My mom never went down to the school; I was surprised the principal in California had even managed to track my mother down and get her to sit through whatever he had to say.
"Declan! We've got an emergency coming in!" Both mine and Declan's attention was taken by Vince as he ran past the baby room out and on to somewhere else. Declan was out the door before I could even ask what was going on but waited a few moments before following Declan out of the room, making sure to close the door right behind me.
Vince was coming back up the corridor, followed quickly by a woman who carried an unconscious animal. I cringed when she walked past with what I assumed was a dog, but it was all skin and bones. Almost every bone in the dog's body could be seen from the outside, and on top of that, it had a fleshy wound around its neck.
It wasn't until they were well past me that the smell hit and I found myself gagging and gasping for fresh air. Ducking into Declan's office, I quickly shut the door behind me to keep the smell of rotting flesh out in the corridor; now I understood why the smell of disinfectant had been so strong earlier.
I don't know how long I sat in the office, the image of that dog though would stay with me for a long time and the smell...lord that smell was burned into my head for the rest of my life, I was sure of that much.
"Leah? You okay? Can I get you something to drink or eat? You're looking a little pale. Declan will be busy for a while..." Vince died off as I shook my head and went to sit down at Declan's desk. I didn't know what to do with myself as the smell and dog lingered in my mind, Vince, however, had other ideas as he pulled me up out of the chair and dragged me down to the baby room.
"Let go you creep!" I hissed as I was pushed into the baby room, Vince closed the door behind him and turned to me with a frown on his face.
"Hey now, I'm a lot of things but creep ain't one of 'em. But whenever we get a sad case like that come in, and everyone is sad and disgusted or whatever, we come in here and cuddle with the puppies and kittens. You'd be surprised at how therapeutic petting a cat or dog is, please! Try it!" Before I could say no or even back out of the room, Vince was shoving a puppy at me...namely Puck.
Holding him at arm's length, Vince laughed and pushed him closer. I could only glare at the man; this was the worst way to get over something terrible. But when Puck licked at my face and wiggled and pawed his way up so that he was hanging over my shoulder I was feeling a little better.
Puck smelled a lot better than what I had thought previously, "see, I told you. Puppies and kittens make everything better." As if being caught doing something I shouldn't I pulled away from Puck and held him back out towards Vince, the gesture caught him by surprise, but he took Puck and put him back in his cage.
I left the small room and headed back towards Declan's office where I could hopefully get a little peace for once today.
"Hey, Leah! What's up with that? You shouldn't just bottle yourself up like that; you might explode in a mess of tears and mucus one day soon." I tried to ignore Vince; his advice wasn't something new to me. I'd heard it several times in the past and kept thinking people were wrong, I was strong and could hold things in for as long as I needed...I hadn't 'popped' once yet and wouldn't; I was determined not to.
"You barely know me, and you're giving me advice? I don't know where you grew up, but you don't just go putting your nose into other peoples business and offering advice that they don't need." It was probably unfair to say that to Vince; he'd been nothing but nice to me and yet here I was shutting him down faster than a quick thing.
"I was born and raised in California, just like you. When you explode, I'll be standing there waiting to tell you something essential." And with that Vince walked out of the room, part of me felt guilty and wanted to chase him down and apologise, but another part of me stayed smug at seeing him walk out a little frustrated.
As soon as he was out of the office though I went and closed the door again before curling up in Declan's office chair and going to sleep.
YOU ARE READING
Surfing Midland (Complete/ First draught).
أدب المراهقينSeventeen year old Leah Munroe has had a long standing agreement and contract with both her parents, it was written up when Leah was fourteen. She never really thought the consequences would come to fruition as her parents were divorced, her father...
