The Mystery at Cherry Creek

Chapter 3: Making Lemons from Lemonade

Once we arrived back home after the very interesting breakfast that we had it was time for all of us to muster up the elbow grease to start renovating the motel. Each of us were assigned different jobs in order for us to try and get the motel fixed up in time, since we needed it to be ready for the last wave of tourists that come in the summer to visit the nearby national parks. Selene had gotten put down on ripping up all of the old brown shag carpet, which I'm sure my dad had given her this job in the hopes of her releasing some of her aggression. My job was to repaint the outside of the motel since its previous white color was chipping off. I decided for the color of the motel to be a nice pastel yellow, since I thought that it would be a fun cheery color for the guests to see. Arden's job was to plant flowers outside and clip the bushes lining the motel, so that it would no longer look abandoned. Victor who was going to be also watching Susie was in charge of cleaning all of the windows. Our father was going to first fix the door to the bathroom that he had broken and then handle all of the plumbing and electric. As I painted the outside of the motel I thought back to what had happened at the diner.

The phone call that I had listened in on also reminded me of the comment that Hillie first made when she had walked up to us. She had already known who we were before we had even said anything, how did she know that we were the ones to move in at the motel? Maybe she could have seen us come into town last night? But that doesn't seem likely as it was so late, we didn't see any cars in town as we had pulled up. I let out a frustrated sigh as I realized just how secretive this town was. Two times "the one" was mentioned and I have absolutely no idea as to what that even means. Looking back on my interaction with bathroom boy I also realize just how obvious it was that I was most definitely checking him out, but when you see someone that is just so oddly attractive like he was how could I not stare? "Hey Claire I forgot to give you your going away present" I hear Arden say.

I set down the paint bucket with the brush and wipe off the paint from my hands on to the thrifted overalls that I had changed into. " oh wow a gift for me? You shouldn't have", I exclaim over dramatically earning a laugh from her. " close your eyes and open up your hands!" She says and I make sure to do just that. When she tells me to open them I see a bright blue velvet scrunchie, more specifically her lucky bright blue velvet scrunchie. "I can't possibly take this from you A especially with how much this means to you" I state trying to give it back but she just shakes her head and clasps my hands closed around it. " This scrunchie gave me the luck to win my soccer teams playoff game and I know that since you are leaving us soon, I wanted you to wear it for good luck and for it to also be something for you to remember us by" she said sadly.

" woah woah woah how could I ever forget you?! This is the girl who once laughed so hard that chocolate milk came out of her nose in front of the whole cafeteria !" I laughed. My comment about the chocolate milk earned me a slap on my arm from an embarrassed Arden. "Hmmm maybe I should take back my gift since it seems like you are being ungrateful" she over dramatically huffs our. I quickly slide the scrunchie on to the arm and say, " ah well would you look at that, I guess that means I'll just have to keep it forever". Both of us giggled and gazed back at the motel. I had managed to paint most of the front of the motel the pastel yellow, and next thing I was going to do was repaint all of the doors and window shutters to be a fun cherry red color. Before I could grab the can of red paint I hear one of the motel room doors open.

"Alright well me and your sister have gotten room 1 to be almost completely ready" my dad exclaims as he walks out with his arm around Selene's shoulders. I look up and smile as it seems like she isn't as angry as she was before. Maybe moving here will be the best thing that ever happened to our family. I sigh happily and go back to working on painting the shutters while Arden turns on the radio to play old 80s music while we work.