Train Hunters

Montage

"I finally figured out what I'm going to do about Prom." Grace mentioned casually as she put the finishing touches on her part of the mural. Delila walked over to get more paint for her side and acknowledged Grace's claim.

"What is that?" she asked as she added red to the sharpie lineart of the flower that Taylor had done on the school wall.

"That vampire guy I mentioned said he'd pretend to be my date." Grace responded. She could practically hear Delila's brow furrow in surprise and besumement at the idea.

"How do you think that's going to go over with your mother?" Delila asked in response. Grace added the final stroke of turquoise that she needed before taking a step back to admire the work she'd contributed to.

"It'll be fine, i've got a plan." she said. Her phone buzzed with a reminder she'd set and Grace started gathering her things."Speaking of that guy, I promised him we'd meet up, see you guys tomorrow." she called at her friends as Grace headed to her car. Today was set to be a practice day for herself and Simon in more ways than one. First on the agenda was looking over all of the information they'd gathered separately about the train in order to decide on where their first shoot would be held. Secondly, Grace would be coaching Simon on how to speak to her mom.

Grace was fairly confident in the plan of gathering information about the whereabouts of the train and she was certainly far more concerned about the second item on the agenda. She sat in the driver's seat of the car for a moment fiddling with the bluetooth until she landed on a song she liked. "How To Be A Heartbreaker" started and Grace relaxed as she drove towards the address Simon had given her. The house Grace pulled up to was fairly boring as houses of its stripe went. It was small, and looked like it could use a fresh coat of paint but otherwise clean.

The grass was also freshly cut which Grace recognized as a stark difference from the house of Simon's father with it's overgrown weed filled yard. This conjured a mental image of Simon in full e-boy attire cutting the grass on a hot summer day, an image which made Grace laugh. She climbed out of the car and walked up to the door and rang the doorbell taking a moment to read the welcome mat which contained a Bible quote. Grace hadn't exactly pegged Simon as having come from a religious family but it was an interesting tidbit.

Simon opened the door and gave her a smile before inviting her inside. The house was interesting, the walls covered in pottery barn decor and signs that said things like "Life Begins After 40" which made Grace chuckle but not in the unironic way that the signs had intended. The kitchen smelled like cookies and a woman quickly emerged from it.

"Hi, you must be Simon's friend Grace." she offered. Grace nodded and studied the woman. The light brown hair that was in a ponytail kept falling into her face and the lines around her mouth would have left her mother, who always did her best to keep a blank expression for fear of wrinkles, horrified. "Would you like a cookie?" Simon's mother asked as she offered one and Grace nodded taking the chocolate chip cookie off of her hands.

"Can I have one?" Simon asked and his mother ignored him walking off to the kitchen. Grace chuckled and continued eating her food as Simon changed the subject. "Let's go upstairs, I can show you what I was working on when I wasn't sleeping." he said as he walked toward the stairs. Grace followed as his mother called out behind them.

"Keep the door open." she responded. Grace held back laughter as Simon muttered to himself under his breath.

"Oh that she hears." he said to no one inparticulra. As he swung the door open Grace was greeted by the site of Simon's room and it was exactly as she'd pictured it. It wasn't dirty persay, clothes were in drawers and wrappers were in garbage cans, but it was messy. Scattered notes and drawings littered the desk and floor. Posters for bands Grace had never heard of and movies she found pretentious were hung haphazardly coating every wall as if he was afraid that no one would know he liked them otherwise.