Rubble (Riders of Apollo #7)

Chapter Seven: Juniper Channing

I wake up early, like five in the morning early so I can get a jumpstart on the day. I have a lot to do. I made a checklist in my head before I fell asleep and most of them are crucial to getting me started here.

Car, job, housing.

I slip out of the bed and dig into my suitcase to find myself an outfit that is casual but also formal enough to be able to meet potential managers. I slip on some sage green trousers and a silk blouse with some blush Louboutin pumps before packing my bag with resumes and a few other important things like my passport and references.

I put on some makeup and curl my hair into its normal state before dashing out of the house. The walk into town isn't long, thankfully, and I head straight to the real estate agents to collect some booklets on apartments and houses for sale. I go to three of them before I find the used car seller up the road.

I don't want to spend too much money on a car even though I have a rather large amount of it, I figure that money can be used for better things. "What do you suggest?" I ask the man running the store, which I admit is not a good idea considering they can completely rip me off and give me the worst car for the most money.

After two hours of discussing every car under the sun, I choose a VW Tiguan with automatic transmission because it's less effort. I've decided that paperwork is the worst thing in the world, even when you're buying something fun like a car, it's absolutely tedious. That was probably the only good thing about having an overbearing father, he'd do the bloody paperwork himself.

I huff in frustration before signing the last page, taking the keys, and getting the hell out of dodge. I'm so grateful that this town has free parking because I hate paying for parking. I pull up in the town centre and just look around, poke around a few stores to grab a few things until I stumble upon a struggling woman outside a small bakery.

"Are you alright?" I hurry forward to catch the box falling from her large stack of them. I can't see her very well through the excessive amount of boxes she's trying to carry at once but I do manage to convince her to give a few to me to ease her problem.

"Oh thank you! I had help, I promise. Two employees actually but they quit on me this morning and I'm supposed to be opening in two days. Two freaking days! What the hell am I supposed to do? I'm so stressed out but this needs to be done, if it isn't done then I can't open but I can't open without employees. God, I'm so screwed."

I follow her through the double doors into the café with three boxes stacked in my arms and I slip them onto the countertop, copying her. She sighs and looks like she's about to burst into tears under the stress of this. "I'm sorry... hey, I have the day free, how can I help?"

In the end, I help her stack glasses, cups, and crockery. Every type of cutlery is organised and the coffee machines are put together with a lot of struggling. I swear instructions are there to make your life easier but they are made extremely difficult to read and follow. In the end, I just guessed but it worked out fine.

"Wait, so, what happened to the employees?" I ask as I start writing up the specials on the chalkboard. I've spent years perfecting my handwriting and if I'm honest, I'm pretty proud of it and Indigo - the manager/owner of the café - likes it too. She's only young, twenty-five, and she's always wanted her own place so she saved every penny she's ever made from her job in the mall to finally get here only to be ditched at the last hurdle.

"I don't know! We've been best friends since high school and then they decide to just leave. They didn't even tell me, I found out from their parents that they both moved to Paris spontaneously! Their parents are funding the entire thing while I'm about to lose my business because of them."

"Well, I've only just moved here... I could always help out. I can bake almost anything and cook basic things like pasta and frittata, I'm also awesome at making sandwiches. You'd have to teach me how to use the register and the coffee machines but I'm happy to learn."

"Wait really? You'd do that?" She grabs me excitedly and I laugh.

"Why wouldn't I? I already love this place and I know you and I are going to be fast friends." She is pretty cool, with long blue hair and big brown eyes with freckled skin and a curvy body. We like a lot of the same things despite the drastic differences in our upbringing but it's nice to know I have another friend in town.

"Oh my gosh! Yes! I'm gonna go and get the contract now, this is so exciting! Can you start tomorrow?" She asks, already digging through her handbag for the paperwork.

"I figure I started today." I wink at her before scribbling my signature down on the paper and adding it to my handbag with the rest of my papers that I didn't actually need today.

"Off you go then, I've got it from here." She ushers me out, I make sure to tell her to go careful before I start driving in some random direction. As soon as I see the ice rink, my brain goes on autopilot and turns me into the parking lot. I've been on the ice since I was four years old, I don't know why my mother chose figure skating over every other hobby but it's the only thing I'm grateful for.

I almost sprint inside just to feel the coolness of the building and remember what it felt like to be on the ice. It's only been two weeks since my skates had me flying across the surface and I can't believe I've gone that long. The owner lets me get on the ice on my own claiming they're not busy this time of year anyway and I call Raphael in my excitement.

I step onto the ice and a thrill runs through me. I start moving quickly, flying across the rink to warm myself up before I start my jumps and twirls. I can hear the door opening but I ignore it as I start the routine I spent years practicing, letting it flow through me as it did all that time ago. It feels good, free even to be able to control what I do on the ice.

My coach - controlled heavily by my mother - wouldn't let me decide what I did on the ice. It was always a strict routine and while it was good in the early years, I've now reached a level where restrictions just made me hate going. So I throw myself into it, breathing in the cold air and letting it coat my lungs and fire up my body.

Everything else just disappears as I launch myself across the ice, letting my body flow with memories of my life on the ice. My first fall when I tried to do a Lutz, the first time I completed a quad, the first competition I won in my favourite costume. All of it. It was a good part of my life, the best part of my life and I can't believe I almost gave it up to spite my parents.

I land my last jump and my heart leaps as applause rings out from somewhere, whistles and hoots and everything. I spin around to find out where it's coming from to find the entire MC stood on the other side of the plexiglass watching me. So, I probably shouldn't have called Raphael, if I knew he would bring everyone I definitely wouldn't have.

I skate to the edge where Raphael is waiting to greet me. He hugs me so tightly he almost breaks my back and I try and laugh but it sounds strangled. "You're going to kill me, Raphe! Did you forget you got really strong?"

He fires away from me with a sheepish smile. "I'm sorry, totally forgot. Do you still skate?! I thought you were gonna give that up to when I left, especially after that injury." He's talking about when my mother tripped me in the middle of a jump because I had 'disrespected' her and shattered my kneecap. The recovery wasn't fun.

"No, I couldn't give it up. I did leave my skates behind though. But! I have so much to tell you, I have been very busy today. Okay, I started at the real estate agents, I've collected booklets on places to move into, I bought a car and I got a job."

"You did all that before three o'clock in the afternoon."

"I'm a Channing, Mr. Flores. We get stuff done." He rolls his eyes and helps me off the ice. I quickly remove my skates and slip my heels back on. "What's the plan?" I ask, flicking my eyes over the large group of people waiting for something, not that I'm sure what.

This is gonna be fun.