Cherry - part 15

Percival

Toast

She calls him Perry and he lets her call him that. She just left for the job interview, and he knows she'll get it. She always get the jobs she wants. He is stuck with working for his father, because no one else would take a fresh graduate in. His father was surprisingly happy about Percival working for him, which made it slightly better for him to cope with it. He is alone in the kitchen and he's eating a cracker with cheese. His mother enters the kitchen. She's got a hangover.

“Morning, son.” She says in a high pinch voice. How can she stand to hear herself speak when she's got a hangover? He doesn't bother thinking more about it and mumbles a silent 'morning' to her.

She starts making French toast.

“So, how was the party last night?” He asks her, and she stops for a second.

“Oh, I wouldn't call it a party, really,” the toast smells burned, “it was just me and the other wives... as usual.” She smiles at him and points towards the French toast. “Would you like any?” He rejects her offer and gets up from the table.
“Don't drink whiskey in the coffee. It doesn't go along with French toast.” With that line, he leaves the room. He doesn't care for yet another speech about how she does in fact not have a problem with alcohol.

Inside his room is the black pants and the blazer he put out last night. As his father’s assistant, he's supposed to look really nice, even though his job is to do all the things the other people doesn't want or have time to do. Though sometimes he can be asked to observe a meeting or something important, and as his father said: 'We certainly don't want people to talk about how poorly you dress whilst working for me, now, can we?'. Certainly we cannot have that.

People who talk are the worst kind of people, that's what he had always learned. Hell, his parents barely spoke any more. What would they talk about now? They have zero in common.

It would just be ever so awkward. He leaves as he think of the missing romance in his parent’s lives.

Cherry - part 14

Amelia

Redhead

Her hair has always been against her, that's what she thinks every single morning. She doesn't even bother do more about it than combing it. It's the color. It's somewhere between reddish orange and light brown, but in everybody's eyes she has always just been a redhead.

She picks up an apple on the way out. She has got to have some kind of breakfast. She walks down the street and greet the people she meet on her way. She's a high school student and she's got a year left.

When she enters the school, she is usually not greeted by anyone. She knows a lot of people around town, but at her own school, she barely feels welcome. Arthur greets her, but that ought to be the only one.

“Hello, students!” The new English teacher says. It's only a substitute for two weeks until the real teacher, Miss Cryx, gets here. Amelia is pretty excited to be a student of Miss Cryx. Everyone knows the Cryx's, and Zia, the oldest daughter of the family, got so much attention when she left for Paris a year ago. Now she's back, and in two weeks she'll be teaching Amelia's English class.

She looks dreaming into the sky and tilts her head. Some mumbling is heard in the far east of her ear. She doesn't bother asking.

“Amy?! Don't you agree?” Arthur says in a confused voice. She shakes her head and sees the substitute teacher in front of her.

“Absolutely!” She bursts the word out and the teacher moves along. She looks at Arthur.

“What the hell, Arthur? I was dreaming, and you snapped me out of it... I think! What did the sub even ask?” He laughs a bit.

“Just if it was okay for her to being the first subject so we won't fall behind. She's asking all the students if they can accept the fact that it'll be different once miss Cryx comes.” He explains, and she nods. Of course that's what the sub wanted. What else?

“Don't you just look so much forward to meeting miss Cryx?” She says happily to Arthur, but immediately regrets it. Of course he's excited about seeing her. She looks like a model. Arthur will be thrilled for sure. But he only looks at her and shrugs.

“I suppose it'll be alright.”

The sub, Janette, hands out books for them to read. Amelia opens the book in the middle and takes a deep breath.

Nothing like the smell of a good book.