“That’s too expensive, that’s too small, eugh that’s some vile paintwork”
Another
month and she’d start having conversations about the drawbacks of political hierarchy
in the education system with the mould creeping up the walls.
Caroline
Caville sighed and got ready to turn the computer off and go back to the flat
when a small bungalow caught her eye
“One
Bedroom, One Bathroom, Desirable Area, §8650” She read out loud from the
screen, to no one but herself as the library was currently empty other than
her.
“Might as
well...”
Caroline
arrived at the house she’d purchased over the internet last night.
The train journey over night had been dull and
long and the last minute tickets for it were extortionate but she couldn’t stand
another day in that hellhole of a flat. First impressions were that it was small.
Very small. Three rooms. Only the essential furnishings, counters, shower,
sink, bog.
She would pay it all back when she could but the new house and the train journey had wiped out her savings.
“I need a
job”
That would
be tricky though seeing as she’d all but failed school. She never saw the point
in trying and paid the price for it in her finals. Maybe she could get a little
job like cleaning or gardening.
She set off
for the library, hoping they had computers there in this quaint little town.
There were a
few people wandering around the library when she arrived. One of them looked
over from the bookshelves at her and smiled.
“Where’s
that accent from?” he asked. “Starlight Shores?”
She found it hard to tell if it was a
welcoming smile or a “the people round here are going to ruin your life and I'm
going to stand laughing” smile.
She guesses
at the former and strolled over.
“Hi” she
said. “I'm Caroline” 
“Morning, my
name is Dustin, are you new around here?”
Deciding
that he wasn’t planning her untimely demise by kidnap and a shovel to the head,
she continued to talk with him.
“Yeah, just
moved into the little house on that hill” She pointed in the general direction.
“Ah, city
girl are you”
“Yeah, how
about you, you always lived here?”
“Oh, yeah. I
have” he glanced in the direction of a little girl in a black dress who was
complaining about some dirty shoes that had been abandoned next to some bookshelves
“Sorry, I gotta
go. How about tomorrow I give you the ‘Grand Tour’ since you’re new. She nodded.
“Meet my beside the statue in the park at about 11?”
“Cool, yeah,
right, Uh Hu, see you there”
He gave her
another smile before heading off in the direction of the little girl, who was
still looking at the shoes as if they had teeth.
“Bye then”
She said to herself
