Chapter 12

Zine locked his door and left the building, walking to the coffee shop he had his interview at. He took in the sights as he moved towards his destination.

He had transitioned into the better part of the city. Passing a park, he heard young children laughing from inside. He wanted to look but he was wearing his clean interview clothes.

It would be just his luck that the kids were throwing dirt balls or something and he ended up getting sniped as soon as he popped his head over the wall.

He continued past the park and turned down an incredibly rich part of the city. He noticed two huge gated buildings right across from each other. One, was what he believed to be a mansion and the other, a school.

It was H private, the preppy rich school.

He shook his head, trying to clear it. Forcing himself to continue down the sidewalk, he made himself look at the mansion and admired its beauty. A place like that should have flowers or something outside it.

But it just had grass, so it looked rather dreary, and seemed like nobody cared. The grass was green and recently cut, but it looked uniform, a bit like a blank canvas.

He looked up at the building, on the second or third floor, he saw movement in a window. A curtain swayed as if someone had moved it, but no one was there.

Zine moved on past the two buildings down the streets, continuing towards his destination.

Geez, this coffee shop is farther away from my apartment than I first thought, Zine grumbled to himself.

He had nearly walked three miles already. He was not tired because he was used to walking all the time everywhere, but still, it was time consuming.

He was glad he had a compulsion to be incredibly early to anything. He almost always got to school over a half hour early every day. He felt like he would be late if he did not leave so early, even though he was always first.

Plus it gave him time to sneak into the school’s library and hide there until the bell rang. He made it to the street with the coffee shop and before he went over to it, he checked his reflection in the store next to it.

He mentally went over his checklist: shirt tucked in, jacket perfectly creased, and two buttoned up at the bottom, boots unscuffed, and hair done nicely.

Just do not forget to smile and be polite.

He breathed in through his nose, turned and walked inside the coffee shop. He was greeted with the smell of coffee and pastries.

The shop was warm, and dimly lit.

He looked around, and upon seeing no one in the shop, he started to feel nervous again.

Just as he was going to turn and run like a chicken, he heard a door swing open and an older woman walked out from ​the hallway where he heard the noise from.

“Ah!” The woman said, startled.

“You're right on time!....you are the young man who called about the interview right?”

Zine felt his internal switch flip. He gave a bright smile and walked up to the lady, offering his hand to shake hers.

“Yes ma’am, my name is Zine and I'm here for the interview. How are you?”

The woman shook his hand and giggled.

“Oh, my name is Tawny and I am just fine, now let's get started.”

20 minutes later……..

“Well! You seem to be quite the responsible young man and I would love to have you work here with me! We are actually quite understaffed, and there is only me, but I have been managing because the hours are short. But I have been wanting someone​ to work weekends for me so I can rest.” Tawny stood up from the table and offered her hand for him to shake.

Zine had to pry his fingers apart to take her hand and shake it. He had kind of lost it in the middle and forgot what he said to make her believe he was qualified, but it worked apparently.

All he had to do now was unlock his fingers joints, because he had been holding his hands together so hard that they now we're stiff.

“You can start tomorrow, at six a.m, since it's still summer vacation. I can start training you to deal with customers before school starts, and you take on the weekends for me.”

She went over to the counter and pulled out a notebook. “What's your size? I can get your uniform here by tomorrow when you start.”

After she wrote down his size, he left the shop in a daze. Wandering down the sidewalk, he made his way to the public school in the suburbs.

He looked at the sign of the building, feeling stressed out from all his activities. He made his way up the schools stairs and entered the building.

10 minutes later…..

Zine walked slowly down the buildings stairs, feeling confused.

That was rather anticlimactic, Zine thought.

He had walked into the building and after finding the front office, a random desk lady just handed him a stack of papers after telling her his name.

She started saying to fill them out if he was going to join the school. He had thought it was going to be a huge thing, and he would need to go through a screening process of some kind. This was too easy and it freaked him out.

He started walking home, clutching the papers that would decide his future. He turned down the street with the mansion and the H private school.

He was walking in a daze, watching his feet move him, feeling small and lost.

What do I- he started thinking before bumping into someone and dropping his papers. He looked up starting to apologise, and ​his blood ran cold.

It was the stalker guy again.