Page 6 of September Lessons
He was content with Carrie’s progress and returned to the office, where he had a direct line to everyone phoning in orders. When there weren’t customers present in the front, Carrie helped with the dough and toppings while Skylar stayed on top of the ovens and boxing of pizzas. Most customers came in to physically pick-up their dinner, since they either lived a few blocks away or couldn’t be bothered to pay for delivery. Just as well. Someone running out to make a delivery meant they were down a person.
“Oh, hey.”
Carrie looked up from her training manual on the front counter and saw Leigh-Ann standing on the other side. The evening was dark enough in that corner of Main Street that Carrie could no longer make out who was parked out front or who walked up to the door. Did Leigh-Ann have a car?
“Hey, Lee… I mean,Lay-Ann. You picking up?”
Leigh-Ann smiled. Honestly, she didn’t look too bad for a girl who didn’t do herself up in any way.Neither does the mayor’s daughter, but damn if she ain’t a natural beauty.How cliché was that, huh? Mayor’s daughter being a natural beauty who stole the hearts of every young lesbian in the county. Leigh-Ann’s lanky body was carefully balanced by that heavy sweatshirt and the long hair she kept loose around her chest and shoulders. Her jeans were much too big for her, though.Yeah, I know this look. Second-hand jeans and a hoodie that looks like it came from your dad.Poverty. That’s what it was. Leigh-Ann had mentioned living in the biggest trailer park in Paradise Valley. Who was a cliché, now?
“You remembered my name?” Leigh-Ann asked.
“You’re gonna ask me that and not what I’m doing here?”
“Looks like you’re working, so why would I ask?”
She was amusing, at least. “New girl in town happens to get a job at the one place most teens probably apply to for work?”
“Nobody really keeps up with that around here. Anyway…” Was that a touch of blush on Leigh-Ann’s cheek?Dang. She’s pretty cute.Not really Carrie’s type, who always went for the tragically beautiful femmes instead of the plain girl-next-door. “I’m here to pick up the Hardy order. One large pepperoni.”
“Got it back here!” Skylar called. A box hit the window cut between the rooms. “Ring her up, would you, Carrie?”
Leigh-Ann paid with a single ten-dollar bill that was folded in every corner and marked with a hundred of those pens that checked the legitimacy of a bill. Carrie raised an eyebrow, only because it reminded her so much of home. The more a dollar made its way around small, poor communities, the more it looked like it had been doubted to hell and back.
She had half a mind to ask Leigh-Ann what her parents did, but she already had a pretty good idea. “That’s a penny in change.”
Leigh-Ann held out an expectant hand. Skylar slipped her the penny, and it didn’t end up in the tip jar – not that Carrie was hurting for a penny.
“Thanks.” Leigh-Ann checked the toppings before closing the lid on the box again.
“You got a car?” Carrie asked.
That caught the other girl off-guard. “Huh? Nah. It’s only a ten-minute walk back home. My mom and dad sent me out to pick up the pizza because they think I need more exercise.” She snorted. “’Cause I sit around all day at school, which istotallydifferent from what they do all day.” She didn’t offer any details beyond that.
“Bit dark, ain’t it?”
“I’ll be fine. Know these streets like the back of my hand.”
“Yeah.” Carrie handed Leigh-Ann her receipt. “I know my hometown like that. Still getting used to this place.”
Leigh-Ann hesitated. “So, uh…”
Carrie didn’t say anything, but she also didn’t turn her back on Leigh-Ann.
“You ever… uh…” Two raised eyebrows from the other side of the counter prompted Leigh-Ann to finish her thoughts. “You ever go up on Wolf’s Hill?”
“I barely know what that is.”
“Just the hill outside of town people like to climb when they’re bored. Decent hangout spot at the top. Though sometimes the rangers and the sheriff clear us out of there for troublemaking.”
“I try to avoid troublemaking, if you can believe it.”
Was that curiosity bursting behind those hazel eyes? “Cool. Wasn’t gonna ask if you wanted to have some trouble, but since you’re over eighteen, I don’t think they care if we go up there and toke.”
“You asking me to go smoke marijuana with you?” Wow. Oregon really was a different place. Those were fighting words back where Carrie was from.Fighting as in my mom would whoop my ass if she smelled Mary-Jane on me.Didn’t stop her classmates in Alabama from smoking or vaping, though. Some of them were really dumb about it, too. Then again, this was Oregon, where Carrie’s jaw dropped to see a humble dispensary a quarter mile outside of the city limits.
“Maybe not likethat,but, hey, if you’ve already got friends, then far be it from me to…”
“I gotta work all weekend, sorry.” That was the truth, at least. “I’m on probation and training, so they’ve got me coming in here as much as possible right now. I need the money, anyway, so… thanks, though.”
