The Sound Of Rain

I

Early morning sun streamed through the crack in the pale blue curtains and flooded the small box room with a crimson light. Last night's outfit was flung carelessly across an old armchair in the corner and a half eaten sandwich had been left out on a worn out writing desk.

Eyes fluttering open, Poppy brushed a platinum curl behind her ear as she took in her surroundings. Her bed creaked as she rolled over to see what time it was.

6:13

She'd woken up almost 2 hours before her alarm was set to go off. Groaning in irritation, she dragged herself out of bed and looked around. Her room was a mess, she'd have to clean it later. But first she had to decide what to wear for the first day back at school. She was in 6th form now so she'd had to throw out her uniform over the summer and prepare herself for the stress of choosing an outfit everyday.

Making her way over to the cupboard covered in peeling white paint, she stumbled over a book that lay open on the pastel blue rug. She stopped and picked it up.

Sense and Sensibility
By Jane Austen

She forgot she'd been reading that last night. It had been her favourite since her mum read it too her when she was 7. She hadn't understood any of it then but had fallen in love all the same. It was an end of summer ritual of hers to read it and she'd been on the last chapter last night. Flicking through the pages, her thumb landed on her favourite page. It was torn and the corners were creased. An ancient coffee stain marked the top right corner and there were notes all down the margin.

It was the first time Elinor Dashwood met Edward Ferrars. The passage itself wasn't in many ways exciting itself, but she loved it because she knew what was to come. Each time she read it she knew exactly how their romance would play out.

After skim reading the page briefly, Poppy lay the book down on the cupboard and opened the top draw. Crumpled tops and jumpers tumbled out onto the floor as she rummaged through, looking for something to wear that wouldn't get her too many stares for the wrong reasons.

Eventually, after trying on a lot of outfits, she settled on a plain white tank top, a baby blue pleated skirt and a thin knitted cardigan that went down to her thighs to match. She looked herself over in the full length mirror hanging on the back of the door before tying half of her curls back with a white, velvet ribbon.

The kitchen was empty and quite when she opened the door. Her dad and her two brothers were asleep like most people should be at that ungodly hour. She looked around at the spotless kitchen, vaguely wondering why she hadn't inherited the neat freak gene from her dad.

She busied herself in the kitchen cooking breakfast for herself and her brothers. Her dad wouldn't be up for a while so she didn't bother making him anything. Once the bacon and eggs was ready she ate hers, left her brothers two portions on the counter, and pulled on her white converse.

By then it was around quarter past 7 and , if she walked slowly, the coffee shop near the school would be open by the time she got there. So she grabbed her bag, shoved her purse and her phone in her back pocket and crept out of the front door quietly.

The morning sun had warmed the air as she wanderd as slowly as she could along the quite road. There were hardly any cars about but the occasion one sped by, disturbing her train of thought.

Altogether, it was a pretty uneventful walk, aside from the cat she met in an alleyway behind Morrisons, and she made it to Hattie's 2 minutes after it opened. Poppy walked up to the counter empty and knocked on the wood.

A tall, beaming old man walked out of the kitchens wiping a chipped China tea cup with a dish towel. His hair was an uncontoled mass of dark brown curls despite him looking to be in his 80s, and he always had a long, striped scarf around his neck, even in summer.

Tucking the towel into his yellow apron, he looked up to see who was in his shop. He spotted Poppy and greeted her cheerfully,
"Oh, good morning Poppy dear. I wasn't expecting you just yet. Doesn't school start next week?", a look of slight confusion flashed across his sweet natured face.
"No, Earl. It's the first week of September."
"Oh, of course. Forgive an old man of his forgetfulness. The usual?"
"What else." She replied with a kind smile on her face. The old man slowly walked over to the kettle being the counter and began making her order. He chatted to her for a while but eventually got lost in what he was doing, so Poppy slipped off to the corner seat by the window and pulled a book out if her bag.

She must have been sitting there a good half an hour, reading. Earl had come and gone with her order and the shop had begun to fill with it's usually crowd of little old women doing the grocery shopping and tired mums on the school run. The window in front of her had filled with rain, dancing steadily down to the rhythm it tapped out on the glass.

Poppy was completely lost in the book she was reading, it was her favourite part because it's were she meets Prince charming but she won't discover that its him till chapter three, when she was dragged kicking and screaming back to reality by someone tapping gently on her shoulder.

Thanks for reading this. x
The Sound Of Rain is a working title so if you have any ideas for a better one let me know.
I'm also using a working cover so if you have any notes on that I'd love to hear them.
Please tell me what you though of this chapter and how I can make it better x

Allons-y honeys ♡