Zoe and Madison were dragging their suitcases down the scruffy road to the plantation.
Clearly, they needed someplace to live, so Mrs. H arranged for them to stay at the Mayor's Plantation. Madison wasn't too fond of sleeping at some old Confederate guy's house, as her lovely sister put it, but it was either that or the sidewalk. So...
As they stood in front of the door, Madison was seriously contemplating running back to the airport. Zoe, probably sensing her hesitation, grabbed her arm. "If you leave me alone in this, I will hunt you down," she glared at Madison.
Madison sighed heavily and looked at her. "I'm not leaving you; I'm just a little nervous about meeting the mayor." Okay, she lied, but still, she thought she was an awesome sister for sticking around all the way to Alabama.
Zoe stared at her blankly, probably seeing through her lie but thankfully let it go. She rang the doorbell. The door opened, and Madison couldn't believe who was standing there. "Hey, aren't you that guy that played in the Super Bowl?" Zoe said, recognizing him from the countless times Madison forced her to watch it.
"You're the Mayor? Lavon Hayes, the linebacker? Two Super Bowls, five Pro Bowls?" Madison said in astonishment, flailing her arms around. This was a dream come true. She was trying so hard to keep her composure.
"Four, actually," he corrected. Madison laughed at his modesty and his handsomeness because damn, this man looked even better than on a flatscreen TV.
"Well, I rounded up. You got robbed in '06." She remembered that game; she was so mad at that foul that she actually threw the remote at the TV. Not realizing the amount of strength and speed she put into it, the remote went straight through the thing. Her mom got so mad, not so much about the TV than the fact she missed an episode of Project Runway. Anyway, back to the topic.
"Oh. Lavon Hayes likes your math. You must be Madison and Zoe," he asked, looking at them, more like down upon them, seeing as they were a lot shorter than he was.
"Yeah," Zoe nodded, smiling, her brown eyes sparkling a little. Madison was so glad her sister was able to find a happy moment since her release from the hospital.
"Alright, let me show you to your quarters," he said, inviting them in.
"Alright!"
"I got it, I got it," he said, grabbing their bags like it was a feather.
"Are you sure? I have a lot of bags?" Madison asked him in reassurance.
"Lavon Hayes will get your bags," he said like it was nothing. Maybe this place wouldn't be as awful as it seemed.
"Thank you!" Zoe said to him in gratitude, probably from knowing firsthand how heavy their bags can be.
-
Madison, Zoe, and Lavon were walking up the plantation.
"You know, you being the Mayor here is the first thing about Bluebell that I actually like," Zoe said, smiling happily. Madison loved the fact that she was warming up to the town, they were going to be here for a hot second, so she'll take anything good at this point.
"Thank you."
"How'd that happen?" Madison asked curiously. I mean, how does a person go from playing in the NFL to becoming a mayor in a small town in Alabama? First the lawyer now him? Did this place just collect people destined for better things?
"Well, after ten years in the NFL, I was a little lost. So, Lavon Hayes moved back home. Having played for the Crimson Tide, I was quite popular around here. I ran... I won." They stopped right in front of a small cottage that looked kinda old. Maybe it would be better on the inside?
It wasn't, if anything it was in an even worse state than the outside. Which shouldn't have been humanly possible, yet here they were, standing with the spiders.
"Here it is. Let me get the door for you. Watch your step," Lavon warned them, the steps creaking underneath their heels.
"Thanks," Madison said. She wouldn't want to fall flat on her face. The place would need a lot of redecorating, that's for sure.
"Sorry about the look of the place. I think you can put your bags in the back room there," Lavon said sheepishly, looking at them.
"It's not our loft in SoHo, but, I'll order some stuff from Barney's online. Make the place more homey," Madison said. Yeah, they're definitely gonna need to restock and fill the entire shopping basket online.
"You share a generator with the guy in the gatehouse, looks after the place, Wade Kinsella. If you got your, uh, curling iron going while he's got his AC on, could be trouble. Oh! If you do decide to wander, um, keep your eyes peeled for Burt Reynolds. Alright," Lavon instructed. Wait? Hold up a minute. Who is Burt Reynolds?
"What?" Zoe asked in a small voice, not completely soaking in the information.
"And who is Burt Reynolds?" Madison asked curiously. He just looked at them with an amused smile through the mesh and turned around to walk away. Wait, he didn't answer the question!
-
Zoe was getting ready for bed, and Madison was already in there, reading Bram Stoker's Dracula.
They didn't feel like cleaning a second bedroom, especially after the day they had, so they decided to share one.
She looked to her left and saw Zoe with a Nicholas Sparks book in her hand. "What are you doing with that book? You hate Nicholas Sparks," Madison asked her in a deadpan tone.
Zoe looked at her and shook her head. "I need to pay more attention to people and what they like; otherwise, I'll never get that job."
Madison looked at her with a sad look in her eyes. "Zo, that's the thing, you're doing it for all the wrong reasons."
As soon as those words left Madison's mouth, the power went out, and they were left sitting in the dark. Madison let out an exhausted sigh and looked at Zoe, squinting, seeing as she couldn't see her that well, and the only light source was the moon.
"You go look for the generator; I'll go look for the idiot who overheated it." With that, Madison grabbed her nightgown and left the cabin to go look for this so-called Wade Kinsella.
She finally found his cabin after searching for it for a while. Man, this plantation was big. She also thought she saw an alligator run past her, but that's got to be the sleep creeping up on her.
She heard music coming out of the cabin, so she knocked pretty hard, but he still couldn't hear her. What the hell is he doing in there?
She saw that the door was open, and she weighed her option of getting in a house with a man that she didn't know or sleep.
Yeah, sleep wins. With that, she pushed the door open and stormed in. She immediately walked to the source of the noise and found a dirty blonde-haired guy with two brunettes playing Guitar Hero!
"You overheated the generator!" Madison yelled over the noise.
He smiled at her, looking amused.
"Nice nightgown. I'm Wade."
She scoffed at him, folding her arms at his flirting and glared. "I don't remember asking for your name, but I'm sitting there at home with no electricity."
He walked closer to her, leaning his hand against the railing of the door, smiling mockingly. "Well, if you're not going to be polite, I'm not going to show you where the fuse box is. Night." He dismissed her and turned back to his game.
"Keep going, ladies! Come on, I'm just getting warmed up now."
It was official, her blood was boiling up to volcanic heat, and her temper was off the roof. She turned towards the TV in a split second and pulled the cables out.
"Oh god no, don't do that, I was about to beat my high score," Wade whined, which sounded like nails on a chalkboard to her ears.
"I would like to talk to you," Madison said calmly, even though she was five seconds away from ripping the flesh off his face.
"Ok," he shrugged and waved his arm for her to continue, waiting. She slapped his hand away from her face in frustration. He hissed and drew his arm back in shock. "What was that for?"
"First off, with the way you're acting, you're lucky I'm only slapping you in the hand; second off, in private," she sneered at him.
He sighed and turned around to look at the girls. "Listen, ladies, I'm sorry, I can't entertain you right now. Rain check?" He says, pointing at them, smirking.
To her surprise (sarcasm), the girls giggled and grabbed their stuff, looking at him. "Definitely, Wade."
They shot her glares as they walked out the door, which she happily returned. Once the door closed, she turned back to the idiot. She saw him smiling at her suggestively, looking her up and down. She glared at him, so fed up with his crap she didn't even have the energy anymore to yell at him.
She whipped around, her hair purposely slapping him in the face, and stomped out of his house. "WHAT THE HELL!!" she heard him scream after her as she walked. She smirked in triumph, knowing she completely ruined his chance of getting laid.
-
"Bluebell is better than I expected, Dad. The people here aren't so bad. Maybe I can make a difference. I have another call. Call me - are you getting my messages? Bye. Hello?" Zoe looked up with a dejected look in her eye
"Did you sign Old Man Jackson's eye exam for the DMV today?" Emmeline asked in a rushed way.
"No, why?" Zoe wondered.
"Cause he just ran someone over." She was so shocked she didn't even notice that Emmeline had hung up.
Once her mind sat still, it hit her in the face like a brick. She scrambled out of bed and shook Madison in a hurry. "What," she said groggy, looking at her dazed.
But one look on her face, and she groaned. "We can never catch a break in this one-pony town."