Prolouge
I hope you like it!!!
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Austin's POV
I am currently loaded down with three boxes of gifts for the residents of Oak Tree Nursing Home. You might be thinking, what would a 17-year-old guy be doing on a beautiful Saturday at a nursing home.
The answer is volunteering. Most of my friends would rather be throwing a football around inside the gym, or swearing at some person in Australia because they just had their care package taken away or was killed or something.
So here I am. Austin Christner, six foot three, jet black hair, and jade green eyes.
I am currently walking with my best friend, Samuel Collins, and Sierra Walters, who was a best friend. Lately, she has been pushing me away.
You see, it all started when I started dating Lexi. Lexi McGee. AKA Sierra’s worst tormentor.
I keep telling myself that she is just scared of Lexi. After all, Lexi has tormented Sierra since she moved here in third grader, all because of her glasses.
“Hey Austin, can you open the door?” Sam asked with a stupid smile. He only had two small bags because he spent FOREVER getting out of the car so he wouldn’t have to do anything.
He’s my best friend, and he’s awesome, but Sam is the laziest person I know.
Luckily, a nurse opened it for us before I had a chance to say something that I would probably regret say at a old folks home.
After sitting our stuff down on a moving table, we put Santa hats on.
You’re probably thinking ‘this kid is screwed up’, but actually, us three and seven other students from Westview High are delivering gifts to the elderly. Many don’t have family or friends that visit, and it can be especially lonely on Christmas.
We got a list from the nurses about a month earlier. On it was a list of every person’s favorite thing. One lady loved sweet pickles, while an elderly gentleman went crazy for rap music (crazy, right?). With the help of the school boosters, we bought every single resident, nurse, doctor, and even janitor a present for Christmas.
Each bag or box had a room number, or staff members’ name on it. It was our job right now to deliver the gifts, help unwrap them if necessary, and make their day a little brighter.
The first bag I grabbed was to room 135, Martha Jenkins. She was the pickles lady and she should be ecstatic because she is the proud owner of two jars of sweet pickles. She was sitting and watching TV when I walked in, so I said Merry Christmas to get her attention. After three ‘Thank you’ and a giant hug from a seventy year old, I went back to the cart.
It took me about an hour to deliver fifteen more bags. Some people were asleep, while others were wide awake and extremely happy to receive a gift.
Just as I went to grab the one of the last two bags, I saw Sierra make her way over. I looked at the tags and noticed that the rooms were right across from each other, rooms 356 and 357.
“Um, thanks.” Sierra stated akwardly as she grabbed the bag. She started walking away and as I followed her, she gave me a confused look.
Before she asked anything, I said, “My room is right across from yours.”
She nodded and kept a pace in front of me.
When we arrived to the rooms, we split away from each other. I read the tag. It was to a Violet Shoemaker. Cool last name.
She was sitting in a wheelchair, sipping what smells like green tea, and smiling contently while looking outside here window at the scenic view of a wild field. In the winter, it was a blanket of snow with drifts here and there and sometimes the occasionally deer or rabbit.
“Excuse me. Are you Mrs. Shoemaker?” I asked the lady.
I heard her laugh. It was a sweet little laugh that you always imagine grandmothers having.
“Please dearie, call me Violet. Mrs. Shoemaker makes me feel old.” she said with laughter in her voice. She looked at me from the window.
You could tell she was a beauty in her hay days. There were laugh lines at her eyes, which were a gentle blue. Her hair was gray with hints of brown, making me think of her to not be over sixty five or seventy.
“My, why is a handsome young lad like yourself visiting at a place like this?” she asked.
“Well, my school thought it would be good to spread some Christmas cheer.”
“How nice. So what do ya have for me, Handsome?” she said as she looked at my bag. You could hear amusement in her voice. I even blushed slightly.
“Well, you could open it and find out.” I replied.
She laughed and motioned me over to sit the bag on her lap. Slowly she lifted the tissue paper off the top, then chucked it at me with a pretty good arm. We both laughed at this.
What she pulled out was surprising. She pulled out a journal with Yellow daisies sprayed over the cover. She looked at it like it was the most precious thing in the world.
She smiled distantly, as if in a dream. “ I love to write about my day. I enjoy looking back and reading what I did a year ago. I am a day away from filling up my old one. My husband, then my crush, bought me my first journal when I was twelve. And the cover is fabulous. Yellow daisies were the flowers he gave me on our dates, our wedding, and even when our children were born. This is amazing and I couldn’t imagine a greater gift.” she said as she finally looked up at me.
She gave me a big hug. When she finished hugging me and I stood up, I noticed a mischievous look on her face.
“Is that your girlfriend?” she asked, surprising me. I looked over to see Sierra leaving the room across from us, bag in hand.
Before I could answer, she called out to her.
Sierra, being the amazing person she is, came over right away.
Before Violet could say anything, I quickly said, “ Hey, can you get Violet some water? She is parched.”
Sierra looked at me weird before answering. “Sure. My guy wasn’t in his room anyways”. She then left to find the kitchen.
Violet looked at me disapprovingly. I felt guilty even though I have only known her for twenty minutes and didn’t know what I did.
“She isn’t your girlfriend?” She asked.
“No…”
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
“Yes. Here is a picture.” I said as I showed Violet a picture of Lexi in her cheerleader uniform, which was very skimpy.
“That’s her?” she asked.
“Yep” I said, popping the p.
“Ok. Why isn’t she here?”
“She…she doesn’t like old people” I said embarrassedly. Ok, so she wasn’t the nicest.
“Ok describe her and I will compare her with the other girl.”
“But…”
She cut me off. “Not buts. Just start naming things you like about Lexi.”
I had to think for a second. “She has a flat stomach.”
“I saw. She looks like she wears size two. Way to small. Not healthy. At least a size six or eight.”
“Her face is flawless.”
“Also fake looking.”
“Her hair is shiny.”
“Hours with a straightner.”
“She’s nice and popular.”
“Popularity is SO overrated. And if she was nice, she would be here instead of getting a manicure or shopping at the mall for low cut tops and micro miniskirts.”
“Umm, she has brown eyes and bright blonde brown hair.”
“Hair is definitely dyed, I see roots. What about her personality. What do you like about her on the inside? We already know she is mean. Is she smart or funny?”
I tried to come up with something, anything, good I could say about Lexi, but there really isn’t anything.
I was speechless. She was totally right about everything.
Sierra walked in just as Violet was about to speak again, carrying a glass of water. An old man was wheeled in to the room across Violet. Sierra picked up the abandoned bag and walked over.
Violet shot me a look that said ‘Just Watch’.
“Sierra sweetie, Frank is very hard to talk to. He is very lonely and angry at everybody.”
Sierra just smiled. “Everyone has a heart behind their outside appearance.”
Those words stuck with me. She seemed distant as she said them. I wondered about this for a second.
I watched as she walked over and noticed all the things I hadn’t before. Sure her stomach wasn’t flat, just a little fat but it doesn‘t show at all. It’s healthy to have a little fat. Plus ribs sticking out are gross. And even though her face isn’t flawless, its real.
Her blue eyes sparkled when she talked to this old man. Surprisingly, his angry demeanor slipped away and a small grin went on his face when he pulled out a teddy bear.
Something to keep him company.
His most desired wish.
I was amazed at her and I heard Violet say ’I told you so.’
I gave Violet a huge hug. She showed me something that I was completely oblivious to.
Sierra wasn’t pushing me away. It was the other way around.
Memories of the past four months swirled around in my head, and I realized what an idiot I am. I mean seriously, I must be completely clueless.
I had to do something.
Anything.
Its going to be hard, but I realized I would do anything for Sierra.
There are many things to be done, number one being coming up with a plan .
Little did I know that three classmates, two elderly people, and a very amusing dog would help me finish what I had to do.
Perfection is way overrated, anyways.