Vanilla Sky…Part 9.

*Before…

I’m kind of perplexed watching it until in like twenty minutes the fire’s out and the water’s starting to touch my toes.

“Wow…what?”

“Bay of Fundy tides Sam, fastest and highest tides in the world.” Shane says smiling.

“Okay…that was very, very cool.” I’m actually sill impressed with it still and still stealing glances at the water as we walk back to the vehicles and the guys drive us all home. Music’s on, heater on, friends and just…I want to live now…I want my life so badly now.

*And Now…

We got home or Shane and the guys dropped us all off and I get my things and…and okay we hug the guys and some of the girls that we’ve, well I’ve made friends with and I’m on the happy edge of that whole girly kind of squee feeling and crying because I’m happy.

God I’m happier than I think I’ve ever been in my life.

Dad’s up when I make my way into the house with my things after saying goodnight to the girls.

I can smell hot cider filling the air in the house from the kitchen and I peek my head inside.

“Hi daddy.”

“Hey Princess, so how was the beach?”

“Muddy and mucky but it was so much fun.”

“I’m glad want to tell me?”

“All of it?”

“All of it even the boy parts.”

I blush.

He grins. “So there are boy parts?”

“I don’t know but yeah…there was a few sort of moments.”

“Good I want to hear about them.”

“You do?”

He comes over and he kisses my on my forehead. “Honey I missed so much of your life and so did you and I don’t care if you’re like a lot of other girls and found out that you like boys or that you like girls it doesn’t matter honey as long as you’re safe and happy. I want to be connected to your life y’know.”

I latch onto him with this really big hug and he walks me into the kitchen and he pours out vanilla hot cider. It’s apple cider heated up on the stove with a cinnamon stick bit and a vanilla bean or piece of one of those too and here’s the thing that makes it just so…

Dad spoons out some vanilla ice cream into two tall coffee mugs and pours the boiling cider over it and it melts and cools and acts like a sort of creamer too. It’s like this apple and vanilla spice kind of latte thing.

That and some graham crackers right out of the packet and I’m sitting with Dad in the kitchen telling him all about the beach and building a fire and the mall and Katelyn and the girls and things not mattering with them and the beach again and Dwayne being really nice to me too and…and Shane.

Okay I leave Shane until last because I’m kind of scared.

“But he’s so sweet Dad and he’s cute and I never thought that I’d think that a guy’d be cute but he is and wow…he has these amazing eyes.”

And Dad’s awesome because he does listen and he doesn’t mind my teenaged ramble and stuff and he even takes me down to the basement where we find some jelly jars and we put my sea shells in them and I take them to my room and set them up.

……………….The best thing about working on a farm and stuff is that you’re really working on a farm. It has been actually keeping me busy most of the week and free from stressing about school.

And hormones…Oh I really had no idea that when I was getting started on them that I was going to feel so sick…I was good for a while then it’s all of a sudden oops you’re pregnant and he’s some morning sickness like feelings.

It’s settled off now that my body is normalizing into my new self which is good and well better than good since I swear my brain feels better.

I honestly thought I’d be tons more emotional though but I don’t strongly react that way to stuff on a chemical level I guess.

But I can see them working…yeah it’s just little things like my skin looking better and different and my hair’s getting thicker, not longer yet not really. But there is also the fact that I have things that I never had before. The right vitamins and I can be myself and I’m using my things, girl things that I never had before like the right shampoo and conditioners and lotion and face creams and all those things that my Step-dad would have thrown an absolute shit fit over.

It’s so different here, so different from home since there’s some things where you are doing stuff because it’s stuff that the girls do and then there’s stuff that the guys do.

Like doing the wood, we have wood that we’re doing up for some of the places on the farm and stuff and the guys all deal with the logs and the big chunks but once it’s like firewood sized it’s kind of all of us doing it.

The guys still do the gross or heavy lifting jobs and stuff but I’ve shoveled manure too and I have a pair of really cute rubber boots for it too they’re sort of like those green rubber boots you see the guys wear but mine are literally made for girls and the whole outside surface of them has that look like reflective tape.

They’re pretty.

And apparently kind of the thing to wear in bad weather here or working on the vineyard and the farm.

And despite the food, I’m working that hard and biking whenever I need something from the gas-station sort of general store down the way I’ve lost six pounds. It actually looks like more since I think I put on muscle too.

Not in a bad way though…just after being locked up in the Kooky house I didn’t really have much muscle tone at all so its work muscle and not like work out muscle.

Oh and two days ago I got new boobs…Liz my step mom had them ordered and measured for me so I’m done with the 26’s and now I’m a 34 B and with it came some new bras to fit and stuff and we donated my other breast forms to the breast cancer society.

They fit so much better and I look so much better and we might have put a dent in Daddy’s credit card again with them and the bra and a few other things like corsets but it was so worth it.

And today…

Today I start in the office.

Like Dad promised.

Liz meets me in the office and I wanted to make a good impression so I’m wearing a nice blouse and a skirt that goes good with it and flats but I’m dressed like I would be for a normal office job.

I feel.

God I love the way this feels really. Heck I’m even wearing nylons and just a little make up and I smile a little shyly when I come into the office and Liz is making coffee there and she stops and she looks at me.

“Wow Samantha you look amazing.”

“I do?”

“Absolutely, every inch the professional young lady.”

“Really?”

“Definitely, hang on I want to go get changed too.”

“What? No you don’t have to.”

“I want to, besides what good is it that I have the clothes but I actually don’t wear them on the days that I’m in the office?”

“Uhm…okay?”

“You finish making the coffee and I’ll be right back.”

She leaves and I make the coffee and I take a box of tissues and I slip to the kitchen and get a little dish with lemon Mr. Clean and I just sort of dust a little. It actually needs it and stuff and it’s tweaking my girl cleaning gene. I just get the really worst of the dust but I’m coming back here after supper.

Liz comes down and I’m in a bit of a stunned shock. She’s in a pair of slacks and some nice shoes and a bronze satin blouse and just combining that with her natural Amerindian great looks and her long hair she’s both professional and she’s totally striking too.

“Wow, you look great.”

“Thank you I was going for business casual.” She sniff’s the air. “You cleaned?”

“Yeah it was a little dusty. You don’t mind right?”

“Mind…you cleaning. Wow Atlanta must be a really strange place.”

“Mom and my step dad would have thrown a fit if I cleaned and looked like I enjoyed it.”

“You like cleaning?”

“No but I love when it’s done and everything looks really cool and fresh or pretty.”

“I’m so making you our office manager when we get you trained.”

“There’s not enough of us for me to manage.”

“No silly, like keep everything here ship-shape and stuff like that between everything else your dad and I do this kind of gets left over as side projects.”

“Seriously?”

“Sure am if you want too.”

I take a big breath. “Yes, yes definitely.”

“Okay let’s get started.”

It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever really started to learn how to do. I’m not bad at math and stuff and I’m really good at typing but doing stuff with actual business programs and stuff that is actually like real things for our family business it’s a lot to take in and there’s also this huge pile of real involved in all of this.

We’re just getting into the filing and sorting kind of stuff when Liz says. “Okay I’m starved let’s go get some lunch. Go grab your purse.”

“My purse?”

“We’re doing an office day we should do an office lunch, come on I’m taking you to town for lunch.”

“Uhm…okay.”

I get my purse and Liz drives us into town and we stop at this nice little place called The Cattail café and it’s small but has a nice patio in the back and a decent little view of the water and there’s a waiter that gets us a table and I’m nervous.

Liz smiles at me and she shows me what to do with my coat and my purse and the waiter comes back. “What can I get you ladies?’

Ladies….wow…that felt really good.

And not just the recognition or maybe not getting recognized but this is…I’m out on a girls lunch just like those women I’d watch doing the same for so long and now it’s me.

I get the soup of the day and a small garden salad and Liz gets the same and the canapé small tray for us too and she orders two glasses of sparkling cider.

I look at her when it comes and she passes me one and I take it. “You’re too young for a champagne lunch Sam so it’s this and ginger ale for now.” She smiles and she does the chink glasses and toast thing. “To your first day.”

We clink glasses and I blush and I take a little breath and look her in the eyes. “Thanks Mom, thanks for all of this.”

I called her mom and I really, really meant it.