The slowly growing looming sky began to turn storming grey as the winds turned stale into a flowing hot and humid stream. The most perfect weather for the most terrible day for two young girls. The blur-ish faces of tear-filled eyes and clear blubbering words with hand tugs and sweet hugs. They exchange favorite bracelets and books and candies as tears fell. One of the girls, an older girl by two years, kisses the other girl on the cheek as they cry their eyes out. With a stern shout, the older girl starts being dragged away

"Don't forget me, okay? Promise me, Amelie, don't forget me! I'll see you soon Amelie!"

A roaring car engine starts and the older girls cry become muffled when forced into the vehicle that starts moving further and further as the young girl escapes from the grip of her mother and runs after the car and for some reason, the atmosphere turns into soft white light. Everything felt like a distant dream but the emotion was real. The feeling of sting eyes, runny nose, and heavy hot breaths left the young girl as everything turned to white,

"I won't! I promise I won't C-"

BE BE BEEP

BE BE BEEP

BE BE BEEP

BE BE BEEP

BE BE BE

SLAM

A pair of stinging, teary eyes open up.

It’s cold, a stale cold. The kind of cold that is felt on a snowy morning. No wind. No air. It's a soft kind of cold. Then, a second blaring alarm sounds. Its constant beeps quickly annoy a slumbering girl and with a quick freezing finger, she swipes her slightly cracked phone screen. With a groan of reluctance, the sheets rub against skin for a moment as the girl relishes in the large growing warmth. After a minute or two, the sheets move again and out rises the girl in a soft night blue nightgown.

A soft high pitched meow is heard from the other side of the bed as a quiet and groggy “g’ morning” comes from the girl. She sits up and stays there for a moment, rubbing her eyes and stretching her back out. After a short period of silence, she rises from the slowly cooling bed and walks barefoot against cold carpet into the freezing all tile bathroom. She yawns as she reaches over to the shower knob and turns it on to full heat. Second, after a toothbrush enters its spray for a second, removed as toothpaste is added to the brush and it returns into the spray for a moment again then into the girl's mouth to start its duty.

As the shower heats up, the girl brushes her teeth fast but messy before stepping into the shower and letting the full blast of heat warm her body up as the cold dripped from her body and down the drain. After it got too hot for her to handle, she moves the knob slightly and as finishes brushing her teeth and toothpaste gets spat out. she lets the hot spray fill her mouth before rinsing and spitting it out into the drain. After a few minutes of shampooing and cleaning her body, she turns the water off and leaves the shower as sounds of gurgling and water running down the drain fills the room.

She grabs a clean towel from the towel rack and dries off her body then wraps her hair with the same towel. She goes to the thermostat and turns on the heat to high as she runs to her room and starts getting dressed in her new work uniform, still in its package. She gets dressed rather quickly and looks at the time and sees she has 30 more minutes until she needs to leave.

She enters her kitchen and pulls out a bag of cat food and a pure white Norwegian forest comes in and starts nibbling away. The young girl makes herself a quick egg and roasted carrots breakfast as she gathers a jacket and some gloves. She grabs her phone from her bed stand and starts making her way out as she gives her cat a kiss and she shuts the door behind her, locking it up and heading to her new work.

The walk to her new job was cold and windy, it felt like jack frost would slap her with his icy hands as she tried to cover her face and she started to regret not getting a car. After five more minutes into the icy walk, she finally made it to her new workplace. KFC, klucks fried chicken. She sighed as she walked in, no one was inside and she looks around nervously and she feels a nauseous ball in her stomach.

“Um, hi, my name is Amelie and I'm new here?”

A blonde boy with bangs covering one side of his face looks her way and sighs and waves her into his side as she walks through a doorway and he points her to the back.

“Smith is in the back, talk to him.”

She nods as she shakes her head at how rude he was as he stares at her and then back at the register. She walks to the back as she passes by the fryers and she sees a man in the back who is preparing the raw chicken with seasonings and he looks up and gives her a big smile.

“Oh! You must be the new girl! Hello there, my names Umberto, I'm the cook haha! If you need any help or if you got an order wrong, tell me first and I’ll help you Mija! Good luck!”

Amelie smiles and nods and gives him a small ‘thank you’ as she makes her way to the back. There were two doors, one said ‘manager’ and the other said ‘call room/ storage’. She knocked on the manager's door and after a minute of standing there, the door opens to a tall man with long black messy hair and cold eyes with bags under them.

“You Emily?”

“Uuh, Amelie sir. And yes, I am. Are you Mr. Smith?”

“Yeah I am, follow me.”

He walks out of his dark blue office to the other door, grabbing keys, unlocking it, opening the door and switches the lights on. It was another dark blue room but with a computer and phone right in front of it and next to it was a supply closet.

“This restaurant puts the fast in fast food by focusing mainly on delivery and pick up, so this place is important to us. Let me show you how to use this stuff.”

After about 30 minutes of teaching Amelie how to work the computer and what to say, they take a few real orders and after Amelie does her first two orders by herself, she is left alone to do her job. She sighs when he leaves her in the room as she rings in orders she gets, remembering very quickly what to click and what to do.

She looks around the room and rubs her face and her hands.

“At least it's warm in here…”

Then, the phone rings.

Amelie picks it up and with a cheery tone, she answers,

“Thank you for calling KFC! How may I help?”

“I need some coke, the real shit.”

“Sure! Small, medium or large sir?”

“No, coke! Not the fucking drink man! Come on man, I need that shit pronto!”

“What the hell? Sir, this is a KFC not some drug dealers house!”

“Where’s big bear?”

“Who the hell is big bear?”

And then the line cut.

Amelie starts to laugh a little to herself and shakes her head. She takes a minute to think about what she should do. Should she tell her boss or keep it to herself? She chooses to keep to herself to avoid drama or getting fired. She hears a knock on the door and sees the blonde kid from earlier open the door.

“You smoke?”

“Not really, but let's just say I do.”

“Come on then.”

She gets up and clicks the on-hold button on the phone and walks outside where its slowly starting to warm up.

“The names Quinn. So, how's it going?”

“Amelie and Pretty weird. just got a call from someone who wanted cocaine and asked where a big bear was.”

Quinn looks at her fully shocked and blinks a few times nervously and Amelie raises an eyebrow at him.

“The last dude before you was fired under the suspect of selling drugs at work. Maybe they still have our number because of him.”

Amelie sighs and rubs her face again and shakes her hands, getting the tension out of her system.

“Hey, don’t stress, just tell them to fuck off.”

“Your right, I just don't like the idea of having to deal with that stuff. Let's hope that's the last one to ever call. I didn’t tell Mr.smith though, I think it would cause too much drama.”

Quinn nods his head as he smokes his cigarette and Amelie plays on her phone for a moment before going inside before Quinn because she was freezing cold.

She made it throughout the rest of the day, no weird phone call and no hard orders. After her first 12-hour shift was up, she started packing up and Mr. smith congratulates her on her first day. A thumbs up from Quinn and a pat on the back from Umberto. She saw that there were three delivery people and another cook in the back but never got to talk to them. She quickly walks home and when she closes the door, she slumps to the floor of her apartment.

“Lovedove?”

Out her bedroom came a large white cat and lays on her leg.

“How has your afternoon been baby?”

A meow is given as she pets her beloved cat gently and she lets out a rather loud string of groans and rubs her face again.

“I had a weird thing happen to me lovedove, I should call aunty Clarissa about it.”

She pulls out her phone from her pocket and dials her aunt, who automatically picks up within the first second.

“Amelie baby! Are you ok? How was your first day? Arktez and I are coming over later for dinner okay? Did anything happen at work? How are you?”

Amelie talks a breather and takes a second to answer.

“Hi aunty, yes I'm ok, it was weird, please don't get fried chicken, and yes I got a super weird call and I'm ok.”

“What happened?”

“So I get this call about a coke deal and the person asks for a big bear who I have no idea who that is and then they just hang up! One of my co-workers says that the guy before got fired because he was selling drugs at work.”

“Holy moly, did they arrest him?”

“I have no idea but probably? That is illegal. But other than that, nothing strange. The work itself is strange but that's it. How about you and uncle?”

“Well, my day was good! No complaints today and arktez said they finished the frame of the building they are working on right now. You could probably pass it if you go down burbel street!”

“That would add an extra five minutes to my walk but maybe when it warms up I will.”

There was a door closing and a soft ‘im home loveling.’

“Oh! Arktez is here, I’ll call you to tell you when we're heading over ok baby?”

“Ok aunty, take care and take your vitamins!”

“You to baby, love you! Bye!”

And with a soft bye, Amelie hangs up and sighs.

“Grandmas coming over lovedove. I hope with steak hehe…”

Amelie gives lovedove some food and decides to take a nap. A phone call awakens her and she answers it.

“Mm, hello?”

“Hey baby, we’re outside!”

With that, she hangs up and walks to her door and opens it. A lady as tall as her but much much older enters and a man who towers them enters as well as they carry grocery bags full of food to make.

“We’re having shiitake chili sauce and beef sirloin with that jasmine rice and some lotus powder, nuts, and osmanthus flower soup!”

Amelies stomach growls as her mouth waters like a waterfall.

“Do you need help? I’m going to sneak bites.”

“You can cut up the mushrooms and help Arktez with the rice and no sneaking bites.”

“Ok… I’m sneaking nibbles then.”

“No sneaking anything at any size!”

With a long groan, Amelie starts cutting up mushrooms as Arktez sets the table and slowly the kitchen and apartment starts to smell like heaven on earth. This is home. The warmth of a cooking fire, laughter from a silly talk, bumping into each other and helping each other. Amelie's heart needed this badly and once the food was done. They all ate happily.

“Tomorrow, you and I are going grocery shopping. All you have are carrots and eggs!”

“And I'm pretty happy with carrots and eggs. I have to wait for my first paycheck and besides, you need to save money as well!”

“Now don't you worry about us! We’re perfectly fine as we are, right Arktez?”

“Exactly, I'm even getting a bonus soon! I’m climbing higher and higher and soon, I'll be a boss and we will have vacations inside of a train, not outside!”

They laugh as they finish their food is good grace.

Soon enough, the dishes are washed and the leftovers are put in containers inside Amelie's fridge. After a movie, Clarissa and Arktez head home and Amelie is left alone.

“Ready for bed lovedove?”

A loud meow is heard as Amelie changes into a green moomoo and fuzzy socks. She crawls into bed after brushing her teeth, turning off the lights, and putting her phone to charge. A weight weighs down her left side as she gets comfy and closes her eyes. Slowly drifts off into sleepy time junction.