The Fox and the Flower

It's early in the morning, I'm tiered, hungry, and just over all cranky. If someone dared to even try to talk to me, I'd probably rip their head off. Look on the bright side, Charlotte. You're on solid ground now. I scowl at my own optimism. All I want is to just go to my aunt and uncles place, then crash on the couch. Seriously, I'm in no mood to fuck around right now. We can skip all the formalities, I could personally careless about that. As far as I'm concerned, I'm done for today.

Getting off the plane proves to be as much of a challenge as it was to get on it. Groggily getting my bags together, I squeeze passed people to the exit and breath a heavy sigh of relief once I'm out of the sea of bodies. I also add in a thankful prayer that I no longer have to take abuse from that Asian lady. I think she might've bruised my head, if not given me a concussion. Looking around the crowd of people waiting for their friends and loved ones I think I see someone waving a sign written in sharpie at me in the far back.

I'm pretty sure it says my name, but I can't make out all the letters. Taking a couple steps forward, I find myself to be right and my eyes rest on the couple I see holding it up. The women, my aunt I'm guessing, is a small plump woman with rosey cheeks and my uncle a tall man with a beer gut. They look like the spitting image of what you'd expect an older southern couple would be. Banjos start playing in my mind and I sort of scold myself for being so rude. I of all people shouldn't judge, but it's hard when they fit that stereotype so well. I smile at them as a sort of apology and make my way through the crowd. I'm maybe no further than five feet when my aunt runs up and squeezes me so hard that I cough.

"Charlotte! So nice to meet you hun." she squeals into my shoulder.

further away she looked a little taller, but now I see that she barely comes up to my neck.

"Grace, you're scarin' the kid." my uncle says from behind her.

Aunt Grace huffs at him, but lets me go. I give him a small smile as a thanks.

"You must be exhausted! Let's hurry on home. Your uncle Pete can carry your stuff."
Aunt Grace sends my uncle a look and he sighs, giving in.

I'm about to protest, but my uncles already taken up my bags. We all load up into an old Ford pick-up and head down the freeway into town. Looking out the window as buildings pass by, I begin to notice little things that stick out the most about this town. One being that there's not a whole lot here. There's your super market here, liquor store there, a beaten up gas station over here. It being roughly four in the morning there's no one out yet, but I wonder if the day time is really any different than the night time. The truck pulls up to a quaint little house at the end of a dirt road and I try to take in the surroundings, but I can barely see anything in the dark. Plus I think I'm too tiered to really care all that much. But what I do gather is that here you can feel like you're in the middle of nowhere even when you can see the nearest house quite a ways up the road.

I must be stumbling about or something because my aunt comes up and supports me as we step into the house. Somewhere in my mind I remember to look for an instrument, and end up disappointing myself. There's nothing. No piano, no guitar, nothing other than the radio to show that there's any trace of music here at all. They take me to my room and I immediately just crash onto the bed. It's a small space, kind of plain, but cozy, and I like simple things anyway. My aunt closes my door for me and I think she says something along the lines of 'sweet dreams' but I'm not sure. Outside my window the sun starts rising and it's rays begin to invade my room. The window doesn't have blinds or curtains so there's nothing to stop it from blinding me. I try pulling the covers over my head, but that's about as good as trying to shut your eyelids.

Grumbling under my breath, I grab my blanket and march over to the window. Taking one corner, I reach up and try to tuck it behind the little rack that's supposed to hold this kind of thing in the first place. It doesn't give and I throw the thing on the ground in frustration. I get easily agitated when I'm tiered. It's not a pleasant sight. I look up out the window and ponder shouting at the sun, but decide against it. That would be quite the first impression. The crazy niece from Texas who shouts at inanimate objects. That would go over smoothly. Letting out a tiered sigh I'm just about to turn and go over to my bed when I see something. Or, more over, someone. Leaning on the window pane, I squint to see the persons face. My uncles out there with them too. I think their going to cut some wood because ones holding an axe. At least I hope that's what they're doing. My mind goes on a wild ride of my uncle being a maniac axe murder and I know I should at least try to sleep before I go crazy myself.

But there's one thing still bugging me, so I stare out the window a bit longer. Now that the suns begun to rise a little bit more, I can make out features. The other person out there is definitely a boy, he comes up to about my uncles jawline which is enough to say that he's taller than me(I only come up to his shoulder), he has a thin sort of baby face with a chiseled chin, and high cheek bones to match. In a word, he's cute. I watch as they disappear into the small forest of trees and my mind starts to wonder again. I'm sure I could squeeze some lyrics out of this whole cliche scenario with the cute guy, and the sun rise, and how the light from the sun made his dark hair shine, and the way... Okay, I'm stopping now. My brains too tiered to make myself see common sense. If I went around falling head over heals for some guy that just happened to look good, then I'd walk around everywhere with a broken heart. I'm not about to let that happen.