Rags to Riches

I should have known. A rich girl that pretty? Oh course she’d be a bitch to me. Well, alright, she wasn’t exactly being a bitch to me specifically, but she sure wasn’t being very friendly either. I mean, how different could she be from her father? That man was as nice as possible to me when he had absolutely no reason to be. This girl, on the other hand, was being really cold to me when she had no reason to be.

Okay, that’s kind of a lie too. She thought she had a reason to be cold to me. It was the same reason Eric and those two women on the elevator had to be cold to me. I didn’t belong within miles of these people and they felt threatened by me being there. They were afraid of me, evident by them all flinching away from me when I got “too close” to them.

I shifted uneasily on my feet as the elevator descended to the first floor and was completely aware of the way Callie kept glancing at me. I didn’t even have to be looking at her to know how often she felt the need to look at me again. Thankfully, it was a very fast elevator and was opening before I knew it.

I waited for Callie to get out before I did, since I had absolutely no idea where the cafeteria was at. She started off towards the reception desk, which confused me heavily until we passed it and headed off into another corner of the lobby. As we passed the desk, though, I couldn’t help but notice the gapping mouth and wide eyes of Eric as he watched me following his boss’ daughter through the building. I laughed quietly and shook my head.

Callie glanced over her shoulder at me and asked, “What’s funny?”

“Oh, Eric just gave us a funny look. He and I didn’t exactly hit it off when we met.”

“Yeah, he’s usually really nice, but sometimes he can get a bit…well, judgmental.”

I scoffed. “That’s a bit of an understatement.” She didn’t say anything else as she led me into the small cafeteria at the end of the hall we were in. Actually, it wasn’t really small; I just expected more from the way the rest of the building was.

There were two of those long, open coolers like in grocery stores, both filled with various grab-n-go type foods. Next to that was a big salad bar, and next to that was a build-your-own-sandwich bar. Then there was a big cooler full of cold drinks and a long counter with coffees and teas across it. All of that lined one wall, and at the end of it was the checkout line, where all the chips, cookies, and candies were at. Along the other walls were tables and chairs where you could eat if you weren’t taking your food back to your office, I suppose.

“Go ahead and get whatever you want to,” Callie told me as she started walking towards the first coolers.

“Uh, yeah I was planning to,” I responded hesitantly, my eyebrow lifting in confusion. ’Why wouldn’t I get what I wanted?’

“No, I mean I’ll pay for whatever you get. Dad gave me money for both of us.”

’Oh.’

“I can pay for myself, Callie.”

“But you don’t have to, Kenny,” she sang back to me. I couldn’t tell if she was intentionally giving me sass or if it just came out. If she were the kind of girl that I was used to talking to, I might have thought it was on purpose and that she was flirting with me. But I wasn’t used to girls like her, and I just couldn’t tell. I did know that I wasn’t going to win this argument, though.

“Fine. But know that I’m only letting you pay because I know you won’t give up until I let you.”

“Good, because you’re right,” she said, smiling sweetly. ’Okay, maybe it wasn’t intentional then.’ “Now, what are you hungry for? I’m here enough that I’m sure I can point you in the right direction.”

I shrugged, my hands stuffed in my pockets. “I’m not really hungry for anything specific. What’s good?”

She moved down the line of coolers, arms crossed, examining each item as she went. “Ah!” She stopped short and I almost ran into her because I didn’t expect her to be that close. I looked down at what she was looking at and quirked an eyebrow. “The sushi is awesome here.”

“The sushi?” I asked slowly, very hesitant to believe her.

“Yeah, you know what sushi is, right?”

With that, my eyes narrowed and I gave her what my friend Lance would call my “stank-face”. I hated that saying for some reason, but it really seemed to fit at that moment.

“I’m poor, not stupid.”

“No, I – woah, that’s not what I meant by that!” she gasped, her already big blue eyes growing even larger in surprise. “I know people that didn’t know what sushi was until I introduced them to it. You just acted like you didn’t know what it was. I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m sorry.”

“Okay, alright, maybe I’m just kind of on edge today. But I know what sushi is; I’m just not a real big fan of raw fish, so I’ve never tried it.”

“Well good thing none of this sushi is made with raw fish. This stuff is all cooked, so you ought’a try some.”

I groaned sarcastically, rolling my eyes in an obviously overdramatic manner. “Oh, alright, you’ve convinced me.”

She chuckled and picked up two of the boxes of sushi. There was a basket on top of the cooler that was filled with chop-sticks and soy sauce, from which I grabbed a couple of each. I may not have ever eaten sushi, but I knew that it was stupid without chop-sticks. Plus, I liked soy-sauce on just about any Asian food I eat.

“Okay, anything else?”

“Isn’t that about twenty bucks anyways? That’s what your dad gave you.”

“Yeah, well I’ve got other money too. I don’t even know why he gave me that money in the first place, really. We’re fine.”

I shook my head, sighing. “If you say so.” This was not exactly what I was used to dealing with at all. If I was given twenty bucks to buy myself something to eat, I would usually get the cheapest thing possible and set aside the rest of the money. Definitely not spend more than I was given. But I guess I’d have to get used to things like that, working for TechNet. Ugh, that is just really weird to think about.

“I mean, I just want something to drink, but if you want something else to eat, that’s fine.” She shrugged her shoulders lightly and started walking towards the drinks coolers. She reached in one and grabbed a bottle of orange pop, holding the door open for me afterwards.

“Oh, no thanks. I’m going to get some tea,” I said, nodding towards the hot-drink bar.

“Ah, hot tea and sushi. Good combo Kenny. Very authentic of you,” she joked, smirking at me. The more she joked around with me, the even less I could figure out whether or not she was flirting with me. I wanted to think that she was, but part of me thought that I was being completely irrational. ’She’s probably just trying to get along with me so she doesn’t upset her dad,’ that part of my subconscious told me. ’She does seem very hung up on not disappointing him.’

We moved over to the hot drink counter and I made my usual combination of double strength black tea, lemon, and honey, inhaling the mixed aromas as I stirred it. I exhaled as a happy sigh and said, “I do love my tea. I probably drink that more often than anything else.”

I put the lid on my cup and turned towards Callie as she started walking towards the cashier. “I should probably drink tea more. I really do drink too much pop.” We set everything down on the table in front of the cashier and Callie took out her wallet from her purse as the lady behind the computer totaled everything up.

“That’ll be twenty-five dollars and seventeen cents,” she said at the same time that the price popped up on the little screen in front of us. I mentally cringed; it was hard to believe that I was about to be eating half of twenty-five bucks for basically an after-school snack. But Callie pulled out the money without thinking twice and we were soon moving towards a small round table by one of the many windows.

“So what exactly did you pick out?” I asked as she set down the two containers of sushi.

“I got us a Lavista Roll, which is crab, avocado, and shrimp, and a Philadelphia Roll, which is smoked salmon, cream cheese, and scallions. Neither are too fancy but they’re also both really good. Especially if you add wasabi to them.”

“That’s the spicy green stuff, right?”

“Yeah, and it’s really spicy. You don’t need much of it to give each piece a bit of a kick.”

I chuckled at the face she made, as if remembering a time that she did use too much. “What’s the pink stuff, then?” I asked, pointing to the little pile of pinkish strips next to the pile of wasabi.

She made an even worse face at that. “Ugh, I don’t even remember what it’s called. I hate that crap. It tastes like lemon Pledge. It’s supposed to be to cleanse your pallet between bites, but I always just feel like I’m inhaling wood-polish when I try to eat it.”

My head rolled back in laughter. The mental image of her eating furniture polish that flashed through my head was so absurd that I couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t think I’ll try that one then,” I said, smirking as I took a hesitant drink of my scalding hot tea. “Well, I’m really curious to find out if I actually like sushi or not, so let’s crack the bad boys open.”

She chuckled at me, but also gave me a really weird look that I couldn’t exactly place. It was almost as if she was trying to figure something out about me. Like there was something about me that she didn’t understand and that confused her. And that confused me even more.

I brushed it all off, though, as we both started eating. I started with the Philadelphia roll with a dab of wasabi and instantly started nodding and making sounds of approval. It was really good, despite my hesitance at first. Callie’s eyes widen and she nodded back, making a similar sound that I interpreted as, “I know, right?”

We didn’t speak until we had already finished over half of the sushi in front of us. All of a sudden, Callie laid her chop-sticks down, wiped her hands with a napkin, and said, “Okay, let’s play a little game here.”

I swallowed my mouthful and washed it down with some more tea. “What kind of game, exactly?”

“I call it ‘Three Questions’. One of us starts by asking the other a question, and that question has to be answered truthfully. Then that person asks the other a question of their own, which also has to be answered truthfully. And it goes back and forth until each person has asked three questions. You up for it?”

“Is that your first question?” I asked, smirking.

“Not unless that’s yours,” she said, sticking her tongue out at me. This time I was almost certain that she wasn’t flirting with me, though if it were any girl I was used to hanging out with, I would have taken it as a very flirty move. The way Callie did it made her come across as kind of childish – not necessarily in a bad way, though. It was cute for her. Not in a ‘cute-hot’ way, but more of a ‘cute-adorable’ way.

“Okay,” I chuckled. “So who’s going first?”

“I’ll go,” she said, nodding. She took a drink of her pop before asking me, “How did you get this intern job? I’ve never seen someone get a job here as quickly and out of nowhere as you did. So how’d you do it?”

I groaned far louder than I wish I had. I thought about what I was going to say and, before trying any of the ways I’d thought of, asked her, “And this has to be completely honest?”

She was obviously confused as to why I’d ask that, but responded slowly with, “Yeah, that’s how the game works. Totally honest.”

I sighed and chose my best answer. “Okay, well, I didn’t exactly get the job in the conventional manner. I, uh, well I met your father at a pretty low point of my life and he saw potential in me, despite all the bad things happening to me. So he offered me a job and a chance to turn my life around.” I don’t even know how I managed to turn the real situation into something as cheery as what I actually said, but it worked better than anything else I could have said. And it wasn’t technically a lie.

I didn’t give her much of a chance to think about my answer, though, before I asked my own question. Part of me just didn’t want to give her time to see through my story.

“So what did you really come here to tell your dad?”

She sighed about as much as I did before answering. Obviously she didn’t want to tell me about her story either. But she chose to actually tell the truth, unlike me. “I went to a party that I wasn’t supposed to go to. And then my dad asked me to promise him that I would tell him if things were going on because he didn’t want me making bad decisions. And the party was something that he would have counted as a bad decision. But I didn’t tell him about it and it’s been eating me alive all weekend. I even left school early because of it. But when I got home, I realized I just needed to tell him what happened. So that’s what I came to tell him, but I can’t seem to do it apparently.”

I just stared at her for a couple of seconds. I wanted to laugh at her, honestly, but I didn’t have the heart. She was completely honest about being worried about it, and it cracked me up. A party, really? She was freaked out about lying to her dad about going to a party. ’Damn, I wish that was all I had to worry about. Must be nice to be so rich.’

She must have taken my silence as a cue to move on, because she was soon asking her second question. “So, you say that your poor and, I don’t want to be mean but, you kind of look it too.” I gave her the same “stank-face” as before, this time because of how obvious she was being. “But you don’t sound like it at all. You sound like some of my brother’s friends that are in college.”

“That’s not much of a question,” I said slowly, after realizing that she wasn’t asking one.

“Well, what’s up with that?”

“Jus’ cuz I don’ cut off all mah ‘T’s an’ talk like dis don’ mean I aint po’ as fuck.” She flinched halfway through my sentence and I figured that she didn’t mean to come off as insensitive as she did. I was beginning to notice that she was really kind of innocent and didn’t know much about the world outside of her own. So she honestly wanted to know why I didn’t sound like what she imagined poor people sounded like. I sighed and rephrased myself. “You probably have a really limited view of poor people, I’m guessing. You haven’t met many, most likely. Well, yeah, there are a lot of people that don’t know proper English and sound like that. I know far too many of them. But there are also some of us that do learn grammar and language skills like we should. I also read – like, a lot. So I’ve developed a more advanced set of language skills than perhaps my environment would have provided me on its own. You’re also hearing me speak around other people that speak in similar ways. If you would hear me speak to most people in my school or neighborhood, then yeah, you would hear me speak more like how you think poor people speak. If I spoke like this around them, they wouldn’t know how to talk to me and might not understand everything I said. It sucks, but that’s how life is. I’d rather speak like I am with you, but I find myself speaking like the people around me more often.”

“Oh, okay, that makes a lot of sense. And I’m sorry. I know that wasn’t really the nicest thing to ask. I just, well, sometimes I speak without thinking, so I come off sounding really insensitive or mean. I didn’t mean for it to be like that.”

“It’s alright, Callie. I’m pretty used to it. It is what it is,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “Alright, so my next question is…well, what made this party so bad?”

I expected some story about a rager filled with drugs, alcohol, wild sex, things getting broken, police being called, and things like that. But I should have known not to expect anything like that, because that is not at all what came out of her mouth.