Winter Secrets Part 1

~Thursday December 15 2010

Evelyn was in no hurry to get home, as she was busy untying her dance shoes inside the locker room. She had just finish her final for her Intermediate Modern Dance class a few minutes back with great success on her final performance.

"There you are!" spoke a feminine voice. "I've been looking all over for you, Evelyn!"

Evelyn stared stun for a moment with the voice breaking her train of thought. She then turned around and smiled when she recognized the person standing aside her. A rose pink-colored round music box smiled back. Half hidden by the bangs of her short black hair was a gold metallic rim that curled around her forehead, where a small slot with a red lock stood in place at the center.

"Evelyn," said the girl slightly out breath. "I forgot to ask you something after our class final yesterday." She then took noticed of Evelyn's clothes and bag by her opened locker. "Um, you don't have to leave right now, do you?"

"Nah, don't worry. I got plenty of time before I get home. Got out of class early after my last final." She then gestured her hand towards the empty space in locker bench, inviting her companion to sit down. The music box girl sighed in relief as she placed her hot pink gym bag down as she sat next to her friend. "So Annie," Evelyn continued, "What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Well, I remember you telling me one time about your job at the roller rink. And I also remember you saying how you were good at ice-skating too."

"Yeah, and what about it", asked Evelyn confused.

"What I'm trying to say is, I was wondering if you were free this weekend to help out a friend of mine. To teach her how to ice-skate."

"Do I know her?"

"No. Actually, she doesn't even go to school here. She's someone I know from work."
"Okay, so why do you want me to teach her how to ice-skate?"

"Because," spoke Annie, "You're the only one I know who's good enough to teach. I mean, I know how to ice- skate, but I'm not good at teaching people like you are. I still remember how you helped me out big time for our midterm in ballet class. Besides, I thought it was part of your job to teach people how to skate, right?"

"Right."

"So can you please help me out?"

"I don't know…" Evelyn mutters in doubt. She wasn't sure if her boyfriend Ken would be ok with his Evelyn being alone with a stranger she would have no business with otherwise. Especially if he might have plans with her weekend.

"Please?" begs Annie, who had no idea of the snow globe's worries. "I'll do you a solid."

"Huh?," exclaimed Evelyn who was taken aback by the sudden plea." Oh no, that's not what I mean.  What I'm trying to say is…" She then stopped. She can see Annie's pupils growing wider in disappointment. Not wanting to leave her friend upset, Evelyn changed her mind and sighed in mild annoyance. "Ok, fine. I'll do it."

"Really?" Annie glees in excitement.

"Yes, I mean it. I don't have anything worth a solid right now, but when the time comes, you'll know."

"Sounds good. Shake hands on it?"

Evelyn gives her a smirk. "Sure." They then both shook hands in agreement. "So,  who's this friend of yours I'm suppose to teach?"

"Oh, right! I forgot to tell you about her. Her name is Lana and she works with me at that restaurant Joe's Soup and Sandwiches. She's a sheep that I known for a couple of months now."

"A sheep?"

"Yup, and she's also a waitress there like me."

"Oh. So, what's she like? Personality wise I mean."

"Well, she's usually pretty quiet and keeps to herself a lot. But she's really cool once you get to know her."

"Sounds…nice." Evelyn said, uncertain what to make of that description.

"She is." Annie nodded in agreement obvious to what the snow globe really meant. "Don't worry, I'll be there for you to meet her."

"You will?"

"Yeah, of course I'm coming too. You didn't really think it would just be you and her alone, did you?"

"Kinda", Evelyn admitted feeling dumb.

"Don't worry, I'll be there too. So when should we meet at the ice rink?"

Evelyn thought to herself for a couple of moments. "How about this Saturday, maybe at 10 a.m? I could get us in for free and we can have the ice rink to ourselves for about an hour."

Annie's eyes widen in anticipation. "You…you can do that?" she spoke softly in awed.
"Sure I can. I know some of the people who work there, including the manager. Few of the workers from there used to work at the roller rink with me."

"Wow! That's so cool!" exclaimed Annie in joy. "Thank you so much Evelyn!"

"No problem. Just don't forget that solid you own me."

"Oh, I won't. I can't wait for Saturday to-"

Just then, Annie's cell phone rings. "Sorry", Annie says to her friend in embarrassment. Fiddling through the pocket of her shorts, she managed to pull out her phone and answer. "Hello?", she said as she turned away from Evelyn for privacy. "Oh, hey there! What's up?" There was a long pause. "I, what? Oh! Thanks for telling me. I'll go get it right now. See you there then. Bye." Annie's face was in slight embarrassment as she hung up.

"Something wrong?" Evelyn asks concerned.

"Oh, it's not that bad", Annie chuckles in embarrassment as she placed her phone back in her pocket. "It's just that one of my group members from my last class accidently took one of my props with her after the final." She then looked earnestly at Evelyn. "Um…you don't mind if you could keep an eye on my stuff  meanwhile right? I promise I'll be back real quick."

"Sure, I don't mind"

"Thanks! That's another solid I owe you!"

"Wait!" cried Evelyn, "You don't have to-"

But Annie had already left.

"…do that…" The snow globe sighed once more. She stared at Annie's stuffed gym bag.
"That does look like a lot of stuff in there," she thought, taking note of the zipper struggling to keep its place against the massive amount of clothing cramped inside the bag through a small-unzipped hole.  She felt that she might as well do Annie the courtesy of zipping her bag all the way in. She held one side of the bag with left hand and used the other one to pull the zipper to its proper place. However, she had a difficult time making it move. Evelyn was annoyed.

"Come on…"

She gave up after a few seconds with her gloved hands already tired from the strain.
And then out of nowhere, she suddenly sneezed. As Evelyn lifts her left arm and turns her head to sneeze in place out of habit, her left hand accidently flung Annie's bag out of place.

Evelyn didn't noticed anything as she was too caught up from that unexpected moment. That was, until she hears a thud sound echoing from the locker room floors. When she opened her eyes, she gave herself a moment for the snow inside her snow globe to settle back down in place while she tapped her head with her right hand to check that her hat was still attached on her head. Her left hand took an unused tissue from her bag and uses it to blow her nose.

Evelyn then looks down to the floor and gasped. Somehow, she caused the zipper to move backwards from its original spot, allowing the bagged contents to spill over all over the floor. She went down on her knees in an instant to pick up whatever stuff fell out of Annie's gym bag. The scattered items were of no surprise to Evelyn; costumes, shoes, dance props, a hardcover textbook, and a small case of makeup. Thankfully, nothing seemed damaged. However, as Evelyn picked up the remaining article of clothing from the floor, she discovered something of interest to her.

"Is that…a diary?"

Sure enough, there was a lavender colored book with no title laying on the floor flat on its opened pages. There was a border of printed golden roses with long detailed swirly patterns on its plastic cover.

Pretty Evelyn thought as she admired the design.

She picks up the fallen diary, with her fingers bookmarked between the pages, meaning to check for damage and then put the diary back into Annie's bag. But curiosity went against her better judgment. Before she could stop herself she glanced over the page and began to read the written entry. Her eyes fell over the date of the entry from about three weeks back…


~Sunday November 28 2010

Dear Diary,

You won't believe what happened at Joe's Soup and Sandwhiches at my morning shift. Guess who was almost late for work today? Lana! No really, she usually shows like 20 minutes early like everyone else. I overheard Mallory yelling at Lana and saying how showing up to work 2 minutes before her shift was unacceptable. Well…maybe not overheard if she was yelling in front of half the staff. Blah blah blah your going to have your pay cut if it happens again bleh blah blah. Anyways, you know how she is. Early is on time, being on time is late, and being late is being fired. Poor Lana, Mallory was really harsh on her, as in more than usual.

I didn't get to talk to Lana about why she was almost late until our 1st break. And wow, did I found out why. When I took a close look at her face, I could see that she had these tiny bags under her eyes. I asked her, "Lana, did you get some sleep last night?" "Yeah, I did", she answered. "About 3 hours." "3 hours?! That's not enough sleep at all!" And then I quickly understood why she didn't get enough sleep. "Don't tell me that there was another zom-" "Shhh!"she shushed me, and just like that it was like someone injected a can of Red Bull into her. Heh, zombies. It's so funny how it's like a magic word for her. The magic word that makes her all paranoid and stuff. Anyways, what was I saying…oh yeah. Lana was being all serious again and was checking that no else was around even though we were the only ones in the break room that time. I mean, geez, it's not like Mallory installed those Peep cameras I heard about on TV in the break room or something. Cause that would be illegal and oh boy here I go off topic again. Where was I? Oh yeah, Lana told me that yeah there was actually an outbreak of zombies she had to deal with in one of cities next to this one and that she would tell me about it after work. I was okay with that and decided to change the subject.

"So, you're not having too much trouble staying awake right now are you?" "Right now not too much," she said. "I almost fell asleep in the shower though." "You didn't take a bath last night?"I knew that was a normal thing she did after she finished stopping zombies, and not just for getting rid of the smell and stuff. "No, it was really late, as in past 3 a.m when I got home." "Wow... Did you at least have coffee or something before coming here?"No, not enough time. Didn't help that I woke up late too. I had to get some of Mallory's coffee." NONONONO. Not Mallory's coffee. Do I have to keep on mentioning how terrible her coffee tastes? "Still as bad as ever?" I asked. "Yeah, I put in a little too much sugar in by mistake, and I can still feel the taste.""Don't worry, I'll ask Pablo to make some of his special coffee for you. It'll wash off that stuff from your system. "I don't think coffee works like that. But thanks." I'm glad that cheered her up. "I should get back to work now. I just know Mallory is going to be keeping an eye on me all day. I'll talk to you later." "Ok." I said. Except that I didn't really get a chance to talk to her later on, even at break. It didn't help that Lana had to work overtime and I had to get home before my parents got worried and stuff. I guess there's always tomorrow. Hopefully Lana would have gotten more sleep by then. Unless another hoard of zombies show up again. Good thing zombies aren't something you see everyday. Unless it's the apocalypse or something like that.

Speaking of zombies, you know, sometimes I wish Lana would take me with her on her zombie hunts. I mean, I don't like zombies (and who does anyways?) but I can't stand to know that Lana is pretty much by herself at fighting zombies. Sure I can't handle a baseball bat or guns like she does and have years of experience like she does, but that doesn't mean I'm completely helpless. I think. I still know to fight and defend myself from Taekwondo classes even if it won' t really help much with zombies. I'm still practicing my skills with the crossbow Lana gave me. Mom and dad still doesn't know of course. Still worried how much they would freak out if they knew. Well, and the zombies too.

I know that Lana doesn't have time to get me and doesn't want me to get seriously hurt. That and she probably thinks that I would be a burden to her. But still. I guess it's because I'm really scared that one of those day ( or nights I should say) she goes off to slay a pack of zombies again, she might get hurt or bitten and no one will even know until it's too late or something. I just get scarred for me sometimes. It's none of my business I know, but I just can't help it, you know?

....

End of Part 1