"Hello", asked the white haired girl ,"did I say the wrong thing?" Dennis woke from his trance and saw the two girls still standing outside his door.
"I'm sorry," said Dennis, startled, "Something seemed of- anyways follow me to my office," Dennis said opening the door and allowing the girls in. The two girls walked in, all the while Dennis began to take in more of these girls appearances: The white haired girl called Lyra had been wearing a mint green t-shirt, with white pants, and white colored sandals. On her neck hung a necklace shaped like a golden harp. The girl with blue and fuchsia hair was wearing a brown t-shirt with "Buckwear," written on the upper left breast, jeans, and brown boots. This girl also wore a necklace, but with a blue charm, with three pieces of candy embedded into them. Something about these girls seemed off. They went inside, and Dennis closed the door, the bell ringing.
He saw the candy necklace girl leaning on the couch, while the white haired girl was staring in awe at TV against the wall.
"Oh mi gosh," said white-haired girl, " I heard you had one of these, but to see it in po-person, is amazing."
"Yeah," said Dennis, "Phillips is a good company, 100 channels, uh," don't lean on the set," he said. The girl was rubbing her hand on the top of the screen. "So," said Dennis, "come with me into my office," he said walking into the room on the office. The fuchsia girl called 'Bonnie,' walked into the office, but caught her friend Lyra still staring at the TV. She sighed and grabbed Lyra by the arm, and pulled her away from the marvel of technology.
The office was pretty small. The walls we're painted white, some of the paint peeling off toward the ceiling. In the back was a brown wooden desk littered with papers, with a small wooden chair behind, and an old white computer monitor. On the right was a table with a printer on top. On right wall was a black file cabinet with three cabinets. One of them was hanging open with all the papers seeming to burst out of the files. On the left wall was a window staring outside. The rest of the space was just big enough to accommodate two people, such as Lyra and Bonnie."
"I've checked the computer," said Dennis ," and I can't seem to find any record of you making a reservation."
"Oh," said Lyra, who smiled sheepishly, was turning toward her friend Bonnie, who was giving her a glare, "but we need to stay-we need a place to stay."
"How old are you, Lyra," asked Dennis, his hand cupped around his chin.
"Um," Lyra said, reaching into her brown purse and pulling out a card, "12 years old," she said. Bonnie walked over and yanked the card out of her and turned it on another side,"uh, 21," she said, chuckling and embarrassed.
"Well," said Dennis, " since your old enough, you should realize you ought to make reservations," Dennis said. Dennis wasn't being stupid. Yes he would like to have customers, but he felt that in order to be taken seriously, he needed to make policies, like good hotel owners do, even if they seemed stubborn."
"But sir," said Lyra ," we really-,"
"I'm sorry," said Dennis ," reservations first."
"We understand," said Bonnie, walking over to the desk, " we need to follow your policies to the letter, but we really need to be here."
"I don't know," said Dennis, looking sympathetic toward the girls, "I don't want to stop you from needing a place to stay, but-," he was interrupted by the sound of a wad of cash hitting the desk.
Dennis looked at the wad, staring at it, saw it was full of hundreds, and twenties.
"That's about 1000," said Dennis, that's seven weeks worth of rent in advance," said Dennis. He paused for a minute. "Well okay," he finally said, pulling out a form, "sign here, you two."
Lyra walked over in front of the form, with an unusual grin on her face. Dennis handed her a red pen.
"This is so exciting," said Lyra ," I am signing stuff with a pen in my hand," as she began filling out the form.
Dennis looked slightly amused,"Man I wish I felt that same kind of joy around tax time,"
"June 29, 1999," Lyra said as she signed the document, happily.
"Okay Bonnie," said Dennis handing the girl a pen ," Now you sign." The girl looked anxious as she saw Dennis hand her a pen. She calmly took it, but just held it there, waiting around anxiously.
"Well," said Dennis, "any time now."
"What," said Bonnie ," I've never done this before."
Dennis chuckled ,"you've never filled out a hotel application? Alright, all you need is time, date, hotel..." FLAK! The pen hit the floor."
"Let me do it," said Lyra, "I'm more trained to do this kind of thing," she grabbed the pen of the ground and filled out Bonnie's form.
"Yeah," said Dennis, "but I'm still gonna need her signature," Lyra looked at Bonnie with a bit a fear in her eyes.
Bonnie just relented and said, "Alright," and took the pen and the contract. She put the contract on the table, and grabbed the pen with both hands. Both her hands trembling, she took down the signature. Dennis looked up and saw a signature that more or less resembled a crooked tornado, and the paper looking like the devastated community full of stab marks.
"Alright," said Dennis ," let me organize these papers. You two wait outside, and when I'm done I'll help you with your bags."
"Okay," said Lyra happily as she skipped out the door, while Bonnie just walked out, looking down, like a girl whose diary was read by the school bully.
-
"I told you to practice," said Lyra annoyed standing over Bonnie, who sitting on the couch, looking down in shame ," I spent two weeks working on my hands, what were you doing?"
"Getting supplies," said Bonnie incredulously ,"you know the gems, the plate..."
"Well," said Lyra, putting hands on our hips ,"If you blow our cover, then those things won't matter would they."
"Oh," said Bonnie, " and your spectacle in the butcher shop wasn't blowing our cover,"
"That guy killed that poor cow," said Lyra, sadly ," I was defending him."
"Yeah," said Bonnie sarcastically," you we're a real hero, especially to those civilians that fled in TERROR."
"Well at least I can do regular things, like pick up pencil WITHOUT my mouth, and drive. Do you know how hard it is to drive 3 hours straight?"
"You didn't want to fly," said Bonnie, "I told you-,"
"I've been practicing driving, which we are supposed to be doing unlike y-,"
"Well you certainly have been practicing, it takes a lot of practice to miss our target by 200 miles," said Bonnie enraged.
"It was a hundred and eighty eight miles," said Lyra screaming.
"Will you shut up," said Dennis walking outside the room. "One the great things no kids is no arguing, I guess I'm taking that for granted."
The two stopped, looking away from each other in embarrassment.
"Yeah Lyra," said Bonnie, with a grin
"Let just get the stuff," said Dennis ,walking outside the house.
"Should we ask him," said Lyra, looking at Bonnie.
"Not yet," said Bonnie, narrowing her eyes as she looked out the door ," he seems nice, but considering the time past, he might be a little-,"
"Girls," said Dennis.
"Coming," said the pair, as they walked out the door.
-
The three walked down the hill, neither person speaking. Dennis was walking in front with the two girls behind them, as they approached the girl's car. They we're parked right next to the Cavalier. There car was a 1991 Chevrolet Caprice. It was pretty flat and rounded compared to the Caprice. Its' white color shined in the clear blue sky.
"So what college to you guys go to," asked Dennis, walking toward the car.
The girls stopped and looked at each other. After a minute, Bonnie turned toward Dennis, and said, "uh, College."
"Yes," said Dennis ,"but which one?"
"Uh," Lyra said ,looking down at the Cavalier, "Stony Brook?"
"Stony Brook," asked Dennis curious.
"Uh," said Lyra, nervous, while Bonnie was giving her a glare.
"I went there too for college," Dennis said, smiling. "It's good to me the right kind of people going to the right kind of school. What are you studying?"
"Uh, astronomy," said Bonnie nervously.
"I didn't know Stony Brook offered astronomy as a major", said Dennis.
"Major," asked Lyra.
"Yeah, um can you give me the key to the trunk," asked Dennis holding his hand out/
"Here," Lyra said than passed the key unto Bonnie, who fumbled around," Bonnie will gladly open the trunk," she said with a smile that was more devious than sincere."
"Okay sure," said Bonnie whose smile look forced. She walked over to the car with the key. What followed was a minute of Bonnie struggling with a key, unable to turn it around. She jammed it in, pulled it out, only for the struggle to end with a large arm yanking the key away from her.
"Just click the button on the keyless entry system," said Dennis, annoyed. Attached to those keys we're a small black case, with three buttons. There were two square buttons on top: the one on the right was inscribed with a picture of the key and the word DOOR. The button on the left had the word UNLOCK written on them. A square button on the bottom had the picture of a car. The rest of the black thing had written on it "CAPRICE CLASSIC" written on it, with a sign that looked like a wide and short cross reflected on the bottom. He pushed the UNLOCK button, causing the car to emit a strange noise that made Bonnie jump. Dennis walked over and opened the trunk.
"Voila," he said sarcastically.
"How did you do that," asked Lyra, looking slightly perplexed.
"What," Dennis asked, confused ," it's just a standard keyless entry remote."
"You can open doors automatically without magic," said Lyra excited and smiling, "this place really is amazing."
Dennis said nothing, and did not look back at the girl jumping up and down at the sight of remote key control, or at her embarrassed friend. He walked with a stoic expression on his face.
This is going to be a long summer, Dennis thought.