Waking up in my bed at Tabitha's house felt refreshing after the kick I had received the day before. I got dressed wearing a simple sweater with insulated blue jeans. The pearl necklace and earrings were tasteful, but still attracted attention. And I put my hair up in a folded ponytail, with thin braids off my temples, back to the ponytail.
I was going to get a photo, as Sierra, today. At eleven, Tabitha came back into the house, taking a long lunch, in order to do this for me.
"We live a mile from the courthouse," I say as she walks in the door. "I can walk there myself."
"And miss the look on your face when you fail," she grins. "I wouldn't miss seeing that even if it meant losing the lottery."
"Suit yourself, let's go."
We arrived to the courthouse, walking to the basement, where the testing area is located, and waited in line while other teenagers stressed over the questions, and rereading the book before their turn.
I didn't fail to notice the lustful looks from two of the boys in line, making me feel disgusted, the boy in line after me was sneaking glances, but wasn't being disrespectful about it. So I decided to start asking questions aloud.
After the third one, an ad hoc study session was going on, and we were eventually told to keep it down, and ended up stopping.
"Which school do you go to?" The boy next to me asks.
The two disgusting boys perk up, their mom's both seeing their son's interest, only look toward me.
"I was homeschooled, I'm taking remote classes at Missouri State University because my age could cause issues on campus." I tell him mostly the truth.
"What college courses are you taking?" One of the disgusting boy's mom asks.
"I am working on my Masters in Particle Physics, and have a paper under peer review on the study of Higgs Boson. It should be through review by the end of next year."
The woman turns to her son, "Buddy, you don't have a snowball's chance in hell, with her. Your turn." She pushes him up as she finishes. "I like your pearls, are they real?"
"Honestly, I don't know, but I doubt Cartier would have sold me fake ones."
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I see Tabitha smirk, then chime in. "Sierra, I don't think you've worn any fakes since you graduated highscool." I see she wanted to put on a show.
"Well, Dad bought me my first set from Winston about that time." I quickly pull a three year old diamond necklace from under my sweater. "It's been my good luck charm ever since." The woman's eyes go wide, sadly it's not because of surprise, it's because she thinks we're lying.
"Are those, like, brand names?" The boy next to me asks. The seven moms, and two dads collectively facepalm, Tabitha just laughs.
"They are designers, but I guess you could call them brands, as I doubt many of these companies use only a single designer for their work, it just all falls under that designer's name."
He and I start discussing nuance in business until it's his turn, by that time there are twelve people behind me, and a few are talking with each other, obviously from the same cliques in their respective schools, pointedly attempting to either ignore me, or imagine me in compromising situations; depending on which one was catching glimpses.
Once it was my turn, I walked in, showed them my documents, then sat down at a computer, completed the eighty question test, then got paperwork to take to the licence office.
Once in Tabitha's car, I took the Winston necklace off. It wasn't something I thought would be tasteful for a state ID card.
It took nearly an hour to get my card, and most of the people here were the same ones I had seen at the courthouse. One of the girls who came after me struck up a conversation, the two girls with her, obviously making the stereotypical 'plastics trio' in so many movies about teens. I had thought that stereotype was exaggerated, if anything it was understated with these three. And the one talking to me was obviously the one on the bottom of their internal hieratchy, and was too obvious in trying to determine if I was a threat to her their petty queen.
I was civil, but obviously kept my distance. When it was finally time to leave, Tabitha handed me her keys.
"Oh, Chauffeur, take me to work." She said loudly, over the drone of conversations in the room, illiciting giggles from the parents.
I had never driven Tabitha's car. An older Honda Civic with a 5 speed. I preferred manual cars, so it wasn't that big of a deal for me. Once at the florist shop, she went back to work.
"Hey, help me with these orders, so we can go home on time." She smiles. I pick up an order sheet, and know nothing about the flowers listed there, everything listed by their scientific name, not their common ones.
So Tabitha started grabbing flowers, and placing them with the order forms. I would set them in arrangement vase, and move them around until I thought they looked nice.
"If Physics doesn't work out for you, you can always come here." Tabitha's boss jokes. Making it obvious she is happy with my arrangements, and glad I am helping Tabitha to catch up.
'Dad' comes in, and just holds his hand out.
"Off work, already?" I ask. As I pass over the newly printed card.
"Yep. Had to come see my little girl's photo." He grinned. "Just as hideous as me, as expected." He kept that mischievous smile.
"Well I was cursed with your looks, I only kept Mom's taste in fashion." I stuck my tongue out, and finished the current arrangement of yellow roses, love-me-nots, daisys, and queen Anne's lace.
Dad, then insisted we go out to eat, but I had to drive his car. After driving the Civic, I felt some issues that would need attention, after driving for so long, I didn't notice the issues until I drove something else.