Sunbury~Downs Soap Opera!

Chapter 6~Surprise!

SPECIAL GUEST STARING…!

Thomas Jackson~Fiona’s secretary

Catherine O’Hara~Charlie’s sister

Steven O’Hara~Charlie’s brother

And so… Tally ho and on with the story…! Again…

"Now muffin, push the button at the very top, that’s my office," said Fiona as the elevator doors closed. Charlie nodded and quickly pushed the button. The arrow at the top swung around to the other side and went ping. The doors opened.

"Wow! That was quick!" exclaimed Charlie surprised.

"Oh you should see how my other toys work," said Fiona with a smirk while innocent Charlie was left to wonder why Fiona still had dolls at her age. Charlie opened the door that lead into Fiona’s office for her new boss.

"Thank you," said Fiona with a surprised smile. Charlie shrugged. It was only a door.

"It’s okay," Charlie replied with a smile of her own. The office had multi-coloured carpet accept there was a path that lead to a mahogany desk and around it. The path was made of black marble. The roof had been painted silver and the walls were painted crimson red. There was the latest computer sitting on the desk, on the desk was also a plague made out of gold. It read:

"Beware of the colours," Charlie was puzzled by the plaque.

"Fiona, what’s up with the plaque?" Charlie asked in whisper.

"Here I’ll show you, it’s really cool," She whispered back, even though she wasn’t sure why they whispering. She got out a small silver coin and flicked it over onto the colourful floor. Charlie then saw that there was an electrical force field on the carpeted area. The black-marble path the only thing that didn’t have electrical volts dancing across it. As they got closer to the desk Charlie noticed that there was a young man behind it. He had dark brown hair, it had a fringe that gave you the sudden urge to flick back and see all of his face. He was a little hunched. He wore a pair of black cargo pants, a black skivvy, and a black shirt with red dragons on it. As Fiona and Charlie reached the desk he looked up. Charlie was startled by the brilliant shade of green in his irises. He had been drawing little stick figures and other stick figures stabbing them. Charlie looked closer to see that one of the stick figures being stabbed had the label ‘Fiona’ and the one stabbing her had the label of ‘Thom’.

"I need a new uniform for Charlie, it’s her first day, she’s in the black-jack sector," said Fiona with a slight drawl, not even looking at the young man behind the desk. The young man raised his eyebrow at Fiona, put his notepad away and got out another one. He then stood up from behind the desk and walked around the side.

"I’ll have to take your measurements," he said giving Charlie the once over.

"Okay dokey!" said Charlie brightly. She extended her hand. "My name’s Charlie," the young man looked at it suspiciously for a moment, looked over at Fiona to see if Charlie was for real, saw Fiona nodded, and shook her hand.

"My name’s Thom," he said with a smile. Charlie noticed his hands were cold.

"Hey your hands are cold!" exclaimed Charlie when she let go. She then dived into her backpack and reached in, rummaged around for a few minutes, and came out with a pair of black gloves in her hand. "Here put these on," she said with a smile. Thom shrugged and took the pair of gloves.

"They’re my favourite colour, thanks," he said with a smile at Charlie.

"It was nothing," said Charlie with the wave of her hand. Fiona glared at Thom, picked up her cobra shaped staff that she had run into office to get and whacked Thom in the shins, sending him onto the multi-coloured carpet. Luckily, Charlie pulled Thom off the carpet before the electricity entered his body. Charlie hadn’t seen what Fiona had done…!

"Are you okay Thom?" asked Charlie, who was now worrying very much about Fiona’s secretary.

"Yeah I am, thanks to you," said Thom with a bright smile. Charlie blushed.

"It was nothing, really," she said with the shrug of her shoulders.

"Ya know, today Thom would be nice…!" said Fiona with an icy glare. Thom blushed and nodded. He got out a measuring tape from his pocket and wrote the required measurements on the notepad. He then took Charlie by the hand, making Charlie blush, Fiona furious with jealously, over to the uniform room, which was outside of Fiona’s office, and in the foyer. Thom turned to look at Fiona, and just as he had suspected, she was glaring at him with a mother of all glares. He had done it on purpose to coz he knew Fiona very well, he also wanted to get back at her for pushing him into the colours, he smiled back and shut the door. He hadn’t let go of Charlie’s hand and continued to lead her over to the door on the left of the elevator. The door on the right lead to, as she had put it to Charlie, Fiona’s ‘Gentlemen’s Club’. Charlie’s eyes went wide as her eyes met the images of all the uniforms (or costumes) appeared in her retina. The majority was bright and colourful and made Thom shy away from them.

"Why don’t you like them?" asked Charlie as they reached the back of the room where there was a sewing machine.

"Oh bright colours are scary to me," said Thom in a quiet voice. Charlie nodded and let it go. Thom was trying to reach something on the top shelf of the clothes shelfs. He wasn’t quite tall enough. Charlie noticed this and walked over, stood on tiptoe and grabbed the black cloth. "Thanks," said Thom with a small smile. Charlie smiled back.

"It’s nothing," she replied. Then another girl came in from the door making Thom and Charlie look up. It was Sally.

"I have to perform for these guys, do you know which ones are hot and have a lot of money?" asked Sally giving the list to Thom.

"Like Thom would know if those guys are hot or not," said Charlie looking silently confused.

"Oh Mr McDonald is like hot as!" said Thom with a grin. Sally raised an eyebrow.

"He’s like 78 Thom," she said. Charlie blanched but couldn’t help but giggle. Thom then turned professional and told her, which of the guys were rich, hot, or both. After he told Sally, she thanked him and went on her way to do what she did best… Charlie was amazed.

"How do you know all of that?" she asked. Thom shrugged.

"Fiona’s business partners with nearly all of them and I deal with all her business transactions and other stuff so I’ve met nearly all of them in person. Even though I have a law degree I’m her secretary…!" said Thom with the shake of his head.

"You have a law degree?" asked Charlie amazed. Thom nodded. "Wow!" said Charlie in awe.

"Well I better hurry up and make your uniform so you can start work," said Thom with a grin. Charlie nodded.

"Yes please, I’d like to get started straight away!" she said enthusiastically. Thom shook his head. Why on Earth would she wanna go to work? "Not that your company isn’t nice, coz it is," reassured Charlie nodding her head.

"Good to know," said Thom and he got to work. In a few minutes Charlie’s black t-shirt and short skirt was ready for her. Thom shut down the sewing machine and gave her the two garments.

"Thank you so much!" squealed Charlie happily.

"It’s nothing really," said Thom raising an eyebrow to her strange behaviour. He then thought that maybe Charlie wasn’t given a lot nice things…!

"I’ll see ya around?" said Charlie as she reached the door and opened it up for Thom to walk through.

"You can count on it," said Thom, knowing full well that he probably wouldn’t see her ever again. Charlie frolicked over to the elevator and pushed the down button, she turned and waved to Thom, who waved back, and walked inside the elevator doors when the opened with a ping. "She’s diffidently not from around here…!" said Thom out loud to no one.

Inside the elevator…!

Charlie pushed the button that had "Card Games" written next to it. The elevator was playing it’s usual bad as music in which made Charlie sway from side to side in time with it. While the elevator was going down Charlie decided to change into her uniform. She just made it in time! The elevator doors opened and there was Janet waiting for her. She was surprised Charlie was in her uniform already. "Here I’ll show you where your locker is," said Janet wearily. "Okay dokey," said Charlie brightly. Janet couldn’t help but smile despite her grim mood. Charlie was humming a song as they walked; it made the people she passed look at her strangely. Janet couldn’t help but giggle slightly at the attention that Charlie was receiving, and by the sound of her humming, hadn’t even noticed. "What song are you humming?" asked Janet, curiosity getting the better of her. "I’m on the outside, I’m looking in. I can see through, see to the real you," sand Charlie happily, despite the song’s naturally slightly gloomy tune. "Coz inside your ugly, ugly like me. I can see through you see your true colours…!" "Hey! I know that song! How you know it? I didn’t think you were the type to listen to THAT type of music…!" asked Janet surprised. "How long have you known me Janet?" asked Charlie with a slight smirk. "Good point there…!" said Janet with a small smile. They walked over and through to a door that said ‘STAFF ONLY’ in red block letters on a black door. There was row after row after row of lockers, each varying with colour for the owners of them must have painted them to their preference. "Whoa…!" said Charlie when she saw them. "Yeah, it’s impressive isn’t it?" said Janet almost bored. She then lead Charlie around to where the new employees’ lockers where and allowed Charlie to pick one. Charlie picked one that already had a red and purple butterfly sticker on the face of it. Janet gave her the key, which hung on a key chain. On the key chain was also her id-tag. "You’ll also be needing this," said Janet handing her a padlock and a pager. Charlie looked at the objects in her hand confusedly. "You put the padlock on the locker to keep people out of your locker," explained Janet. Charlie’s free hand flew up to forehead as if she’d just remembered something. "Oh yeah! So why do I have a pager?" asked Charlie as she locked her locker with the padlock. She then turned on the pager and tucked the clip onto the hem of her skirt. "Fiona requested it," said Janet as if she was thinking of something unpleasant, like dirt. Charlie looked at her confusedly (and not for the last time, unfortunately). "I really like Fiona, why don’t you?" she asked the brunette standing beside her. Janet was surprised that Charlie had picked that up. Well it wasn’t like she disguised it real well… "Fiona and I have a contract, a contract I regret ever signing. She basically owns me, when it comes down to it," said Janet with a sigh, sitting down on the benches that are positioned in between the rows of lockers. Charlie nodded in understanding. "I can see how that may find it hard to like someone," said Charlie. "You made a mistake, but you know better now, so I guess your just gonna have to do your best and work off your debt or whatever it is as fast as you can," Janet looked at Charlie suspiciously. Then realised she had no idea and was just guessing. "Come on, you better get started, otherwise we could get into trouble," said Janet getting up. Charlie followed suite and trailed behind Janet as she lead to the exit door at the other end of the seemingly endless row of lockers. Janet opened up the door for Charlie to walk through. "Thank you!" chirped Charlie brightly. Janet just shook her head at the too-cheerful-to-be-normal-young woman. Janet then lead Charlie over to a black-jack table were a dealer was currently in play with two customers, or what Fiona liked to call once she had drained every amount of currency from their pockets, suckers. "Hey Mary," said Janet to one of the blackjack dealers. She had blonde curls that gracefully fell to her shoulders She was wearing the same as Charlie, except her skirt was a bit longer. Mary’s sparkly-brown eyes flashed at Janet and she smiled brightly. They were good friends. Not a lot people knew that Marry was really Mark… But! That’s another story… "This here is a newbi, and I’d appreciate if you’d show her the ropes," said Janet, throwing an arm around the slightly taller brunet beside her. "Okay dokey, but I’m not making any promises," said Mary, looking Charlie up and down. "What’s ya name sweetie?" she asked. "Charlie, Miss Mary," replied Charlie with a smile. "I think we’re gonna get on just fine…!" said Mary with a smirk. A FEW HOURS LATER… "Well I’ve taught you everything I know," said Mary with a satisfied smile. "And ya won me $1000 bucks! You were meant for this kinda stuff," Charlie blushed. She was just lucky, tis all… Then all of a sudden! A young woman and man stormed forward from the elevator, Charlie recognised them and made to hide behind Mary. "Someone ya know Charlie?" asked Mary with a slight glare. "Yep, my younger sister Catherine and my older brother Steven," muttered Charlie. It wasn’t long before Charlie’s siblings made their way over to their table. "Charlie!" yelled Catherine at her older sister. "You weren’t supposed to leave the centre! You haven’t been taking your medication either! You made us worry half-to-death about you!" "Yeah, what have you got to say for yourself?" growled Steven. "I stayed the night with Ben, he hit me, I broke it off, then he posted pictures of me in a clown costume with I was little everywhere! How was I supposed to stay after that?" said Charlie her arms crossing against her chest. "Oh… Well that explains a lot…!" said Catherine and Steven in unison. "So you’re a virgin?" asked Mary in surprise. Charlie nodded. "Oh my god! The second Virgin in all of Sunbury~Downs…!" "Who’s the first?" asked Charlie curious. Then the elevator doors opened and a rather short young-woman with bright bluey-greenie eyes exited it, she then started yelling at a few gamblers nearby and was giving out a few fliers. "That," said Mary with a grim smile. "Is Natalie, the first, christen-loving, rule-abiding, virgin, who’s constantly in here harassing people about how they live in sin by gambling, drinking, and all the other stuff that goes on…!" "Oh," said Charlie. "Is she nice?" "Yeah, she’s all right, just a bit pushy," said Mary chuckling. "Thanks for helping me Mary, I needed it," said Charlie, her cheeks going pink. "It’s alright Charlie, well that’s the end of my shift, I’ll see ya tomorrow," said Mary looking at her watch. Charlie gave Mary a hug. Mary smiled and returned it and walked away not knowing that she was about to become a whole lot more that a work-mate. END OF CHAPTER!