Michael A: Day 2 - 5110 words

"Hold onto your britches, I'm coming," she drawled in her slow, Southern mountain accent. She sidled up to the other side of the counter and sat her coffee cup down unceremoniously. Liquid sloshed onto the sign-in sheet. She said nothing and stared blankly at Felix.

A clock on the wall of the office ticked out an account of passing time.

"You the Hutchinson's new boy?" she asked at last, apparently deciding she knew Felix.

He shook his head, wondering who the Hutchinsons were and why they would have a new high school freshman. "I'm Felix Ferguson. I'm new."

The woman tapped a huge fake purple fingernail on the counter, in time with the clock. "You kin to the little devil kid in here not ten minutes ago?"

"Glenn?" Felix asked. "Glenn Ferguson? He's my little brother."

She nodded one slow, deliberate nod and ticked off six more fake purple seconds. "You a trouble maker like that one?"

"No, no, no. Not at all," Felix replied hastily.

Tick, tick, tick, tick.

"I'll keep an eye on you two," she said at last, and tapped her glass eye with one purple nail. It clicked against the eye dully.