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Chapter 2: Late Morning Pizza...

Kelly was barely able to wake up the next morning. She had just enough in her at first to almost break her alarm clock which jolted her awake. Her head was THROBBING!

"AAAAAAHHHH" she wanted to shout if she wasn't in the kind of pain she was, combined with being still only half awake, dealing with a POUNDING headache. It almost felt like a fireworks show combined with a hangover. Almost forgetting about what happened the night before, all she was focused on was how tired she was from a lack of sleep until her alarm clock almost stopped her heart, and the all-over pain MAYBE from whatever it was that happened before (though she couldn't put it all together yet. All she knew was that there was pain!). It was still fairly early when she looked at the clock (which she almost destroyed from it shooting her out of bed, if it weren't for the pain she was feeling), so she decided to put her head back down and instantly fell back asleep a little longer.

Her next attempt at sleep wasn't what she expected she needed. The first time, though fairly short, was quite peaceful, though she couldn't remember much of it. The second was just FULL of thoughts from the previous night haunting her. They were going by so fast, like everything that happened the night before was all being thrown at her at once. From running down the street in pain, to laying on the ground watching her whole body transform into whatever it did, to running into the park, balling her eyes out, walking over to the pond and seeing herself, to the deer, and then running back home; it was all just... overwhelming... they were just coming to her again and again; running down the street changing, seeing herself in the pond, the deer, laying on the ground, her clicking hooves, her tail whipping her, hiding in the trees, seeing herself, changing, the deer, the pond, running, the whole time no one seeing her change into that... thing. So confusing and overbearing that Kelly felt that she almost stopped breathing and would pass out, IN THE DREAM.

Shortly after, Kelly woke again. She and her bed were a big sweaty mess, (though she was almost nude and didn't have to deal with peeling clothes off of her before they suffocated her or anything). She tried to regain normal breathing. Her pain was... mostly gone, but her head was still feeling a bit cloudy. SOMETHING was going on; just that thing the previous night, it just kept attacking her.

"It had to be a dream!" Kelly thought to herself. "But what happened, and why won't it leave me alone?!"

She was SO out of it, with her mind reeling with thoughts of the night just flying through her head as they came back to her, after a nightmare induced with the same thoughts. She was still just able to catch glimpses of them as they rushed by her, as if her mind was running a marathon fueled only by straight caffeine. Her migraine was growing more, she could only sit there before she could relax. It took about a half hour or so before she could calm down even slightly, but it only made her feel worse when she actually got up to find torn clothes sitting by her bed. She practically had a mild panic attack. Even if it was a dream, it was still hitting her hard, and with how real it still felt to her, Kelly just didn't know what to make of it all. Those thoughts of becoming animal, they felt so real, but something like that, Kelly could only assume it HAD to be a dream, caused by all the new stress she felt on top of the old stress... right? At that moment, nothing else could explain it.

The only other thing she could think of (because she felt laying down again wouldn't help) was to use her coping mechanism she learned a couple years prior. It helped her to stay calmed down during stressful times, by causing her not to feel anything at all. For some strange reason, though, it wasn't working as well as other times. It was like an annoying monkey on her back just poking her repeatedly with a prickly flat end of an icicle. At this point, even her curiosity started to set in. That at least helped her to breathe normal again, before finding other things to distract her, like breakfast.

She tried to settle her brain completely, but it was no use when she looked at her alarm clock and her entire mind suddenly shifted focus on getting to work!

"Crap," she kept saying to herself as she scurried around her room getting ready for the day. She wasn't running terribly late, but she wanted to be ready early for her first day on the job. Kelly was very audible as she scurried around the wood floors laid throughout the house, except for the living room and kitchen. At one point, Kelly almost plowed over one of her housemates, Kacey, who was walking down the hall, barely missing her, coming within inches behind her, and actually jumping across the hall into the bathroom almost crashing into the wall. Kacey didn't seem to think much of it, thinking it was just another attempt at getting ready for the day in five minutes, which Kelly tended to do on a regular basis.

Kelly really wanted to be ready for her first day at the shop early. Most of her energy was basically from pure adrenaline. She was able to quickly get a change of clothes, put what seemed like a whole container of deodorant on (as she thought her normal perfume wouldn't mix very well with pizza shop smell). As she hurried through the house, she finally was ready for work. As Kelly made it down into her kitchen, two of her roommates were already having breakfast while her grandmother was in the living room watching the morning television.

"I thought you wanted to be early; cutting it a little close aren't we?" Kacey, her one annoying but always lovable and loving housemate said as she was sipping cereal.

"Shut up, Kacey. I just had a rough night. Probably just a bit nervous about work."

"Why would you possibly be nervous about working a pizza shop? I assume it's pretty straightforward, and your boss seems pretty nice."

"I don't know, what if it gets too busy and I mess up the orders. What if I forget what to do, or if I accidently blow up the kitchen?! In case you haven't known, I have yet to get any professional job experience!"

"Well worrying isn't going to help you that much. You need to calm down and take things one-at-a-time," her other housemate, replied. Her real name is Sarah, but an inside joke between them three led to the nickname Sissy, which she only allows the other two to call her. She doesn't love the nickname, but she tolerates it.

"Come on, I'll give you some yogurt and toast. It's something that will help you through the first bit of your day," Sissy said.

"I'm not like you, Sissy. You know my body needs more than that. Just give me something to fill me up, and a TON of caffeine."

Sissy was a yoga and dance instructor at BJ's Studio, a smaller studio just outside of downtown. It still did good business though. But her profession might explain how she might be able to live off of a piece of toast, or maybe even a peanut each day.

"Well this can tie you over then till you get something more HEALTHY later."

"My body is made to run on straight carbs and sugar baby, that's why I'm still quite thin unlike others who do the same. If I try to change that, it'll just throw me off and leave me unable to recover. Remember that healthy thing you made me before I took that math exam? I couldn't think straight and almost failed. Anything healthy to your standards is bad for me."

"Is that why you get tired so easily too, especially when you do anything that involves working?" Kacey said with her mouth full of cereal.

"No, it's because I get tired of you, and bustin' my butt every year to put up with you every morning." Kelly said annoyingly. She wasn't the best with comebacks, but said how she felt.

"Just let her go Kacey. If you grew up like her you'd probably be the same. But that's no excuse for you Kelly to eat half a box of packaged crap and a burrito from the night before for breakfast rather than something better for you. It's never too late to do something good for yourself. It may appear hard and bad for you at first, but you will adjust quickly."

"Seriously Sarah, you're like a freaking-"

"Hold that thought... and then get rid of it Kace," Sissy said.

"Oh, you knew what I was going to say, huh? I wonder why you didn't study politics in school."

"Alright have fun, I'll see you guys later, sadly." Kelly said in the midst of the friendly feud between the other two.

"Bring back some pizza. We shouldn't have to pay full price now, because we won't either way," Kacey joked.

As she went to the door, she passed through the living room, where her grandmother was sitting in her chair watching the TV, and she gave her a kiss.

"Love ya grandma, I'll see you later."

"Have fun sweetheart, and don't let anyone put you down. Don't let them underestimate you. I have confidence you'll do great." She replied.

"I wish I had your confidence right now," Kelly said as they both chuckled.

"Alright, be back later."

"Wait!" Sissy Shouted. "Take West Street, there was a thing on Chestnut this morning. I figure it shouldn't be too out of your way."

"Sure, thanks for the heads up!"

-

Sure enough, there was what looked like an accident in the middle of the road in an intersection just a couple blocks away from the pizza shop. She could still get past, so she decided to cut over to Chestnut Boulevard to save a few minutes of extra walking. There was the occasionally-usual bunch of spectators huddled around to get a peak, which Kelly always found disgusting. She had to walk by it to get to work anyway, so she thought she'd at least ask what happened.

"Eh, a neighbor was pulling out of his driveway this morning and about to take off when a deer jumped in front of his car. He swerved to miss it but went tru da guardrail on the other side."

"Is everyone alright?"

"Eh, e's alright, it was just him n' da deer, but dat's ta tird close call we had this week in dis section. A coupla people said dat one of da deer might be sick r somethin', cuz they heard some weahd noises comin' from da park last night. Some tink it may be infected with somethin' an' othes think that it's just ta deer getting sick of grass people'v e been steppin on, n tey want ta eat other ting, what with all de trash people are puttin' out. As fa'z I know, deer don't do dat around hea, but wat I DO know is dat we've been having too many close calls wit da deer recently. Not just this week, but for da past few! They want to move the deer, but they're protected by the law, as well as everything else from the park."

That was true, the park was only partially owned by the city. The land was theirs, but what happens with it isn't their jurisdiction, even though they keep trying to buy it all from the legal landowner, who's family owned that area on the outside of the city for generations.

There were the normal spectators who gathered around it like paparazzi, which always bugged Kelly, but she had to take a look anyway. One woman, though, caught her eye for a second, as while everyone else in the small bunch of people gathered around the accident, she was looking at her suspiciously, like she had a large pimple or something and she was a hitman, or woman, going after it. That was the first thing that came to Kelly's mind, at least, but when the woman turned back and later Kelly caught her looking at her again, Kelly had no idea at all, and even her initial started to change into something... different.

Kelly turned away and continued walking, being cautious not to get involved with anything the weird lady might have thought, whatever that may have been. She had no idea, but it just came off as a bit creepy, as it's something you don't get every day. In a way, though, Kelly sort of wanted it to, because even though she wanted a consistent life, every day straightforward and the same like the rest without any worry; she thought her current life was boring as it was, and just wanted a little more excitement. Nothing outrageous or stupid, but sort of that "being important" or "being a superhero for at least a day" kind of thing. Just something more than others might tell her is pathetic is what Kelly wanted, like most peoples' hidden lives.

She was brought out of her momentary state of what she considered to be a daydream goal setting by remembering for a second what happened behind her (part of what happened and part of what caused Kelly to turn away). The curiosity had her, she had to look back to see if that weird woman was still there or still looking at her. She glanced back and saw her, but she looked less interested in... anything at the moment. So, Kelly decided she'd try not to pay any attention to her and walked to the pizza shop. It was only a few minutes down the road, and getting sidetracked almost made Kelly late for work A bit of anxiety followed her by thoughts of what that woman may have been thinking.

-

She finally got to work with a few minutes to spare, just enough time for her trainer to go over the basics on how to record specific orders, how to work the pizza stove, and how to treat customers, as well as the easiest ways to memorize the menu, which she pretty much did already, to calculate the costs. The buttons on the cash register did enough, but it wasn't a high end pizza chain, so they didn't do everything. Kelly figured she could handle it, just taking orders and putting pizzas in and out of the pizza stove, (everyone working there at some point would just get used to calling it the stove, because the boss didn't like the way the word oven rolled off the tongue).

It was very slow at first, so Kelly often just read over the menu again or checked to make sure everything was where she could reach it easily, even though the other three or four workers did enough on their own, and were much taller and were cautious not to knock anything off the counter, as it was up to her neck so they could store things underneath it, but they didn't mind. Even though it wasn't her job, she thought she could earn the workers respect by helping out in other areas if she needed to. She wasn't as thrilled when she said she'd help out loud though.

Looking out the giant windows in the front, she could see the park from there. Because it was so slow, she just sort of looked at it, and blocked out any distractions from everyone else. Then her brain started reeling again. The thoughts of what she suspected to be a dream haunted her so much she started feeling a bit of pain again. Even though they zoomed by in short glimpses of memory, she was still able to walk through how the night played out. This put her mind in a state she's not used to. It's a bit of fear, comfort, curiosity, and anxiety mixed all into one, but it wasn't painful, it was a bit invigorating actually; very interesting.

The ring of the phone pulled her mind back to work. "Muhmio... Momio's... Mario Momo's... Marmio's... grrr! Excuse me, Mario's Mama's Recipe Pizza, is this for pickup or delivery?" (The shop's owner's name was Pete, but he didn't like others joking to him and calling him Pete-Zza (which is a dumb name, but one that stuck with his friends). So, he just took two of the most common name's he'd seen one day and put them together).

It opened with a bit of giggling on the other end. "Uh, pickup please."

"Yes sir, sorry about that. Um, oh, what would you like?"

"Can I get a medium with pepperoni, sausage, peppers, and French fries... Oh, and no cheese, on the double thick crust... aaaaannnnnnddd, a small order of the teriyaki wings?"

"Yes sir, and anything else?"

"And a half gallon of iced tea, please?"

"Okay, that's a medium pepperoni, sausage, green peppers, fires, no cheese, on double thick crust, small teriyaki wings and a half gallon of tea? There was a meal special that I counted on for you, that will be $15.68, and your order will be ready in about 45 minutes."

"Oh, thank you!"

Her boss heard her, but knew what she was thinking. Rather than make an extra buck, make a repeat customer. That's what he liked.

So while everyone got to their business, she got some free time and started staring out the window again, not knowing what wanted her to do so. Just then, she saw that same strange woman from before walking nearby into the park. She was carrying a large bag with her and looked very focused and didn't look toward Kelly for a second. Didn't she have a job?

Before long the man from the phone came in for his order. He was actually fairly young for such a husky voice she heard, and very well-toned too. Quite handsome if you ask her. Kelly wasn't interested in any relationships, though, especially with someone she just saw, and as young as he was, which couldn't be much older than herself.

"Order for John Diggs?" He asked.

"Sure, it'll be ready in a few minutes. That'll be $15.68 please."

"First day on the job?"

"Yes, sir. How'd you know?"

"I go there often enough I know the people there, AND by the way you answered the phone. It's all cool though, don't worry about it." He gave her the money, and gave her the rest of the change for an extra tip. "'Cuz you were so nice; thanks for the coupon, too."

"Oh, thank YOU. You're actually my first customer, too. I was a bit worried about starting off on a high note."

"Well, keep being you and you'll have no problem with that. Normally I would've tried to take it easy on the new girl, but when I'm splitting lunch with my boss, I didn't want things to get even crazier than it would've gotten here."

She smiled and gave him his food and he left.

After a few hours, it didn't get to be too much for Kelly. She'd have a few customers, then a period of quiet time. It wasn't usually the busiest day of the week for the shop. During one of the times when it wasn't too busy, as she took a takeout order, Kelly glanced out the window towards the park. You could easily see through the window a short distance from the shop. One of the entrances was practically within view, and a minute walk from the front door. Anyway, Kelly just looked out at it, wondering about what happened the night before (which was just barely on her mind at the time), and wondering why she felt a little numb, and feeling uneasy, yet comfortable about it; but still PLENTY of confusion and irritation. Her eyes gazed at the pathway leading from the entrance into the park, thinking that, even though what happened last night, it'd still most likely be more comfortable than working at the pizza shop. Suddenly, she saw a figure moving; she saw the same weird lady as before, walking out of the park. This time, she was carrying the same large bag and what looked like a big square with some kind of picture-looking thing on it.

"So THAT MUST BE IT." Kelly thought to herself. "She's an artist! That makes more sense, though why would she want to paint me? I'm not THAT glamorous... am I?" As Kelly's mind wandered, a quick "excuse me" from a customer brought her attention back to her job. "Even though the thought was flattering to her, Kelly thought she was still a little creepy, especially as she remembered the way she looked at her, it certainly looked like she meant for much more.

The rest of the day went okay. She had a couple mishaps, like It got a little more crowded during the dinner rush, but not too much for her. Pete, her boss, would help out a lot, and overall seemed pleased with her job well-done, and even offered her an opportunity to work a couple extra hours if she didn't have anything else to do, if she wanted (which she did). She was also able to get a pizza made which she would take home to the others, though she ate a couple slices when she got hungry.

It was only late afternoon or early evening when she left, and was still light outside, but Kelly still felt nervous. When she got home the pizza was obviously cold and she heard the expected gander ("You shoulda got this", "You shoulda made that," "I don't like this," "Is anyone there cute and/or single?")

"Alright guys, enjoy it, cuz' I aint' getting ya any tomorrow."

"Aren't you having any?" Her grandma asked.

"Look. She already did." Replied Kacey.

"Nah, I'm not feeling so well. I'm just gonna chill in my room for a while."

"Tough first day?"

"Eh. Not too bad, but maybe I'm not used to it yet. It's not hard at all. One thing I learned today is how people in the food business really CAN get tired of looking at food, even if they like the food." It might have been the work environment or whatever, but she got tired of being near food for a little while, so instead of staying at dinner with everyone else, she went straight up to her room. Surprising to her, she only felt a little tired.

Her grandmother knocked on the door. "You okay? Ya seem a bit more out of it than usually see from you. Did something happen at work sweetheart?"

"I'm okay, grandma. Just had a long night and a new schedule to get used to. I'll be fine."

"Well okay. I hope it goes better tomorrow. Rest up a bit. That should help. I'll see ya later."

"Okay, thanks grandma."

She didn't feel all that bad, but some things were still bugging her. She did feel she would have to adjust to her new schedule, especially if she would have to change between that and her school schedule, but more was bugging her.

Why couldn't she let go of what happened the night before, and the thought of that weird lady, and how she just now started to feel more strangely familiar. She had to have seen her before. "Maybe a family friend? Probably the daughter of one maybe? I don't know, but I DO want to know what's up with her; what she wanted! She was just acting too creepy!"

The next few days were steadier. Not much out of the normal happened for a while. She adjusted to her new schedule, continued to do well at work, okay in school, and still putting up with her friends at home. On top of that, the next few nights seemed normal, and she didn't see that woman. It looked like she was back to her regular, annoying, stressful life... for now.

Chapter 3 coming soon!