checkout counter -- 'open'

[cori renee call]

Ugh. This job had to be considered torture to Cori. She sighed as she picked the apples out of the box and placed them carefully into their positions on display. If she bruised one more her boss would surely fire her. In the past week she'd dropped two cakes while putting them into the freezer. Then again, in all fairness to her someone had knocked right into her with their cart. And then the day after she got pinched by a lobster that broke the rubber band on it's claw thing. So far this wasn't working out like it used to. Cori used to be such a worker bee, but lately she was messing everything up. She'd stick it out though and hope not to get fired before this bad luck spell went away.

Yes, finally. She thought as she took the last apple and placed it carefully with the rest. She took the empty box to the back and took a quick look at her phone. She sighed with relief when it read 1:26 pm. Now she could take an easy shift at the check out counter and finally go home. Cori made her way to the front of the store. She wore a blue apron with the words FOOD MART in large letters across it, jeans, and a white t-shirt. Her long brown hair was in two braid that settled on her shoulders. She took her place at the counter now, good thing this was a small town or else she would have way more work to do.

word count: 322
status: done
setting: Food Mart checkout counter
tags: OPEN

[jason embry black]

"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"
Jason Black

Jason was here shopping... AGAIN. He bough food not too long ago, and the next day after he bought it, his sister informed him that there was nothing in the fridge. When he got home, he was for sure going to hide the food from the rest of his pack once he got home. On that note, he needed to be cabnet food, and really cheap refridgerater food, and then yell at the pack later. Yes, he had it all planned out.

On his way out, he saw Cori, a good family friend of theirs. Somewhere along the lines, like in the great greats, her relative was best friends with Jasons. Yes, weird small world, but there it was. That was how they met. Her parents were good friends with his parents, and he know Cori since...forever. She always helped when he needed huge trouble issues with Carson, which was a lot. She was like the mother of the family, if you will, except that Jason wasn't the child, since he was older then here.

He approached her with a smile, and noticed she had an apron on. "You work here?" He asked, feeling stupid that he never knew where she worked before. Actually, he thought he knew where Cori worked, but apprentally not, unless she was trying some new fashion that was 'in.' Jason douted it, but he had heard the strangest stories before, there was nothing stopping it now.

He was glad she was here, so he could at least get his mind off of Ana. He, a couple of days ago, and he imprinted. Imprinting was not all that fun as it may sounded. It was kind of obsessing, and it scared Jason on how much he thought of her. Plus, her twin sister was a vegatarian bloodsucker, so it wasn't like Jason was going to get along with the family all that well. Ana seemed really nice, what Jaosn knew of her, but she seemed a bit...odd. Jason could handle odd, since he was handling an odd, bratty, teenage child back home.

He wasn't sure if he was to tell Cori yet, just because it was an extremely personal buisness, and not even Ana knew about it. Cori had the right to know, being best friends since walking, but he wasn't contrable with it yet. He hoped she wouldn't mind... or... Trying not to confuse himself, he focused on Cori's response.

[cori renee call]

Her eyes wandered the near empty store. She sat on a stool behind the register and looked down at one of the shelves. The last person left a stress ball in the shape of a giant dice thing, the kind that you could easily squish. She smiled and grabbed it and started playing with it in her hands. It was sad how entertained a twenty year old could be with a simple foam ball.

"You work here?"

The words that belonged to a familiar voice entered her mind and she focused on where they'd come from. Jason, it was his voice. "Yea, since I was like sixteen." She started with a laugh, "But I usually work in the cafe." Cori shrugged. Jason was one of her really good friends who she'd known since forever and a half ago. Their grandparents (and the ones before that and maybe the ones before that) were really good friend, and Cori found it kind of funny that something like that was passed down."So hows life?" She asked not really knowing what to say.

word count: 243
status: done
setting: Food Mart checkout counter
tags: OPEN

[jason embry black]

"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"
Jason Black

Now he really felt stupid since she was working here since she was sixteen. But the thought that she was also working at the cafe made him feel a little better. It was like knowing your best friend, but not knowing where she worked. In fact,this is excatally the case. Cori was a best friend to Jason, always looking out for each other, giving each other the opposite advice about different people. Even if Cori was more like a mom to Carson.

The word 'hows life' usually the person says back 'okay' or 'good' to be polite, but Jason couldn't even fake it. Life, at the moment, sucked, badly. So with that, he started his reply with a sigh, growling under his breath. "Not all that well actually, but its a long explantion." He told her, still wondering if he should tell her everything or not.

Maybe he would tell her partial information that would fit her. He could tell her about Carson, since that was one of his stressing problems. Or just the pack in general. At least everyone else in the pack was halfway respectful.

[cori renee call]

She continued to toss the little cubed stress ball in her hand as she awaited Jason's reply. Having a job in a small town really wasn't all that bad when you thought about it. The stores were empty for a lot of the time, usually you knew just about everyone who walked in, and that meant a lot of time to socialize. All in all, it wasn't that bad, except for the strict manager of course. But he was on his lunch break at the moment.

"Not all that well actually, but its a long explantion."

Cori straightened and looked around the store from where she was sitting. There were a few people here and there, but nothing that would take more then three minutes to check out if she went fast. "Well I have time." She said with a smile. No one who was even in the store seemed to be in a rush to leave anyways. At least this might add a smidgen of entertainment to her day.

word count: 230
status: done
setting: Food Mart checkout counter
tags: OPEN

[jason embry black]

"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"
Jason Black

Jason did actually have a job, but it wasn't really what you would expect. He worked at the local mechaine shop. The good thing was it had a pretty nice pay, since it cost a lot to fix your car. Becuase of this, Jason was really good with cars, and once his werewolf time was over, he wanted to make an actual carrier over it. He didn't know if you would go to college or not for it, but eventually, maybe.

He shifted, trying to find some excuse for her not to have time. But not too long ago, he saw the guy that owned the place walk out the door, and at this time of day, the market was never busy. It was always around six when it had it's rush, and 6 was a while's away. At least, for an explanation of course. Jason knew he couldn't talk his way out of this one.

"First off," He began, "Carson seems likes she's being...I don't know...more... independent. And with her independence comes a bratty attitude all the time. And she gets mad when I tell her what she needs to do. She seemed to do everything the opposite I tell her, just to see my reaction." It was true, and the saying it out loud was actually working for him so far.

"On top of that, the pack seems to be getting bigger and bigger, and I don't know how much I can be responsible for. I have to order every single one of them, and keeping them in line is hard, and now the problem is growing and growing." Memories of when the pack merged into a fight with each other formed into his mind. It was hard for Jason to start getting this.

He hestiated before explaining the last thing. But then he figured that was as good knowing as the pack, and they all knew, so why not? Who was Cori going to tell who didn't already know? "And I...um...imprinted. It was on a girl that just moved here. Her twin sister is a vampire. She seems very...interesting too, or what I saw her. She's only sixteen." He placed his face in his hands, as if he couldn't think of anything else to say. Though, it was good to say it outloud to someone, besides the pack, so at least if Cori had bad thoughts, she could keep them to herself.

[cori renee call]

Cori was surprised by the amount that he really did have to say. She didn't interrupt him, or even make an action that could cause him to stop talking. As for the whole Carson and Jason thing, it wasn't uncommon. Sure they fought sometimes but Cori never saw it to be that bad. She thought about it for a second and when everything came down to it, Carson and Jason were so alike it was crazy. Then he mentioned the pack growing. Didn't that mean more vampire's in the area? And the last was the shocking news. When Jason said the word 'imprint' Cori thought she was going to start jumping up and down for him, but she refrained.

When he was done Cori paused trying to sum things up fast. There was no way. "Well, as for you and Carson. I guess you should maybe try to ask rather then demand, if she ignores you still or resists then... i don't know. I guess you either kill with kindness of violence, if that makes any sense at all." Cori paused and stood up in front of the stool and started typing random numbers. As she typed she spoke. "And the pack is growing? I really don't know how much of that stuff goes but you can handle it... you kind of have no choice unless your willing to step down to your sister." That would never happen, Jason seemed to love the control. She could help but shake her head and stop typing. She looked at Jason. "And holy crow Jase, how come you didn't tell me you imprinted earlier! So what if her sister is a vampire and she's sixteen... she'll catch up. That's so exciting!" She said sitting back on her stool. His life was always a hell of a lot more dramatic then her own.

word count: 378
status: done
setting: Food Mart checkout counter
tags: OPEN

[jason embry black]

"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"
Jason Black

He listened to her advice, nodding after each explanation. He made a face when she said or bring it down to his sister. There was no way he was going to do that. On top of him liking to be at the top, he wasn't going to put that weight on her. She couldn't handle it, or at least, in Jason's deep brown eyes.

With the fight, it wasn't much help, but there wasn't much help you could give to that situation. Jason was so use to giving orders and Carson was use to...not getting orders. Or she was just tired of it. Jason wasn't sure. He tried to think of ways he could do that while remaining strict and tough. How could he possibly be both? Besides, if he asked Carson to do something, more then likely, she probably wouldn't do it, and then Jason would have to order instead. So, therefore, it would defeat the whole purpose.

He made an over exsagerated eye roll at her excitment. He didn't know how she would be so excited, but it seemed that this was an exciting thing. Strange thing was, the pack pretty much did the same thing, excluding Carson since she was there when it happened and the first to find out. "I'm just saying, it's not all that on top right now." He said, with a final deep sigh.

"I know she'll catch up and all that, but-" He cut himself off, since he didn't know how to say it in words. It was like he was embarassed. No, embarassed would be a harsh word. He was happy for the imprint, now that he knew who it was, but it was who he was with. No, that really didn't say it either. He liked the girl, but at the moment she was too..immature. Maybe that was a little bit of it, but it still wouldn't be enough to describe it.

He didn't really want to talk about his problems anymore, now that he said them all outloud, he wanted to push them away. So, out of the blue, he shook his head, turning to Cori, "Now that we've astablished that, how have you been doing?" He asked, laughing lightly.

[cori renee call]

Of course Cori listened through everything, she wasn't not going to listen. How was an imprint not "at the top" right now? She didn't get it, but there were a lot of things she never got that she never questioned.

"Now that we've astablished that, how have you been doing?"

Cori shook her head when he went off topic, and this one time she allowed him to go off. This really wasn't the place to get into to much of that wolfie stuff. "Life's good.. I guess. Not as dramatic as yours though, sorry." She said with a shrug.

Cori looked around the store. She wanted to just bang her head against the register she was so bored. When you took the facts, it came down to this job pretty much sucked. There were never really people on her shifts and the manager was a jerk. That made her think about how good it was that he left for a half hour. She'd be getting yelled at if he knew she was just socializing.

word count: 237
status: done
setting: Food Mart checkout counter
tags: OPEN

[jason embry black]

"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"
Jason Black

It surely didn't seem as exciting as his story, but he was glad to get off the subject of his life at the moment. It was good to take a break from that. "Nothing exciting?" He said, faking dissapointment in his voice to tease her. In a way, he was actually surprised she didn't have anything else going on in her life.

Cori, as Jason saw it, was actually a really good looking woman. It was hard to top good looking when you were twenty, since everyone seemed to be good looking, but Cori just topped it all off. She was spunky in her own way, and it made guys attracted toward her. Jason could remember times he had to yell at the rest of the pack because they were all eyeing her differently. So it was a surprise to Jason that she didn't have some sort of boyfriend or anyone.

He noticed that she looked very bored, playing with her...thingy back and forth. Jason couldn't tell what it was, or the purpose of it, but he had seen it before. It was like a stress ball or something. He didn't see how it could relieve stress, but apprentally it worked if people kept buying it. "You seem like your having a great time here." He said with sarcasm.

[cori renee call]

"Nothing exciting?"

She frowned sarcastically and shook her head. "Nothing." She said simply as she tossed the square shaped ball from hand to hand. It was totally true, she didn't really have an interesting life. Sure it got better at some points, but nothing to exciting ever happened.

"You seem like your having a great time here."

Cori looked up at Jason and couldn't help but laugh. "Oh yea. This is so much better then staying home." Cori's tone was sarcastic. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. When she got off work she was planning to go down to Port Angeles for a while just to see some friends. That was probably about the most interesting thing that would happen in the near future. It wasn't that Cori was a boring person. She was the kind of girl who would go out and party, have fun, be crazy. That was her natural nature, but it was the time part that got in her way of doing anything like that. Problem was she didn't have enough time.

word count: 244
status: done
setting: Food Mart checkout counter
tags: OPEN

[jason embry black]

"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"
Jason Black

He had to smirk when he got a sarcastic remark back. But he was still shocked at her nothing. "Hey, when you get a boyfriend, will I be the first one to know?" He asked curiously with a childish smile on his face. He honestly didn't care, but he was curious. It probably didn't matter much to Cori if he knew or not, but that was that.

His mind wandered over to partner, which wandered to Ana again. He had the funny feeling that Carson was going to invite her over soon, since that was what she did. It wasn't going to be tonight, that was for sure. Carson, tonight, was going to cliffs for some 'vacation' time, as she called it. Jason didn't understand what she needed a vacation from, but it seemed she did.

His eyes started to watch the weird stress ball. It was like watching a ping pong game, or tennis tournment. His eyes rolled back and forth at the thing in her hands. Then he shook his head, finding it hard to believe he was starting to get entertained from a stress ball going back and forth from a person's hand. He really was going insane.

[cori renee call]

"Hey, when you get a boyfriend, will I be the first one to know?"

When Jason made this comment Cori rolled her eyes and nodded. "Of course." She said throwing the little stress ball at him. Cori looked up at the clock and smiled slightly. It was 5 more minutes until her shift ended. Cori Stood up from the stool and untiled her blue apron and slide the single strap that had once rested on her shoulders over her head. She unclipped her name tag and shoved it in the pocket of her jeans.

She set the blue apron down across her chair and looked back up at Jason. "By the way, we are not done discussing your..." She paused, her head tilted to the side. "... girlfriend?" Cori didn't want to make Jason mad but she didn't know what else to call it. Imprint sounded to.... uncommon in a way. The word girlfriend just came naturally, and thats what this girl would end up being right?

word count: 229
status: done
setting: Food Mart checkout counter
tags: OPEN

[jason embry black]

"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"
Jason Black

He made, what seemed like a victory smile, but that smile was just for tease. Jason noticed she started to come out of her place, taking everything off. Quickly, he took out his chocolate red cherry out of his pocket to check the time. He had no idea when she went off, but more then likely, if the time was close to a :30 or an even o clock, or even an :45 and :15, more then likely, it was the end of the shift. You wouldn't stop a shift at 6:48 or something stupid like that.

"Finally off?" He asked with amusment in his voice. She seemed quite bored, so Jason was happy to kind of help with her boredom. He wasn't sure if he was doing a good job by telling her about the drama packed in his messy life, but it had to provide some sort of entertiament. Hell, you could probably make a movie or book about Jason's life. Jason started to picture the movie coming out 'Life of Jason Black' and laughed out loud.

He made a big groan, but not at the name. Carson called Ana that all the time. Like, 'your girlfriend' in her head, so he was pretty use to that. Everytime though, it was like an awaking at the word girlfriend. Jason always tried to picture them walking in the street hand in hand, and smiled a little bit. They looked so opposite from each other.

Ana had shoulder length blond hair, with pale skin, being French and all, with very light blue eyes. As for her height, it wouldn't really matter, because she would proabably never match with Jason. Jason was very tall, short cropped black hair for his patrols, dark russtled skin color, and chocolate brown eyes. It was going to be interesting seeing them together.

"I'm sure you'll find more later. I have the funniest feeling Carson is going to invite Ana over soon." He told Cori. Maybe it was better if Cori helped on this. Jason wasn't going to ask his sister for advice, so why not a family friend who was like a sister. She was older, maybe not experienced, but probably more experience then any of the other women Jason had talked to.

[cori renee call]

"Finally off?"

Cori looked up from the register after she locked it. "Finally." She said with a smile. It wasn't even that late so she at least had time to go home and relax instead of being at the store working overtime. She hated working there. The manager was practically evil, she always seemed to do something wrong, and there was never a moment where you weren't doing something. Even now she was supposed to be getting new rolls of paper for receipts, changing the ink things in the little printers, making sure that there were plenty of bags, and all that good stuff. She didn't do any of that though, she'd rather sit down and day dream or talk.

"I'm sure you'll find more later. I have the funniest feeling Carson is going to invite Ana over soon."


Cori laughed and nodded. "Good. And at least you know her and Carson will get along." She told him trying to put a more positive twist on things. Cori liked thinking positive, she wasn't a negative person. She found it great that this girl and Car were going to get along, and that Jason finally found someone since his last girlfriend.

word count: 268
status: done
setting: Food Mart checkout counter
tags: OPEN

[jason embry black]

"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"
Jason Black

A small flicker of a smile appeared on his face as she said 'finally'. Jason, actually, tried to work here once. It was a long time ago though, when he was fifteen. Before he was even a werewolf. He hated it. Actually, he couldn't remember very much, but he remembered he quit within a week of starting the job. He couldn't remember if it was the boss, the people, the pay, or just the job itself. Maybe he would ask what Cori thought of her job once they got out, since it seemed she would have to say good things while she was still in earshot of her co-workers.

That was one thing that Jason liked about his job. There was only his boss, and himself. There was no other people taking over his job, or splitting the pay-cut with. It didn't get lonely either, since they always had each other to talk to. Jason actually liked his boss, and outside of work, they were really good friends. Besides, there was almost always a car in there that needed fixing for a ridiculous price, so it wasn't like they talked while they were bored a lot. The time they wern't working on a car, they were updating some equipment or buying some more.

He nodded. Carson was the whole reason Ana and Jason met. Jason, after discovering that Carson met a bloodsucker and didn't do anything about it, followed her for a while. He discovered she was talking to Ana, went to investigate, and imprinted. "Yeah, thats good." He said, glad there was a positive side. Though, Jason, out of habit, always went from a positive to do with a negative. He didn't like to be a negative person, but positive didn't seem to fit his mixed up life at the moment.

"Actually, she isn't happy with the imprint. She doesn't want her brother to date one of her friends." He said more in a quiet tone. He heard her once they were both as werewolves on patrol, though Jason wasn't sure if she meant it, if that was even the case, or if she was trying to make him mad. It seems all she did these days. What he heard from her was 'Why did he have to imprint on Ana?' He just assumed it had to do with her being a friend, because Jason knew they got along.

[cori renee call]

"Actually, she isn't happy with the imprint. She doesn't want her brother to date one of her friends."

The words entered her mind and she just wanted to laugh, but she refrained. Cori flipped the small, white light switch that turned off the light to the register that signaled to customers that it was open. "That's totally normal I guess. I mean like you wouldn't want her dating one of your friends, but wouldn't you rather it be one of you friends then a total stranger?" Cori thought she made sense and immediately tried to think of another way to say that but she couldn't.

Cori tried picturing what this Ana girl looked like, but she couldn't. "Oh, you can give me details on what she looks like now!" Her tone sounded upbeat and there was a smile on her face as she spoke. She was happy for him, this was going to be a good thing.

word count: 223
status: done
setting: Food Mart checkout counter
tags: OPEN

[jason embry black]

"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"
Jason Black

Jason noticed that Cori seemed to be the only one truely excited about this imprint. Carson wasn't a great fan of it, Jason wasn't sure if he really wanted to be in another relationship, and the pack was getting annoyed with his thinkings. They tried not to be, but it was so hard to control your emotions. And when you were in the pack, there was no such thing as a secret. If there was, then something was seriously wrong. Sometimes, Jason liked having it since he always knew what his sister was always up to.

There was other times, like the past week, he wasn't sure about it. He didn't like the pack getting into his head with his past relationship with... Michelle. He flinched. It was so hard to even think of her, let alone her name. He was forever pained. This was one of the reasons he was so over protective of Carson, and was starting to feel that way with Ana. It was even worse ever since their parents died in that plane crash. He felt so much more protective then he ever had been.

He smiled a little bit, thinking how odd it was that he was just picturing her not too long ago. "The complete opposite of me." He said with a light laugh. "Blonde, blue eyes, light skin, and short. Well... short compared to me." He explained, trying to think of how else to describe her without being stupid. He was tempted to say, 'beautiful smile, great accent' but he was finding it hard to say those things in his head.

[cori renee call]

"The complete opposite of me." He said with a light laugh. "Blonde, blue eyes, light skin, and short. Well... short compared to me."

As he explained Cori nodded while she fixed the rack of plastic bags by putting the bags on the rack and pulling the first one out. When he finished she spoke without thinking. "A basketball player is short compared to you." She said with a laugh. Her eyes didn't meet Jason's, they stayed down while she kept busy so that she wouldn't get a call later from her boss saying she was fired.

A moment or so later she finally realized she was out of things to do- that was a good thing, though. Her head lifted and her attention was back on Jason. "Well I have to go now. But you know if you ever need anything you can call." She spoke with a smile as she usually did and shrugged even.

word count: 218
status: done
setting: Food Mart checkout counter
tags: OPEN

[jason embry black]

"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"
Jason Black

He never really thought about it, but he realized she was probably right. With that thought in his head, Jason couldn't help but laugh at the picture of a basketball player looking up at Jason. If it was any basketball player, it would probably be glaring up at Jason with hateful eyes if he was taller. It was a good thing he quit basketball when he was young, or he might have been playing it for the rest of his life. Jason wasn't really a fan of basketball, which was why.

He looked over at Cori, nodding in agreement. He should have probably start shopping anyways. "Okay, see you around Cori." He said, waving and heading to where the food was.