Start all over

[Jennifer Collins]

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Be. The heavy force of a hand slammed down on the snooze button. Jen's green eyes flew open, Damnit she sat straight up and looked at the clock it read 7:02. She jumped out of bed and ran to the bath room, she turned on her curler while it was heating she brushed her teeth. Scrubbing each of her white straight teeth then she rinsed put the tooth brush away and did her hair in loose curls and started putting on her makeup. Jen applied her foundation evenly then she dusted on a little bit of pink blush, grabbing the eyeliner she rimmed her green eyes with a thin line of black and finished it of with mascara and a smudge of lipgloss. She looked everything over in the mirror and then walked to her closet and picked out an outfit for her first day of work.

By now it was 7:21, she had to be at work by 7:30. Jen ran to the door and locked it on her way out. She got into her truck and turned the key. She sped out of the drive way and raced down the road. Hoping she wouldn't get pulled over she ran through a stop sign and kept at a fast speed. Jennifer couldn't afford to lose this job she cut off all financial ties from her parents and needed to made her own money. People thought she was an idiot but she didn't want to be a freeloader all her life. She wanted to show her parents that she didn't need them and thats what she was determined to do. And once Jennifer has her mind set on something there's no stopping her. Once she reached Norm's News swerved into the parking lot and put the car in park then headed inside. It had just turned 7:30 as she walked in the door. The resteraunt didn't open until 8:00 but she had to set all the tables. She walked around and stopped at each table spraying them down and wiping them off. And then she placed salt and pepper containers on each table.

After she swept and put out all the chairs it was time to put up the open sign and unlock the doors. After she opened the doors she walked behind the counter and memorized the table plan so when she had to serve food she would know which table wanted what. Then Jen grabbed her cutely decorated tip jar and put it on the counter. Then she tied on her half apron and waited for a customer. She was proud of herself she was trying something new and wasn't to sure how it would go. Jen took this job hoping that she'd not only make money but hopefully meet some new people. Seen as it had only been 3 days since she moved here. With all the house hunting and unpacking to do this was the first time she's been out of the house in three days. So in a way it was nice, but work was work. Then she heard the bell on the door jingle...

[Landon Archer]

Coming home from the army was a hell of a lot harder for Sergeant Landon Archer then being in the army had. When he was over there he was in complete control of everything. When he told a soldier what to do they did it without question, when he barked out a command it was followed to the letter. When he went out on a mission he had the whole thing completely under control. Everything was dons just exactly how he directed it be done, and he didn't have enough time to think about his own personal problems because he was so busy thinking about all the issues that were facing his squadron, which in turn were facing the entire army, and through the army the entire country. He had absolutely no time for himself, and he definitely liked it that way. Now that he was home and made his own schedule with working the horses... he had way too much time to think about his own personal issues, and he didn't like it one bit.

So instead of sitting around and doing nothing, he would busy himself with anything he could. Usually that involved something with strenuous exercise. He mostly did running, and occasionally he'd throw some weight lifting in there just to keep himself in shape. He was definitely an extremely fit person and it was easy to tell that he spent the majority of his time working out. He rarely even slept more than four hours a night before he got up at 2 am and went running. It probably wasn't the most healthy thing to do, but it was hard coming from Iraq to the states, his internal clock was all screwed up... even three years later.

He'd been running almost all morning, and by now the physical exhaustion had caught up with him. So he headed for home, got himself presentable, and headed out for Norm's News. Since he had been up since 2 a.m running the whole time, he was in desperate need of caffeine. He really wasn't a big fluffy coffee drinker, in that he really wasn't a fan of the fancy coffee drinks. After four years in Iraq and one year in boot camp, essentially the only coffee he drank was black coffee. Sure he could make it himself at home... but he had figured out the hard way that he didn't get along with coffee makers at all. He was good in the kitchen, but somehow he just couldn't seem to make the drink... so Norm's News it was.

Of course his German Shepherd dog had to come with him. Raven was "his lady" and wherever Landon went, Raven went also. She was an extremely well trained dog, considering she used to be a bomb dog in the army before she got injured and was sent back to the States for retirement where Landon adopted her. Since then, she had followed him everywhere he went. Normally dogs weren't allowed in stores, but just about everyone knew who Landon and Raven were, and they were hailed as heroes around town, so everyone always let the dog come in with him. She did suffer from a bit of separation anxiety, but considering that she had nearly been killed by a bomb in Iraq and had saved the lives of several soldiers in doing so, no one blamed her for her close attachment to her human.

When the pair reached Norm's News, Landon pulled the door open and stepped in with Raven close on his heels. Most people who didn't know them always turned to stare when they walked in, partly because dogs normally didn't walk into stores, and partly because of the army dog tags that hung from Landon's neck. People in this town always seemed to have a lot of respect for soldiers, and for that Landon was grateful. He'd grown quite accustomed to complete strangers approaching him to thank him for his service to the country, and it definitely made the coming home a bit easier than if no one had been appreciative for what he had done for them.

As always, when he stepped in the door, he took a quick look around the room out of habit. Since he'd been a soldier for so long, checking the area for threats was just ingrained in his mind, and even though he wasn't really looking for threats in the diner, he still had to look around a bit just because of force of habit. One person he noticed was the girl behind the counter. She was quite pretty and didn't exactly strike him as the waitress type... but what did he know? He was an army-man turned racehorse trainer, the sort of person who would be a waitress wasn't something he was a professional on. Then again, he had been coming here since the day he got back, and he'd never seen her before, so he was relatively certain she was new.

But he wasn't going to stress himself about it, so with that calm and cool casualness that he always had, he walked up to the counter with a smile. Landon was much more appreciative of normal people who went about and did their jobs day to day now that he was back from the war, and he was well known for making friends in the blink of an eye. He preferred to have a conversation with the person rather than just tell them what he wanted and leave once he got it. He was more courteous than that. Good morning. he said with a cheeriness that you wouldn't really expect from a soldier, I'm fairly sure there is no way I've been overlooking you all these years, so I'm guessing that means you're new around here? There was no doubt he was anything but shy. He could start a conversation with anyone no matter who they were or what they were doing. It was a bit of a gift I suppose you could say. Then again, being in charge of that many men overseas you kind of had to be good at talking to people.

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