When Kaya Perry graduates college, the last place she wants to go back is Layton, the town that she left behind. She left that place with bad memories and no friends, so there is no way she's looking to go back. So it's really a bummer when the job...
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Kaya grimaced at the small, three-bedroomed house that she used to live in. Her mother had left this place long ago, as it housed bad memories for them both. She unlocked the door and walked in. The place still smelled the same, like cigarettes and cinnamon. It was cleaner than it had been before she left—her Uncle Derrick must have cleaned it before she had arrived, but couldn't get rid of the smell.
"Home sweet home," she muttered, running her fingers on the walls. The flowery wallpaper on them was curling at the edges, and if she was going to stay here long-term she would have to remove the wallpaper and replace it with something else—preferably a bare, white wall that she could hang photos on. She walked through the rest of the small house, noting what needed to be cleaned up and what she needed to buy. Food was number one, of course, followed by cleaning supplies and washing powder.
She claimed the master bedroom as her own and set her things down before calling her uncle Derrick. He picked up immediately.
"Thank you for coming back, love," he said. "It really means a lot. Are you settled in?"
Kaya fought a grimace before answering. "Somewhat happy to be back," she said. "And yeah, I'm settling in fine. I have a few more things to pack but I can do that tomorrow."
"I'll drop by and help out," he said. "Since tomorrow's Sunday, you want to join me and April for breakfast?"
Kaya thought about it. She had a lot to do tomorrow besides packing, like preparing for her upcoming meetings with the director of Layton's community center at noon and then coming up with an idea for community outreach efforts and meet with the principal of Layton Senior High School about mentoring a few girls from the community. There was an entire list of things that needed to be done, starting with updating her mother's home to better fit her tastes. She loved Augusta Perry with all of her heart, but her mother's style was dated.
"I don't know," she said. "I have a lot to do tomorrow."
"Understandable," Derrick answered, "but if you make a decision, breakfast is at eight. Love you, bug."
"Love you too," Kaya answered before hanging up. She looked around her room and sighed. It was going to be a long night.
Kaya was up by six and she was in a cleaning frenzy. She removed all of the old ornaments from the walls and moved the furniture, covering it in plastic. Her mind was so busy that she didn't even think about the inevitable meeting between her and the director of the community center's director, Alison Hart.
Alison was the bane of Kaya's existence in high school. Kaya had grown up with an absent father and a mother that worked two jobs to make ends meet. Alison had been the golden girl of Layton with all of the power in her hands. The two met once when Kaya moved to Layton, and Alison had been her first—and only—friend until middle school, when puberty and cliques were thrown into the mix. Layton's small-town politics, Kaya's skin color, Layton Middle School's influx of new students caused Alison to latch on to the "better," lighter-skinned people that made students' lives a living nightmare. Once high school came, Alison decided that Kaya was no longer her equal. Kaya still had a couple of people that she could talk to and have fun with, but for the majority of high school, she was alone and left out of most friend groups.
