Literary Spotlight: Mutt-in Good Here

Story by Catherine C. Cober
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(from the point of Laverne Padilla, our protagonist)

Hola! Como te llamas? Me llamo Laverne.

......

Okay, sorry about that. But let's get to work (it harder, make it better).

I'm Laverne Padilla, and I'm a 15 year old girl stuck in the middle of Nowheresville, Arizona. Okay, I'm kidding, but it is a small place in Arizona. I used to live only minutes away from Detroit, until *groan* my madre got a new job here in Arizona. She said the move would be a lot better since we're closer to my padre's relatives in Mexico and this job gets her better money. Moving on . . . 
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It was the first day of this new high school I'm stuck in. I was supposed to be a sophomore, but ever since the first grade, the old school moved me a grade higher due to my intelligence, so I'm basically a junior at this point. First day in, and chaos was everywhere. Luckily, both lockers next to mine were empty, so nobody would bother me there, heh.

"Oooooooooooooooooooooooo," a variety of voices gasped, then came the giggles. I looked up from placing my signed Daft Punk poster on the wall, then saw nearly the entire junior class laughing like hyenas.

"Uhh . . . what's so funny now?" I had to ask, annoyed by the immaturity of the class.

The shortest girl in the group laughed, "You got the haunted locker!" then giggled like no tomorrow, almost choking on her nest-like hair.

"Someone tell me, please, in the name of the bass, what's the 'haunted locker'?" I groaned.

"Well . . . " a boy with tangerine-like hair blurted out, "Legends say that a girl was shoved in there and DIED, so anyone who gets that locker now is cursed . . ."

The class then left, a piercing ringing going off in the hall. I checked my schedule, then walked into first period: statistics.

"Ah, Miss Padilla, you're here," the cheerful woman at the desk chirped, her vanilla-like skin and daffodil-yellow hair glowing amongst the dull classroom. "Please, pick a seat."

I looked around frantically, hoping to get a good seat. Unfortunately, every seat with a person nearby was taken, forcing me into a rickety desk with splinters everywhere.

"Watch out, that desk is haunted too!" the girl from earlier cackled, causing the class to burst into laughter.

After that, I don't remember the rest of statistics, or school.

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It was finally time to go home, and I dashed out the door like a dog to dropped sausages. After bursting home, I saw my father cracking a few eggs for tonight's dinner.

"So, how's your new school, mi hija?" he questioned, blending the eggs together.

I groaned "Ugh, HORRIBLE, papa! Everyone in my entire grade keeps saying everything I touch is haunted!! Why are people so stupid?!?!"

"We may never know, hija," he sighed, turning our oven to a higher setting.

I kicked off my sneakers, tossed them at the door, then ran into my bedroom. After shutting the door as quick as can be, I immediatly turned on my Dell desktop, waited a few minutes, then turned on Skype to start a call with my old friend Mikasa.

The familiar tone of the program hummed in my ears, until a nasally laugh erupted in my headphones.
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"Laverne!!! Wassup, my kitty!' she laughed, pushing her charcoal-black hair behind her shoulders and giggling more.

"Not much, my Titan-slayer!" I exclaimed cheerfully, pulling out a few things from my pockets. "You won't believe how crazy these noobs are!"

"How crazy? So crazy they make 4chan users look sane?" Mikasa chuckled, pulling an Iron Man figurine off her desk and showing it to me.

"Almost. They think everything here is haunted," I groaned, playing with the Grumpy Cat plush sitting atop my lap.

"Who we gonna call?" she asked.

"GHOSTBUSTERS!" we both yelled, laughing until Mikasa fell off her chair and her Rottie, Chowchow, ran over and licked her face.

"No! Bad girl!" Mikasa chuckled, gently shoving the rottweiler off of her and climbing up onto her desk.

"MIKASA!!" a female voice hollered from her end of the call.

She groaned "I'M COMING MOM!!!! Be right back, Laverne, my mom made yakisoba and tempura for dinner."

The Skype call ended, just as soon as my mother came home from work.

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Stay tuned for Chapter 2!