Jennifer left the bathroom a new woman.
At first things were a little difficult for her to understand, but she eventually got the gist of it. On all of her body-care products included in the shower, there was a little note handwritten by whom she could only assume was Ms. Polluck instructing her on its proper use. The body wash was setting number five, the shampoo was setting number two, the conditioner was setting number seven, and so on. Upon this realization, Jen used her new toy to bathe herself into bliss.
She smelled like roses, her skin was shiny and soft. Instead of reclothing herself, Jen decided upon garbing in the plush white bathrobe that had been so thoughtfully hung on the towel rack for her. Her hair was wet, drenched, but held a certain softness to it already.
As she took her first steps back into the living room of the cabin, the carpeting tickled her naked feet at the touch. She smiled upon seeing the couch and decided to plop herself down uselessly like she'd done in college and watch some good old fashioned television. In her search for the remote, Jen was made aware of a large basket wrapped in plastic sitting on the coffee table between the couch and loveseat... and next to it the remote!
She eagerly grabbed at it and turned on the television, the set giving off a resounding click and low hum as the screen slowly came to life. It was set on some local channel, but Jen was fully aware of how Dish worked. Most of her channels were the same, so she flipped to a few favorites and reclined back into the couch cushions.
She took a deep breath and sighed, catching wind of just how good she smelled and how amazing her every pore felt. Her hair was getting the back of he couch wet, but she could feel it already getting a little lighter as it dried. Maybe she'd paint her toes? She certainly hadn't done that in a while.
But that required movement, more than that, it required unpacking her haul of stuff. She wasn't quite sure that she was really up to that yet. It had been a long, stressful day. Why shouldn't she wait a little before hurrying to undo all the hard work she'd done stuffing everything into her suitcases? Worst comes to worst, she'd do it before bed. Get out her pajamas an outfit for tomorrow, her first day of being a real teacher...
She sat and mulled on that for a while, she was going to be a teacher. Finally. After all the long hours of study, the incomprehensible blabberings of her most loathed college professors, Jennifer Walker was going to be a teacher. Of French and Culinary Arts, but still. She wasn't quite sure how to do any of that, actually. She'd never lived on her own before and never really had to cook for herself... maybe she could just follow the lesson plans (hopefully) left by the old teacher.
As that thought worked its way into her head, she caught another glimpse of the large basket of goodies left for her on the table. Smiling as she pushed the troubling thought of her curriculum from her mind, she gladly reached over and grabbed the basket by the handle and examined the contents of her basket. A lot of candy, chocolate, and various nuts made itself apparent as her eyes scanned the insides of the welcome wagon. Oh sure, she saw other things too: lotion, hand sanitizer, some sort of catalog, but the candy made itself most prevalent.
She licked her lips with exaggerated and girlish excitement as she tore open the plastic, reached inside, and grabbed a Butterfinger.
As she tore open the wrapping, her minor dietary slip was caught by the illumination of her purse once again. Another text message. Putting the bar down lightly, she stretched over to the end table and felt around blindly for her phone. Having found it after a few moments of searching idly, she slid her finger across the screen and unlocked it.
Three new text messages, all from her older sister, Sarah:
'Hey Jenny kno u cant tlk rite now but I wanted to wish you good luck! we're all proud of u!'
'Watching bbt alone for the first time in years lol! miss u!'
'Hey Jenny Mom just started telling me that she was going to miss seeing u veg out on the couch and we started bashing you lol =). Were so happy you got a job, but why so far away?!?! Call me when u can!!'
Jennifer smiled at the screen in front of her. She could feel herself welling up as she read the messages over and over again in her sister's voice. She removed the chocolate from her lap, opting to put it on the coffee table, as she slowly pushed the menu button on her phone and dialed Sarah's number...
"...Hello?" Sarah asked wryly, she was fully aware of who was calling, "Is this Ms. Walker speaking?"
"You're damn right it is!!" Jennifer squealed, "Sarah, let me just say that I love this place! Buttercombe has all kinds of... really nice and... awesome shower... full of candy and..."