Jasmine was fuming as she went about doing her daily work. She nearly killed an entire species of plants in the greenhouse when she was watering the plants and got carried away. She was angry not only at David's father but also at Pri and herself. How could Pri be so calm about the whole thing she wondered.Pri had no right to hold her back like that...well, it still made her upset.
She hated David's father for causing David so much pain. She hated herself for being too cowardly to comfort him and she hated Pri for having the courage to. She hated herself for hating Pri, her best friend but she couldn't help it. Pri had known david longer but not that much longer.
She stayed angry most of the day until it was time to take care of the domestic cats. She had always loved cats, even the jungle ones that had given her a good deal of scars. They're beautiful, majestic, quick and the the little ones are cute and cuddly but still have a vicious side to.
On the reserve there is a big ranch house where everyone sleeps, eats breakfast and dinner and where they have their weekly meetings, which just happened to be that night. They also keep the domestic animals there. The Reserve is a hospitality center, a hospital, an animal reserve for almost every species on the planet and the base of operations for a mobile soup kitchen and thrift shop. Basically they help animals and people out. Having pretty much all the species in the world in one place and depending on you isn't really as big as an accomplishment as you would think since the nuclear war wiped out a lot of species. The rest of the stuff is hard though since most of the world's population is homeless, starving and poor since they had to relocate after the war.
Jasmine sat in the ranch house's kitchen where they eat and have their meetings. She let the cats crawl into her lap as she fed them scraps and she cuddled a kitten for a while. It made her feel instantly better. Then she called Skittles. She set the cats on the rotting wood floor, went to the screen door and clapped three times since she couldn't whistle. "Skittles," she called while clapping some more.
Soon a scraggly black cat with long fur clumped together with dirt walked in tentatively through the cat door. All the other cats scattered except the old mommy cat that's always having litters, left behind to usher the kittens away from the vicious and strange cat. Skittles rubbed his head against her leg purring. Jasmine was the only one Skittles would even be seen for. None of the others could even find Skittles except sometimes Abby, Pri's little sister, let alone feed him.
It had been one really interesting day when Jasmine, Pri and Abby had found Skittles. They had gone out to run some errands in the nearby town and normally they wouldn't take Abby because it's so dangerous but she had been begging for months. They all wore their hats hanging down their backs, the string tied around their necks, mouth coverings and Pri had a messenger bag slung over one shoulder on top of their grimy clothes. As they were walking down a crowded street a man grabbed for Pri and they never figured out if he was trying to grab her bag or her butt.
They never figured it out because Pri grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back. She braced one foot against his back and pulled back on his arm. The entire time Jasmine had a protective arm around Abby and one hand covering Abby's eyes. Pri let him go with a warning. As the man walked away he kicked at a cat in frustration but the cat was fast enough to avoid the blow that was aimed at his head and it only nicked him.
"Hey what did that poor cat ever do to you," Jasmine called after him as she rushed to check the cat.
"Meanie," said Abby. She crouched next to me as I examined him and then she ran back to Pri "Can we keep him? Pleeeeeaass!?" Jasmine didn't even ask she just smiled at Pri and scooped up the cat into her arms. The cat purred softly as they walked home. When they got home whenever people would approach him he would 'skidaddle' but since Abby at age six couldn't pronounce that she called him Skittles and it stuck.
The screen door slammed shut and Jasmine looked up to see who it was. David only nodded at her as he sat down at the long kitchen table designed to accommodate the many workers but she couldn't help but blush. Skittles hissed and squirmed free of Jasmines grasp. He really didn't like people.
Soon everyone was filing in and the room got noisy. There was a certain nervousness to their mindless conversations though. As if their unexpected visitor that day, as absurd as the encounter was, had rattled their nerves a bit.
The ovens dinged and the workers on kitchen duty, Abby and Grandma (everyone calls her grandma even though she's only really Pri's Grandma) took out the casseroles and began serving them with drinks. Only Abby and the other workers' kids aren't aloud to drink and Dalton at age twekve had only recently started drinking with the rest of them. The Reserve has a limit because they don't want the workers to get drunk or hung over but Jasmine noticed more workers and especially David were at the limit or closer to it than usual.
After a dessert of fresh strawberries with cream Pri started the meeting. She sent the kids to bed and there was a minute of workers kissing their kids good night and a lot of grumbling from the kids. Then some of our workers stood up and gave reports about different problems we need to address.
After that Pri stood at the giant white board that covers an entire wall in the kitchen. She circled a date five day later on the giant calendar that takes up half of the white board. The square said 'Mission trip.' Mission trips are trips we take to cities and towns bringing food, clothes, medicine and other supplies to people who need it.
"Our next trip. We have to be ready," she said solemnly "The workers going are me, David, Repentance-" she went on listing names until she had named a dozen workers. Jasmine didn't have to go since she had gone on the last mission trip and it wasn't her turn. "Jasmine your in charge of basic operations while we're gone. Anything else?"
"Yeah," cried dalton standing up abruptly "I'm going too! I want to help on the mission trips!" For a moment it looked like Pri was going to argue with her stubborn adopted brother but she only said "Ok."
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