Changes

Chapter 5

Jae woke late the next morning to banging. She thought it was her alarm so she smacked that first, when the banging continued she finally pulled her head out from under the pillow and realized someone was at her door. She dragged herself out of bed and pulled on an oversized t-shirt and ran down the stairs.

“Do you not realize what time it is,” She yelled as she opened the door to find Chase standing there next to Mrs. Fischer, “Oh dear.”
“Good Afternoon, dear,” Mrs. Fischer said as she stepped inside with her grandchild in tow.
“Mrs. Fischer, what are you doing here?” Jae asked.
“Dear, its 12:30, already,” She replied.
“It’s what? No!”
“Yeah, it is,” Chase announced as he came in behind Mrs. Fischer.
“Oh, my,” Jae replied rubbing a hand over her eyes, “let me go change and we can bake those cookies, Mrs. Fischer.”
“Go ahead, dear, I know were to find everything and this young man is going to chat with me while you do that,” Mrs. Fischer announced to her as she looked over Chase.

Jae ran up the stairs and quickly went through her drawers to find something suitable to wear. She barely took a minute to groan about the fact that again Chase got to see her in her worst. Dear God she was in an over sized t-shirt, hair all messed up and no makeup on or anything. She must have looked horrible. She would deal with that later though. Right now she needed to get downstairs and save Chase from Mrs. Fischer’s direct questions about anything she thought she might need to know about him and his relationship with Jae. And all the questions she would ask about his personal life.
Jae slipped on some jeans and another t-shirt that fit her better than the one she had put on before. She then walked into the bathroom and washed her face and ran a brush through her hair. She grabbed a hair scrunchie and started down the steps as she wrapped her hair up in it. She heard Chase and Mrs. Fischer talking in the kitchen as she came down.
Once in the kitchen she was amazed to find Chase at the counter with a measuring cup in his hand and Mrs. Fischer rattling off how much sugar to add into the bowl that already held eggs and vanilla. Jae stood in shock for a moment before she went in to find more sugar for them to use.

“Oh good, your back, do you have anything that Mattie could play with, she didn’t bring any of her toys,” Mrs. Fischer asked her.
“Sure I have some coloring books,” Jae replied then turned and went down the hall to her office to grab them for Mattie to use. When she got back to the kitchen she set Mattie up at the kitchen table with the crayons and coloring books then returned to Mrs. Fischer’s side.
“We can handle this Jae, why don’t you go and sit down,” Mrs. Fischer told Jae.
“But . . .” Jae started.
“Go on, dear, Chase is going to help me make cookies while we get to know one another.”

Jae glanced over at Chase and he just shrugged his shoulders as to say sure. She turned and went into her living room, throwing herself down on the couch as she grabbed the remote and turned on the television. She quickly found a movie to watch as she heard laughing come from the kitchen. She glanced over and could see Chase in the doorway, watching her. Jae quickly looked back at the TV. blushing slightly. Mattie moved from the kitchen to the living room, bringing the crayons and coloring books with her. Which worked out well, Mattie sat on the floor on the other side of the coffee table and Jae scooted down to be on the floor in between the couch and coffee table. She grabbed a coloring book and picked a picture to color. Silently Jae and Mattie colored pictures.

An hour later, Chase and Mrs. Fischer were done making cookies. Mrs. Fischer came into the living room to collect Mattie and thank Jae for a wonderful afternoon. Thanks, for what exactly, Jae was not sure; since she did nothing other than provide a place to bake the food, which Mrs. Fischer could have done at her own apartment 3 blocks over. Chase had followed Mrs. Fischer into the living room and had taken a seat next to Jae on the couch. Jae continued to sit on the floor and finish the picture that she was coloring, while a new movie came on the TV. Once she was done, she put the crayons away and looked up at Chase. Jae moved up off the floor onto the couch and hit the guide button on the remote.

“Sorry about that,” Chase said.
“It’s ok, I really didn’t want to make cookies today anyways,” Jae replied.
“Right, then why did you invite her over?”
“Because it gives her something to do and I had mentioned I had a new neighbor for her to check out.”
“Oh Lord, that’s how she knew I was new to the building.”
“Sorry I forgot she was coming over.”
“Its alright, I had fun. I have never baked cookies before.”
“Never?”
“Never, we had a cook that did stuff like that, but we weren’t allowed to have sweets except on special occasions.”
“That must have sucked.”
“Maybe, I never knew any other way.”
“Oh, well then I guess. I can’t imagine not having cookies after I got home from school.”
“Jae . . . I’ve thought about what you asked me.”
“Oh I wanted to talk to you about that. I think I made the wrong decision, I shouldn’t have asked you, especially you, I mean we don’t even know each other and you just moved in. Seems kind of strange right, you probably think I am crazy.”
“No, no, I don’t think that. I just want you to be sure, I mean you should be happy with who you are and not have to change to get someone’s attention.”
“I know, but I’m doing it for me, not for anyone else, just me. I want to feel better about how I look on the outside. I know I’m great on the inside, it’s the outside that needs work.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“I’ll help you. I called my sister too, to help with the other areas that I may not be able to help you with.”
“Really?”
“Yep, she said she would be glad to help, as long as she can have her kids along with for some of it.”
“Oh gosh that is great, thanks, really. Oh wow!” Jae exclaimed then hugged Chase.
“When do you want to start? And don’t thank me yet we haven’t even begun to transform you.”
“Um . . . we can start whenever, today. I work during the week until 5 and I get home around 5:30.”
“Well if we’re going to start today we need to figure out what we need. Clothes for starters, what do you have here and what do you need, what to get rid of.”
“Do you still have those boxes? Are you even moved in all the way? I don’t want to take up your time when you’re not even done with everything.”
“Everything is done. I’m on vacation from work anyways so I have plenty of time to get everything done.”
“Oh, okay. Well, let’s grab some empty boxes and go up to my room and pick it apart. I can tell you right now that a lot of it needs to go and I need a lot of new things.”
“Well, we better get started then.”

Chase headed into the hall to grab a few boxes and then met Jae at the bottom of the stairs. They headed up to her room after that to start on her transformation to the new her.