Outcast (Grayson Dolan)

Part one

(Annalynn's POV)

As I was placing the rose arrangement on the old chipped wooden shelf I heard the little bell to our front entry way ding.

Usually that bell was an indication that 1 of 4 people had walked in.

1. Mr.Hanley, he comes in weekly to buy his wife some sunflowers.
Pretty adorable if you asked me.

2. Cullen mosby and his daughter Georgia, Georgia is only 7, she comes by to help my grandmother water our plants outside. Definitely a future plant nerd. Like me.

3. An employee

Or 4,
A new customer, however that rarely happens so I try not to get my hopes up.

In a small town like mine, it's hard to meet new people.
Things are always the same.
People are all the same.

You see, my town Fera, is a preppy rich town. Everyone here is either a house wife, a business man, or a business owner.

I work at my grandmas flower shop. So I go under the business owners.

We're looked down on, seen as poor, seen as less.

But my grandmother's flower shop isn't what caused me to originally be seen as less.

When I was a little girl, my mom passed so it was just my dad and I.

He was the mayor of fera.
So you'd think I'd be the Regina George of this town... well no. Not so much. Single dads are another thing looked down on in this town.

We were a rich, polite, proper and successful family. But that wasn't enough to be accepted by society here.

Of course I was even more of an outcast when my dad died.

'A little girl with no parents, living with her grandparents who own a small family run flower shop?!
How dare we except her?!'

Anyway, overtime I stopped searching for approval. Eventually I just stopped caring. Now all I care about is me, and my dream to be an author.

"Anna!" I heard a familiar high pitched voice squeal.

I turned my head to see Georgia running towards me.

"Hey Georgia !" I said with a huge smile on my face.

I wiped my dirty hands on my brown apron before reaching out to hug Georgia.

Her Curley black hair and piercing brown eyes always have the power to make me awe.

"Guess what guess what!" Georgia yelled.

"Oh my goodness must be pretty exciting, what?" I said giggling at her cuteness.

"I made a friend at school this week!" She squealed.

Oh yeah I should mention this town is decently racist too, but only if you're not rich.

Cullen (Georgia's dad) owns a pharmacy, so he's already looked down on enough.
business owner, single dad and then on top of that him and Georgia are one of the only black families in fera.

Of course there are good people in this town too, you just have to search.

"That's great luv!" I said with a smile, while stepping onto a step stool to grab last weeks old wilted daisy arrangement.

"Yeah! Anyway, can I learn more about your flowers today?" She asked nicely.

"Eehem" her dad cleared his throat behind her causing both of our attention to turn to him.

"Oh, please! Sorry sometimes I get so excited I forget to say please" Georgia said slightly embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it. Of course you can come help with the garden. You wanna come upstairs to get my grandma with me?" I asked after throwing the wilted daisy arrangement in the compost.

"Yes please!" She squealed getting the little twinkle she gets in her eyes when anyone mentions the garden.

"Okay, head on up, I just need to lock the front door quickly" I said giving them a smile.

It's after dinner time on a Friday, but we don't get customers often, locking the door is not going to change that.

I locked the creaky old wooden door, hung up my apron and headed upstairs.

As I reach the top I can smell cooking.

I entered our apartment. Yup. We live above the flower shop. Another thing to judge.

I could hear Georgia's laughter all the way from the entry.

I walked into passed the kitchen to find my grandparents eating brownies with Cullen and Georgia.

I smiled at them before grabbing the fresh daisy arrangement to replace last weeks old wilted one.

My grandma is all about fresh pristine quality. That's why we have a garden here.

Everything is grown just outside the shop and arrangements are made upstairs.

After some socializing I headed back down to the flower shop with the fresh daisy arrangement in hand.

While going to unlock the door I saw a figure dressed in a black hoodie and grey sweat pants.

The figure was tall and buff, with short brunette hair.
Potentially attractive.
However it was hard to tell since his back was facing the door.

I snapped out of my thoughts to unlock the door.

"I'm so sorry to have kept you wait-" I began to say until he turned around to face me.

"Oh, Grayson" I said realizing it was no one special. Just my schools quarterback.

Grayson wasn't the rudest person in this town, but he's also not the nicest.

He hangs out with all the assholes.
His friends have a selection of people to make fun of and bully.

Unfortunately I was nothing to them but a part of his friends selection.

"Ouch" he said pretending to be hurt.

I rolled my eyes and walked into an aisle to put the fresh arrangement in its place.

"Wow this shop is beautiful Anna" he said while looking around.

"What do you want?" I said bluntly, getting annoyed.

"um do you guys have Casablancas?" He asked nervously.

I seem like a bitch but honestly, whatever. You should see the way his friends treat me.
I'm just suspicious as to why he's being so nice.

I sighed.
"Yeah, follow me" I said having him follow me out the back door, into the garden.