Wings of a Feather

Chapter 2

It turned out, that the landlords name was Tara Potters.

And after Tara had processed Heather's proposition of buying a house, Heather couldn't exactly blame her for being skeptical.

But Heather had assured her that she was indeed 18, (which she wasn't), and that she had just moved out of her parents house to attend college in a neighboring town, (which she wasn't). And thankfully, Tara seemed to buy it.

Ms.Potters and Heather discussed the agreement over breakfast at 5 am, (Tara's treat), and the budding young landlord was more than happy to sell the crappy piece of property that some people claimed as a house.

Plus, the food was the best Heather had eaten in years. Tara had been quite surprised to see Heather holding back tears as she bit into her burger. But Tara had shrugged it off, and admitted to herself that burgers here where quite tasty.

And although she seemed a little skeptical when Heather turned down her offer to see the house before buying it, she appeared visibly relieved to finally have the house out of her hands. Which, meant that it was just Heather's style for laying low.

Uninhabitable.

"Thanks again." Heather turned to smile gratefully at her as they exited the diner an hour later.

"Of course!" She smiled back, before reaching into her spiffy briefcase to pull out a sheet of paper. "Now, electricity and water are both included, but you'll have to install your own heater. And since you already paid the full payment on the house, you can pretty much do whatever you want to it!" She was talking excitedly, her hands moving as she spoke just like they had been when she was talking on the phone earlier.

Tara, Heather had come to discover, was a bit of an airhead.

While she seemed nice enough, Heather was starting to suspect that the reason she wasn't doing so well in her business endeavors, was because she had been dropped on her head a few too many times as a child. She could tell right off the bat, that Tara could be easily manipulated, which was a rather useful quality to keep Heather from being discovered.

For instance, Heather had told her that the reason she had so much cash on hand was because her credit card split in half when she sat on it, and Tara didn't even blink twice. In fact, she had responded by laughing and saying that the same thing had happened to her all the time as well.

Face-palm.

Focusing back on the conversation at hand, Heather nodded politely, pretending to seem enthusiastic at the prospect of renovating her temporary new home.

After another agonizing minute of decorating talk, filled with 'This cute little boutique I found downtown sells the absolute cutest bedspreads!' and 'No way! Your favorite color is pink too?' and various other small anecdotes, the landlord finally handed over the piece of paper.

Looking at it Heather could see several sloppily written notes, mostly written in pink crayon. "This is the address, and my phone number in case you find any problems with it. Please, feel free to totally call me anytime!"

She gave one last triumphant smile, before nearly skipping across the parking lot to her shiny black Mercedes. At a very fast pace. Heather was pretty sure Tara just wanted to get away from her before she could change her mind.

Once she had pulled out of the lot and sped out of sight, Heather finally glanced down at the paper Ms.Potters had handed her. 121 Willow Creek Place. Sounds normal enough.

She glanced at the sky, nervously noting a few dark clouds in the distance. It looked like a storm was brewing, and Heather did not want to stick around for that at all.