Serving The Greater Good

The claws of plastic rakes scraping along a paved driveway winding between crumbling graves were more than I could take. My teeth ground together as I peered around at my other community service bound workers and sighed.

There were seven of us, all of whom were over forty. Except for one other girl who I guessed to be around my age snapping her teeth at the officer overseeing us.

I bit down a smile, watching in keen interest as the officer pointed at her. “That’s it, Morgenstern. I’m adding another two weeks to your roster.”

“Bite me,” the girl snarled, flipping her long bleached locks back over her shoulder. I had to admit, her black eyeshadow game was on and I was seriously considering asking her how she managed to blend it that perfectly.

“The show is over, Cole. Get back to work,” the officer peered at me with his hands planted on his hips. “Or do you want to join Morgenstern next week scrubbing graves?”

“What graves?” I snorted. “All I see is rocks.”

The Morgenstern girl sputtered a laugh. “Exactly what I said. I mean, look at this shit.”

“Three weeks!” the officer barked, and then nodded toward me. “And now you just got acquainted with your new workmate that will be joining you.”

I waved a hand toward the crumbling graves. “No offence, sir, but how are we supposed to scrub that?”

“You figure it out,” he offered me a deliberate smile. “Would you two like to add more to your time?”

“What did I do?” I gaped.

“Yeah, for real,” the girl echoed. “She didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Four weeks, both of you!” We groaned in unison as the officer’s attention got sidetracked by a middle-aged man trying to escape the cemetery. “Hey, what do you think you’re doing?”

The girl eyed him as he ran after the man before her gaze settled on me. “Officer Rivers is such a jackass.”

“So I noticed,” I breathed. “Is he always like this?”

“All the freaking time.” She walked toward me, wiping her pale hands against her black skirt. “I’m Faye. Morgenstern, if you haven’t caught that fifty times he’s been shouting it.”

I smiled. “I’m Liv.”

“Nice to finally meet someone who isn’t a pushover,” Faye breathed. “You must be new in town?”

“I guess you can say that,” I nodded. “Sort of. We’ve been here for a month.”

“Really?” her brow quirked. “How come I’ve never seen you at school? You must be, what, sixteen?”

“Yeah,” I admitted. “I’ve been homeschooled.”

“Oh,” her lips turned down. “There I was hoping I might have a new friend to hang out with at school.”

“You go to Devil’s High?”

“Duh. It’s the only highschool in this godforsaken place,” she sighed. “Hey, you want to hang out sometime when we aren’t bound to our daily tortures?”

“Yeah, sure,” I smiled. “Well, we can at school too if you’d like. I’m starting on Monday as a punishment for my scandalous behaviour.”

She threw her head back and cackled. “You and I, lady, are going to be best friends.”