smitten | h.hart

Chapter Five

C H A P T E R F I V E

     RAYMOND Manchester had proven to be quite the headache for Juliette Dunlop. It'd been nearly two weeks since she'd begun working for the man-child, and he'd already gained the habit of taking his irritation toward her brother out on her.

For some reason, Ray had decided not to call Henry into work — sending Juliette to the boy's house to retrieve him, instead.

Which is how the young brunette found herself walking into the household, only to find Mr. and Mrs. Hart staring at their daughter with severely confused expressions.

Juliette couldn't see Piper's expression from her current spot, but she could already tell that the twelve year old was annoyed by something, as per usual.

"Hey, guys." The brunette greeted with a small smile, approaching the trio and standing next to the youngest Hart. "What's going on?"

"I rented the house out for a few days so I could make some money, because Dad refuses to give me $1,000." Piper informed, glaring at her father as she spoke.

Juliette nearly snorted, looking down to the blue eyed girl. "Why do you need a thousand dollars?"

"To pay Prince Fuh'Ard!"

"Who the heck is—"

"Hello?"

The Hart family jumped at the sudden voice, Juliette simply tensing from the small scare. The four of them turned to the source, and the brunette's eyes widened immensely at the four ghosts from her past.

During the previous summer, Juliette had applied to many mechanical engineering companies in hopes to increase her chances of getting a scholarship in her senior year. Of course, she still had a year and a half to think about it, but she'd always been one to plan ahead.

New York had been fun, at first, until she'd been sent out on her own to do some work for some upcoming game company.

Grover Griffin, who went by Triple G, and Hudson Gimble had clicked almost instantly with Juliette, befriending her outside of work despite the complaints from their female coworkers.

Babe Carano and Kenzie Bell had formed a strange despise for the older teen nearly instantly, and would've kicked the girl out of the building had she not been such a great worker. Juliette had never been aware of the girls' reasons for disliking her, but she'd decided it'd be a waste of time to dwell on a one-sided feud with two thirteen year olds.

Trip and Hudson had seen the girl, smiling brightly at the familiar face and walking over to give her a couple of friendly hugs.

"Hey, boys." She greeted, returning the gesture before looking around the group of game developers. "What're are you guys doin' here?"

Trip smiled from his spot beside her, "We're on a work trip, escaping the city, you know?" He informed, before he and Hudson made their way to the kitchen counter.

Juliette nodded in understanding, before the two girls began explaining their trip and the reasons for it to Mr. and Mrs. Hart.

Babe was being very condescending about the whole thing, in the older girl's eyes. It had been very obvious that Piper didn't have permission to put their house up for rent, yet the two girls believed they had the right to kick the adults out of their own home.

She'd tuned out most of the rant, her ears catching the sound of footsteps on the stairs. She turned to greet her friend, noticing the others turning to him as well.