"Hello there," I greeted the teenage girl standing in front of my desk. "Welcome to Rhodes Real Estate, how may I help you?"

I had a feeling she was probably lost, since she was definitely too young to be here about real estate. Too young to be a courier picking up or dropping something off, either. Honestly she looked like a grade ten or grade eleven high-school student, and considering it was a little after four in the afternoon I figured she'd just got out of school for the day.

The way she was dressed only reinforced that impression. The girl was almost lost in an oversized navy-blue hoodie, dark green leggings, and she had some well-worn sneakers on her feet. And instead of a purse she had a small backpack slung over her left shoulder.

The young brunette responded in a calm self-assured voice, "I'm here to see Vikki Lawrence."

"That's me," I replied, and I did my best to keep the surprise out of my voice. "What can I do for you?"

She sat herself down in one of the two guest chairs across from me then introduced herself, "My name is Cassandra Underwood. We exchanged some emails yesterday afternoon? I'm here to buy that house we talked about, the one on Ash Street."

"Oh!" I blinked in surprise. "You're Ms. Underwood?"

The emails she referred to were a very simple exchange. She saw one of our signs up on a local property she was interested in, and wanted to know the asking price and how soon she could take possession. I hadn't expected her to show up in person just twenty-four hours later. Then again I also wasn't expecting my prospective buyer to be a young teen.

While all that was going through my mind the girl just nodded once, "That is what I said. I'd like to purchase that home right now, if you don't mind?"

"Right," I said as I quickly got myself focused on the job, and on all my recent training. I frowned slightly as I asked her, "I take it you don't have a real estate agent of your own?"

Cassandra frowned as well, "No. Do I need one in order to buy a house? I thought you only needed an agent when you wanted to sell."

I shook my head, "You don't exactly need one, but having an agent can help with a lot of the details and paperwork? Especially if you're not familiar with the process yourself."

Seeing the thoughtful look on her face I added, "I take it you're not familiar with the process? Would this be your first home purchase?"

To be honest it felt like a silly question, considering her age. For that matter I couldn't help feeling like this whole exercise was a waste of my time. There was no way this girl could get a mortgage, and I strongly doubted she could even come up with a down payment.

The only reason I didn't outright say so was the possibility that she had wealthy parents backing her. I'd still need to have them come in to deal with paperwork, or more likely their lawyers would handle the whole thing once the parents got involved.

The other possibility, however remote, was this unlikely scenario was a set-up and my boss was testing me. I really didn't believe Erin would do that though. If she wanted to quiz me she'd just sit me down and ask me some questions, or she'd role-play the buyer herself. She wasn't the sort of woman to try and trap me with some elaborate scheme like this.

"It's my first home purchase," the teenager confirmed. "And no, I'm not familiar with the process. I'd just like to get it over with as quickly as possible. I don't mean to be rude, but I don't have a great deal of time."

She added, "So if having an agent would be preferable, then can I hire you to do that for me?"

I blinked then nodded slowly, "Yeah I can do that for you. My colleague Mr. McTavish is the selling agent, which means I'm available to act as an agent for you. In fact we might be able to save you some money, my boss has a discount policy when our firm handles both the purchase and sale of a property."

"Perfect," Cassandra smiled. "Then I'd like to hire you as my agent right now, so we can get on with purchasing that house."

I hesitated again, "All right Miss Underwood. Um, sorry but if I may ask, how old are you?"

She responded with a question of her own, "Is there a minimum age requirement for owning property in this province?"

"I believe there's some additional paperwork involved when a minor owns property," I replied. "I was thinking more about the actual purchase though? Banks have some specific requirements when it comes to issuing a mortgage."

The teen calmly opened up her backpack then pulled out a large manilla envelope and set it on my desk in front of me, "I don't need a mortgage. I have a bank draft here, issued for the full asking price of the home."

"I can pay any additional fees or expenses by credit card, bank card, or cash," she continued in that same calm self-assured voice. "And to answer your question, I'm eighteen years old."

I frowned slightly as I opened the envelope and pulled out the contents. The paperwork inside appeared legitimate, it was a bank draft for the full asking price of the property. And suddenly I had no idea what to make of this odd teen girl, or what to do next.

"Um, would you excuse me for a moment?" I said as I carefully set the paperwork down on my desk. Then I got up and quickly but calmly walked over to the door of my boss's office.

I knocked once, then as soon as she acknowledged I opened the door and stepped inside. My boss was sitting behind her desk with some paperwork spread out before her. She had her laptop set up off to one side, but her focus was on me as soon as I opened the door.

Erin Rhodes was an older woman, she'd actually just turned sixty earlier this year. She'd been working in the real estate business since her early twenties though, and she'd spent her whole life and her career in this small town. This was her brokerage too, she built it up herself. We weren't the only real estate agency in town, and we weren't the biggest either, but Erin prided herself on our customer service and our 'old fashioned' one-on-one focus, with both buyers and sellers.

Erin was also a sort of mentor to me, she originally hired me as a part-time office assistant back when I was in college, then gave me a full-time position when I graduated. And a year later she encouraged me to go back to college and get my real estate licence so I could continue working for her as a sales agent.

"Hi Vikki," she greeted me with a pleasant smile. "What's up?"

"There's a kid here asking to buy a house?" I said in a hushed voice. "She emailed me yesterday, the place she wants is one of those rental homes Jason just listed last week? And she's acting like she thinks she can just buy a house on the spot, as if we can do it all right here and now."

I added just as quietly, "She doesn't seem to know the first thing about buying property, but she's actually got a bank draft for the full asking price! It's like she basically walked in off the street and wants to buy a house right this minute. But she looks like a high-school student or something?"

To her credit, Erin didn't appear anywhere near as shocked or freaked-out as I was feeling. She simply raised one eyebrow, then asked "Have you offered to act as the buying-agent for her?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "And she said she could pay cash or by card for my fees, and whatever other expenses come up."

She looked thoughtful for a moment, then asked "What's this girl's name?"

"Cassandra Underwood," I replied. "What should I do? I've never done anything like this, and the whole situation seems really strange to me?"

Erin frowned for a few seconds as she mumbled to herself, "Underwood, Underwood..."

"Ah," she nodded then addressed me, "What you should do Vikki, is sell that girl a house. We don't need to get Jason involved in this, not just yet anyways. He'll moan and complain later, but I'll handle that when the time comes."

"If you need help with the paperwork just let me know," she added. "And tell her we'll handle all the legal requirements. Our legal partner Jessie Vaughan will take care of the municipal and provincial registrations and remit the various fees and taxes on the buyer's behalf."

I blinked at my boss then frowned, "You're acting like this is normal Erin. But they never mentioned anything like this when I was taking the real estate brokerage courses, and nothing like this was on any of the exams."

My boss gave me a knowing smile, "It's probably not normal anywhere else, but things occasionally work differently in this town. This wouldn't be the first 'cash sale' I've handled, and I'm sure it won't be the last one you'll process either if you keep working here."

"Tell you what Vikki," she added. "Go take care of your client, make your first sale, then afterwards I'll take you out for dinner. Back when you first started working here I mentioned there were some stories I'd share someday? I think that day has finally arrived."

I stared at her for a second or two then slowly nodded, "All right boss. I'll let you know when I need help."

She just gave me another smile, then got back to whatever she'd been working on before I interrupted. And I returned to my desk out front, where the teen girl was still waiting.

"Sorry about that," I apologized. "I had to check with my boss. I'll be honest, I've only just got my licence and even though I've been here for almost two years this is the first time I've officially acted as the agent on record?"

"I understand," Cassandra replied. "So can I buy the house now?"

I smiled, "Yes! I can't give you the keys right now, buying a house isn't like getting a new phone or a computer. There's a bunch of paperwork and legal stuff, but we can take care of all that for you. So let's get started."

Despite Cassandra's earlier impatience she seemed to accept that these things took time. I pulled up the appropriate forms and documentation on my computer, but unfortunately I didn't get very far before running into a snag.

"Oh," I frowned. "So you know that's currently a rental property, right? There's actually tenants in there. Legally, while you can buy and take possession of the house, you can't just kick the occupants out."

Then I suggested, "If you're eager to move quickly there's another property literally around the block that's almost identical to the one you're interested in? That house is listed with our firm as well, and it's unoccupied so -"

Cassandra interrupted me, "That won't be necessary. I know the people living there now, they're friends of mine. I'm buying the home so I can ensure the place remains available for them."

"Ah," I frowned once more as I tried to process that.

Not only was this teenage girl here to pay cash to buy a house, she didn't even want it for herself. She was just doing it so her friends wouldn't be evicted some time in the future. By that point I had so many questions, but I remembered what Erin said. These things happened, it wasn't that unusual here.

With that in mind I got back at it, filling out the various forms with the information Cassandra provided. The process actually went a lot more smoothly than I'd been expecting. She seemed to have everything I needed, some of it before I even asked. I almost got the impression that backpack of hers had the most efficient filing system known to man hidden away inside it. In fact for someone who had no idea how to buy a home, she was remarkably well-prepared.

I did need to call Erin for help a few times, but my boss didn't mind. She greeted Miss Underwood with a polite smile, then either took care of what I'd got hung up on, or she showed me what to do so I could handle it myself.

In all it still took us over an hour to get through all the hoops and paperwork. By the time we were done Cassandra had signed a thick stack of forms and Erin put the bank draft into the brokerage safe for now. There were a few thousand dollars in additional fees, like legal fees and government registration fees, that the girl paid with her credit card. When it was all done we had a closing date set for Friday May twentieth, which was just before the long weekend.

"So that's it," I stated as I smiled at Cassandra. "You can drop in here any time after noon on Friday May twentieth to pick up the keys. Congratulations on buying your first home."

She smiled back, "And congratulations on your first sale. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get going."

As soon as she said the words the teen was up and out of the chair. She turned and headed for the front door, and that was that. The odd thing was I couldn't actually say for sure I saw her leave. She was definitely gone, but I didn't recall seeing the door open or her step through it.

Then again, it's not like she could have simply vanished into thin air, so I put that minor oddity out of my mind. And a moment later I forgot all about it, as Erin emerged from her office to congratulate me herself.

"Well done Vikki," my boss stated with a proud smile. "An agent's first sale is always a special occasion, but I don't think you realize yet just how special that one was."

I smiled back, "Thanks boss. I admit I feel pretty good about it. Even if it was nothing like the sort of thing they talked about in class."

"Lock the front door and get your purse," she said with another smile. "I promised you dinner, along with some stories."

"Yes boss!" I grinned as I hurried to close up the office for the night.

She locked the back door behind us after we were both outside, then the two of us got into her luxury SUV.

As I settled into the comfortable leather passenger seat I asked, "So what sort of stories? No offence Erin, but I've already heard a lot of real estate talk from both you and Jason over the last two years."

"You haven't heard these stories yet Vikki," she stated as she started the car. "Trust me."

Then as we pulled out onto First Street she added, "That girl you just sold the house to, Cassandra Underwood? I saw her current address on the paperwork. I recognized the last name, and I know that house. I sold it back in nineteen eighty-seven, to a couple young women who claimed to be sisters."

Just a minute or two later we were already pulling into the parking lot of one of the nicer restaurants in town. Erin parked the SUV then gave me a knowing smile as she said, "That'll be the first story I tell you over dinner tonight. About Julie and Tanya Underwood..."

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