Chapter 46

"Are you ready for this?" Dad asked with a grin as I straightened the boxes of donuts on the folding table in the middle of the empty building.

"Absolutely." I nodded, looking around the room. "But dad wow this seriously looks amazing."

"I know right? My guys are fast." Dad nodded.

The entire room was covered in hard wood floors with the walls still bare and covered in the white stuff to fill the holes.

"And they even installed the kitchen area, wow." I laughed.

"It wasn't difficult. This place used to be a cafe before it became the salon, the mold was effectively already here. They just had to add some stuff on top of it. The cafe won't be open for a week or so until we get some products and hire some people to work. I've already found us a manager, she should be in here today." My dad told me, pouring himself a cup of coffee from the coffee machine plugged in to an empty outlet.

There were stacks of the furniture boxes of things that needed to be built in the corner, ready to be opened. A group of paint cans were situated on another folding table in the center of the room with paint rollers and brushes and painters tape.

"Today's going to be a success. I can feel it." I said with a grin, straightening the donuts again.

I glanced at the large clock propped up on a chair in the doorway that had been created between the two stores.

It was 7:20.

People should be arriving soon.

"I don't get why Luke wanted to drive separately from us." My dad shook his head with a laugh.

"Probably wanted to impress all of his football friends." I laughed, nervously smoothing my hair down.

It was thrown up in a simple ponytail and I was wearing my painting clothes: ripped jeans, a black t-shirt, and an old flannel.

Everything was already covered in paint from my many excursions back in Connecticut.

Coach Turner was the first one here, arriving promptly at 7:22.

"Coach! I didn't know you were showing up too!" I laughed as he walked up to us.

He tipped his baseball cap at my dad before smiling at me.

"I'd do anything for Wyatt James." Coach Turner laughed.

"Here, help yourself to coffee and donuts. We'll get started once everyone is here." I smiled.

I should've said an earlier time, and then maybe everyone would've arrived by 7:30. I guess teenage guys aren't necessarily known for their promptness.

"Alright!" I called to the room at 7:45. "Hi to everyone, thank you for being here." I started.

People were straining to see me so I stepped on a chair, a smile crossing my face.

"Alright, so as you can see we have a lot to do today." I said happily, looking around the room. "A few basics, the bathroom is through here around to the left." I pointed through the doorway to the bookstore. "Only go in there if you have special permission from me or you have to go to the bathroom. The goal of today is to make this place look nice, not make the bookstore look bad." I told everyone.

I looked around wondering what to address next.

"Okay, so I know I didn't go into much detail yesterday so I guess I'll actually explain now. The bookstore through the little archway behind me is Lowell Books. Wyatt's family owns the business but with everything going on with medical bills right now, it's not in the best shape. As we all know from places like Barnes and Noble and most other bookstores, cafes are a popular aspect of some bookstores. Therefore, when I found out that the salon here was going out of business, I figures it would be a great addition to the bookstore. So today, we're going to make it actually look like a cafe." I explained, rubbing my hands together. "Now, the tasks for today are fairly simple and should be easy if everyone is pulling their weight. The walls need to be painted, the paint is right there on the tables. The first coat will go on immediately, we'll give it time to dry, and then we'll do the second one later this afternoon." I started.

I took a deep breath, a smile crossing my face at the fact that this was actually happening.

"The tables need to be put together for customers. Please read the instructions. This should not be a competition to see who can build one the fastest, it needs to be who can build one the best. Actual paying customers will be in here, using this furniture, it has to be in the best shape possible. The chairs, also. We don't need some innocent woman with her coffee landing on her ass because some football player thought they were too macho to read the instructions, understood?" I said, raising my eyebrows.

"Great." I clapped my hands together. "Now we also need to build some bookshelves. Because this is an add on to Lowell Books, we need to have some books in here. That will fall under the building category as well. Light fixtures!" I suddenly remembered. "We have some pieces that go over the lightbulb sockets to make it a little bit more comfortable lighting in here." I added. "Those can be found over there." I pointed to the stack of them.

I looked back at my dad, unsure if I was forgetting anything.

"Now, thank you all for coming today." My dad said, stepping forwards. "As Zoe mentioned to you yesterday, yes today is an excused absence, and it will not affect your eligibility for the play-off game this Friday. You will get community service for your time here. Expect a full day of hard work. If we don't finish tomorrow, we'll be back at it tomorrow morning, but tomorrow you don't get the luxury of being able to skip school and practice. You will actually be held accountable for tomorrow's school work so let's get this done today." My dad nodded, stepping back as he finished.

"Alright!" I said happily, a grin forming on my face. "Well... We need to split this up so we all get something done... How about... Um... Ah!" I grinned as I figured out a way to split the guys up.

"Okay uh, let's have offense on the left, defense on the right, and special teams in the middle." I said to the team, pointing to the different directions.

After much movement and talking, they sorted themselves out.

"Okay... Uh... Sophomores and freshmen, if there are any of you, join the middle." I said, biting my lip as I tried to even this out.

Finally we had three relatively even groups.

"Okay excellent. Defense, you're building the furniture over there. Offense, you're getting on the ladders and doing the light fixtures. Do not get injured or Coach Turner will be after my ass. Special teams, you're painting the walls. Please make sure you tape them properly before you get started. You're welcome to more donuts and coffee but don't spend your whole time eating! We're having lunch delivered at noon. Let's get to work!" I said happily, stepping down from my chair.

The place was suddenly loud and bustling with music.

"Dad this is so great." I whispered to him excitedly as I walked up to him.

"This really is." My dad nodded. "I'm proud of you, Zoe."

"I'm just going to go grab my phone, I left it in the bookstore." I said to my dad before walking through the new archway between the two buildings.

I went behind the checkout counter to grab my phone, a sticky note catching my eye next to the keyboard of the computer.

To-do List:

1. Organize new shipment in storage room

2. Update labels on shelves

3. Vacuum

4. Clean windows

My eyes widened at this new list of things to do in here. It went on all the way down to number ten.

I quickly rushed back into the other room, walking right up to my dad who was talking to Luke.

"We need more people." I told my dad, holding up the list. "There's a ton of stuff to do in the bookstore."

"Zoe we need all the guys in here..." He said, looking around the room doubtfully.

"Call Lauren and tell her to get the cheerleaders in here." Luke suggested, raising his eyebrows. "Lauren was all jealous that she couldn't come help out today."

"Daddy would you excuse them too?" I asked nervously.

My dad let out a sigh. "Zoe I can't excuse my entire student body from school." He said doubtfully.

"Okay yeah but just for a day... Come on we really need to get this done." I said with a pleading look.

"Call Lauren, I'll call the attendance office." My dad sighed.

"Thank you!" I exclaimed before pulling my phone out of my pocket.

I dialed my half sister, praying that she'd pick up.

"It is literally the middle of first hour." Lauren sighed as she answered the phone.

"Yes, great. You need to round up all of the cheerleaders you can find, the more the better, and get them to the strip mall off of Hudson Street, the one towards Round." I said seriously. "Tell them to be ready to work."

"We get to leave school too?" Lauren asked excitedly.

"Dad said it was cool." I nodded. "But Lauren, hurry."

Within twenty minutes, the room was now twice as crowded, with a herd of girls clearly distracting the guys from their jobs.

"Okay, cheerleaders, follow me into the bookstore!" I called, walking through the archway.

"Whoa this place is so cool!" One of them gushed.

"I can't believe Wyatt James works at this place."

"I know like can he be any more perfect?"

"Alright, yes, hi." I said to the cheerleaders, bringing the attention to myself. "Not sure if all of you know me, but I'm Zoe Hunter, and uh, well you know Wyatt James. And this is sort of a little thing for him and his family. So uh... Who are your captains?" I asked curiously.

Two girls stepped forwards.

Natalie and Haley.

"Great." I said with a smile, handing them the sticky note. "Divide up these chores amongst everyone. Please do not mess anything up. Come find me with any questions. Just... Make this place look nice."

"We're really getting community service hours for this?" Natalie raised her eyebrows.

"And free food." I nodded, glancing over my shoulder as I walked back to the cafe.

As I walked away from them, I already heard Natalie and Haley calling out commands to various girls on the team. 
With a smile, I looked around at all of the work being done.

Today was going to be a good day.

~*~*~

"We're really making great progress." I said to Lauren and Luke as we ate our sandwiches.

"I know, this is really great." Lauren nodded, her mouth filled with food. "I'm impressed, Zoe."

"Well none of this would actually be happening if everyone else wasn't here building." I said with a sigh. "It's really amazing that it's coming along so quickly."

"Zoe, a phone is ringing in there." My pointed to the bookstore.

I frowned, jumping up from where I was sitting on my floor.

I quickly jogged into the bookstore, grabbing my phone from the counter.

"Hello?" I asked, absentmindedly beginning to inspect the work that the cheerleaders had done in here.

"Hey! Where are you?" Wyatt asked curiously.

"Oh um, I'm helping my dad with something." I replied, walking into the storage room.

Everything in here had been sorted through and placed on shelves.

"Skipping school again?" Wyatt asked.

"Sorta." I replied. "What's up?"

"Well uh, I um, a lot." Wyatt sighed. "Katie refused to go to school today because Nick could be getting a kidney any time soon, so Allison refused to go to school if Katie wasn't going to school. So now we've got both of them here. Ollie's really having a tough time with the chemo and is pretty sick. Nick is getting worse and we're just waiting for there to be a kidney available soon. As for me, I'm missing my girlfriend like hell. And I haven't talked to my mom about the giant elephant in the room and I know that it's not the right time but it's still pissing me off. And did you know she sold the store?" Wyatt suddenly said.

"That was a lot to take in." I laughed.

"She sold the store. The bookstore is no longer ours." Wyatt sighed. "She didn't even consult the rest of us. Like she just up and sold it on her own."

"Zoe! We've got to get working again!" My dad called from the other part of the store.

"Look, babe, I gotta go." I said into the phone, a smile crossing my face as I walked down the aisle that Wyatt and I had our first real kiss. When we told each other that we'd both gone through shit in our lives and we had similar backstories.

"Oh..." Wyatt sighed. "Um, call me later?"

"Yeah bye!" I said, hanging up the phone quickly.

I jogged back to the cafe, ready to finish working.

At this rate, we'd be done by three.

~*~*~

"Wow." I said in shock, looking around the completed cafe. "Dad, we did it."

"We certainly did." My dad laughed.

Everyone else had already left, leaving just my dad and me to finish the last touches.

The bookstore was completely fixed up, all of the chores done with excellent detail.

The cafe was painted, the furniture built and set up perfectly, and the place looked amazing.

We both looked over at the door as the bell chimed and somebody walked in.

"Jennifer! Hi." My dad said happily as the woman walked up to us.

I was shocked at how much she looked like Lucy.

"Zoe, this is Jennifer Lowell, she's the new manager of the cafe." My dad said. "Jennifer, this is my daughter Zoe."

"Lowell?" I asked curiously as she shook my hand.

"Yea! Lucy is my big sister." Jennifer explained. "Are you Zoe as in the Zoe that Wyatt's been talking non stop about?" Jennifer raised her eyebrows.

"That would be me." I nodded, a smile crossing my face.

"Well it's great to finally meet you. We've all heard so much about you."

"Yeah, yeah same." I lied. I never even knew that Wyatt had an aunt.

"So, Peter." Jennifer said to my dad. "We have some business to discuss, but I must say that this place looks amazing."

"That's all down to my daughter. She did all of the designing." My dad laughed.

"Speaking of which..." I trailed off. "I need to get started on the wall."

"Right, right." My dad nodded. "Go, do your business. We won't bother you."

I walked over to the wall that had the archway in it, separating the bookstore from the cafe.

I pulled out a pencil and started transferring the design that I drew at three in the morning onto the wall. 

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I literally haven't written anything new for any of the stuff that I'm working on in over a week... It's been a productive 2016 so for (not). 

Enjoy this chapter, there's about three or four left, yikes.

-E xx