Continued by Ben S.
Chapter X
While Drew left, he realized they didn’t come up with a time to meet up. Drew silently prayed that Ethan also wanted to meet up at 8:20 like always.
But he also said that we should meet Max. Perhaps when the store closes, I should check on him just in case. No, wait, I can tell him right now. His car is still here.
Drew started to gesture to Ethan to come, but his car was in front of him, and he didn’t notice Drew.
Ethan left when Drew lost sight of him. So Drew decided to check if Ethan was at the store both at 8:20, and…
When does the store open again? I actually forgot again. Something, thirty, right? Why do I keep forgetting this?
Drew drove backwards and took a quick glance at the noticeable sign to find out what the time was and when he should go to the store besides 8:20.
6:10. Oh yeah. Why do I keep forgetting this? Seriously. I need to write this down, and carry a crumpled paper with the time the store closes in my pockets everywhere. Drew thought while driving back.
Once Drew came back to his house. He got a paper from his extremely limited supply. Once he got the paper and a pencil, he started writing: The store closes at 6:10.
And great. I now have to wait a full day. This time, while waiting, I should be productive this time. So, what can I do? Maybe I can have the help of someone? But I can’t talk to Max or Ethan.
Drew at the end decided that he should somehow meet up with his dad and hope he could help him somehow. Even if it was small, he felt like he needed some support or help in order to get the job. He was the only person who could help.
I don’t know where Ethan and Max are, and everyone else hates me. Even mom now probably does. Dad is the only person left. He might not show it, but he loves me, and I remember where I used to live, so I know where he is. He is the only person who I know where he is and he also would support me. He is the perfect person. He is also the only person.
I guess because he’s tired all the time, it might be hard, but he is still the best person I have. Now I have to think about the next problem. How will I get past mom?
He knew that his mom won’t let him hang around the house because he betrayed her or any excuse. Drew was pretty much dead to him. If she knew that Drew was trying to get the job at the grocery store, she would do anything to sabotage him.
So now I have to figure out how to make her not know what I’m gonna talk about with dad. Besides, she might not even let me talk to dad. After all, I know she won’t, because I’ve seen her do much worse.
So, maybe I could try to just ask her if I could, but if I fail, I would think of something else. Drew decided. So Drew drove to where he remembered his old house to be, and lucky enough, he still had his mildly good sense of direction to see his house.
Drew approached the doorbell, and hesitated before finally ringing it. The door opened, and he saw his mom, who instantly closed the door and Drew heard a door locking.
Drew was startled. He knew his mom wouldn't let him in, but he didn’t expect it to be so sudden. He tried ringing the doorbell.
His mom opened the door, her eyes filled with fury. “Can you just leave me alone? I’m not gonna let you come back!” Drew tried his best to stay calm. But he forgot how mean his mom was. He was a little worried.
“I don’t even want to come back, I actually came here to–” “What do you want Drew?” His mom asked menacingly. “Actually, I came here to ask to speak with dad,” Drew said, managing to sound calm.
Drew’s mom sighed loudly with a sense of annoyance. “Fine, just be quick. You’re still banned from my house and he won’t be moving to you.”
Drew looked at his mom, then she waved close to his face. “Are you just gonna stare at me? Talk to my husband or leave.”
So Drew went into the house and found his dad in his usual spot on the couch, lying down as if asleep, but luckily, he was awake. “Hello dad.”
He was first still, but then after a second, he quickly turned to Drew and gasped in shock. “Drew? What are you doing here? Didn’t you get kicked out of this house?”
“Yes, but mom let me stay for some time to talk to you about something important.” Drew explained. “Sure! What do you need to talk about?” Drew’s dad asked friendly, obviously glad to see Drew again. Drew could always when he was a kid see that his dad might have not done stuff with him very often, but they did have a nice chat, which was how Drew managed to observe that his dad was not like his mom. His dad was a nice person, and if he was the parent in charge, Drew’s entire childhood would have changed.
If his mom was the parent who mostly laid down with few interactions with Drew, he could have managed to have a good first seventeen years of his life.
Drew wished that his dad was the one who spent the most time with him, but he knew he couldn’t change it, and he thought the best thing to do right now is be optimistic. And understand that this was now over, and he should be present. He would no longer have to experience that. And now the most important thing was to talk to his dad.
“I was wondering if you could help me. I tried to get a job at a grocery store. But I wasn’t wanted there so I failed to get hired. So can you do anything to help me get this job? I need it. I need a purpose in life. Every job I could find besides the grocery store was full, and I would go broke if I bought a new house and still can’t find a job. So getting this job will let me actually do stuff.”
“Drew, you have to risk it. You will eventually go broke anyway if you could never get that job. You just have to move to a place with another job and hope for the best. Knowing you, you can probably stay optimistic and understand that you will probably get another and better job.”
“True, but I don’t want to risk it. I also don’t want to leave my only friend, possibly never having any ever again. Besides, I want this job to show God and myself that I’m not a failure, and I can manage to do stuff despite what my lifestyle appears to be. I don’t want to be a coward and just leave, that would ruin my entire self esteem.”
“Well Drew, I’m sorry, but I don’t really know what to do about this situation. Why not ask that friend you just mentioned?”
“I already tried that and he’s still trying sometimes. I don’t know what to do anymore and I need you dad!” Drew said.
“Sorry, Drew. I don’t know what to do either, but I wish you the best of luck to get this–” “Okay Drew, now leave!”
Drew's mom ran to the living room where Drew’s dad was trying to speak. So Drew left, and could hear his dad calling from behind him. “Meet me tomorrow!”
Chapter XI
Drew left his parent’s house and went back to his own. Having no sense of time anymore, he checked his phone to see if he missed meeting with Ethan at 6:10 just in case that was when Ethan planned to meet the entire time.
The time was 5:47. Okay, I have time. I should eat something now. I’m kind of hungry already. Drew thought. Remembering he wanted to have fast food once this week, he was off.
Getting a quick Wendy’s meal, he realized how little time he spent when checking. I knew I shouldn’t have done that. Still a bit annoyed, Drew set his alarm to 6:00, and slumped into his bed like nothing mattered anymore, and for now, nothing did. After all, it wasn’t 6:10 yet.
Drew woke up, but not to his alarm. He checked the time and it was only 5:57. Close enough. Drew thought. So Drew just sat on his bed and waited for the alarm to set off.
BEEP! The loud alarm which he had grown to hate, made him gasp and it probably would have made him jump if he weren’t sitting.
Drew calmed down. At least I can now go meet Ethan finally. And then tomorrow, I could meet dad, unless mom interferes, Of course. I won’t be surprised if I learnt she was eavesdropping on me and Ethan to try to make me not get the job no matter what happens. After all, I haven’t ever met anyone meaner.
Drew got in his car, and drove to the store. Being parked where other cars were to blend in and act like the car was empty, then he checked the time. 6:08
Any minute now, I would see a sign that says closed, and customers and employees rushing out. (Okay, probably not rushing but just, running out.) Drew thought.
After about two minutes, Drew saw some customers who were probably all of them, going out and driving away, then some employees, followed by their boss who put up a sign that in bold red letters said closed.
Drew noticed going to the store andEthan telling Max something, then Max doing something that looked like shouting at Ethan, then he got into his car and left.
Once Drew could only see Ethan, he exited his car where he was hiding. “Hi, Ethan.” Drew said. “I saw you talking to Max, what happened there?” Drew asked.
Ethan hesitated for about a second before he spoke. “He doesn’t trust me. He thinks I’m just teaming up with you to get the job.” Ethan said.
“Why doesn’t he trust you? Do you two have a bad history or something?” Drew asked. “Exactly that. I used to be mean to Max. But now I have changed. I’m against my old boss, and I wish Max forgave me, and if not at least trusted me. Drew, do you trust that I have changed?”
“Yes. What Max did was bad, but I’ll still remain friends with him.” “Of course, I understand.” Ethan said calmly. “I also think you should be forgiven, everyone should be forgiven if they are sorry about it.” Drew said. He couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed. What if because I am friends with Ethan, Max won’t help me?
“Thanks Drew, I won’t betray you.” Ethan said happily But what if he does? There could always be that chance
that Max is right. Drew immediately pushed that thought away. Ethan is a friend. He would help us both get the job. He won’t ever betray me, and I won’t betray him either.
“So, what can we do to get the job? That is what we met up for, after all.” Ethan asked. “What if tomorrow we confront your old boss? And we don’t stop arguing until he agrees to hire us.”
“What if that doesn’t work? That plan should be Plan B while we think of Plan A. We might lose our chances of being hired if we would talk to my old boss first” Ethan claimed.
Drew agreed. If they do something as crazy as talking to Ethan’s old boss without stopping, he might just wait until Drew and Ethan had enough.
“So what can we do then if that won’t be a good idea to start with.” Drew asked. “I don’t know, we should think about that right now actually.” Ethan suggested.
So Drew and Ethan just sat on the hard sidewalk, staring into space and brainstorming. Until Ethan finally spoke. “I have an idea. What if we get all the other employees to help us.” Ethan said.
“How would we ever do that?” “They might be hard to convince, but it’s obvious that they are way easier to convince than my old and hopefully our future boss. We could get them somehow to think we’re not people they should dislike. We could then ask everyone working at the store to threaten their boss that they would quit. He would know that us joining would be way better for business than everyone leaving.” Ethan said
“Good idea, Ethan. We clearly can’t do it right now, so let’s wait until the next time the store closes so we can get everyone’s attention more easily because everyone’s gonna leave at the same time.” Drew said.
“My old boss wouldn’t approve if he saw it. It would be really hard to get the employees without him knowing, I think an easier idea would be for me to go to the shop because I’m technically not banned there, then I could more easily get everyone to meet up. After that we could just simply try to convince everyone and hope for the best.
“Good idea!” Drew said. “While you do that I’ll talk to my dad. He seemed to have an idea when I had to leave. Hopefully Both of our parts tomorrow will help us get this job.” Drew said.
“Yeah, well I might not get everyone. Like I wouldn’t be surprised if Max thinks that I’m somehow tricking him and that
It would just help me get the job.” Ethan said, speaking a little quieter when finishing than how he spoke for the rest of the sentence.”
“It’s okay if you miss some people. It would still be close enough, and your old boss would still think we should just get hired.” Drew said, knowing that not having a few people won’t hurt this plan.
“Well, we don’t have anything to discuss anymore. The entire plan is complete. So I think we now just need to wait for tomorrow when we can actually do all of this.” Ethan said.
“Sure. meet up at the same time as this time.” Drew said. Ethan nodded and left with his car. So Drew did the same. He realized that at first, seeing Max reject Ethan’s offer, it seemed like this meeting would turn out horribly like when he met up with all the other employees.
Now he knew that this was good. He had a good plan and a backup plan which he won’t even need anyway. Filled with confidence, Drew went to his room, without any worry about what would happen next.
Chapter XII
Drew drove back to his house, with a small Burger King meal. He wasn’t that hungry anyway. Out of tiredness of the big day, he finished it as quickly as he could.
Dang, I forgot to eat something less fattening. At least the meal was still small. Drew thought as he went to bed.
He nearly fell asleep before remembering to set the alarm. He quickly set it so he won’t fall asleep while still setting it. It felt to him like he fell asleep immediately after setting it, even though it probably took ten to thirty minutes.
Drew couldn’t sleep immediately if he was this ready for meeting with his dad and learning what his idea was which he wanted to tell Drew.
This time the alarm wasn’t so loud. Drew calmly turned it off and waited another twenty minutes of resting before getting up. Dad won’t move anywhere, literally and figuratively.
Drew eagerly drove to his car. To meet his dad again. Then he could report to Ethan what they could do and hopefully nothing would counteract it.
He drove to his parents house and rang the doorbell. When Drew saw the door open and his mom having the same look of disgust, he could imagine herself, silently thinking, “Great, he’s back.”
“Hi mom, can I please speak to dad again? She took a breath. “Can I speak to him?” Drew asked again. “No.” His mom said. “Why not?” His mom was silent again.
“What’s going on?!” Drew shouted. Is she stalling on purpose? But his mom finally spoke. “He has cancer.” His mom finally said. “He told me what you need help with. But I don’t know what I can do about it.” Drew’s mom said, clearly not knowing what to do.
Drew had so much to say about one thing. So he said the simplest thing. “Will he be okay?” Drew asked, silently praying that he would. His mom shook her head. “I don’t know.” She sighed.
She closed the door without saying another word. And Drew drove back, knowing that he might never see his dad again. His mood was completely different from yesterday. Drew pushed the thought.
My dad will be okay. People know that he has cancer. It isn’t too late. Can be tough, but he just doesn’t show it. He will survive. Drew both thought and knew.
Drew still didn’t know where his dad was straight now, all he wanted to do now was to come to wherever he was and talk to him.
If he couldn’t do that, he wanted to just sleep and forget about everything. He wasn’t hungry at all. He went to his house, not bothering to set the alarm. He couldn’t fall asleep, because all he could think of was his dad who Drew knew might not actually survive.
No. I have been optimistic all my life, And what happened to me? I had a horrible childhood, I can’t be hired, and now my dad has cancer. I have to be really unlucky to suffer more. My dad will survive this.
After about an hour, Drew finally fell asleep. But he then immediately woke up. He finally admitted to himself that he was worried about his dad. How can I be sure he’ll survive? I have no proof.
Drew tried his best to calm himself down. It’s okay. If something happens to him my friends, Ethan and Max are there for me. They would help me get a good life. That's what I've wanted since the day I was born. But how can I have a good life when the first person I have ever loved is dead?
Drew wasn’t really sure if his dad would be okay anymore. I was worried something like this would happen ever since Ii was a kid. Drew remembered, watching his dad smoking and drinking a lot of alcohol. He kept it to himself, but he worried his dad might die from this big risk.
And now his dad had cancer, and he couldn’t do anything about it except hope that he would survive. He wished at least Ethan’s part of the plan successful.
But at this point, the job didn’t even matter. Nothing did. The only thing that seemed to matter now to Drew, was his dad, who would have always been there for him.
But he couldn’t let his dad distract him. He set his alarm to 5:50. He knew he would need an extra ten minutes, and as he heard the alarm quietly ticking, seconds felt like minutes, minutes felt like hours. And hours felt like days.
I don’t think anyone has it worse than me right now. Drew thought, then tried to change the thought to positive. Someone probably does, and I might not know if my dad would survive, but that doesn’t mean I’m sure he won’t survive either, it couldn’t have spread this quickly, and doctors are performing operations right now. Dad would survive this. Drew now felt a bit better knowing his dad has a chance.
And until what felt like an eternity. The alarm suddenly set, scaring Drew, but not too much. What really scared him was the thought of his poor dad. Why do I keep worrying? My dad will be okay!
Drew has experienced a childhood which always made him so sad, and he didn’t get accepted into a job. And now that his dad had cancer, it was like ripping off the string that had gotten cut every time something happened. Now that it was weak, the thought of losing his dad could now break it completely.
Drew launched himself on a couch, and Drew couldn’t help but cry. I have been positive my entire life, how is this any different? Drew still needed to get the job, but he knew he should have set the alarm ten minutes early.
I can’t take this life anymore. I’ve always wanted a happy life. And what did I get? All the pain the world could ever possibly give me. I just want to be happy for once in my life. Is that too much to ask for? I want my dad to survive!
Drew could feel himself burning inside. It felt like all the pain in the world was aimed directly at him. I’m tired of being optimistic and getting my hopes up.
What's the point if I would just have everything go wrong again, and then I would just be extra sad after that happens because I expect it to end well? Drew thought.
Life is a horrible place, and you know what? I wouldn’t be surprised if dad is dying right now. The world doesn’t revolve around me or anyone else.
Drew knew that he still had to try, so he got into his car and blended in with the rest of the cars in the shop, waiting for the action.
Christmas Paws
“The Thanksgiving dinner was so yum yum of yumminess! The turkey scraps were amazingly delicious and full of flavor! My-” “Alright, alright we hear you. We know this already. We both know the scraps were delicious, that your tongue was exploding, and that Amelia missed out so much.” I said, cutting Milan off. He’d been babbling about Thanksgiving nonstop for the past two weeks! But we both knew something for sure. CHRISTMAS IS COMING! And that means presents! And presents mean more treats! Our parents bought an advent calendar for dogs. Filled. With. TREATS! We’ve been getting one treat each day! But we only had one advent calendar, and each day there was only one treat. Me and Milan got into such a bad argument-kind of fight of who would get the treat, our parents bought another one so we each had one. After that, we were able to eat our treats in peace. Our parents had brought in an intruder in our house and the thing was staring into our souls all day and all night! The thing had some kind of white thing on its face, and was all red-colored below. Plus, it was holding a big brown bag thingy. “What is that?” I had asked the first time it was introduced into the house. “I dunno, but did you know that the turkey-” “Shut up, Milan.” Also, there has been a huge green thing taking up almost half of the house. It smelled fresh and alive, I guess? One time Milan had the stupidest idea to try and squeeze into the inside of the huge green thing to see what was inside. In conclusion, the entire thing toppled over him! That’s what you get for being dumb, Milan. After the last treat from the advent calendar was fed to us, we knew Christmas was very, VERY near. We both couldn’t sleep and all night we were screaming the song that was always on full blast on the radio, “SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN!!” Well, until Dad had to stomp into our room at 10 AM with his PJs and scold us to shut up. After that, we fell asleep pretty quickly. The morning of Christmas was full of electricity in the air. We both woke up at the same time, at the same minute, at the same second. “IT’S CHRISTMAS!!! IT’S CHRISTMAS!!! IT’S CHRISTMAS!!! IT’S-” “Stop Milan!! It’s 6 in the morning!!” I heard Mom scream. “Milan, it’s Christmas! But just shut up. You’re too excited. But let’s go to the tree to-” But Milan was already out the door. Mom and Dad walked out the door in their PJs with baggy eyes. “Alright, alright. We’ll just open the presents now I guess…” Dad said, groaning. “Look, look, look, look, Myrana! Santa came!” Milan screamed. And he was right. There were many presents underneath the Christmas tree with name tags of names. “Milan, this is yours, Myrana, these are yours…” “Hey, no fair! How come you get more presents than me?!” Milan yelled. “Maybe because Santa thinks I deserve it.” I shot back at the sad-faced Milan. “Oh, and there are some presents hiding in the back. They’re all to Milan!” Mom said, handing some presents to Milan. “Now we’re equal!” Milan said. “Go on, open your presents!” Dad said. I tore into my first present. But Milan’s was already destroyed. “A new ball!” I yelled. “A chewy bone treat!” Milan shouted. “Those were from us. Now let’s see what Santa gave you two!” Mom said in a cheery voice. I ripped open my gift from Santa. He gave me a toy bone and a bag of treats! Milan got a toy ball and also a bag of treats. “Alright, alright. We’ll help you to open the treats. Which do you want first?” Dad said to us. I nudged the bag of treats and barked. Milan pawed the chewy bone treat and howled. “Geez! Okay, okay. Can’t you two, especially Milan, be any more patient?” Dad said, sighing. “Of course you can’t. It’s Christmas!” Dad handed Milan the bone treat and he dashed away. “Myrana, you get 5 pieces.” 5 pieces?! Our limit a day is 2 pieces of treats! This is worth… 2 and a half days!! I thought. I deliciously munched down all 5 pieces and stared at Milan who was jealously staring back at me. But he had his big chewy bone. That was about equal. Or was it? In conclusion, we had a great day for Christmas. And a full belly.
By Annabelle Tsang
Myrana’s Birthday!
“IT’S MY BIRTHDAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “AHHHH!!! What is UP with you today?! I’M supposed to be the over-hyperactive dog that spices up this story!” Milan yelled. “Today is January 5!! Do you know what day this is?!!?” I screamed at Milan. “I dunno, some random Friday?” Milan said. “NO!!!! IT’S MY BIRTHDAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!” I screamed. “What is going on here?!?!” Mom yelled as she came down the stairs, half awake. I’m pretty sure that she saw (and heard) a howling, barking, screaming dog prancing around, jumping and running. “Myrana, it’s 6 in the morning!” Dad yelled as he came down the stairs, also half awake. Of course, they couldn’t understand me although I wished they could because I tried to explain why I was jumping around, but they scolded me and gave Milan a treat. He shot me a look saying Haha. Too bad. I growled at him, giving him the warning. He immediately shot his interest back to Dad, who was carrying him away. “Myrana! You can not do this again. You will not do this again. Do you understand me?” Mom scolded. I gave her my cutest puppy eyes, although I was already 5 years old. She put me down and I shot back to my bed, curling up and pretending to sleep, with one eye peeking. Mom and Dad were praising Milan and giving him treats for no reason! I growled but stopped in a split second. Mom shot me a glance, but I “slept.” After I actually did fall asleep, I woke up to Mom and Dad shouting “Happy birthday!!” Finally, they realized why I was being a maniac! “We’re so sorry, Myrana. We totally forgot about your-""We totally were just so tired we did not realize today was your birthday!” Dad corrected, nudging Mom in disappointment. “Well, Myrana, it’s your birthday! What would you like to do?” Mom asked me. I dashed over to the hooks by the door and jumped and snatched my leash right off the hook. I came bounding back and dropped the leash in front of Mom’s feet. “Alrighty! Would you like Milan to come too?” Mom said, picking up the leash. “Do you want to come?” I asked Milan. “Of course of course of course!” Milan yelled back, giving me his own puppy eyes. Of course he wants a walk. Who would resist? I thought to myself. After five minutes, Mom, Dad, Milan, and I were outside, taking a nice HOUR LONG WALK at 8 in the morning. We stopped our walk to visit the DOG PARK and we played with our fellow mates for a long time. “Isn’t this great?!” I screamed over the other barks and howls. “Oh yeah!” Milan screamed back. “Hey peeps! Today is my birthday!” I screamed. “Happy birthday!” “Eat as many treats as you can stuff!” A few voices shouted. After the dog park, we took another HOUR LONG WALK home! “Myrana, it’s time to sing happy birthday and eat cake and biscuits and treats!” Mom sang.
Annabelle Tsang