Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 115838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
“I know that mumble,” Lexi says, coming out of her office, leaning against her door frame as I pull out the chair to my desk and put my purse on top of the desk. “Someone had a wild weekend.”
“Oh please, tell me it was not with Elliott,” Kylie joins in, making her way out of her office and heading straight to the couch area. “He was… something.”
“It was not with Elliott,” I admit and they both gasp.
“I was just shitting you, I thought for sure it was with him.”
“It was not,” I assure them. “It was with this guy I sort of met.”
“You sort of met a guy while you were on a date with another one?” Lexi asks, her eyes are about to come out of her sockets.
“No.” I shake my head. “I met him before; we were talking and then—”
“You did more talking, but with your vagina.” Kylie laughs.
“It was also with my mouth.” I point to her. “But anyway…”
“Avoidance,” Lexi notes. “I did that when I was falling for Kirby.”
“Okay, no one is falling for anyone. It’s just sex,” I clarify and avoid looking at them. “Anyway, are we having our Monday morning meeting?”
“Oh fuck,” Lexi swears, rushing back to her office and coming out with the folder in her hand. “I’m ready.”
I laugh at them as I open my laptop, ready to take notes. “What are you working on?” Lexi asks me.
“So, I was thinking.” I lean back in my chair. “The community garden you guys did was amazing.” They look at me. “But what if we did the same thing but with the church after-school program.” Lexi’s eyes light up. “They have a playground area that has seen better days,” I tell them. “The play structure is half broken. There are no benches.”
“I love that idea,” Kylie says. “I think if we start doing social media”—she points to me—“it’ll make it open to more people who need help but didn’t know they could go there.”
“Exactly,” I agree.
“Why don’t we go and visit it this afternoon and take some pictures? Then we can see what we can do,” Kylie suggests and I smile.
“Road trip.” I clap my hands. “The dream team is taking it on the road.” They shake their head at me as I open up our social media page and get to work.
sixteen
Victoria
We pull into the parking lot of the church. My eyes automatically go to the brown building that looks like it’s seen better days. The blue side door is shut and looks like it’s been kicked in a time or two. I step out and look around to the back of the church where there is the chain link fence falling down on one side and bent up on the other to give people access to get into the yard. The grass is overgrown except for the path that leads to the back of the church and the playground.
I leave Lexi and Kylie by the car as I make my way to the fenced area. The playground has one swing that isn’t even level. The slide is missing the second piece in it, so they can’t use it. The sandbox is filled with very little sand as the weeds have taken over and the basketball court is cracked in four different places, the rim to one basket is slanted, while the other one is not even on there. “There is all that field over there.” Lexi points from beside me. “We could even do a community garden here,” I nod, “and a soccer field.”
“We should head inside,” Kylie suggests and the three of us walk to the front of the church.
“I love old churches,” I tell them as we walk up the five steps. “There is just something so peaceful about them.” I look at them and they try not to laugh at me. “You’ll see,” I assure them as we pull open the door and step in. Walking into the entrance, there is a bulletin board to the right that has papers all over it. We walk through the two doors that are open and see the pews on both sides of the church with the front altar empty.
“Don’t you get a sense of peace?” I ask them as we walk in. The click and clack from our heels echo into the high ceiling room.
“Where do we go?” Kylie looks at Lexi, who points to the door on the side. We head toward the door. Once we get there, we see stairs leading downstairs and an office not far off.
I follow Lexi, who walks toward one of the offices and knocks on the door. “Shauna,” she says the woman’s name. “My name is Lexi Petrov. I’m from Make The Choice Foundation.”
“Lexi,” she says, getting up and walking over to her, extending her hand, “it’s so nice to finally put a face to a voice.”