6teen Fan Fiction ❯ 7teen: Chillout ❯ Jonesy's Big Score ( Chapter 1 )

CHAPTER ONE

The cold seemed to be bothering a lot more people than we thought. Everywhere you looked in the mall, people were all bundled up, and some were even holding their cigarette lighters under their hands to feel warmer. Ron would have been having a field day with this, if only he could stop shivering and chattering. “S-S-S-Suck it up…!” he kept saying to himself “We'll g-g-get through this-s-s-s-s…!”

To make matters worse, it had officially been reported that the mall's heating system was busted and the maintenance crew were all late due to their car engines being frosted.

Most of the gang met up at the lemon, I wasn't there, as I was cleaning up that big mess in my store, and neither was Jonesy for he was already working his shift at his new job, but he didn't tell us where he was working yet.

Caitlin was finding it hard to work. The lemons were so cold they were hard to slice, and she couldn't wear the lemon hat over her tuque as it kept sliding off. “I just hope my hair doesn't freeze up.” she said.

“Du-hu-hu-hude…!” chattered Jude “I'm usually pretty chilled out, but not in this kinda way. I can't even open the rink today. The doors are frozen shut.”

“Um… I don't think people will want to go ice-skating on a cold day like this Jude.” Wyatt pointed out. “Maybe a hot coffee will make things better.”

The gang all agreed and headed to Grinde-Me, Wyatt called me up and asked if I wanted to come.

“Sure…” I said I had just finished cleaning up the mess and fixed my display cases. It was a good thing I had extra sheets of glass and my emergency tool kit.

When we got to Grinde-Me, however, “Wow…!” Nikki said in shock.

“Ah! Come on!” groaned Jen.

The lineup… it was so incredibly massive it already stretched from the front counters in the shop, all the way out the entrance, and all the way down the hall. “Well… this is going to take a while.” I said. That's what we all thought, until Nikki's phone rang. It was Jonesy telling us all to come up to the front.

We all gazed in shock…

“He hasn't…?” asked Jen.

“He might…” said Caitlin, and we all ran past the line and all the way in where we got our answer. “…He did!” we all said. Jonesy had actually landed a job at Grinde-Me and reserved a table and drinks just for us, and well prepared too. We all sighed happily as the taste and soothing warmth of our coffees spread through our bodies. “Ahh… yeah…!” sighed Jude.

“I'm impressed.” Nikki said.

“Then again, you were always impressed of me.” Her husband teased and kissed his wife softly.

“Why did you decide to work here?” Jen asked.

“Are you kidding me?” Jonesy said “It's the coldest day of the year… the lineups are huge which means tons and tons of major cash-making, and all the free warmth I can drink.” He sipped his coffee. “Oh, yeah, baby! This time the Jonesmeister has it made!”

None of us could argue with that. Then Jonesy's boss called to him “Hey, Jonesy… get over here! We gotta serve this whole.” And we all watched him go off to work at his best pace ever.

We all decided to leave Grind-Me to let other people in, still, even with our warm coffees it was still plenty cold. “I hope they get that heating system working soon.” I said.

“That makes two of us.” added Nikki.

Jonesy heard us, even though all the chattering of the customers, and he realized if the mall heating system was fixed, he'd lose his chance at a big score, and a score like this only came once in a seriously long time, what with his long history of losing jobs. Suddenly, he got an idea of how to make it so he could keep things going smooth.

I headed back to work, and Nikki decided to accompany me. “There is no way I'm going to work today.” she said. “The Clones have got this super sweater sale going on.”

I chuckled “Those Clones.”

Nikki sniggered and then sipped her coffee, only to realize it had gone stone-cold already and tasted just HORRID. “EWW…!” she groaned as she impulsively threw the cup away not watching where she threw it and it hit my head “Whoa…!” I said as I leapt in shock and fell through my display case again shattering the glass. “Oh… no…! Not again!” I groaned.

“Ooh…!” Nikki yelped “Sorry…!”

I sighed hard “This just isn't my day.”

Nikki offered to help me clean up.

…

A while later in the mall maintenance hallways, Jonesy slunk around checked to make sure the coast was clear. Ron passed by him still shivering. Jonesy then saw what he was looking for, the main control breaker to all the mall's power systems. He jimmied it open, and then found what he was searching for. All the control switches, each clearly marked with sticky-tapes. He peeled off the sticky for “Heat” and placed it over a blank one he knew didn't do anything, and knowing the mall maintenance crew, from his many maintenance jobs, he knew they wouldn't think twice of realizing the switch. “I'll change it back…” he said to himself “After a pay check or two.”

He was certainly confident that his plan had worked, but as he walked away, he didn't notice the old sticky for “Heat” fall off where he had placed it, as it was old and lost its stickiness, and dropped into his back pocket, and the fact that he hadn't closed the breaker box, and all the stickers fell off as they were all old, leaving all the switch labels blank.