Charlotte and I had spent the last hour planning over what we would do for the Lemonade stand. Although she was giving me some ideas, she wasn't necessarily doing much. It was mainly just me planning everything out.
What we have basically figured out was that Charlotte would spawn in ingredients. After that I would simply prepare them into lemonade, carbonating them and placing them into a bottle to sell.
Because I wouldn't actually be paying for any ingredients or materials, I'd be able to get an incredibly large amount of profit. The only thing that we haven't figured out was how we would actually get customers. I mean, we had even found a place down the street had an empty room on the lower floors where we could set up.
After Charlotte had informed me of the vacant store, I decided it would be best to go down and take a look at it personally. That was really the best option and I was glad with my choice because if I had bought it without confirming the details and it turned out horrible, I would be incredibly pissed off.
The place itself was a shopping mall with several floors. We have found the vacant room when Charlotte had said that she could scan the city. It had surprised me at the time because she hadn't really demonstrated any of her assistant features.
The room, or stall as you might put it, had a bench where customers would be served and it also had a backroom where stuff could be stored or machinery could be placed. Additionally, there was also another room stemming off from the backroom. The room would be perfect if turned into an office or employee's lounge. Currently, seeing as it was just me and Charlotte, we would have no need for an employee's lounge so I would obviously go with the office.
Although I really didn't want to drag Charlotte into everything, it was a seemingly unspoken rule that I would obviously need her for this business to have any chance at success.
Charlotte has informed me of the price tag. It was $900 for the first month. The place may have been considerably cheap, but it was still, in my opinion, cutting it too close.
"Charlie!~" Charlotte had called out to me in her usual cheery and elongated way of speech.
"Yes?" I obviously respond indifferently in an attempt at making her speak slightly more mature. I didn't have any expectations.
"Do you think that you'll buy it? I like it!" She had been really helpful so far but I hadn't actually figured out why. She wouldn't necessarily gain anything from helping me, yet she was still determined.
"I suppose, I'll have to speak with the manager first though." Her faced showed a puzzled look as she turned her head to the side, obviously wanting me to further explain myself. I would have under normal circumstances but I really didn't have time. It was already lunchtime and I had hoped to be able to start earning money today, one way or another.
Leaving our future shop, I started heading to the building's manager. In the advertisement that listed the store up for sale it is also included contact information for the manager as well as an address, also located on the first floor. I'd consider just calling him but it was probably better to just meet him in-person.
******
Arriving at a white sleek door, I began by knocking. After an awkward few seconds I heard a man's voice.
"Come in." The man's voice didn't showcase any friendliness or hostility, however, it seemed to indicate that it belonged to someone that valued time.
Opening the door, I had motioned to Charlotte to wait outside. She had a pained expression on her face like I had betrayed her. I silently promised to make up for it later with a reward of some kind.
Upon entering, among the first things that I had noticed was the man of a large stature behind a brown wooden desk, sitting on a large black chair like the CEO of a large company. Thinking about it for a slightly longer amount of time I realised he probably was the CEO of a large company. This building had what appeared to be 40 floors or possibly more and he owned it.
"What is it that you need?" in the few moments since I had entered the room, the man had already fully assessed me. It wouldn't surprise me if he'd already completely guessed why I was here.
"I'm here about the vacant store on the first floor, I believe it was $900." The man simply stared at me for a few moments before finally replying.
"Oh, I see. Store 4AF, right?" The man had feigned a surprised face, it wasn't going to fool me though. What had really surprised me was that he had memorised the property number of the vacant store.
"Uhh... Yeah. That's the one."
******
Shortly afterwards I had smoothed out all the details.
Important Notice!
Property Transfer from Henry Banks!
You have gained ownership of a commercial property
and the rights to customize it to a certain extent!
You can find new options in the settings page under property.
Notice!
You have purchased a commercial property!
The total cost was $900.
You have $434 remaining in your bank account.
It was the first time I had used my credit card but I was still pleasant surprised at how easy it was. I simply scanned or swiped the card then placed my finger on the fingerprint scanner.
"Thank you for doing business, Charlie." Earlier we had introduced ourselves and I had learnt that his name was Henry Banks.
"No problem."
"If you have any issues or questions, just call me." After he had finished the sentence his hand had started playing with the area in front of him. All of the sudden a new contact had popped up.
Friends Online:
Alysia Palestine
Crystal Valentina
Elizabeth Hawk
Leaf Wreston
Contacts Online:
Charlotte 3314
Henry Banks
Everyone is online? I'm glad they haven't given up on the job yet. If they go broke, I'll be dragged down with them.
"Farewell Mr. Banks!"
"Farewell Charlie!"
Walking out of the room, I firmly close the door behind me. Charlotte is on the ground sitting against a wall. She's looking between her legs and appeared to be lost in thought.
As I approach her, I make sure to produce an audible walking noise from my shoe. It worked! She had heard it and looked up towards me. At that point she resumed being the Charlotte from before, cheerful and benevolent as usual.
"Did you get it Charlie?~" Once again she had cheerfully extended my name.
"Yeah, we'll talk about that later. We have more important things to do first." As I had expected, Charlotte was confused, so she obviously announced that she was.
"I don't get it?"
"We're getting ice cream." I smile a little bit after saying the words. It did feel good to be slightly normal every now and then.
"Really?!?" Her cheeks and eyes suddenly started radiating light. She obviously wanted ice cream.
"Yeah." I give a soft affirmation and slightly nod my head and then we start walking towards the Ice Cream parlour. Charlotte was probably in the best mood I had ever seen her in.
***Perspective Change***
“This isn’t actually as bad as I thought it would be.” Crystal had suddenly said. Elizabeth looked at her and appeared to have also agreed.
“You’re right. All we’ve had to do is vacuum and organise offices, also a little bit of window wiping on the side.” Those two weren’t even aware of how much they were taking a jab at me. It was easy for them to talk about cleaning like it was nothing when they didn’t even have to clean toilets and bathrooms.
The girls must have noticed my annoyed aura and began staring at me then back at each other as if asking themselves if they had caused it. I turned away from them to indicate that it was them. I’d have to get over it eventually but it felt good being annoyed every once in awhile.
******
Currently we were all in the middle of cleaning a few more offices. I had since gotten over my annoyance and it was as if the girls had never noticed.
"Just how many offices do you think this place has?" I had suddenly asked a question that had been on my mind for a little while.
"Millions, obviously." Elizabeth had jokingly responded, I laughed slightly but it wasn't as funny as she thought it would be.
"At least a few thousand. I'm guessing 10." Crystal had answered, she must have done math because she seemed to be pretty sure with herself.
At thirst point I went back to vacuuming the floor, my mind going blank from the repeating of such a basic action involving no thought process. I had zoned out.
******
"Leaf, are you alright?" Suddenly I felt myself being snapped back into reality. What had happened? Where am I?
"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fine." Elizabeth seemed to be unsure of my answer but then dismissed it and went back to talking with Crystal.
Suddenly I noticed my surroundings, some time must have passed because we were actually walking home from work. How long did I zone out for?!? Even my clothes have changed! It was quite a scary thought, being a prisoner to your own body, just like a coma patient. However, they weren't my biggest questions, why the fuck are we walking home?
In the morning we had went to a bus stop and simply caught the bus to work. The bus stop was only seven or so minutes minutes walk from our apartment. If you were to walk the distance between home and work it would a good hour and a bit.
Guessing that I should have known the reason if I didn't pass out, I decide to just assume we missed the return bus and had started walking back, rather than asking them why.
We were an hour away from being home when suddenly Elizabeth spoke up.
"Should we get something to eat before going the rest of the way home?"
Now that she mentioned it, it was 6:12 PM. I was also incredibly hungry and couldn't wait. Crystal and I made eye contact and both nodded at each other.
"Yeah, I'm starving."
"Me too!"
Elizabeth seemed to have noticed that we were hungry before we even knew it ourselves. She was kinder than she let on.
"Alright, let's go."
Elizabeth had directed us towards a small diner that was opened up onto the street. It was on the bottom floor of a massive building coming slightly out of the building. It had an outside and inside eating area which both complimented each other beautifully.
The girls had decided on the inside as it was a particularly cold day. I had internally decided upon the same thing.
"What would you like to order?" A waitress had come up to us and asked as we had taken a seat. At the same time she had also handed out menus.
Reading through the menu quickly, I had decided on ordering a hamburger. Nothing really stood out about the burger but I still liked burgers regardless. Relaying my order to the waitress, she then turned and had almost asked the girls what they would be ordering only to stop herself, realising that they had hardly even read any of the menu. She turned towards me for a brief moment, smiling. She seemed to agree with me that women would have trouble making up their minds when it came to food or accessories.
The waitress had moved onto the next table and I had stopped noticing her. My mind wandered through many things like what Charlie was doing and when I was finally going to log out. I was probably going to stay in until tonight in the real world, besides, I had no plans.
Before I knew it, Crystal and Elizabeth had finally decided on what they wanted and had called the waitress over yet again. Crystal had gotten an American steak at the influence of Elizabeth while she had gotten a bowl of fried rice. Surprisingly Crystal hadn't suggested it to Elizabeth, but I think that Elizabeth wanted to have something in common with Crystal, hence the Asian food.
Knowing it wasn't my place, I kept silent.
******
Before I had even noticed, the sky had gotten completely dark and we had finished our meal long ago. Elizabeth, Crystal and I had simply just been talking about things and what we'd do after we had finished the tutorial.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
I had personally gotten excited at the topic and talked about my plans to do something with technology seeing as the game had technology far above our own.
Humans had even landed on mars hundreds of times compared to our measly nine people, one time. In real life it was all the talk for weeks, just like the original moon landings. But the astonishment at what had been done faded into obscurity quickly.
I remembered watching the news the night before and hearing plans about a lunar city being built for the rich and wealthy. Trips to the Moon were very common these day apparently, several launches a day in fact. It was still out of public reach but it was close to being some people's reality. If you couldn't tell, I'm a sci-fi freak.
Eventually we knew it was time to leave. Checking with the help menu, I had confirmed that it was slightly passed 8:00. We really need to get home.
"Alright, we'll be going now, thanks for the meal!" I had said goodbye to the waitress that had served us much earlier on. She waved as we walked out the door.
"That place was good, wasn't it?" Crystal had spoke up.
"So you liked steak?" Elizabeth had a smile on her face as she slowly corrupted Crystal with Americanism. She was really quite sly.
"Leave her alone, Elizabeth." I laughed after trying to say the sentence with a straight face. It just couldn't be done.
We continued bickering back and forth as we slowly made our way home. The stars were dimly shining from above but were mostly ignored and completely faded because of the city lights. It was a depressing thought. I wonder what the planet looks like from space?
Eventually we finally made our way to the apartment. It was 9:44 PM and we had gotten home much later then we had expected because we kept getting distracted. We really weren't a good combination, or, you could look at it the other way around and say that we were a great combination.
Shuttling into the elevator like huddling penguins, we dialed in 114. The elevator began quickly rising, throwing Crystal off-balance, almost tumbling into the wall of the elevator.
*psshhh*
The doors to the elevator slowly opened with the same futuristic sound we've all come to love. We headed off in the same direction before coming to pour rooms that were side-by-side.
"Same time tomorrow?" I simply asked, for confirmation.
"Yeah, We'all see you then!" Crystal nodded and at the same time they both entered their apartment. I wonder if Charlie's back?
Unlocking and opening up the door, I had noticed that all the lights were off and that Charlie - or Charlotte - showed no signs of being around. Odd...?
I open the door to his room just in case and there, to my astonishment, was Charlie and Charlotte sleeping. I guess it was a hard day, huh?
Charlotte was clinging onto Charlie and seemed to be in deep sleep, while Charlie was the complete opposite. He looked uncomfortable and was showing a pained expression, even in his sleep.
They reminded me of father and daughter and it made many different emotions well up inside me. Seeing as it was so late, I didn't wake them up because I had assumed that they had already eaten.
Closing his bedroom door once again I slowly make my wake back into the lounge room to watch some more TV like last night.
***Perspective Change: Back to Just After Lunch!***
"Charlie!~" Charlotte had called out to me for the second time and I finally looked up.
"Yes?"
"I want chocolate and strawberry!!" Currently we were both in the Ice Cream Parlour ordering ice cream. I was heavily focused while reading the menu to decide on what ice cream flavour I really wanted. I had a basic idea what I wanted but I couldn't decide passed that. I wanted chocolate, however, the problem was that the menu had nine different chocolate flavours! How was I supposed to choose?
Charlotte had stopped asking me for hers and seemed to notice that I was having trouble deciding on what flavour to get. She turned her head to the side cutely before stating, as if it was as obvious as day,
"Why not just get all of them?" All of them?!? But that would be crazy, besides Mum wouldn't let me. At that point I remembered that I was a grown man and my mum could no longer influence how many ice cream flavours I ordered.
"You're goddamn right Charlotte!"
At that point I called the waitress over and explained what we were getting.
"A Chocolate and Strawberry hybrid and lastly, every single Chocolate in one." Her face twitched slightly as she realised that it was me ordering the 9in1 Chocolate cone. This was going to give me diabetes, wasn't it? To hell with it, it's just a game.
"It'll be with you both in a moment."
******
If heaven was real, this was it. I could feel my body losing itself from the intense release of dopamines in my nervous system. I would gladly get diabetes any day for this feeling. It reminded me of what I thought drugs would be like.
Charlotte was showing a similar reaction as she slowly licked her Chocolate and Strawberry cone. Her face showed a reaction and expression of pure bliss and we obviously would be stopping by here quite often for ice cream.
Before long we had finished and we could feel withdrawal symptoms coming on. However, we quickly left because we had a lot of work to do if we were going to open up shop before today was over.
******
"Is that it Charlie?~" It was almost 2:00 PM but we had started finishing up with preparing the shop. I had abused Charlotte's ability like there was no tomorrow and had fully furnished the shop and office.
Her spawning ability apparently had no limits, but when I had asked her to spawn money she responded with, "No!~~ That's evil~" and had then showed a dissatisfied expression. After that I had tried more cunning ways of obtaining riches, like asking her to spawn diamonds and gold but just as she was about to do it she would see through my plan and give the same dissatisfied expression.
It didn't matter in the end though, as she had gotten me everything necessary to run the business for quite a while. Sugar, Lemons, Carbon Dioxide tanks, freezers and much much more were among a few things. I guess life didn’t share its lemons with me, it was Charlotte. ‘When Charlotte gives you lemons.’
For the office I had went with something along the lines of a mini fridge, a large chair behind a desk and then also a potted fern and two additional chairs that would face my desk from the other side.
We were well and truly ready to open our doors to the public... and so we did!
***Perspective Change: Still in Past**
Finally, after making it home and relaying the news to everyone, they were delighted. Even more so because Matthew, Justin, April and Haylee had also managed to get jobs. I only overheard a little bit, but it seemed that Matthew and Justin had got jobs at a company that manufactured technological devices, while April, along with Haylee, had managed to obtain jobs as waitresses. With so many of us getting jobs, it had inspired the others to keep looking for work.
Only a few of us still didn't have Jobs, those being, Annalise, Victoria, Scott, Michael, John, Hayden, Jade, although I didn't think it would be long before they managed to get one.
At the moment it was pretty late in the day, almost 6:00. Everyone was having a friendly chat about their day.
Rex and Max had started talking about some of the stuff they had done at the construction site today. Apparently - because they were still new recruits - they couldn't work on advanced projects so they were put to work on the foundation for a new large building that was being built.
I wasn't too interested in the conversation so I zoned out. Eventually I felt a tug on my shoulder. Looking to my side, I saw April.
"Can we talk for a moment?" She had resolute expression on her face.
"Sure?" She shook her head slightly.
"Not here." She grabbed my hand and lead me out of the lounge room into her personal room.
"Okay, what is it?"
"I've... I've ran into a bit of trouble...again..." Her eyes indicated that it wasn't the good kind of trouble.
"In real life, right?" I ask, just to make sure that I wasn't misunderstanding the situation.
"Yeah..."
"Alright, I'll be over soon. See-you then?" I made my words quick. It was urgent after all.
"Yeah... Thanks Marcus..."
'Force Logout'
I felt my body move into a dark void and then shortly afterwards, back into the real world. What the hell was I going to do to fix it this time?
I hope out of my bed and notice that it's only just lunchtime. It really was disorientating, kind of like instant jet lag. Imagine being at school doing school work and then all of the sudden the sky darkens to pitch black and stays like that for hours. It was confusing and gave me a headache.
I suppose I should leave and get over to her house quickly...
***Perspective Change***
Charlotte and I had managed to create several batches of lemonade. Some rigorous testing involving Charlotte later and then we get to our perfect ratio of ingredients.
Lemonade really wasn't hard to make, a cup of sugar, a cup of water, fresh lemon juice and finally just infuse 1-2% carbon dioxide into the mixture. It might sound hard but anyone could do it, honestly.
Heat up the water, slowly stir in the sugar making sure to dissolve into before adding more. Eventually you are left with a syrup. Add the freshly procured lemon juice, making sure not to add too much or too little and you're left with non-fizzy lemonade. At this point you only need a machine to pump carbon dioxide into the drink - which was easier done than said - and you would have lemonade.
After making the lemonade I'd put it into the bottles that Charlotte had created. She had even created logos for them.
'LemonCraze'
The name was cheesy but I didn't have the heart, or alternative name to inform her of this fact.
"Charlie!!!"
"Yeah?"
"Can we start selling them now?~" she was more excited than me. It was sad and happy at the same time.
"Alright." I smile a bit thinking about all the profits. I mean, a bottle of our lemonade cost literally nothing to make. We would be selling the 750mL bottle for $2.50, which was much cheaper than competitors. Even so, we'd make much, much more than them.
Charlotte was the best thing that had ever happened to me, I swear. Placing the last few bottles into the display fridge beside the counter, I instruct Charlotte to open the door and turn on the open sign.
We had called the shop 'LemonCraze' because Charlotte had insisted on it. I accepted the name, for now that is, and using the property management settings, created a sign on the outside of the shop.
Within a few moments, someone had already entered.
******
Business had been going at an okay pace. Although the shop was still in its infancy and only selling lemonade, I had still managed to begin polishing my skills, improving my speech and causing more 'Homo sapiens' to purchase our lemonade.
It was interesting how quickly money would pile on when you have no expenditures. I had already served in the upwards of 60 people, making around $200 in a few short hours.
Sadly, more so towards Charlotte, we couldn't work over night because we would get tired. We also couldn't work after a certain hour anyway, the building would close at 9:00 PM.
Currently it was 7:00 PM but I was getting tired and judging by how Charlotte was asleep on my office chair, I assumed that she was also tired.
I picked her up into my arms and placed her over my shoulder. She was still knocked out like a rock and didn't show signs of waking up from the sudden disturbance at all.
Walking out of the shop, I locked it up after double checking the lights were all turned off. I really didn't want to pay for more electricity than I really used.
I managed to carry Charlotte back to the apartment building and then hop into the elevator, going up to our floor, 114.
Fumbling around with the keys for many moments at my door I finally got in and headed towards my room. Charlotte was still asleep so I carefully placed her onto my bed. Turning to leave, I suddenly became overwhelmed with fatigue and passed out, over my bed. (A/N: And then Leaf found them later, remember? End of weird time stuff now.)
***End of Chapter***
I hope this was long enough everyone. I've got some side stuff planned to expand on the red team's background stuff. I decided to cut the second part of Marcus and April out of this, I hope you understand! See you all next chapter with the bit I cut out and some more interesting developments! <3