Summer of Hope~ Tom Holland

Part 1

Hazel POV

Texting

Dale
Hazel don't forget you have the closing shift tonight

Hazel
Thanks for the reminder Dale! I'll be there as soon as I finish teaching x

Dale
No problem, take your time, see you later

Hazel
See you later x

As you pack up your things at the dance studio, one of your youngest students comes in and asks for help with tieing her laces. You crouch down and fiddle with her purple laces until they form a neat bow. She thanks you and you continue packing up your teaching equipment.

After shutting down and locking up the studio, you carry your stuff to your red voltswagen car that your parents saved up for over the years- your only 18th birthday present as it was all they could afford. Opening up the boot, you carefully put your boxes down and close the boot, walking round and getting in the old car.

Without thinking about where you are going, your subconscious takes you to your second workplace- The Red Lion. You grab your bag that you packed earlier in the morning with the appropriate work clothes and rush in the back door.

"Hey Hazel, how are you?" Dale greets you as you walk towards the toilets.

"Honestly Dale, I'm exhausted. I've had teaching at the studio since 7am and I've only just finished. I got here as soon as I could, I hope that's ok? I just need to run to the toilets and change then I'll be ready to swap over" you say while struggling to hold all your things

Dale smiles at you, "I don't know how you do it Hazel! With the amount of work your doing, I'm sure it won't be long until you're up on that stage!" He tells you as you run in the direction of the toilets
"I sure hope so!"

You change into your work outfit, add a little bit of makeup and tidy up your hair to make yourself look more presentable, before heading out of the toilets and putting your belongings in the staff room.

You head over towards the bar,  letting your colleague know that you are here and they can now leave. Luckily it wasn't very busy so you could tidy up a bit before the next wave of customers came in. You wipe down the bar and tables, then you grab the mop and quickly clean the sticky floor behind the bar. Just as you finish your little cleaning session, Layla walks past on the work phone.

"Hello, this is Layla from The Red Lion, how can I help you?" She says brightly as she paces past you.

"Yes we do have a table for 15, is it ok if you come at around 7pm so we can get that ready for you before you arrive?" She confirms to the person at the other end of the phone.

She pauses, waiting for a response

"Yeah that's perfect, what name shall I put the booking under?"  She continues, as she looks over at you smiling, giving you a little wave.

"Ok great, just to make sure I've got it right, that's a table of 15 at 7pm under the name Osterfield?" She recites the details back to the customer

"Wonderful, we look forward to seeing you later! Bye" she hangs up the phone and sits at one of the stools at the bar

She laughs, "I'm guessing you've just heard that reservation"

You nod and pour her usual drink, sliding it across the bar in her direction. Layla also works at Dales pub but unlike you, she doesn't serve food or drinks unless it's really busy and she has to step in. Instead, Layla helps Dale run the bar by taking reservations and doing all the general marketing. She also uses her incredible photography skills to promote the place on social media.

"It's a pretty big group so we'll set them up in that corner. Hopefully there won't be many other customers, after all, it is a Monday" Layla exclaims while laughing as we both find it funny how busy we can get on random days of the week.

"I really hope so, I'm so tired and I can't deal with all the noise after teaching little kids all day" you complain to Layla

She gives you a sympathetic look as you tell her about your day. As the two of you catch up, time passes quickly, and the very few customers in the pub have now left. You start preparing for the large group of people coming in in around half an hour. As you shift the tables and chairs around, you can't help but wonder why there is such a big group coming in on a Monday evening.

Your mind thinks of all sorts of possibilities- maybe they were a group of parents escaping their duties for an evening, or maybe it was a work meeting? You kept thinking about this and soon enough, the clock read 7pm.
The group hadn't arrived just yet but that wasn't a problem as the place was pretty much empty.

As you think about how lucky you are that there's just one group in the pub tonight, the door opens and a group of people, mostly young- around your age actually, walk in while talking amongst themselves...