Flowers and Pop Rocks

08

p o p p y

It had been a few days since I'd seen Leah, the girl from the first day, but I wasn't exactly yearning to hear her unusually bubbly voice.

"If anyone doesn't know or didn't listen on the first day, this... experience is paid, and it costs quite a lot of money."

My heart might have actually stopped for a second there. What did she mean by quite a lot of money?

Wow, I really didn't listen on our first day.

Kayley and I both had to pay, so that's double of "quite a lot of money," however much that was.

I think that's going to be cut from my donut allowance.

"But, as you all are aware, we have collected all the blocks you found and counted them all. Now, I'm here to tell you about those blocks. Thankfully, you all finished your tasks, so that means no punishments and no blocks taken away," she continued cheerfully.

Leah then started listing off everyone's block count.

"Top goes to Blake, fifty nine. Next, Levi, forty one. Then, our last boy, Tristan, thirty five. Followed by Poppy at thirty three. Fifth and sixth goes to Nina at thirty one and Angel at thirty. Kayley and Sofia tied at twenty five each, leaving Olivia last at twenty four."

That was a lot of numbers. I was amazed at how she remembered that so well because she didn't have a clipboard or a piece of paper to read from.

Unless it was invisible.

Wait, that doesn't make any sense.

"Now, the reason I told you about paying is because anyone who goes above forty five blocks is immediately exempted from payment," she smiled.

"So, Blake, you're off the hook. Another thing, every block that goes over forty five will be equal to a hundred dollars. Since you have fourteen more blocks, that's fourteen hundred dollar bills."

All I was hearing was that I still had to pay. I just want to have my donuts in peace.

"Can I give blocks away?" Blake asked suddenly, surprising everyone.

Why did he want to give away his blocks? Didn't he want the money?

Leah furrowed her eyebrows, pulling a phone out of her pocket. "I'm not sure. Let me make a quick call to ask about that."

She whispered something into the phone, then immediately turned around so we couldn't see what she was saying.

"Why do you want to give your blocks away?" I nudged Blake.

He shrugged. "I have some extra, so why not?"

Well, I mean, yeah, why not? But also, that's a lot of money.

That can get me a heck ton of donuts.

"Hey, okay, so you can give blocks away, but you have to end with forty five blocks or more," Leah reported back once she turned around.

"Great, I'll give Poppy twelve. That means I'll still have two extra," Blake decided immediately. "That's still two hundred, right?"

Hold on, he's giving me twelve blocks? He already gave me eight on the first day.

And why me? His cousin was standing right there, in need of just four more blocks. He still would've gotten a thousand if he gave to Levi instead.

"Are you serious?" My eyes basically fell out of their sockets. "You're giving blocks to me? No, I'm hearing things, right?"

"Is that final?" Leah clarified as if she was also surprised by his choice.