Behind The Mask

Motivation

     For the next couple days, Chase has been busy. After he got "hired" at Mr. Porters, he loaded some orders into his truck meanwhile, other people saw the shepherd helping him out and actually offered some jobs as well as things got much harder for the holidays and needed every helping hand they could get.

So these last few days, Chase would leave every morning from Foggy Bottom over to Adventure Bay.

6:50 PM

Chase would be helping Mr. Porter cook food, then pack it up into boxes or bags. And right after, he and Mr. Porter would load them into the truck while Mr. Porter only had to deliver them around places. Even though it sounds kind of simple, cooking, packing and loading takes up a lot of time, usually more than three hours. Each time Chase finished his job, he would run straight towards his next one.

But even though he would finish with cooking, packing and loading them, Chase would have to load the dishwasher with a bunch of dirty dishes.

12:36 PM

The next job, Farmer Yumi and Farmer Al asked Chase to herd their sheep and help them carry some food over to the animals. But taking care of the animals was a hassle for the shepherd as he had to make sure all of the animals were happy and fed.

Even though the German Shepherd won a herding contest, there were way more sheep than before, much more than he expected which appeared to be a much difficult task for the small pup.

4:12 PM

As it was hard for Mayor Goodway to look after Chickaletta, Julius and Julia while doing her job as a Mayor, she has nobody that can look after the three. So after promising to pay Chase to look after them for a while, the German Shepherd agreed, but he didn't have fun at all.

The two kids, even the chicken, would like to get into lots of mischief, but fortunately, Chase would be a little strict as he had to deal with Alex getting these two and a bunch of other animals on a conga line.

5:50 PM

Other jobs were simple services that Chase would help out but get paid less money. But to him, every single penny counted as he wanted to help the Humdingers. Simple jobs like service cleaning, helping repair some properties, and other service work like that.

8:44 PM

Doing these jobs for the past couple days was tiring, even began taking an affect on his body. But two things motivated him to keep going. Maya and the Humdingers. They were Chase's light that he spent years searching and they helped him so much. So seeing them in a terrible place just wouldn't stand with the German Shepherd.

He promised himself that he would help his family as much as he can, even if it's not much. He didn't want them to go through what he went through in the past. Poverty is one of the worst things that could happen and he was gonna bring Maya and her sister out of that poverty and prevent the Humdingers from ever going into poverty.

Next Day

Chase woke up and got ready for his job as Captain Turbot called in letting him know that he's on his way. Chase opened the door and headed out to the kitchen. He stretched as his body was still a little sore from the past couple days of work. He looked around the room and saw that nobody was in here. Guess everyone is still asleep. Chase thought to himself as pressed a specific switch that turned the lights on for the kitchen only.

He walked through behind the island and slightly gasped as he saw black bowl with his name on it, filled with pup-treats which earned a warm smile from Chase. But then, his attention reverted to the storage boxes as the envelopes and letters can be seen through the clear glass.

Chase frowned a little bit as he hopped onto a chair and onto the top of the cabinet. He softly pulled out the letters and read each one and frowned at them.

Bills. And they're all past due. Chase frowned a little bit. Bills weren't the only problem, but taxes were becoming an issue as well. All resulting in at least over a thousand, and stretching it would be over two thousand, maybe even more.

It was difficult for Humdinger to get a job since he is disliked by almost everyone in Adventure Bay, so nobody would even think about hiring him. Helga was only able to get a service cleaning job and they don't pay much, it only depends if you save up enough money.

A couple more days went by and Chase counted up the money that he earned from the past few days.

$347.89

This made the German Shepherd sadly frown as this wasn't even close to enough.

9:30 PM

That night, Chase put the money in his pocket and entered the Humdingers home. He walked through to see the kittens playing with yarn which made Chase smile, but then he looked at Humdinger and Helga. Both of them were drinking some tea with stressed, but tired expressions on their faces. He frowned a little bit as he looked over to the side and saw the letters taken out again.

Chase dug his paw into his pocket and felt the money. And he smiled.

Without saying a word, he walked over to the table and jumped up onto one of the seats which caught the attention of the two humans and watched the pup slowly pull the money out of his pocket and onto the table. All of the money.

Arnold and Helga stared at the money with slightly surprised faces.

"What's this?" Humdinger asked and both of them looked up at Chase who was smiling at the two of them.

"I helped a few people around Adventure Bay, and they paid me for it. So now you guys can pay those bills." Chase said which surprised the two of them even more.

"W-What? Hold on, out of the question," Helga said as she placed her hand on the money and slightly slid it back towards Chase, "Once you go back to the Lookout, you're gonna need this money, right?"

"Well, I did think about it. But we're family, right? Family always takes care of each other. A man or even a dog has to honor his responsibilities..." Chase stated and slid the money back towards the two of them with a warm smile.

"And you guys are one of mine."

The Humdingers couldn't believe it. Their expressions soon turned to wavering smiles, as they felt like they were about to burst into tears.

"Mayor Humdinger. Helga. Please, let me help." Chase begged a little bit and watched as the two of them wiped away their happy tears with their fingers and both got up and couldn't help themselves but wrap their arms around Chase.

"Okay, you can help." Helga said.

"This means a lot." Humdinger added, and during the hug, Humdinger took a couple of bills from the stack of money Chase put on and handed it to him.

"But you can only help if you agree you'll keep at least twenty percent of that money for yourself." Humdinger stated which surprised Chase a little bit.

"Deal?" He asked and Chase couldn't help himself but pull them closer to a hug which they gratefully returned. Both of them comforted the other in the embrace as Chase whispered out his answer to Humdinger's offer.

"Deal."