The Community Service Project

Chapter Four: New Ground

After a week, working at the senior home had been going well. All the older people seem to be in higher spirits since Matthews has been around. He really must have a way with them.

"Hey." He says to me as he enters the lobby. I'm working the front desk right now for Mariah because she's on break.

"Here, you didn't record your hours for yesterday, so I did it for you." I say and hand him his hours sheet.

And you know what he does? No he doesn't say thank you. What he does do is nod his head, take the sheet and head upstairs. It seems like he's on a mission since the first day he got here.

"Hi Mr. Lock." I say to the old man in the wheelchair.

"Ellie, sweetheart, how is it going?" He asks.

"Good. How is it going for you?" I ask him.

"Same old same old." He replies. I look over to Matthew to see what he's up to, but I see he is already looking over at me. The second we make eye contact, he turns away.

"You up for a game of foosball?" I ask, signaling over to the foosball table a couple feet away.

"Is that even a question?" Mr. Lock replies. I go over to the foosball table and see that Mr. Lock seems to be talking to Mrs. Brentwood and Matthew. And before I know it, they start heading over too. He must have asked them to play with us.

"You guys ready to lose?" Matthew asks.

"Oh good luck, Ellie never loses a game of foosball. And that's from playing against her almost every day." Says Mr Lock. He's right, I am a beast at foosball. You know how some people have random things they're super good at, that's me with foosball.

"I think I can change that." Matthew says with a confident grin.

"Try not to be too sad when you guys lose." I say.

The game consisted of me scoring and Mr. Brentwood defending all the goals. And to no surprise, we won.

"I warned you." I say to Matthew.

"Lucky shots." He says with a yawn.

"Or you're just a bad defender." I say.

Two days later, when I come into the senior center, to my surprise, I see construction going on.

"Wait what's going on?" I ask Mariah.

"Can't you tell? Construction!" She says happily.

"I thought they couldn't afford to construct the building though." I reply.

"We had an anonymous person who donated a bunch of money." Mariah says with a grin.

"Wow that's awesome!" I cheer. I wonder who it was though.

I begin heading around to see where I can help. I then see Matthew repainting one of the rooms.

"Hey." I say. "Can you believe someone donated a bunch of money for the senior center?" I ask him.

"I know." He replies. He doesn't seem too shocked. I can't believe he isn't making a bigger deal of this.

"Want some help?" I ask him.

"Sure." He replies and hands me a paint brush.

The day consisted of painting and helping to move different items around.

Three hours later....

"Honey, your shift is over, you can go home now." Mariah informs me.

"I know, I'm just going to go see what Matthew is up to." I reply.

"Okay well I'm heading out." Mariah then grabs her purse and jacket and leaves.

I first check the same room he was painting a couple hours ago and see that he is still there painting.

I grab a paint brush and start helping. Once Matthew notices me, he turns around with a smile.

"I'm so happy for the senior center." I say suddenly.

"And now all the older people can live somewhere where there isn't a leak in the ceiling or some other issue." He replies.

After a little bit of painting, I feel a splash of paint on my back. I turn around and see Mathew is laughing with the paintbrush in his hand. I then grab the bucket and pour it all on his shirt. We go back and forth in between laughter for a while. I try to protect myself from the paint by leaning back but I end up slipping because my feet have paint on them now too. I brace myself for contact with the ground however I don't come near it. I look to see that Matthew caught me from slipping.

It's awkward for a second as we're both just staring at each other but we both just break out in laughter.

"Can I ask you something?" I say suddenly.

"Sure." Matthew replies

"How come you had to start working here?" I had wanted to know for a while but I thought he'd get annoyed if I asked.

"I got into a bit of trouble at school, so they asked me to do double service hours." He says.

"Oh." Is all I can manage to say.

"Can I ask you something now?" He says.

"Uh sure." I reply.

"How come you work here even though you've done all your required service hours?" He asks.

"How did you know that?" I ask.

"Because Mrs. Wellington told me you've been coming here since freshman year so I figured you got all your hours in by now." He answers. I'm a little caught off guard if I'm being honest.

"Because it looks good on college applications. And plus I actually enjoy coming here. Everyone is super nice and I always enjoy talking to the older people." I reply.

"So you've been thinking about your college applications since freshman year?" Matthew asks astonished.

"You don't understand, my parents put so much pressure on me to do well. It's like they have my whole future planned out and I'm expected to just do the steps to get there. Don't get me wrong, I love them and everything they do for me. Sometimes I just want to live my life without worrying about scoring below an A." I blurt out. Wow never would I expect to be telling Matthew Haze my life story.

"Sorry for the rant." I apologize.

"Don't be. And I'm sorry about that. That must suck. I mean I kind of know what you mean. I receive a lot of pressure to do well in lacrosse. Everything in my life is centered around lacrosse and I'm starting to resent it. My dad wants the best for me but I don't know if that's the same thing I want. I feel like lacrosse has been ruined for me because of my dad." He says.

"Wow I'm sorry. I can't imagine. I play field hockey and I use it as the one thing where I don't feel pressured to do super well in because my parents don't really care about it." I say.

"And my dad doesn't really care about academics, as long as my grades are good enough where I can play lacrosse." He replies.

"I'm sorry." I say. I'm happy I was able to talk about my stress, I just didn't imagine it'd be with Matthew Haze out of all people. And I'd never had thought Matthew was going through all that. I feel bad.

"Shit." I say as I check my phone and see the time.

"What?" Matthew asks concerned.

"It's 10. I gotta get home. I can't believe I didn't realize. Gosh my parents are going to kill me." I ramble on stressfully as I get all my things together.

"Do people even know we're still here?" Matthew asks.

"I don't know." I reply in a perplexed tone.

"Yes mom, I'm fine. I just lost track of time." I tell my mom on the phone, once we get outside.

"Well I'll see you." Says Matthew as he gets into his car. I can't help but view Matthew differently after he opened up to me today. I feel like I see him more human now and not just as this rude, popular lax boy.