I'm Fine

Chapter Seventeen - Ava Grace

February 

The teams had spent the last two weeks getting to know each other and launching their charities. Not to toot my own horn, but I would say the drives went very successfully.

I encouraged each team to advertise as much as they wanted as long as they didn't cover up another team's advertisement. For the most part, the teams followed all the rules and cooperated.

Avery and Bryson focused their drive towards raising money for kids with cancer. They decided to have a charity drive where they collected tons of books, either from donations or finding them at thrift stores, and auctioning them off.

The storybooks ran higher than usual, but everyone that went into it knew that the money would go towards charity. The books ranged from children to adults, allowing a decent range of ages to show up at the auction.

The charity drive raised close to $300 altogether. The books that didn't sell were sent to the hospitals for the children to read.

Nico and Adrianna's drive focused on raising money for the local homeless shelter. They had a charity drive collecting napkins, plates, plastic utensils, toilet paper, towels, blankets, coats, sheets, and more.

They also took cash donations anonymously throughout an entire week. Altogether they collected enough supplies to equal about $250. They also received about $200 in anonymous donations, giving their team a total of $450 raised for their charity.

Nico and Adrianna held the lead last week, but Dalton and I came in at the top. I didn't do much of the heavy lifting, and I felt terrible, but Dalton insisted on pushing so hard to raise this money.

We decided to focus our drive to raise funds for foster families. Dalton wanted to do a drive where students try to fill as many bins as they can.

He spent time cleaning out six large trash cans and displayed them around the school. Each trash can had an item on the front. There was a bin for socks, jackets, gloves, hats, and shoes.

Students were encouraged to bring in any sizes they could. The goal was to fill each bin with that item. The shoes didn't fill the bin fully, which we figured would happen since they are the most expensive, but even with a half bin of shoes, we still were able to help at least six different foster homes.

Mr. McKinley volunteered to donate $100 per bin filled. For some reason, students loved it, and they filled as many bins as they could. Even without calculating the amount of money for each item we collected, we still came in with $500 from Mr. McKinley for five bins being full; two jacket bins, one sock bin, one glove bin, and one hat bin.

The charity drives had all been completed, and the totals were calculated. It was now the time to tell each team totals and who officially won. After showing most of the teams their charity totals, I finally got down to the top three. "In third place, we have Avery and Bryson with a total of $300." Some students clapped, while others sat quietly. Avery, on the other hand, looked a little upset. I didn't realize that the prom court meant so much to her.

"In second place, we have Nico and Adrianna with a total of $450."

"This means that in the first place is Dalton and myself with a total of $500, and that is not even counting the dollar figure for items we collected." I clapped as I waited for Dalton to meet me in the front. It felt very underwhelming once I realized that the only two people clapping were Nico and Adrianna. Everyone else seemed annoyed.

"I definitely can't take much credit for our drive's success, Dalton did most of the heavy lifting and work, I just did as I was told." I joked, hoping to lighten the mood. The mood wasn't going anywhere.