The Outstanding Citizen's Corporation #Wattys2015

Coffee Shop Gossip

     Greg groaned, he rubbed his eyes and placed his head on his hands. It was kind of funny, watching him sleepily nod from where I was standing. I felt kind of bad for him to be honest though. It was the early morning, Greg and I were sitting in a locally owned coffee shop taking short, but well needed break.

     We had been walking around all morning asking our neighbors to give us any information they had on events or interesting things that were going on in the neighborhood. Since we lived in such a small town this didn't actually didn't take too much time, but we had still woken up earlier than we usually did. That left the two of us tired and ready to go home, even after the short amount of time we'd spent out here. "So...!" I started, placing Greg's coffee order on the table in front of him and taking a seat myself. "What kind of topics do we have to choose from?"

     Greg groaned again as his hand slowly fumbled around the area where his pants pockets where. You could see how heavy his eyelids were, since he was struggling to keep them open and the fact that he didn't seem to know where his pockets where led me to believe that he was more tired than I once thought. "Um...," came in a slur from Greg's mouth. He'd finally reached his phone and was thumbing through all the notes he had written today. "Well, we've got a few of them actually."

     Greg has been my best friend for as long as I can remember, and for as long as I can remember we've always shared similar interests. That's why when Greg took a journalism course at the community college with me, I wasn't surprised at all. That was the reason we were up so early actually. You see most of our classmates had already written and published many different articles of their own, where as Greg and I... were weren't so lucky.

     So when we'd gotten the opportunity to write for the school news paper we jumped at the chance. To you this may not sound like much, but factor in the size of our town and that the only other free source of news for people around there was from a weekly newsletter. Now you can really see how much this meant to us. This was truly amazing yes, the thing is that we still had a pretty big problem to solve.

     Calling Greg and I slackers would be one of the funniest underestimations you could ever make. We procrastinated more than a lazy cat and I'd be lying if I said that we weren't proud of it. Sadly enough though, no matter how much pride we took in our laziness it wasn't very helpful at the moment. We ended up putting off this project for so long that the deadline for submission was only a week away and we hadn't even picked a topic to write about yet.

      "Alright, show me what you've got!" I said, clasping my hands together. Ignoring my energetic optimism Greg scrolled through a few more things before stopping and nodding to himself.

     "There was a new litter of kittens born. Ms.Johnson, the lady who always sells drinks and ice cream in the summer owns them. She said that she's thinking about giving some away too!"

     "Hm... that's cute and all." I leaned forward, putting my head on my hands. "But that doesn't really say 'story that'll help your career take off' does it?" Greg thought for a moment, tilting his head, putting his and on his chin, scratching his cheeks. Soon after he just shrugged his shoulders and began scrolling through his phone again.

      "The new clothing store that just opened up got it's first fall line. That seems like a pretty cool achievement to me."

     "Yeah it is, but do you really want to be known around town for reporting on fashion?" Greg shrugged his shoulders, but I glared and shook my head at him right after. So with a sigh he rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to his notes, then scrolled down a bit farther.

     "Alright..." He said, stretching out the word and putting a good amount of emphasis on it. "How about the local bakery? Chef Jenny just finished with her culinary arts degree and now knows how to make really intricate wedding cakes."

     "Cakes?" I asked now sitting up completely. "That's it? That's all we've got?"

     "No... cakes and college degrees." This time I was the one who sighed, Greg always picked the perfect time to be sarcastic. Whenever I was upset or frustrated with something and just needed some wise, yet kind words from a best-friend, you know what I could expect from Greg? Sarcasm.

     "Greg." I was now rubbing my temples, trying to avoid the huge headache that I could feel creeping up on me. "We've got to find a story, and not just any story either. We've got to find a story that'll grip the entire town and have the editors of school's paper begging us for more."

     "Oh! That's what you want? Well, it's probably gonna be pretty hard to find something like that." Those words flew out of Greg's mouth far to fluently, it was almost like he was singing it. He sounded so cheering and energized when he was talking, but for some reason his body language said the complete opposite. He leaned on the table again, putting his head back onto his hands any yawned. "Since this town is really boring and all..."

     I laid my head down on the table, letting my fingers trace the small lines that made up the fancy looking design on it. This was going to end badly, I could just feel it. That had to be one of the first times I'd ever regretted putting something off as long as I did. Usually I'd snap back into reality with time to spare, rush to put something together, slide narrowly by and be greatful that I didn't fail. How in the world could I mess up now, this was my big opportunity.

     "You boys looking for an interesting story?" A voice said from behind us. Greg and I looked up, surprised by a third person suddenly chiming. We turned around just in time too see Mrs.Sanders walk from behind the front counter with a giantic plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in her hands. She was good friend of my mom and the person who owned the shop, we grew up around her and everything. She'd often help us with homework after school and let us hang around here, that is... as long as we ordered something. "I might be able to help out a bit if you want."

     "Oh thanks Mrs.S, but I'm not so sure you'd be able too. We've exhausted every local source of information we know and haven't found anything that'll get us a sure spot on the paper." She placed the plate in the middle of us and then put a hand too her chin. After humming, tapping her feet and looking around for a moment she popped her eyes.

     "Did you here about Stacy Johnson's new kitties?"

     "Yeah..."

     "Thomas doesn't want to write about it because it's 'not a career starter,' even though it's completely adorable."

     "Oh dang." She snapped her finger, with a frustrated scowl on her face. "Well, if you're looking for something more hard hitting try writing about that new resort that just opened in town. That'll really catch people's attention." Greg and I paused, we looked at each other for a moment and then gave her our complete attention. Greg's eyes were wide and his jaw was dropped, but he was still able to swipe a cookie from the top of the pile.

     "There's a new resort in town?"

     "Oh yeah! It just opened up on the edge of town." I turned to Greg once again who was munching on that cookie like he hadn't eaten in a few days. We were both still wide eyed and still confused as to what we just heard. This town had an estimated population of less than a hundred and if you were to drive through the entire town it might take you less than a half hour. There was no way in the world we could fit a hotel, not to mention a huge resort. There weren't enough people around here to go to the resort. So why in the world did they open up?

     "Uh... thanks for the info Mrs.S." I stuttered a little, not really sure what to make of what I just heard.

     "No thanks needed, being the one in town who knows things before everyone else is too fun much fun." She giggled, taking a look at Greg who was still chomping on the cookies. "Oh do you like them?"

     "Yeah, they're amazing! You're one of the best pastry chefs I know Mrs. S!"

     "Oh thank you for the flattery, but they're fifty cents each." He finally stopped chewing for a moment and took a look down at the mostly eaten cookie he was holding in his hand.

     "Uh... friends and family discount?" I brought my palm up to my forehead, and shook my head. Greg always got us into trouble somehow.