Café Q

Chapter Twelve

It has been two weeks since we got that day off. Now we've been working hard and tried to stay ahead. Today was like all of the other days. Wake up early, walk to work, and start working. Right now, everyone was helping out cleaning the basement. It was a wreck down there. The dim light didn't even help us see.

The light bulb went out as I was carrying a box filled with destroyed plates. "Can someone get a bulb from my office?" Mrs. Cheryl said as she set the stuff she was carrying down. I couldn't see a thing, but I heard footsteps run up the stairs. "The Power is completely off" it sounded like one of the twins.

"Oh no," Winnie said. Everyone ran up the stairs to see if it was true. "Rhett check the front doors, Jemmie shock the back, Nobuo check the basement exit" Mrs. Cheryl instructed everyone to do. They ran in the direction and came back saying it was all locked. Only Winnie, Pike, and Mrs. Cheryl understood what was happening.

"What's wrong?" Nobuo asked.
"This building goes into automatic lock system when the power is shut down" Mrs. Cheryl explained.
"Why?" Jemmie asked.
"It's to keep people from turning off the power and trying to steal from us" Mrs. Cheryl answered her.
"Great, we're stuck in here" Clifton sighed.
"Now what do we do?" I asked.
"We just hang out here until the power comes back on," Rhett said.
"This is going to be booooring" Fin exaggerates.
"I know" Ray agreed.
"I'll go get the vegetables, Ember can you get the fruits for everyone to eat?" Caspian asked Ember.
"On it" Ember smiled as they both walked into the kitchen. Everyone else, including me, went into the employee lounge. Mrs. Cheryl was in her office looking for her plans during a lockdown.

Ember came back with fresh fruit and served it to everyone. We had to eat the food sparingly since we don't know how long the power was going to be out. We had food, drinks, and shelter, the only problem was that we are bored. Rhett read us the news for our town to see what was happening. Apparently, there was a wreck that took down at least two power poles. The soonest that it would be fixed is at one o'clock. Right now it just turned six so we'll be in here approximately seven hours or less.

"Let's save our phone batteries just in case something goes wrong" Nobuo suggested as he set his phone on the counter. "Then what do we do?" Jemmie asked as she slouched in her chair. Everyone started thinking about what to do then Nobuo gasped. "Let's build a fort!" He jumped up. With that, he ran out of the room and brought back a giant sheet. The employee lounge was a decent size so we could use that.

"Girls, move the chairs out in the hallway" Nobuo instructed.
"I'll look for pillows, and blankets," Rhett says as he left the room. Me, Clifton, Toru, and Nobuo turned the two tables on the sides making the legs face the inside. It made a rectangle in the center. Pike told us to push one of the open ends of the wall to make a one way entrance. It was a good idea so we did it. Rhett came back with blankets and had Winnie help him carry the pillows.

Caspian went to the laundry room and got some extra clothespin. Winnie and Clifton laid the pillows on the inside of the soon-to-be-fort. "Why do we have pillows here?" I asked out of curiosity. "Before Café Q was famous, it was on a low budget and we had our customers sit on pillows" Winnie explained.
"Why did you keep the pillows?" Rhett asked as he and Caspian were clipping the blankets on the table.
"No one would take them," Winnie said.
"All of the blankets covered up the pillows" Pike walked in.
"Oh," I said as I helped to put up the blanket.

We had to use two to cover up the top of the fort. We had one in the inside of the fort to cover up the pillows that were scattered all over the floor. The entrance was covered with blankets to make it look hidden. "How does it look on the inside?" Nobuo asked as he lifted up the blanket. "Dark," Winnie said as she and Clifton crawled out of the fort. "Hold on, I have something," Ember said as she walked into the girl's locker room. "Let's head in," Caspian said as he already got down and crawled into the fort.

Everyone got in the fort, Winnie was right it was completely dark inside. It was hard to see if I was close to someone. I think I ran into someone's bum. Eventually, we all situated ourselves at the edge of the fort. "Catch" Ember tossed an object to the center. She crawled in after it and sat close to the exit of the fort.

Nobuo picked it up and got a close look at it. "What is it?" He asked.
"Shake it," Ember said. Nobuo shook the object and it created a green hue that wasn't too bright. "That's pathetic," Pike said.
"Why would I need a flashlight on a summer evening?" Ember defended yourselves.
"Eclipse" Pike said plainly.
"Besides that" I jumped in, "we are grownups playing in a pillow fort."
"Correction, it's a table, pillow, and blanket fort" Nobuo corrected me, every few seconds he kept shaking the device to create light. "So now that we made a fort, what do we do now?" Toru asked.
"We tell secrets," one of the twins said.
"Rhett you go first," the other said.
"Do you have plans?"
"Are you crushing on someone?"
"Do you do dirty stuff?"
"Are you single?"
"Have you ever kissed a girl?"
"Or a boy?" The twins kept alternating with questions and were interrogating Rhett.
"Why me!?" Rhett whined.
"If I could see his face, it would be completely red" Clifton chuckled.
"Can we talk about someone else's social life?" Rhett asked them.
"How about we play a game?" Winnie suggested.
"Okay. Zach, Truth or Dare!" One of the twins said. It is so hard to tell if it is Fin or Ray by their voices.
"Not that game" Winnie interrupted them.
"Your no fun" the other twin sighed.
"You boys gossip too much," Pike said.
"But it's fun!" Both of the twins whined in unison.

"Alright, I found the- What the hell?" Mrs. Cheryl's voice could be heard outside the fort. "I'll just leave," She said and we could hear footsteps walk out of the room. We all started laughing quietly like it was our little secret. "What time is it?" Jemmie asked. Rhett got his phone out and the bright light flashed in his eyes.
"It just turned ten" Rhett groaned as he rubbed his eyes. "Next time, I'll turn my brightness down," he said as he put his phone away.

"We should play a game" Nobuo suggested to us. "What game?" Toru asked. "I don't know" Nobuo sighed as he slumped down. We all groaned, there were still three hours to kill. "I'll see what Mrs. Cheryl planned for us," said Pike as he crawled out of the fort. We waited for a few minutes before he crawled back in.

"Did you see it?" Nobuo asked. "No, she was asleep," Pike said plainly.
"That's a good idea, having an extra nap," Caspian said.
"Someone play some music so I can sleep," Winnie said.
"Got it," Rhett said as he got out his phone. He put on some classical music, then everyone tried to get in a comfy position. "Who is on top of me?" Jemmie asked. "Oopsie poopsie" one of the Twins said.

The classical music was relaxing, I fell asleep much faster because of it. Everyone seemed calm with the music on.

"Wake up, time to go" I felt pushing on my side. I opened my eyes to see Nobuo pushing me. The fort was topless and the power was back on. I looked around, everyone was still asleep. Everyone looked like they were at peace. I was at peace until someone woke me up. "Why did you wake me up first?" I asked while slowly sitting up. I was scared to accidentally kick someone or smack them. "Because I can, and you can help me wake up everyone else" Nobuo answered me.

I cautiously stood up and walked passed every sleeping body. It was actually adorable watching everyone sleep and trying to avoid contact. Nobuo started trying to wake up Toru, I tried to wake up Rhett. It took us some time to reach everyone. But they were all drowsy and didn't want to be awakened.

Ember brought us some snacks to eat, while Toru prepared us some drinks. Everyone else had to put away the blankets and pillows, then fix the tables and bring back the chairs. We finished and the employee lounge looked just like it used to. Before we left, we got to have snacks and drinks. It was really nice that Mrs. Cheryl and Caspian agreed to use some of the food to feed us. Ember was happy to give all of us something to eat. This turned out to be another fun day.