Friendship And Family (Currently undergoing a rewrite. Do Not Read.)

CHAPTER 14. fundraiser

                    Maria's POV

Agnes' mum parked beside the monastery gate, and we all climbed down from her car with our stuff.

"What time is the event starting?" she asked. A couple of parishioners were already lined up at the gate with their stuff, taking numbers.

"Ten o'clock," Agnes replied her mum. But for those of us taking stands, we had to show up at eight o'clock to get ready, and we were a little bit behind the clock due to the preparations we had to make.

"Okay, good luck guys," Agnes' mum said to all of us as her window glided up. We waved, and then her car rolled away.

We then proceeded to the monastery gate to join the line. The gate walls held large banners that read St John Twentieth Annual Fundraiser, the bold letters flashing in bright colours, with many exciting images that buttressed the event, and also its schedule.

Random numbers were shared accordingly. I collected the tiny piece of paper that had our number and walked in. St John parish was hard to recognise at this time of the year. Every turn was a different style of a fundraiser poster.

"May the best man win," Andrew said.

I chuckled. "It's not a competition."

"Whatever," he replied dramatically as we all separated to find our stand.

Agnes held the number five paper like a map reader, and I trailed behind her with our cake boxes.

"There." She pointed at the stand when she found it. The number five sign, written in black ink on a white background, was attached to the hut-shaped roof of the small stand. We hurried to start decorating because we were running out of time.

Not everyone had a stand as a couple of people had other ways of making sales. Some were setting up their floor spaces for outdoor games. A man had come in with a horse. And there were others in the costumes of different TV characters for whoever wanted to take a picture with them.

While I arranged the boxes of cupcakes on the counter, Agnes dropped her bag from her shoulders and started unpacking the items we were going to use to decorate our stand.

We blew balloons and tied them with ribbons to the front wooden legs of our stand, adding bright artificial flowers between the colourful balloons for more vibrancy. Children love cupcakes, and the decor we were going for was the perfect bait to drag their attention. Our matching dresses, makeup, the ribbons and hair clips adorning our low, puffy bun were like a splash of colourful paints that further enhanced our theme. My cheeks were on fire, and my lungs were exhausted from pumping out air.

The stand next to ours I thought was creative. The lady's poster was Fruit Harvest, and she had nearly all the kinds of fruits on her table. Her stand was decorated with plastic leaves and fruits, and it screamed nature. There was also a candy stand, and a popcorn stand.

Andrew's stand was number twelve, a far feet from us, and all he did was put up his Face Paint sign on the counter, with three mannequin heads showing samples of his art. His paint-shelf and mirror were on the floor, along with a chair and a stool where he got the work done. Francis was two stands away from him at number fifteen, hanging and arranging his stuff for sale.

Our stand looked pretty when we finished, but then the urge to look around and make comparisons itched my neck, and I ended up feeling intimidated.

"Hey," Agnes called my attention with a positive smile, "we did great."

I exhaled the negativity and displayed a confident smile. "Yeah," I said, and we gave each other a high ten.

The clock was ticking, and soon the organisers walked in with their speakers to anchor the event. Crowds were already forming outside the monastery, but they had to wait until ten o'clock when the sales would begin.