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giselle's thursdays were always spent at the plainview community service center. she was in charge of the new young volunteers who were looking for work nearby. she'd been a volunteer ever since she started her freshman year and luckily for her, the head of the center appointed her this year's volunteer leader. it was a fun job, the people around her were always nice and treated her well plus she enjoyed giving out advice to her younger peers.
she usually sat behind a mahogany desk by the entrance of the building, constantly drawing something in her sketch pad or if she had any recent photo shoots with the girls, she'd bring her laptop in and edit.
it was never that busy whenever she worked on thursdays, not much students were interested in joining these days since sports and other popular clubs were the most opted choices today.
but still, the community service center had a fair share of new volunteers. they were the typical academic achievers who wanted extra credit to apply to ivy leagues or sometimes the young middle schoolers who were forced by their parents to join. giselle belonged to neither of the groups, shockingly enough since her parents were always trying to get her to be active. she joined solely with the passion of wanting to help people and being a volunteer at the center helped her achieve that.
"um hi," a squeaky voice spoke up, causing giselle to look up from her sketch pad.
she was surprised to see rowley jefferson's presence, timidly standing by the desk. it had completely slipped out of her mind that he'd be showing up today.
"hey rowley!" she exclaimed happily, flashing a smile at the boy who nervously stood before her.
he let out a small grin as he remained in his usual shy demeanor. rowley looked nervous as he hopelessly tried to avoid giselle's gaze, she was just going to assume it was because he was just normally shy around older people.
giselle felt bad, she wanted to make him feel comfortable so that his time at the community center wouldn't be as bad. she knew how it felt to be in his place and if anything, she wished someone had made her feel comfy during her first year. maybe she could bring something up, she thought to herself, a specific topic so it wouldn't feel weird. she did remember seeing him around rodrick's younger brother greg before, so perhaps that would ease his mind?
"so youre good friends with greg heffley?" she asked, trying to make her tone as light as possible.
he nodded his head, arching his brow in confusion. it was as if the mention of the heffley family shocked him. "you know greg?" he questioned, his tone becoming much more audible.
"yeah, a bit," she replied.
"it's not true about the poop you know, he didn't really poop his pants." rowley said, "it was chocolate."
giselle chuckled, as the memories of sunday flashed back into her mind. "i figured." she found it adorable how he was quick to defend his friend. "well uh, i hope you've been enjoying your first day on the job." she mentioned.
rowley grinned, leaning his hands on the table. "yeah, it's been okay! i'm actually happy i volunteered. i've been wanting to ever since i was in the 6th grade!"
giselle looked back at him in amusement. it was rare to see a kid genuinely want to join this place. "wow, i'm impressed." she giggled.
rowley had visibly become much more relaxed now and it made giselle feel glad. "so are you working on anything right now?"
giselle looked down onto her hidden table behind the desk where the sign up sheets for the talent show laid under her sketch pad. she pulled it out, showing it off to rowley. "yep! these are my priority for today. a bunch of people are coming in to signup." she explained.
"oh that's cool," he replied.
"yeah kind of," she chuckled, as the sound of wind chime on top of the main entrance's door rung loudly, signaling someone had entered.
giselle couldn't really see who was heading their way as her chair was short and the head of the desk was quite tall, plus rowley's position had blocked her view.
"what the hell are you doing here baby hippo?"
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also wow!! we are at 400+ reads!! that's so cool!!! thank you thank you!! i'd love to hear your thoughts on the story!
