Help comes in different forms

Chapter 10~ Recruit

*Talia's POV*

     Today was a rather fun day. Cody and Frankie took me to the park where they ran into some of their school friends. They all greeted me and we all just chit chatted for a while. After they parted, Codes and Frankie showed me some of the local places like the market, their favorite ice cream shop, the pizzeria, and my all-time favorite place already, the bakery. I got to taste test some new flavors while I was there, I even got a free cake as a welcome gift. Of course, I shared it with 'em.

     Kade then picked us up from there. He ordered some pizza along the way and well let's just say the interior of his fire truck is NOT as clean as before.

~~~~~~~

"Ewww, Kade do you have to eat while you're driving?" I asked grossed out. Pieces of pepperoni and sausage kept getting on my seat and my germaphobic side was kicking in.

"Noone is making you stay." He answered. I rolled my eyes at him.

"This is the second pizza you've ordered in the past 2 days!!! I'm going to be the one cleaning this afterward." Cody exclaimed, mumbling the last part. Frankie chuckled at his statement. I felt bad for him. I don't know how he dealt with Kade his whole life.

~~~~~~~~~

"Bye Frankie," shouted Cody.

"Bye guys, I'll see y'all tomorrow... or later!!" She responded.

     I waved goodbye to her before we left. Once we arrived at the firehouse, Kade parked in the garage. I noticed that Dani, Graham, and the chief were huddled around something. The orange and the blue bot were behind them as well.

     As we all got out of the vehicle, they turned to us. I noticed that there was someone else with them. It was a teenage-ish looking guy wearing a plain green button-up shirt, some lose grey jeans, black and yellow gloves, and some black shoes.

"Talia, meet Bradley. This is one of the recruits we have from the mainland. He works alongside Graham when he's here because he's also into the engineering field." The chief explained.

"N-nice to meet you," he said extending out his hand waiting for me to shake it.

"Yeah... nice to meet you too," I said hesitantly shaking his hand. Then an awkward silence took over the room.

"Welp, that's that. I'm gonna go ask Haley if she wants to do something together today," Kade announced. He walked into the elevator leaving.

"And I'm gonna get some supplies to clean the fire truck's interior real quick, " Cody said.

"Isn't that Kade's job tho?" I asked folding my arms.

"Yea but he's lazy enough to leave it like that for the rest of his life, " Dani explained sarcastically. "Sometimes I wonder if he's actually our brother or if he was found in some garbage bin. THAT would explain a lot." Brad and Graham chuckled.

I helped Cody with his chore since I had nothing else to do. Dani went out to buy me a new phone like she promised. Of course, I tried to convince her not to but I gave up once she pulled out the you-live-in-our-house-so-our-rules card. She bought me an iPhone 8 w/ a transparent case. She said that she didn't know what my favorite color was so she just bought that one. I was fine with it because like she bought me a whole new damn phone. How can I complain?

The rescue team only got a few calls today which included getting Mr. Petty Paws out of his favorite tree and saving Mr. Harrison from his heli-pack. Cody explained to me that those were pretty much part of their daily schedules. I'm surprised that the Harrison guy hasn't actually injured himself badly yet.

Kade was out on a picnic with Haley, the chief was out on Patrol, and Graham and Brad were working on some homework together.

They invited me to try a few problems with them but once I laid my eyes on the questions I was all like "Nope! Nope! Nope!" How in the hell could they understand that stuff? It looked like gibberish to me.

I understood a few parts but the rest looked like made-up symbols. I guess the lack of school was the reason. I could still find the answers to complex algebra or geometry problems. I was ok at that, but the subject I'm actually pretty good at is music.

Back home, Pearl had a spare electric guitar which I would spend a lot of time practicing on. She said that it was her son's but he lost interest in it and well stopped playing. He wanted to sell it but she kept it stored in the attic along with most of the pieces he played. I was a pretty quick learner so it didn't take long for me to learn how to use it. I also practiced singing. I would sing occasionally but not that much.

     On another topic, I'm deciding whether to go back to Illinois with my grandma since I already met with my Uncle and cousin. They're pretty cool people and I could visit once in a while plus Pearl needs the extra care now that she's getting older. Or I could stay and convince her to move here on Griffon Rock. I'm not sure she would like the idea of leaving the house she lived in for about 20 years. I like it here. I would love to stay but at the same time, I want to hear Pearl's opinion and see what she says. Why is this such a hard decision!!

     Suddenly, I remembered about the bracelet and how uncle E was supposed to call me if he had any info about it. He hasn't called all day yet. That could either mean he just forgot or he could've discovered something about the crystal and was busy with it still.

     I got out of my train of thought once I heard a few soft knocks on the door of my room. "Come in, " I said as I sat up from my bed.

"I just came to check up on you, " Brad said.

"I'm good thanks," I replied. "Just a little tired."

"You sure? I'm here if you need to get something off your chestpl- uh chest." He said correcting himself nervously.

"I'm sure and I'll keep that in mind," I answered. "How long are you planning to stay?"

"Not quite sure yet. The others might come as well but I don't know." He said putting his hands in his pockets.

"Others? The other recruits?" I asked.

"Yeah. There are 4 of us in all. We're all learning different subjects but we're still a team. Like you already know, I'm in the engineering field. There's Blake who is studying in the medical field but is also a pilot. There's Connor. He's studying law enforcement. And then finally our boss, Hayden. He's not really a recruit just a leader in training. He's a firefighter." He explained. He sat right beside me on the bed when I asked.

"Wow. Why is it just the 4 of y'all?" I asked curiously? "Shouldn't there be more recruits?"

"Well, yea but we just managed to get the lucky shot to study with the Burnses I guess."

     I could tell something was fishy. But then again, maybe the chief got the best students from each field which was them. I can understand them not picking 8 or 9 people at the same time because like it could be hard teaching all of them with only 5 people as their teachers. I don't really know.

"Well, I'm going to head out now." Bradley said heading out the door.

"Sure. Ok."

"Goodnight, hope you sleep well." He said closing the door.

     I felt myself blush a little. I shook my head before laying back down. I drugged my hand across my face. 'How am I supposed to sleep exactly?'

     So this is just a filler episode as you can guess. There will be a few of these scattered here and there. I'll do these when I want to update but Im too busy to think about the plot nd the writing. Also I just wanna say, if y'all want to see a drawing of a certain character from the story like one of the burnses or one of my OCs, I would be glad to try and draw them.

     I don't rlly have anything else to say besides that. Stay safe, stay healthy, and do not procrastinate as much as me💀.