Once Upon a Rewrite (Book 1)

Ch.34 A Bashful Proposal

At the animal shelter, sitting at the front desk, Scott leaned back in his chair while watching TV on the little television as he began to snack on some peanuts. Only to soon hear a squeak as he turned to see his pet squirrel staring at him through his large cage with a sign the read "Not for Sale" hanging on the outside of it.

"No, Pesky," he said, "You can't have my peanuts, you already have your food."

He turned back to the TV and continued to snack on his peanuts. Only to hear the same squeak coming from his pet squirrel.

"Ugh!" he groaned, "Fine, just one."

He gave his squirrel a peanut just as he spotted something in the corner of his eye. He turned to see that it was Julie who was taking care of the birds in the back. He watched her pour some bird seeds into her palm and held it up to the bird and watched it peck on the kibbles. If there was one thing Scott admired about Julie, it was her love for animals, and plants as well. When she stepped out of view, he turned around and almost jumped when he saw Kayla standing on the other side of the front desk.

"Sorry," she quickly apologized, "I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's fine," he assured.

"So," she suddenly grinned, "You were staring at Julie, huh?"

"What?" his eyes widen, "I- I wasn't staring at her."

"Mm, you kinda were. You were totally checking her out."

"I wasn't doing that" he lied, his cheeks already turning pink

"Then what were you looking at?"

"Um-" he looked behind him and saw a puppy sign "I was looking at that puppy sign."

"And you stopped looking at it when Julie left?" she showed her doubt.

Scott knew he was caught as he let out a deep sigh.

"Okay," he muttered, "You caught me."

"That's what I thought" she smirked.

"Now if you would excuse me, I gotta hang up these dog sweaters."

He picked up the dog sweater and was about to go when Kayla stopped him.

"Hold on," she said, "Look, I can tell that you like Julie."

"Uh, what?" his eyes grew big again, "What-what makes you say that?"

"The way you're talking right now. And the fact that you admit you were just checking her out earlier."

"Oh, right."

"Hey, I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to."

"I would appreciate that, thanks."

"But... I'm not done yet. I want to know, the Winter Dance is coming up so are you gonna ask Julie to go with you?"

He froze just as he started to put up the dog sweaters.

"Uh," he nervously mumbled, "Isn't it too early?"

"It's never too early to ask someone to a dance. Look, the dance is in about 2 weeks, so if you want Julie to be your date, you might as well ask her before someone else does. And if I were you, I'd do it today."

"Today?" his eyes widen.

"Why not?" she shrugged, "You're both working here at the same time. You might as well do it."

"But- but-"

"Scott," Kayla crossed her arms, "The more you keep it in, the more you're going to regret it. So when the right moment comes, ask her."