Today's chronicles were going to be us getting things together for our fundraiser. I was so anxious for this to start since it was extremely important to help us save the camp. Everyone from the camp was pitching in to do something for the fundraiser which was great because that's what we should've been doing instead of fighting, fussing and arguing over unnecessary things that were so small.
After breakfast, I brushed my teeth again as well as Darius and we were ready to go. I couldn't help but to love Darius' clothing style, it was casual yet he looked like a model. He wore a striped horizontal short sleeve tee shirt, black joggers pants, white ultra boost Adidas and a gold chain was on his neck and a gold watch.
It was so simple yet I loved it so much especially the cologne that he wore.
I on the other hand, felt the need to dress up because it somehow made me feel better. I decided to wear a trendy black spaghetti crop top, nude long pencil skirt, with black strappy sandals and a nude cross body bag. My hair was styled in three side braids and the rest was curly from my wash and go. I had a nice natural makeup, that I did myself.
I sat next to Jacqueline as everyone decided to do boys and girls driving separately, but I just knew that they did it to gossip.
Jacqueline wore a striped tube top with the colors white, black, pink, and yellow with a black button down skirt and a pretty black floppy hat on her head, and black high top chucks. Her hair was styled in a slick back, low curly ponytail that fit her face so much and as usual her makeup looked excellent.
"So we're going to Walmart first?" Jacqueline asked in her soft spoken tone. "I think we're starting off getting the foods, candy and drinks."
"I think so, that's the first thing on my list." I told her. "How's the flyers and shirt coming along?"
"I've made nine shirts already, so I have a few more to go and Eugene has created like five flyers already with different designs that he'll like to show you." Jacqueline replied.
"That's good! I know we also need to get Eugene's set up for his art auction!" I said. "How does Eugene feel about having his art sold to other people?"
Jacqueline's nose wrinkled. "He's doubting his work, and I keep telling him he's talented, he doubts anyone would buy his artwork!"
"Awe, yes Eugene is absolutely a great artist!" I stated. "I'm sure he'll get so much love from his artwork, just keep encouraging him constantly because you're definitely his number one fan and if the camp kids were allowed to purchase art then I'll definitely buy a lot of artwork from him, besides what kind of artist is he?"
Jacqueline smiled. "He's a artist that loves black culture so he does a lot of his own characters, celebrities, myself, and everyone from the camp. He's inspired by the people around him, and it's like all of his art tells a story." She battered her eyelashes. "Often the characters he create are from his life, and it's really deep that he doesn't believe in himself.."
It made me think of what Darius told me about us focusing on what we don't like about ourselves instead of focusing on what we're good at.
"Wow, usually a lot of people tend to see the bad in their work." I said. "I just hope he sees that he's great because art is extremely beautiful, and there's so many people that are inspired by it, and I'm one of those people."
Jacqueline agreed.
Art was very beautiful to me, and I'm sure to others too, so once the art auction starts Eugene would definitely see the people willing to purchase a bunch of his artwork.
The vehicle came to a halt, and I was realized that Tatiana parked, so we all exited the vehicle and waited until the guys pulled up.
"What are we getting again?" Dahlia questioned, popping a bubble from her gum.
"The food and drinks." Raquel answered her, as she combed her straight hair with a comb then placed it back into her purse.
"Oh, how much the check is though?" Bianca asked, raising a brow.
"The check is two thousand, so we're just getting the food and drinks first." Jacqueline told her, smoothing down her skirt.
"We also have to get the prizes for the games we play." Tatiana added, crossing her legs.
"Oh yes, thanks for reminding me about that." I nodded my head.
Sienna fiddled with her earrings, as she stayed silent and looked like she was thinking.
Soon the guys vehicle pulled up blasting A Milli by Lil' Wayne and whoever was driving swerved left and right until they found a sparking spot.
"Who y'all think driving?" Raquel asked.
"Probably Dante." Jacqueline shrugged her shoulders.
"Either him or Braylon them two together are the goofiest people." Tatiana guessed.
"That's right, they really are hilarious together. Almost the same personality cockiness mixed in with goofiness." Bianca laughed.
"That's true and even add in Eugene!" Jacqueline giggled.
"For real." I agreed with it being either Eugene, Braylon or Dante and if Lamont was there it'll be him too, I'm sure.
The guys finally stepped out of the car, heading towards us with huge grins on their faces. As Dante popped out of the driver's seat all the girls bursted into laughter causing the guys face expressions to turn into confusion.
"One day you'll get in trouble for swerving." Tatiana told Dante.
"They ain't gon' check me, so I'm not tripping." He placed his arms around her shoulders, before waving at us. "What's up y'all?"
"Not much, y'all ready to go inside?" I questioned everyone.
Everyone agreed and soon we entered the automatic doors of Walmart.
"Ain't we looking for food and drinks plus something else?" Braylon blurted out.
"Yes, we can't go over the two thousand limit though." I stated, as they all became hype.
"I'm about to rank up on some groceries then." He rubbed his hands together then dapped up Dante.
"But it's not groceries." Raquel replied.
"Y'all goofy, lets go into the candy isles first!" Dante yelled.
They were seriously some big kids.
I grabbed a basket along with Braylon and they took off into the candies isle with the rest of the guys following them.
"They gon' get us kicked out if they don't stop screaming and running like some kids." Tatiana remarked.
"That's exactly what they are." Sienna laughed, walking with us.
"Hey Sienna, how's your therapy going?" Bianca asked her.
"I'm doing okay," Sienna shared. "I was told not to speak much of my therapy sessions with people but I'm glad that my therapist is helping me especially whenever I went there with thoughts of not wanting to receive help, you know?"
"Awe, I'm so happy for you!" I beamed.
"Yeah," Sienna smiled, which seemed more relaxed.
"Have you spoke to Antonio?" Raquel asked her.
"Also I'll like to apologize for my actions, I never wanted to blurt all of that out." Bianca uttered. "I should've pulled you aside from the beginning because embarrassing you wasn't right."
"No, I would like to thank you for doing that." Sienna said. "It's also something that I've told my therapist, and I'm definitely not going back to him anytime soon."
Bianca stared at Sienna with shock at her reaction.
"Okay so we're going to need hot dog buns, wieners, nacho chips, French fries, chicken tenders, pretzels," I scanned the food list on my phone.
"Okay so the freezer section!" Raquel asserted.
"Yes."
I wheeled the cart towards the freezer section, as we stopped at the chicken in the freezers.
"What kind you want to get?" Jacqueline inclined.
"I'm thinking if it'll be better to fry our own or get the freezer kind?" I thought.
"Frying our own will take long." Dahlia chimed in. "Maybe Tyson chicken strips will be better or you know what will be better ordering a large tailgate from raising canes."
"That doesn't sound bad at all, but not everyone likes Raising Canes so it's either or." Jacqueline quipped.
"Why not both?" Tatiana suggested. "We could make the people decide especially with the choices of sauces we'll have."
"That's not a bad idea at all." I agreed before asking the question to get people to decide. "So two bags of the Tyson's chicken fingers then we'll get a tailgate from raising canes is that okay?"
"I like the idea." Jacqueline agreed.
"Yes, it gets people to pick what they want." Raquel noted.
"I'm with it." Bianca emitted.
"So am I!" Sienna exclaimed.
"Okay that leaves us with Dahlia being our last vote," I concluded. "What's your decision?"
"Give me a drum roll." Dahlia specified, making us laugh as we all patted our pants. "I'm with it too."
"Great!" I laughed, as she opened up the freezer and placed the two Tyson's packs into the cart. "Moving on to the popcorn chicken and French fries."
Nobody hesitated on choosing popcorn chicken, as Jacqueline threw two bags of that into the basket then we headed towards the French fries.
"Ooh, there's a lot of French fries to pick from curly fries, checker fries, waffle fries, crinkle potatoes fries, potato wedges, and natural fries." Raquel babbled.
"You must love fries girl." Jacqueline giggled.
"I do." Raquel nodded.
"Okay, what kind of fries?" I prodded.
"I like checker fries, and crinkle fries." Tatiana lilted.
"Hmm, any others?"
"I'll agree on checker fries too." Jacqueline voiced.
"Same!" Dahlia uttered.
"I like both." Sienna shrugged.
"Checkers it is then." I opened up the freezer, grabbing two checker fries packs then threw it into the cart. "Now on to wieners!"
It wasn't a hard decision picking the hot dogs, as we all decided on one kind and we grabbed the hot dogs buns but made sure to grab enough for everyone to eat. Next, we grabbed pretzels bites, with butter, and big pretzels.
Then, the next thing on list was the condiments. We grabbed ketchup, ranch, mayonnaise, mustard, nacho cheese sauce, BBQ sauce, pickles, Jalapeños, and also the regular pepper and salt Incase we didn't have a lot of that in the kitchen.
"Y'all ready to see what the guys got?"
"I'm sure they not even taking it serious." Bianca guessed.
I rolled the basket towards the candy section, and of course they were goofing around but of course the basket was filled with all kinds of candy.
"I hope y'all got variety picks of candy.." Jacqueline ordered.
"We did love." Eugene quickly rushed over to her, pulling her into his arms.
Jacqueline tried so hard to hide her smile, but I already knew she was deep in love with him and it was vice versa.
"Yeah, we got Reese's Butter Cups, a bunch of Hershey's, M&Ms," Braylon started naming all the candy he had in the basket. "Snickers, Tootsie Rolls, KitKats, Twix's and 3Musketeers."
"Why all that sound like chocolate?" Raquel crosses her arms while her eyes darted.
"W—well, I forgot about all the other candy.." He stammered before a smirk appeared on his face. "besides chocolate is better!"
Dante slapped hands with him, causing everyone to laugh.
"You right, but where's the airheads, skittles, starburst?" Dahlia raised a brow.
"Oh yeah, that ain't no problem." Dante grabbed the packs of candy and threw it into their basket as if it was a basketball.
"What's next on your list, boss lady?" Darius joked, staring at me with a smirk.
I tried to hide my cheeks from turning read, but of course it appeared anyway making me frown as I just looked down at my list.
"Uh– the Snacks and the drinks!" I answered him.
We all started walking as Dahlia decided to takeover pushing the basket as Darius cape beside me with his arms around me.
"Why you blushing and all that?" He chuckled.
I tried covering my face with my hands, but he just pulled it down. "You already know why."
"Nah, I don't." He hardened his face expression before his mouth twitched. "I like seeing you blush though, it's cute."
"It's not." I whined before trying to walk away, to catch up with everyone else. "Let's get the rest of the stuff.."
Darius pulled my arm back, making me stare at his beautiful face. He held my hands up to his lips and gave it a kiss then his dimples appeared once I felt my cheeks reddening again.
"Stoppp." I bit my lip to keep myself from smiling.
"You're adorable, baby girl." He pecked my lips, letting me go as we held hands, catching up with the rest of the crew.
"What kind of chips?" Braylon questioned everyone.
"Doritos, both the ranch and cheese kind!" Dahlia blurted out.
"That's it?" He raised a brow.
"Also get popcorn, Cheez-Its, sunflower seeds, lays chips barbecue and regular," I stated.
"Don't forget the sun chips!" Eugene and Jacqueline shouted together then looked at each other and smiled.
"Alright, so thats all the snacks, what else?" Braylon looked around.
"Drinks." Tatiana spoke.
After getting the drinks which consisted of water, Gatorade, and a bunch of soda brands – we were ready to head to the cash register. Once the cashiers eyes wandered into the baskets, their eyes practically almost popped out of their heads.
It took at least three cashiers to purchase the stuff and we also used the self-checkout. The total of all the snacks was almost three hundred dollars, making it out to be two hundred and seventy dollars and I handed the check to the cashier who made sure it was the right amount and it took a long process to get everything, as I had to give the cashier my ID, and sign a bunch of things before getting the actual receipt.
"Y'all have a good day!" I told the cashiers as we left the cash register, showed the receipt to the person at the door and the we exited out of Walmart altogether.
It took us a while putting all the bags in the two vehicles.
"Y'all want to just save everything in the camp and then go meet up with Ms. Esther and Ms. Erika?" Jacqueline asserted.
"Yeah, we'll have to take like five trips." Dante joked.
Everyone agreed to that statement.
As we headed back to the camp, there was a lot of trips to getting everything in the camp and then we were all back on the road again to get gift things for the prizes and to also meet up with the Ms. Esther and Ms. Erika. The check still had one thousand and seven hundred and twenty one dollars so we were lucky that we didn't spend all of it.
"We definitely need to have big prizes for the people if we're going to raise a lot of money for the camp." I thought.
"A touchscreen Laptop could be one of them." Braylon's eyes narrowed. "Gift baskets too."
"Sell Eugene's artwork for a high bidding." Raquel exclaimed.
"iPhones could also be a great big prize." Dahlia interjected.
"Gift cards to fancy restaurants, even photographic equipment are good choices." Eugene emphasized.
"Shopping sprees cards, and beauty treatments." Jacqueline chimed in.
There was so many ideas being thrown out of everyone's mouth.
"I think we should ask Ms. Esther and Ms. Erika that question when we meet up with them, because we're trying to reach a certain amount of funding." I explained my reasoning.
I didn't expect this to be all on us, but I definitely wanted everyone to come together with ideas including the head people, Ms. Esther and Ms. Erika – we needed all the help that we could get.