Epilogue
Wren
“You ready, guys?” I asked with a smile.
Fuller and his teammates gave me thumbs-up.
It was hard to believe it had been a month since the dance. The thought of Fuller dressed up as the main character from The Princess Bride and making a grand gesture like in Say Anything still brought a smile to my face every time I pictured it.
I picked up a megaphone and held down the button on the handle. “The car wash to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association is officially open!”
Several cars behind me honked their horns in excitement as I began waving them through to the basketball players.
I’d divided them up into groups of three. Fuller, TyShaun, and Marc got to work on their first car. The people behind them hopped out of their car and started taking pictures.
Fuller stopped and spun around. “Yeah, yeah. Enjoy it while you can.”
I stifled a giggle. I’d given Fuller one condition at the dance last month. That he go through with his end of the bet by wearing the mesh wrestling singlet, but he had to do it outside of school and while doing a good deed. He insisted on hosting a car wash to raise money for people with dementia and their caregivers. The money would be donated in Gramps’s name.
Of course, he’d agreed. But I’d tossed in a pair of sweatpants and a jacket to throw over the singlet. After all, it left very little to the imagination and, with the chilly buckets of water and the temperature hovering around forty-five degrees, I didn’t want him to come down with pneumonia.
As Fuller and the rest of the guys got to work, I stopped by the driver’s side of each vehicle in line to collect the $5.00 car wash fee.
A few leaves clung to the trees surrounding the parking lot, but most had fallen. Normally, winter kind of bummed me out, but not this year. This year, I had a whole different outlook. Chilly mornings would be spent holding hands with Fuller on the way to class and late Friday nights would be reserved for eating popcorn and Nerds after his basketball games.
Smiling, I walked up to the side of a blue truck.
“We’d like to donate an extra fifty dollars,” my dad said with a smile. He handed me the money.
“Thanks, Dad.” I shoved the money into a plastic container. “I really appreciate you coming out.”
“We wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Gramps added with a grin. “Great seeing these young men do something good for the community.”
“Definitely. After the car wash, are we still on for watching the game?” I asked.
Gramps gave me a thumbs-up. “I’ll pop the popcorn.”
“Is it okay if Fuller and his little brother Hudson come watch with us?”
“That sounds like a lot of fun. He’s a good ball player.” Gramps tilted his head to the side. “Though…that’s an awfully strange outfit he’s wearing.”
I let out a chuckle. “It sure is, isn’t it, Gramps?”
He nodded.
My dad smiled. “Thanks for putting this all together, sweetheart. We are so proud of you and Fuller.”
For the first time in ages, he looked well rested. After Gramps’s fall, my parents had a serious discussion. In the end, they decided that it would be smart to have some extra help around the house in order to keep Gramps safe. A certified nursing assistant now came to our house from ten at night until ten the next morning, five days a week. Even though it’d only been a month, it had already made a lot of difference in our lives, and best of all, Gramps was safer than ever.
“Thanks, Dad.” I glanced up. “Looks like it’s your turn. See you guys later today.” I stepped back and tapped on the cab.
As Dad drove up, I waved the next car forward. Jenna Marie sat in the driver’s seat. A girl with curly red hair sat next to her.
Jenna Marie rolled down her window and grinned. “Hey, Wren. Everything looks great.”
“Aw, thanks.” I reached forward and accepted a five-dollar bill from her.
“This is Anna. I wanted to introduce you two. She’s going to the STEM Academy Camp over winter break, too.”
“Hey, good to meet you,” Anna said. “Do you know what dorm you’re going to be in?”
“Jasper Hall. How about you?” I asked.
“Same,” she replied with a smile. “It’ll be nice to see a familiar face.”
“Definitely.”
Three of the guys finished up and tapped the side of the car. “We’re ready.”
“Looks like you all are up.” I pointed to the farthest car-washing station to the right. “Thanks again for stopping by.”
“No problem. I’m just so glad everything worked out.” Jenna Marie smiled before putting her car back into drive and heading toward the guys.
I took a step back. I’d hoped the event would be popular, but I had no idea it would bring in this many people. The line of vehicles stretched from outside the gymnasium, where we had the hoses hooked up, to the entrance of the school.
Halfway through the line was a raised truck covered from wheel to wheel in dried-up mud. I chuckled. That was going to take the guys forever to clean.
We’d gotten the okay from Principal Davis to host the car wash at school. He loved when our students performed community service. Not only did the kids benefit, but our school did as well. He’d shown up in a Magnolia Valley High School track suit and had agreed to sit on a donated dunk tank. For five dollars, you could throw three balls and try to knock him into the water. Coach and a few other teachers had signed up as well.
A broad smile stretched across my face. Amazed at how quickly everything came together and the people who helped to make it happen, I beamed with joy.
I had to give the basketball team huge props. The players had done a great job hyping up the fundraiser. They’d made signs, told hundreds of classmates about the event, and they were even raffling off a signed basketball.
But, without a doubt, Fuller had done the most to advertise the car wash. Using his good news of receiving a scholarship offer from the UGA Coach, he’d made calls to appear on the local news and radio stations; plus, he’d recruited the JV boys’ and girls’ basketball teams to set up a bake sale and run the school’s gigantic popcorn maker. They had coffee and lemonade available as well. Everything you could want on a Saturday morning.
The cheerleaders had gotten on board, too. They lined the street outside school, waving their pom-poms and encouraging people to stop.
After I’d collected money from all the cars in line, I fished my phone out of my pocket, ready to snap some pictures of the event. That’s strange, I missed a text from Fuller. He must have sent it right before the car wash opened. I tapped on the message.
Warmth radiated through my chest as I typed out my reply.
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