Chapter 18: Café.

Evening, Paris trip :

The teams made, were given three hours in total, to decide the theme for their store and to come up with a reasonable budget request. Which would be provided by the organization and if the budget price was lower than the profits yielded, you and your team might as well get awarded.

As soon as it turned around 5pm in the evening, the students were gathered, their groups discussing, seriously, to earn profits by whatever they planed to do.

" So, what store do you plan to put up for the banquet?" Hayden asked setting on the grass with Steph resting her head on his shoulder.

"What about a film store??" Lucas suggested grinning.

" No!" Everyone reprimanded instantly. By now everyone knew what Lucas meant, as he was a frequent visitor of Po*n sites. Which made him chuckle.

" Umm.. what about couple-items. I bet anyone would come there. " Steph suggested.

The rest nodded, considering the facts of profits.

" What about a café? " Mel let out, out-of-the-blue. And explained further as she saw the disbelief in everyone's eyes.

" Listen, everyone here only wants to put up stores for goods and item but the charity banquet is going to be conducted for an entire afternoon and closes up at 7 in the evening. Think of it, anyone would be hungry."

Brenden smiled at her childish suggestion but, if thought logically, it was right." Ok, I agree. She has a point." without even looking at her he could tell that she was beaming at him.

' Wait? How could he just say it? Maybe because he saw her in his peripheral vision, nothing more. '

Lucas was surprised, but he'd rather support his friend than mess things up for him, than it already was!

" Ok, I'm fine with that Mel"

Alex chuckled and looked at Mel mockingly," So darling, who is going to cook?" She knew that her cousin had never entered a kitchen in her life.

Mel smiled, embarrassedly, scratching her nape, " Well, who knows to cook out here?"

Steph noticed that she had dodged Alex's question and grinned, exposing her," You don't know to cook do you?" she asked Mel.

" No." She admitted, flushing red. ' Shit, why do I have to look so bad in front of him ? '

" It's alright. You're just 15, you can learn or not... " Brenden said patting her head dotingly and turned serious to discuss the matters," Now, Alex can you cook? and others what can you do to help?"

...

In the end, the team decided on the following:

Cooking: Brenden, Alex, and Bryan( if he plans to join, that is.)

Refreshments: Melanie and Lucas.

Deserts: Hayden and Stephanie.

Brenden and Alex decided to put only a few dishes on the menu: Chicken parmigiana, Cheese burger, Lo mein noodles, and a simple salad to munch on.

Lucas and Mel planned on simple drinks- iced coffee and milk tea. They even planned to buy some sodas to go along with the food.

Hayden and Steph concluded with a few donuts and the classic brownies with vanilla ice-cream.

In the end, they got a 'simple' budget of 569.25 Euros.

" Do you think that they would provide us that much?" Mel asked, over thinking as usual over money.

" Well, why not? It's not like the White family would run out of money." Brenden scoffed.

" Yeah true, it's actually their banquet and so is the resort, this trip practically funded by them Mel," Lucas explained as he saw Mel's doubtful face.

" Then who's going to get the budget checked?" Alex asked, as she reviewed the list, getting back to the topic of discussion.

" We'll let Brenden handle that, " Lucas said turning towards Alex, "you're going with me, to go check if we could borrow stuff from the resort kitchen...dishes and stuff. "

" Umm.. ok then you guys decide and get back to the resort soon. Careful Mel." She bid goodbye and left with Lucas in a hired cab.

....

After they left, Brenden and Mel were left alone, as Hayden and Steph needed some personal time together, as a date.

" So, we're left alone now. Nice." Mel sighed, looking at the, now - glowing, Eiffel tower. " We should get going to check them and head back then."

"Mn.. " he got up in a fluid movement and lent her a hand.

Mel stared at his features which were a bit sharp and clear under the glow of the tower. His black shirt complimenting his dark hair which was now falling over his forehead, hindering the full sight of his face. He had a mature aura, as though he had already experienced a lot during his 17 years of life. The totally brown eyes,

' Wait were they brown before too??? maybe...'

she shrugged her thoughts and held his outstretched hand gleefully beaming at him.

" Thanks. "