BOLD

S- Sticky

I walk around and let people put dollar bills in the boot. It warmed my heart watching people donate money.

"Hello! How are you?" I ask the Grangers. Another family friend. Most of the people here were family friends.

"We are lovely dear. You know this is our favorite event that we go to," the older lady says. Both of the Grangers were easily around seventy. But I adored both of them.  I lean down and kiss their cheeks. The Grangers were big in fashion. Especially when it came to back packs.

"This is one of the more fun ones," I agree, nodding my head.

"Oh! Glen, give her the money!" Mrs. Granger says. Her husband smiles at me and holds up his hand. His hand was shaking a little as I put the boot under it. In his hand was a stack of dollar bills of all sorts. He lets it fall into the boot all of them moving out of the stack. He had filled the boot.

"Oh!! Yes! I love it when that happens!" Mrs. Granger squeals. I laugh and smile. She was a cute old woman who obviously loved life.

"Well, I guess I better get another boot and have more fill it! Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Granger!" I say leaning back down to kiss their cheeks.

"Oh thank you honey!" She says squeezing my hand that she had been holding.

"If I don't see you later, I'll see you tomorrow for tea," I say. She smiles widely and giggles with a nod. Her husband only rolls his eyes towards her, shaking his head playfully at her. His reaction only made her giggle more. They were an inspiring couple who were obviously in love. I say goodbye one more time and walk to the back room to empty the boot.

"Did you fill a boot?" The lady asks. I nod and pour the money onto the table thinking about all of the papers that I need to grade.

"Oh! Good!" She says getting excited. She races out of the room and I slowly follow. I knew this is for something good. Raising money for multiple communities. But... grading papers took time. A lot of it especially with valuable feedback.

"We filled a boot! Filling the boot goes to the fire departments in Seattle. This helps them buy new equipment, supplies, and more safety gear. We need them to buy this stuff that way they can save us when we are in need! This is our way of giving back to them as they go out everyday risking their lives saving the public," the lady says. I just call her lady, her name was Melanie, but I could never remember it.

The people clapped and cheered after she said we filled a boot. Then I started to fill the next one.

I go around and fill three more boots before the  auction happens. I look at the food they were serving and my stomach growled. I was praying that there would be leftovers for me to take home. I've been smelling it all night and I did manage to get a nice glimpse at the cheesecake they were serving as well. The things I would do to get some of that cheesecake. Shaking the thought of the food out of my head I get back to work.

I stood to the side and let people focus on the auction. Stray thoughts of cheesecake fill my head.

"Alright so we have a lot of things for auction tonight! So everyone have your paddles ready and yell loud!" Melanie says.

"Let's start off with some quilts. They are actually made by Reggie and Quinn Howell," she says.

"Mostly Quinn!" My grandmother yells. She was never afraid of mass groups of people. It also helped that she probably knew most of the people in the room all by name. Most of the room knew exactly who she was. Who's wife she had been. I frown and move onto the next thought.