𝐅𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐑| 𝐋.𝐂.

14: The Harvest Fair challenge

"There you are! You got me worried sick!" I say through gritted as I punch Carter's shoulder.

"I'm fine." He says.

"What were you doing out there anyway with Brooke?" I ask.

"Nothing." He shakes his head at me.

"Carter, I've known you for your entire life. You know if there's any information you're holding out from me, I will get it eventually." I inform him.

"Brooke said she saw something suspicious over there, so I just decided to go with her to make sure she'd be alright." He finally says.

"Isn't that Daniel's job?" I ask.

He doesn't say anything and ponders a bit. Trying to give me an answer.

"Wait, are you and Brooke-"

"No, no! Of course not." He quickly says.

"Good. Cause you had me worried there for a second." I nod at him.

I then turn on my heels and walk back upstairs, heading to the clubhouse.

  ||

"So, what's the harvest festival about?" I ask Leo as he walks beside me.

"It's one of the best traditions we have here. Every year on Halloween weekend, the Greenhouse hosts an open fair for the entire community of Santa Ynez." He tells me.

"Okay. I've heard of Santa Claus but not Santa Ynez, whatever that is." I say and he chuckles.

"Santa isn't real, this Santa is." Leo says and I gasp.

"You just ruined millions of children's lives." I tell him.

"It's better to start being honest now. So, how did everything go with Carter?" He asks as we make our way outside.

"Good. He said Brooke saw something suspicious and he went with her and that's how they ended up getting attacked by that park ranger." I say.

"Welcome to the Harvest fair." Louis says and everyone stops in their tracks.

"Yeah!" I hear Sophie exclaim and I mentally roll my eyes.

"With the money you're gonna collect today, twenty kids are gonna get to spend the summer at an amazing STEM summer camp program." Louis says as our clapping dies down.

"Nice." Sophie nods with a smile.

"And you're gonna do this by selling two hundred delicious gourmet cupcakes." He continues.

"Bake sale? That's the best he could come up with?" I say, turning to Leo.

"But Mr. Osmond, those scholarships are really expensive. You're gonna have to sell way more than two hundred cupcakes to fund them." Max says.

"Maybe Louis baked them in gold." Parker jokes and his teammates laugh.

"I did not. And Max, you're right, this camp costs a lot of money. But fortunately for us, we have alumni who recently sold his startup to Apple, and had agreed to help us out." Louis informs us.

"Wow." I mutter, nodding at him.

"For every cupcake that you guys sell, our anonymous friend's gonna donate one thousand dollars." He says, pushing a button on a wooden poll and loads of money start coming up inside of a huge, plastic ball.

"Whoa!" Everyone says.

"Not bad for a bake sale." Leo grimaces at me and I chuckle.

"Each time you sell a cupcake, you ring that bell at your booth and more cash will be injected into the sphere." Louis says.