The Donut Shop ✔️

'O' Stands for 'Opinion Overload'

"Are you serious? Are you really, willingly, going to help Mara with something?" Tweed asked Ethan in disbelief as they meandered to homeroom.

"Well, it wouldn't be directly helping her, but yes. I've realized that I have a passion for confetti and streamers," Ethan teased, but it wasn't in his usual light tone. Instead, it was shrouded with an air of sadness.

"Anything that helps Mara, even remotely, should be avoided like the plague. And, according to our friendship contract, you are not allowed to cohort with the enemy unless it's absolutely necessary," Tweed said, and for the first time since last night, he smiled.

"I don't think you want to avoid Mara. In fact, I think you want to-"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence," Tweed threatened, raising his Pop-Tart to threaten Ethan, holding it up in a menacing way. If a Pop-Tart could be considered a weapon, Ethan would be terrified. Since he knew that Tweed could make anything into a weapon, he stepped back slightly, causing Tweed's expression to grow cocky.

"That's what I thought," he boasted right as they ran into the very person they were talking about. Speak of the devil, thought Ethan.

"Hello, boys," Mara greeted them with a chipper tone and a big smile, resembling a bird in the wee hours of the morning when the sun just begins to peek through from beyond the horizon. 

Tweed scowled at her. "What do you want?" he asked her in an attitude so different from the one he showed last night. Maybe it was some sort of pack they made, acting hostile to each other in public and secretly nice to each other in private.

All of a sudden, Mara shoved a clipboard with a piece of paper in front of Ethan's line of sight, and he scrunched his eyebrows up while studying it.

"What is this?" he asked her, eyeing the paper with four signatures in an interrogative manner.

"It's a petition to save Sol Bakery. I've already posted an article on my blog to get more signatures."

"With what money?" Ethan murmured. Although he appreciated her initiative, it was pointless. Without any source of income for Sol Bakery, the place was bound to close

"With city funds. We can legally petition to have the bakery, and the building, protected as a historical landmark," she said, clearly proud of the research she had done and the information she had procured overnight. When the boys were still silent, Mara sighed once more.

"I saw a town like ours have a few elementary school kids a few years back that stood in an arcade that they all loved as a protest when they wanted to demolish the building."

Ethan's ears perked up and he asked, "Did it work?"

She shyly smiled and scratched the back of her head. "No."

His face fell and resumed a disinterested look.

"But! I think our petition will work, as long as we gather enough support. So, who's with me?" she cried out like a Spartan warrior, but Ethan just made a face and turned away to go to class, Tweed following his lead.

"Wait! Guys!" Mara called after them, but neither of them turned back to look at her and slipped into Mr. Feld's class.

The next few periods passed by painstakingly slow, but finally, it was time for lunch. By the time Ethan and Tweed entered the lunchroom after a strenuous calculus lesson, they stopped cold in their tracks. They spotted a table decorated with colorful posters all around, labeled with 'Save Sol Bakery' atop them. 

"She didn't," Tweed uttered in disbelief, groaning loudly. 

"I believe she just did," Ethan said with amusement, mixed with annoyance. He joined the lunch line to grab what he hoped to be a chicken sandwich. As he thanked the lunch ladies, they all nodded scruffily as he moved to pay for his meal.