Hickory and Orange Leaves

The leaves on the oak trees outside the Coffee Shop Sarah worked were all brilliant shades of orange and gold. There was a brisk chill in the air and every time the door to the coffee shop opened Sarah felt it. The cold was good for business though. Sarah had filled seven orders for either hot chocolate or some variation of latte already and the shop hadn’t even been open an hour. She greeted the next customer that approached the counter, took their order, and went to work.

The interior of the coffee shop had pastel blue and white striped wallpaper. Hickory brown floor tiles, and the tables were all the same dark walnut stain. That had cream-colored wooden chairs around. The counter Sarah and her coworker were behind was a matching dark walnut color. While the countertop was black.

As Sarah handed off a non-dairy mochaccino she thought about her class. Since, once her shift was over, she’d need to jog back to campus. Luckily though, Sarah had forty-five minutes between her shift ending and the start of Calc I.

This was how the next two hours went for Sarah, filling orders, watching the time, and keeping track of just how many people ordered a hot chocolate.

After her two-hour shift was up, Sarah took a step back away from the counter and took her hair tie out letting her brown hair fall down her back. She took her Barista apron off and went to the back room. The same Hickory tiles from the front of the coffee shop continued back here. There was a time clock on the walls. Which were just painted a seafoam green color. Someone had dragged a few grey folding chairs around two of the dark walnut stained tables.

Sarah hung up her apron on the hooks next to the time clock and clocked out. She grabbed her backpack, then sat down at one of the tables for a moment. She opened up her backpack just to make sure nothing was missing. Her laptop, and a little black book she kept used as a journal, planner, and notebook for her schoolwork were still there.

Sarah zipped her bag back up and headed out the door waving goodbye to her coworkers.

Then, she went back to campus.

All of the pathways and roads on campus were made with brick. The buildings too, were old and had moss growing on the bricks. Especially around where the gutters leaked or at the bottom of the foundation near where rain puddles formed. There were people on bikes and skateboards all around Sarah.

She had thought about purchasing a bike, but it was an expensive investment. If hers got stolen Sarah knew she wouldn’t be able to replace that. So, she walked to her dorm, walked to her job, and walked around campus.

Once Sarah reached the library, she stopped walking. She went up the steps, and into the stone building through the heavy oak doors. Inside the library the floors were all hardwood. The walls had been redone recently and were painted Soft Chamois and had molding at the top and bottom. The ceilings were arched and covered in intricate plaster patterns. There were a few owl motifs on the ceiling; a tribute to an ancient goddess.

Amongst the countless rows of library shelves and the smell of aged paper Sarah found an empty table. She set her bag down on the table and took her laptop and the little black book out.

Sarah then sat at the table and opened her laptop. She had a good half an hour now before her next class started, and thought this would be a good time to get some studying in.

Or check the online login for her classes or email to see if her teachers sent out any announcements. For example, canceling class for the day. It had already happened once to Sarah that she had gone to a class only to find out there that the teacher cancelled. What Sarah found in her email surprised her.

She’d sent an essay as part of an application for a grant for school. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, as Sarah was trying to graduate with as little student loan debt as possible. She had never been expected to win it though. But here it was, an email directly from the people offering the grant saying she’d won the full twenty thousand.

Sarah slowly closed her laptop. She stared blankly at a bust at the end of a row of shelves for a moment. Then, Sarah opened her laptop again. She copied the email address and went to the website she’d applied for the grant at.

On the contact page Sarah opened up control+ F and pasted the email in. It was a direct match.

“Jesus Christ…” Sarah whispered to herself. Perhaps she could afford that bike after all. With twenty thousand dollars she didn’t have to pay back. Sarah realized she could use part of it to pay tuition fees up front instead of taking out a loan. The more Sarah thought about it, the more she realized she didn’t know what to do with the money.

She was going to buy a bike, that much was certain. But she was uncertain of what to do with the rest of it. Sarah reread the email and didn’t realize as her leg started shaking. She reached for a pen and the little black book and wrote out Things to Do With 20k.

As Sarah sat there tapping her pen against the page, she felt nauseous, giddy, and like she had a nest of butterflies in her stomach all at once.