Chapter One
A Normal Day for Greg
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
The cheap alarm clock began to ring.
Greg hated the alarm.
He bought it from a garage sale for about two bucks and he always felt like he had spent way too much money on it. The thing always went through four batteries every week and was always a few minutes behind.
Greg needed to get a new alarm, but there were much more important things to spend his money on. From the water for the car wash to the money for Steven's needs, an alarm was the least of worries.
Greg stretched his arms and looked for something clean to wear. The only thing that was clean was a plain green shirt and the shorts he was wearing. That would have to do.
He opened the back of the van and saw the sun was barely starting to rise. While Greg wasn't a fan of waking up early, he always loved the watching the sun rise. It was the simple things in life that Greg had begun to appreciate after Steven was born.
From sunrise to sunset, Greg always found something about the day to appreciate, even it was just the sunrise or the sunset.
Greg stepped out of the van and looked down the road. Beach City was starting to come to life, the restaurants were opening their doors or shutters, Funland was going through its early morning maintenance check, and of course Mayor Dewey started to drive around town.
Greg went inside his office to see if he had any scheduled appointments for the day. Nothing too big, just a mail van and Fish Stew Pizza's delivery car. It was early spring so there weren't so many tourists around Beach City this time of year. Occasionally there would be some new faces in town, but they rarely got around to getting a car wash.
He looked outside his window and saw the mail van coming up the road, so he walked outside to get things set up. Normally it would be Barbara driving the van, but this time it was Jamie driving this time.
"Hey Jamie! Where's Barb?" Greg asked.
"Oh, she had a pretty bad fall, so she's taking some time off," Jamie replied, getting out of the van.
"That's terrible! Send her my best if you get the chance," Greg said.
"Will do!" Jamie said, "I've gotta run. Barbara said to get the usual for the van and she'll pay when she can."
Before Greg could say anything, Jamie ran off.
'He must be doing Barb's shift as well,' Greg thought. He immediately got to work on washing the van. Since the van had no windows Greg couldn't run it through the wash, meaning he had to do it by hand. It wasn't a problem for Greg since he did a lot of the car washing by hand anyway.
He went inside and grabbed several sponges, buckets, and soaps when the phone in the office began to ring. He put the supplies down and answered, "Thank you for calling It's A Wash, Greg Universe speaking."
"Hi Dad!" a familiar voice replied.
"Oh hey Steven! How's everything going?" Greg replied to his son.
"Great! The Gems are out on a mission right now looking for Malachite so it's just me at the temple right now," Steven said.
"Malachite…is that the one at the bottom of the ocean or the one with helicopter fingers?" Greg asked.
"Bottom of the ocean," Steven replied. Greg breathed an internal sigh of relief. When Steven had told him about Malachite, all Greg could do was think about how much danger Steven was in. He had told Garnet his concern and she had reassured him that Steven would be safe.
"Well what are you up to kiddo?" Greg asked Steven, trying to keep a conversation going.
"Well Connie is coming over soon so I'm getting stuff ready for that," Steven said, with a loud crash coming from his end of the line.
"What was that?" Greg asked.
"Uh, Dad, how do you get chocolate syrup off of a couch?" Steven asked sincerely.
Greg shook his head with a smile, "Some club soda should do the trick if you get to it quick enough."
"And if we drank all the club soda for a burping contest?" Steven asked, with a slightly embarrassed tone.
"Vinegar and water will work too," Greg said.
"Thanks Dad!" Steven replied.
Three knocks were heard and Steven said, "I gotta go! Connie's here! Bye Dad!"
"Bye Steven!" Greg managed to reply before the phone hung up. Greg was glad that Steven was able to make a nice human friend. The way the two talk to each other makes Greg just smile at the thought of it. While he was lost in his train of thought, Greg had heard another car pull up.
Being brought back to reality, Greg quickly grabbed all the supplies and ran outside to see the Fish Stew Pizza delivery car being driven up by Nanefua Pizza of all people.
"How's it going Nanefua? Where's Jenny?" Greg asked.
"Oh Kofi is yelling at her for coming home late last night, so I had to make the trip up here," Nanefua said sweetly.
"I can was the car really quick if you need to get back to town," Greg suggested.
"That would be nice," Nanefua replied.
Greg offered for her to have a seat inside, to which she gladly accepted. Once Nanefua was settled in, Greg began washing the car.
The Pizza's car was always a tricky one to clean. Kofi would insist to have it hand washed and using a certain type of scent, orange lemonade. Jenny would just drive it through the wash and inevitably Greg would get a phone call from Kofi saying that he needs the car cleaned again.
Greg was glad that Nanefua came instead of Jenny, who would often leave without paying saying that Kofi would pay later.
Greg finished cleaning the body and was starting to work on the tires when he heard the office door open. He looked and saw Nanefua walking out, mumbling something that Greg couldn't hear.
"Is something wrong?" Greg asked cautiously, trying not to get on Nanefua's bad side.
"Oh, Kofi just needs the car now since he just told me that that there are four deliveries waiting," Nanefua replied, trying to maintain a level of niceness.
"I just need to finish the tire and you'll be set!" Greg said, trying to reassure Nanefua, who just nodded in reply.
Things like this tend to happen, especially revolving around the Pizza family, so Greg knew how to get a job done quicker if he needed to rush. The tires were done quickly and Nanefua was rifling through her purse to pay Greg, when he interrupted her.
"You can pay me later. You're in a rush," Greg said.
"Oh thank you Greg, I'll be sure to pay you as soon as I can!" Nanefua replied as she entered the car. Greg waved good-bye and looked at the mail van, which still needed to be cleaned.
Greg spent quite some time with the van. Not that he was trying to make sure it was super clean, he was just doing it to pass the time. He didn't have any other appointments so there was nothing else for him to do.
He still finished way before Jamie came to pick up the van. He looked haggard and out of breath, so Greg offered him something to drink to which Jamie replied with a nod.
After going back inside to the mini fridge and grabbing a couple bottles of water he saw that Jamie was sitting in the van trying to get his breath back. Greg gave Jamie the bottle of water, who drained the bottle faster than Greg had ever seen. He handed Jamie another bottle, and Jamie began to drink, this time much slower.
"How much do I owe you?" Jamie asked, sounding much better than earlier, but still tired.
"Uhh, you know what, this one is on me," Greg said, rubbing the back of his head. He knew that he shouldn't have done said that, but he felt that he should cut Jamie a break since he had to pull double duty.
"You sure? I'm good for it," Jamie said, reaching to his back pocket.
"Yeah, don't worry about it," Greg said with a smile.
Jamie started the van and said, "Thanks Greg, I owe you one BIG time!"
The van began to move downhill and Greg waved goodbye. Once the van was out of sight Greg took a deep sigh.
'Great job Greg, now you'll be short this month,' Greg thought to himself as he walked inside his office. He saw a few boxes of some of the records he had collected over the years. So many had sentimental value, but there were a few records that he could do without.
An idea popped in Greg's head. He picked up the phone and dialed a familiar number and waited for the other line to be picked up.
"Hello?" the familiar voice said.
"Hey Shtoo-ball!" Greg replied.
"Hey Dad, is everything ok?" Steven asked.
"Oh yeah everything is great, I was just wondering if you want to check out some of my old records," Greg said, doing his best to keep the fact that he is planning to sell his records to make ends meet.
"That sounds like a great idea! Can Connie come too?" Steven asked.
"I don't see why not. The more the merrier!" Greg said.
"Awesome! We'll be over in a minute!" Steven replied.
"I'll see you two when you get here!" Greg said, still trying to sound cheery.
"OK, see you in a bit Dad!" Steven said, hanging up the phone afterwards.
Greg stood up and began to move the boxes out of his office. He opened the back of his van and saw another box of records in his van. He rummaged through a couple of those and thought back to the memories he had associated with some of them. In the back of the box however was not a record, but a video tape.
One of a music video he had made years ago. He put it next to the small TV he had in the van, knowing that one day he will show it to Steven.
'Maybe in a few more years' Greg thought. He looked at the sunset and saw two small figures approaching the car wash.
That was something he could appreciate. Spending time with his son and his friend was probably going to be the best part of his day.
There really could be nothing that would top this, in Greg's mind at least.
…
And that ends this chapter for a long series of one shots that focus more on characters other than Steven and the Crystal Gems. Sure this chapter is with Greg, but he is a likable character that I wanted to start with some of the things that he could face on an average day on the car wash. He seems like the nice guy that would give some of the townsfolk a break if they needed it.
Extra points to anyone who could guess where this scene could go to (if you have caught up with the show this should be an easy one).
Anyway…
Thank you for reading and review if you liked it!
Peace.