Jeremy walks to his living room, currently burdened with a passed out man, to his chipping front door. He quietly closes the door behind him as he checks that all the pencils in his small and unique pencil case are sharpened. Jeremy grabbed one of his favorite pencil cases, a fuzzy one with a cat face on one side and the tail as the zipper. The stripes on this one were white and soft green, meaning he was having a wonderful day. Making sure the pages of his sketchbook were neatly in place, he hops off his porch and begins his walk, each step having a little bounce.

"G-good morning Ms.B-Bonita! Would you l-like some help with groceries t-today?" Jeremy kindly asks his favorite neighbor. The elderly woman looks up and smiles at the teen.

"Ah Jeremy, still as flattering as ever. Thank you Jeremy, but it's just one bag today." The woman smiles and speaks with a soft voice while holding a single plastic bag up. She brushes a stray dull brown strand of hair out of her face. "Well I have to get in the house before ol' Pissy-Missy goes through the trash again. She's been extra rambunctious lately." She kisses Jeremy's cheeks as he kisses hers. Jeremy smiles one last time at his neighbor, then returns to his walk.

It was much warmer than it has been the past few days. Jeremy looks at the birds flying around the trees. The flowers looked beautiful today, Jeremy notices. He wonders through the trees and flowers, enjoying the warmth. His smile drops as he shakes the thought away. He quickly grabs a red rubber band and puts it on his left wrist. He rolls up his green sleeves to show only wrists to remind himself later.

He looks to his left at a turn and blinks in surprise. They're finally done building a pizza place it seems. From the amount of cars in the parking lot, they're doing surprisingly well for being so new. Jeremy smiles and starts walking towards the pizzeria. Cute animals covered the windows. Jeremy thought the bunny was the cutest of the tree shown. The smell of greasy food made his stomach rumble. The bright colors made him feel more like a kid now that he was closer. Before entering, Jeremy notices a bright pink 'Help Wanted' flyer. He quickly jots down the details onto a new page in his sketchbook and enters.

The pizzeria was definitely out of his comfort zone. Children were running around and huddled by the stage or the arcade games. They were loud, but what child is quiet in a place like when they're having a blast? Parents didn't really seem that welcoming either. They were in little groups of friends or acquaintances not paying much mind to anything outside of their conversations. Jeremy sighs and sits in an empty booth. Hopefully, no one would fill the sear in front of him. His green eyes glance around while keeping his head low. No kids around, no parents looking, all the employees seem to be distracted, and the animatronic band on stage was fairly interesting. The perfect type of iolation Jeremy thinks he needed. Being in a place like this but still a bit away from the crowd was the perfect place for his shyness and social interactive needs.

Flipping open a new page in his sketchbook, Jeremy looks around for inspiration. Usually the park he would've gone to would give him plenty with its beautiful flowers, the surrounding trees, cherished playground rides. That was usually more than enough for ideas, but in this pizzeria, everything was so bright and colorful, so loud compared to the park. There was nothing beautiful and tranquil here...He sighs and rests his head on his hand. Jeremy started tapping the page with the eraser of his pencil. He ran his hand through his hair, now a little annoyed the creative cogs weren't turning.

"Hey, are you an artist?" A girl who who suddenly appeared asks. Jeremy jumps, earning a looks from the girl. Sh elooked about 13. Jeremy slowly starts lowering his head and gives a small nod. She moves closer and sits next to him. "Can you draw me a picture then?" She asks in a bored tone. Jeremy nods, a little uncomfortable this stranger was so close to him.

"U-uh what did y-you have i-i-in m-m-mind um Miss?" Jeremy squeaks out, his stutter becoming worse with from his nervousness. The girl stares at him for a second then looks away.

"Name's Violet. You know Happy Tree Friends?" Violet asks. Jeremy gulps and nods. He hated the show. It was a cartoon gore for the sake of gore. It was disgusting.

"Great. I have an OC and I want you to draw it since...my drawing skills aren't so great..."Violet mumbles the last part. Jeremy almost cringes at the word OC. Most of them were total crap and drawing them was pure torture to an artist. Holding his groan and sigh, he nods. Violet leans back in her seat.

"Good. So Shivers' a female reindeer. She has an over-sized Santa g=hat uh with her antlers poking out aaaand a really big bag. Full of presents, ya know. Let's see, let's see. Oh and she wears gloves." Violet says. Jeremy makes sure his eyes are hidden from Violet, then rolls them. He starts sketching out the body as Violet slowly inches closer. Jeremy did it as close to the show style as possible so it only took a few minutes, being a cartoon and all. Jeremy quickly his the drawing out of his sketchbook and hands it to Violet. She gives a small smile and leaves.

Jeremy shakes his head and looks around for inspiration once again. Same singing bear and chicken, same bright lights, same children running around, and absolutely nothing soothing. Jeremy notices a worker staring at him. Violet is with him and gives him the drawing he just made. The man says something, though Jeremy couldn't hear what, and Violet points at him. Jeremy looks around just to make sure no one else was around. Unfortunately, Violet was either pointing at him or the wall. The guard nods and ruffles her black hair. She rolls her eyes and makes sure her streaked hairs are all together. He starts walking away from the girl, grinning at Jeremy now. Jeremy sinks into his seat, almost trying to hide.

The worker comes up to him, still grinning. The man doesn't say anything first, just stares. Jeremy feels himself become more and more nervous by the second. The worker sits down in front of the shy boy. Again, silence. It doesn't really seem to effect the stranger, but it was getting to Jeremy.

"So, you drew the picture for my little flower hm?" He says. He had a deep and scratchy voice. Jeremy felt even more uncomfortable and was almost too intimated to talk.

"Yes, i-is there something w-wrong with th-that?" Jeremy asks and gasps almost immediately after hearing his words aloud. "I-I-I mean the dr-dr-drawing! I-I-I didn't m-m-mean to sound l-l-like I was ch-ch-challenging you if you thought th-th-that!" Jeremy says and waves his hands frantically. The man chuckles and rests his head on his hand, now interested by this boy. Jeremy gulps.

"You've got an unique talent. May I see your works?" He asks while sliding his hand across the table. Jeremy nods. The man takes the sketchbook and quietly flips through the pages. his grey eyes glance up at the quivering boy. Sliding the sketchbook back to Jeremy, he chuckles once again.

"You're good I must says." The man says. "If you draw me a couple requests, I'll get you a job here. You don't have a job right?" Jeremy nods slowly.

"Great! How old are you?"

"S-s-seventeen..."

"Perfect. And your name? Mine is Vincent."

"...J-Jeremy Fitzgerald s-sir." Vincent grins wider. he takes the book and pencil. Jeremy doesn't speaks when he starts flipping through the pages again. He stops on the page where the flyer information was and starts writing something down. He stands quickly and walks away. Jeremy follows Vincent with his eyes until Vincent turns around a corner. Looking back to his sketchbook, he reads what his future coworker wrote.

'128 Seacore Drive. Meet me at 10 pm. Bring NO ONE if you want this job. Need to evaluate you. Boss is too lazy to do it himself.'

Jeremy tenses. Bring no one? Why would Vincent need him all alone? Why would he make it so clear it was so greatly... unwanted. No way would go alone to some creepy guy's house. he just meet him and presumably his daughter wasn't the type of teen he was comfortable around. He would rather ask the boss himself if he wanted the job after all. Grabbing his pencil case and his sketchbook, Jeremy stands. He looks around for the worker and his daughter. They weren't anywhere to be seen. Jeremy smiles and speed-walks out of the doors.

The sunshine is a pleasant change to blinking neon lights. The breeze pushes his bangs away from his eyes. Jermey nearly skips away from the pizzeria. It's warmer outside now that the sun's high in the sky. Jeremy quickly rolls up his sleeves and holds his sketchbook in front of his lap with both hands. He couldn't help but take wider and bouncier steps. He used to always skip around hugging his sketchbook when he was a kid. He soon starts skipping and hugging the book to his chest once the trees hide him away. Jeremy likes this habit the most. He this it's a cute innocent habit to have.

When Jeremy gets home, he knows his father had left for a bar. He somehow always has money. Exactly enough to pay the bills for electricity, water and cable plus all day at a bar. However, when it came to clothing or food for Jeremy, it would somehow disappear...oh well. Jeremy enters his house since his father almost forgets to lock the door when he leaves for the bar. He runs up to his room and puts his sketchbook and pencil case under his bed with all his other supplies under his bed. Jeremy takes his shoes off and sets them beside his backpack and runs back down stairs. He needs to clean up his father's mess before he gets home that day. It wasn't that messy today so maybe Jeremy could cook dinner tonight. That'd be nice. Maybe some burgers and fries? Maybe steak and some mac and cheese? That was always a family favorite meal. It stillmight be. Jeremy never saw his father make a meal himself so there might be a chance it isn't now. Hopefully it is. A bottle of wine for his father could butter him up enough to eat it instead of blowing up about food being wasted or God knows what else.

Jeremy takes the six empty beer bottles off of the coffee table and throws them into a stray Target bag on the floor. Jeremy ties up the bag and puts it in the trash in the kitchen. Jeremy grabs the sponge from the sink and walks back into the living room. The bottles left rings on the coffee table's glass. He quickly wipes off the table while grabbing the crumpled up bills as he moves across it. Jeremy turns on his heel and looks at the sink. It was a straight line from him in the other room. He crouches and jumps a little while throwing it underhand. It makes it back to where he originally grabbbed it from. He jumps up and down and squeals in victory.

"Oh my God! Oh my God! I actually made it! Awesome! That was amazing!" He quickly stops himself and takes a deep breath. He always stops his immaturity before it get out of control. 'Be a big boy, be a big boy.' Jeremy repeats to himself. He clears his throat then outs the bills back onto the table after unfolding and straightens them out. He turns to the couch and fixes the couch pillows. Equally positioned in the corners and fluffed, the way Jeremy loves them. He folds up the crumbles blanket on the floor and throws it on the couch's back, lining up with the tops of the pillows. Perfect!

Jeremy looks around the living room. His father must have came home then instantly passed out. Nothing was thrown around and even the remotes were still in order from the day before. This is a bit of a rare occurrence. Jeremy looks at the clock above the stove. 2:08. It's been 45 minutes since he checked the clock at the pizzeria. Just as Jeremy lays everything out to cook, his phone vibrates in his back pocket. His father had texted him.

'Jere' His father always said Jere when he wanted something from him. 'I need you to cook me a nice dinner. I'm bringing home a girl. Make something good got it? We'll be home at 9.' There wasn't any curses or type-o'e so he wasn't completely hammered yet. Jeremy sighs and looks at the dinner he wanted to cook. He wouldn't be able to enjoy it with his father like he'd hoped. Since he was bringing a girl home, Jeremy wouldn't even be allowed in the house! Sighing, Jeremy puts his phone back into his pocket and starts filling a pot with water. He sets it on the stove.

"Maybe..." Jeremy mumbles to himself. "Maybe I c-could eat a little a-and leave for V-Vincent's? Maybe I was j-judging too harshly." Jeremy sighs. If anything went wrong, he had his phone to call the police with. Yes, that's what he'll do. He turns back the pot and rolls up his sleeves smiling.

The dinner Jeremy made was better than he expected it to be. He lays out the bowls of food around the table. Two candles, a bottle of wine, garlic bread along with the rest of the food he cooked. Jeremy smiles at his work and turns off the light, making the candles give a more romantic feel now. He didn't eat anything, fearing his father would say there wasn't enough food for his lady friend. He looks up at the clock before leaving. It's 7:45 now. Hopefully, the walk to Vincent's house would take awhile. Jeremy types in the address on his map app. Vincent's house would take a half an hour to walk, or so the phone says. He takes his sketchbook and pencil case from the table he set them on before setting dinner. Jeremy quickly rolls down his sleeves to cover his hand and fingers and walks out.

Jeremy's stomach growls at the last sight of a warm meal. He holds his stomach and whimpers as he slowly walks down the street. Maybe Vincent would feed him. Maybe Vincent isn't a bad guy. After all he did offer Jeremy a job. He can't be all that bad if he was working at a children's pizzeria right? Another growl makes Jeremy pick up his pace. He wants food badly now. It was like a cruel joke to go to a pizzeria and make dinner on an empty stomach. Vincent would have dinner. Jeremy is positive he would. He hugs his sketchbook and pencil case close to his chest as he starts running.

"Wh-what's the worst thing that c-could happen if I come e-early?" Jeremy asks himself smiling. "It's not like h-he'll bake me into a pie!" Jeremy chuckles. He looks back at his phone and runs happily. He even skips a few times while giggling like a child.