More of the story. Not much happens here but I hope it's still enjoyable. I swear it'll pick up in the next two chapters which is when this whole thing will come together finally. Also, sorry it's late. I wrote a great little montage and the page broke. Having saved it, I refreshed the page only to find that it didn't and I lost half the story. Now thanks to this, I had to write the scene all over again and when I do that, the inspiration I had when writing the scene once is gone so writing it again turns into a chore. So if the scene sounds forced, then I apologize. If I learned anything, it's that I'll be relying on Microsoft Word and Celtx and never again on Doc Manager except just to copy and paste.
Hope you still like the chapter though.
The Float
Steven exited his home ready to be on en route to his dad's to start working on the much anticipated float he had wanted to be a part of since Day 1. His morning consisted exactly of his alarm going off at 9am, immediately shut it off and arising from bed ready to take on the world, jumping into the shower, almost with his clothes on, jumping out of said shower and putting on another set of blue jeans, flip flops and star t-shirt, tossing a breakfast burrito in the microwave and devouring it as fast as he can. Now he was happy, humming a little tune of his own creation to himself, and on his way to the the It's a Wash! Car Wash to get started.
But first, he decided to step into the Big Donut.
The place chimed as the automatic doors opened allowing an excited Steven to enter.
"Hi, Sadie!" said Steven. "Two donuts and a coffee please."
Sadie looked surprised at the order. "I didn't know you started drinking coffee, Steven."
Steven laughed, "Nah, it's for my dad. We're gonna work on the float and I thought I'd get him something to wake him up, ya know?"
"Sounds like a nice thing to do for him." She smiled.
"Do you guys have a float?"
"Yup!" exclaimed Sadie. "I mean it's nothing special, but I like to think it is." She put the bag down for a sec and pulled out a drawing she did of a car and a giant donut that looked similar to the donut outside, only it's now the size of the car it's on, lying on its side. Steven's eyes lit up again.
"Ooooooh! Did you draw that?" he asked pointing at it joyfully.
Sadie nodded proudly.
"And who's car is that?"
"Lars. He had to beg his dad to use it as it's the only one where the donut can fit."
"Where's Lars, by the way?"
Sadie went back to putting the last donut in the bag. "He's in the back getting things out of storage. Least he should be. Last time I saw him napping near the mop." She then got a small cup and poured coffee into it. "Then I got my alarm clock from home and set it to a minute. You should've seen how he woke up!" She started laughing at the thought of said memory.
"I can hear you, you know." An unseen Lars exclaimed from the back room. Sadie stopped laughing but still kept it inside her.
"Well, it's nice to know that you're working back there!" responded Sadie.
Meanwhile, Steven was waiting for his order, that is, until he was distracted by the jingle coming from behind him and turned around.
Oohhhh!
He's a frozen treat with an all new taste!
'cause he came to this planet from outer space!...
There was a little speaker on the side of the Cookie Cat freezer which was loaded with tons of the wrapped tasty treat. Steven approached said freezer, tempted to get one, just one, even if it was still early. He stopped his arm though before it could ever lay a finger on the freezer door handle.
"No! Not today, Cookie Cat!" he proclaimed to the inanimate cat-faced freezer with his eyes closed. "I have a job to do and I can't have any distractions. But maybe next time?"
"Uhh, Steven?" said an unsure Sadie looking at Steven. "Will that be all?"
Steven opened his eyes and turned towards Sadie, then back to the Cookie Cat freezer. "Yes."
He then walked towards the counter to pay until...
"Okay, maybe one!" He ran back to the freezer, snatched one of the Cookie Cats, and ran back to the counter.
A few minutes later, Steven arrived at the It's a Wash! He held the coffee in his left hand as well as the bag in the same arm while his right was free to support the last of the Cookie Cat that Steven was immensely enjoying, licking his fingers at the end of it.
"Totally worth it." he said satisfied.
He placed the bag of donuts and coffee on the side as he approached the van and started banging on the door.
"Dad! Dad, are you up yet?!"
He heard a yawn from the inside, almost like a lion's yawn. "Be right out!"
After that was a series of humming, stuff dangling around, more stuff falling to the ground, both light and heavy, one in particular sounded like a body because the next sounds were grunting and grumbling, then back to more stuff falling, then nothing. The door opened revealing Greg donning the usual attire; his tank top and shorts.
"Morning, Stewball." he said, yawning in the process.
"Hey, Dad!" said Steven excitedly, then picked up the coffee and bag from where he left. "I got you breakfast!"
"Well, will you look at that." Steven handed him the food. "You just bout read my mind. Let me guess, Big Donut?"
"How'd you guess?"
"Well, apart from the Big Donut logo on the front of the bag, just an easy guess." he grabbed a donut from the bag and munched on it. "So, you ready to get to work?"
"Am I? You know I am!" exclaimed Steven.
"Wait right here, then." Greg unlocks the door to the car wash and comes back out with giant roll of paper, almost like a blueprint, only not blue.
"I may have to get some stuff out from the storage unit, but we basically have everything we need here." He dropped the roll and placed his coffee down on the ground. "Grab that brick and place it on the side, would ya?"
Steven saw a small brick lying around and places it on the left side so that Greg can unravel the roll revealing a crudely drawn but strangely specific schematic of the Mr. Universe van to be modified as a parade float. Greg takes him through the process.
"Now we don't have much time and I don't want to go through the trouble of repainting the van and then redoing it once the parade's over so we're gonna have to the cheap route and just cover the thing with a giant cloth, cut a giant hole here so the old man can see here. Then I'll go in the back cause I know I have a few big sponges we can use, have one go around the van and cover it with balloons which we'll use as suds, and then place another one on top of the van so you can sit your behind down and wave to your hearts delight. Now unfortunately, we don't have any seat belts but I'll be driving very, very slow. How's that sound?"
"We'll make it work!" confirmed Steven.
"Okay, then let's get started!"
For the next few hours, the two Universes worked on their much awaited float. Greg went into the storage unit real quick and pulled out a specific amount of white cloth, then went back and he and his son unraveled it over the van after much trial and error getting it up there. Once done, Greg cut the amount needed with a boxcutter and the two stuck the ends under the vehicle with tape, a lot of tape. Like, a questionable amount.
Next were the sponges. They went into the back and got two sponges. Steven got the smaller sponge bed and waited for his dad with the other one. Eerie noises were heard, and a giant sponge came out of the back wiggling and almost crawling.
"I'm coming to get you, Steven!"
Steven could see that his dad was under it and played along, running around in circles and laughing as his dad growled. He then got the small sponge bed and whacked his dad with it.
"Oh, no! He got me!" The two laughed.
After that, Greg got the measuring tape and measured both the van and the giant sponge. Luckily, the sponge was actually a bit bigger than the vehicle itself. He got hedge clippers from the back and started cutting around it. The two ran around the coated van with glue and shot as much as they could into the sides, sometimes not helping themselves and shooting each other with it. They then got the sponge piece and wrapped the van around it, Greg stapling the two pieces together, then pushing it more to make sure the glue stuck.
They waited for an hour for the glue to dry by passing the time at board walk and getting lunch at Fish Stew Pizza who didn't have a float, but a brand new pizza mobile that they seemed ready to try out.
Once the hour passed, they came back. Greg got a bunch of balloon bags from the storage unit and took out all the ones that were pink and green. Next, he and Steven blew them to size, some small, others big, tied them up and attached them to the sponge encircling the van.
Greg then got a ladder from the back and climbed the top of the van with the sponge bed in tow. He added another coating of glue, almost all of it, and placed the bed on top, then proceeded to lay on the bed and rolling around in it to make sure it stuck.
Meanwhile, Steven was working on the banner writing IT'S A WASH on it with red paint. Easy enough. He then showed his dad who then stapled it to the cloth on the left side of the van.
Finally, they were finished. The Universes stood back and took a glance at their work of art.
"Phew." Greg wiped some sweat off of his forehead with his arm. "Well, what do you think?"
"It looks great!" replied Steven. "But...how are you going to get in?"
Greg immediately saw that the cloth was completely covering both sides of the van, leaving now way of entering it. He face palmed and groaned.
A couple minutes later, he backed up again, this time, with the boxcutter in hand. "Okay, NOW what do you think?"
The van still looked the same, only now the cloth had a hole on the right side leaving the door exposed. At least there was now a way in. The back is already blocked due to the sponge covering and the well done tape job.
"It still looks amazing!" said Steven happily.
"You think?" asked Greg.
"Oh, definitely." Steven walked around the van/float admiring its somewhat beauty, at least to him. "People are gonna be talking about this one a lot. May even gain you a bunch of new customers!"
"Well, I'm not so sure about that." Greg scratched his head. "But I'm definitely sure that it'll have the cutest scrub brush sitting on top of this thing and many people will be talking more about that."
Steven had the biggest grin on his face. "REALLY?!"
Greg laughed, "Yup! In fact, close your eyes. I got a surprise for ya."
Steven turned around and covered his eyes with his hands, grin still intact. He heard the van door open and some rummaging going on in there. After a few seconds, the door was heard being closed.
"Thank goodness I made that hole, otherwise this would've been stuck in there." Greg said. "Okay, open your eyes!"
Steven turned around and uncovered his eyes only to see...a small purple jumpsuit.
"It's your own little jumpsuit." said Greg.
Steven gasped. "Really?! You mean it?!" He gasped again as he spotted something on the right sleeve. "It's even got the logo!"
"Oh, that's nothing." Greg said confidently. "Check the back."
Steven did. His eyes went big with stars once again. Lo and behold, the MR. UNIVERSE logo, neatly embroidered onto the back. He started stuttering, not being able to find the words. "I-i-it-it-it's your-"
"Yup, it's your old man's logo. Had them embroider it as well even though it costed a bit extra but I knew you'd be excit-" He stopped as he felt something wrap around his leg.
"Thank you so much, Dad! You're the best dad in the whole world!"
"You're welcome, Stewball." he said lovingly, before giving him another noogie, both of them laughing. Steven did indeed have the best father this side of Beach City.
A/N: Well, that was a long one. There's another scene I wanted to add but I'll have that be it's own chapter. We're getting close though! The next few chapters are ones I REALLY Can't wait to start writing! :D