Lacey was opening her family's sweet shop early Tuesday morning when she noticed a commotion over the road. Recently there was a lot going on over there, always loud and always crowded. A new owner had only recently opened up the old joke shop again. It wouldn't have been a problem for Lacey or her father if they weren't stealing all their customers. Instead of the children spending their pocket money on sweets and treats in her store, they were going over to the joke shop and buying silly pranks to play on their friends and family.

She watched as the person she had figured was the owner, a tall red-headed man, put a new poster outside of the shop. He looked exactly like the massive animatronic person coming out of the top of the building, which she thought most definitely proved the new owner was a massive twat. Who could be so self-centered to have their own face as a massive animatronic?

She stopped to read the poster - All new products coming to store soon. The picture below showed lots of different colourful sweets.

This filled Lacey with rage. That was exactly what her store sold. They were the local sweet shop and had been for the past twelve years. How could he just come to town, take their customers and now he was trying to sell their products with no consideration, what a pretentious asshole.

Screw it. Lacey was going to go over there and give him a piece of her mind. She switched the shop sign to closed and jogged on over the road. Then walked up to the tall ginger man and wasted no time. She asked him, "Are you really selling sweets now?"

"Pardon?" He chuckled, slightly confused why a random woman had asked him so angrily if he sold sweets. It was obvious. He stood back looking at the poster, making sure it was even.

"You're now selling sweets?" She repeated slightly louder, already trying not to blow up on him.

"Yeah, we have-"

"No!" She cut him off. "I did not ask what you have. But you sure have some nerve selling sweets when there's literally a sweet store right across the road." She pointed over the road to where her father's store was located. It was maybe one third of the size of that big orange monstrosity.

"Oh, that place? I thought it was on its way out." He chuckled, turning to Lacey to give her his full attention.

"What?!" She was getting extremely annoyed with the new joke shop owner. "I'll have you know it is not on its way out! My father has had that store for 12 years and we are not going anywhere, anytime soon."

"Sorry I-"

"Don't apologise, just stop selling sweets." With that, she turned back around and stormed back over the road to the sweet stop. She felt his eyes burn into her as she did so, but she didn't dare take a second glance at him. If she did, she would have sworn she would have hit him.

She couldn't believe his audacity. How could he think they were on their way out? What made it seem that way? Probably the lack of customers it brought in. The store had been near enough dead since he had come to town.

"Ugh!" She groaned, opening the door to the shop.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Lacey's father, John asked. He was busy refilling a jar of humbugs, which was sadly their best seller at the minute. They were basically living off elderly lady's money, they were just keeping the store afloat, barely.

"Him!" She groaned, pointing at the store across the street. "Did you know he's now started selling sweets?" She huffed, putting her apron on over her head.

"Really?" Her dad said rather calmly.

"Yes! How are you not more annoyed, Dad?" Lacey didn't understand why it didn't infuriate her father like it did her.

"Because we both knew this would happen eventually Lacey, this store has done us pretty well over the years, but I-"

"But what dad? You're not giving up, are you? You can't just throw all this away because some spoiled rich kid got to use daddy's money to buy them a store."

"No, I'm not giving up Lacey. I'm just saying be aware that we probably won't survive the rest of the year."

"Won't survive? So it's really that bad? Chris told me it was bad, but I didn't realise it was this bad." Lacey obviously knew the store was on its last legs, but it was more likely grabbing on for dear life. Her heart pounded, hard. She felt as if she was going to be sick. She had worked in this store for as long as she could remember. It was like a second home to her. It literally was her home for the past two years. She had only recently moved back into the family home after her dad had received more bad news about his health.

Twelve years was a long time, and she didn't want to throw it away. She was going to do everything in her power to keep this store open, even if it meant shouting at the new shop owner until he backed down. Lacey didn't scare easily, and she was going to make sure this new big shot knew that.