“You got table 3?”

Cadence nodded to her co-worker. “Yeah. I’ve got it.” She grabbed a pen off the counter and walked over to table 3 while putting her smile in place. The boy sitting at the table looked up as she approached. “Hi,” she said cheerfully, “are you ready to order?”

He blinked at her, looked down at the small, hand-made menu once more, glanced up again, and pushed the menu aside. “Just a chocolate shake.”

“There’s a special today where our shakes come with a complimentary scone. Would you like one?”

“What’ve you got?”

“Apple, strawberry-rhubarb, and raspberries-n-crème.”

“Raspberries-n-crème.”

“Sure thing,” she smiled at him once more and headed off to get his order.

Behind the counter, her friend Jane was studying the boy she’d just waited on. “You know him?”

“No,” Cadence replied. “Why?”

“I hear he’s new in town. Just transferred to the high school.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. There’s a bunch of different stories as to why.”

Cadence sighed and rolled her eyes. More small town drama. “Well, I don’t really want to hear it. You know Mr. Harrison doesn’t like town gossip going around with the workers.”

“I know, I know,” Jane sighed, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. “Oh, gotta go get that customer. Ooh! He’s a hottie! Oooh, is that his girlfriend?”

Cadence rolled her eyes as Jane hurried away. A lot of interesting people worked at the Caramel Café, the only café in the small town of Ferris. Mr. Tom Harrison owned the café. He had moved to Ferris two years earlier to start the café. Cadence had been one of the first workers at Caramel Café and she absolutely loved it. Mr. Harrison had instantly given the poor, tired, sophomore girl a job when he heard of the financial struggles she and her mother were having. Now a senior in high school, Cadence was happy to say that she and her mother were no longer struggling. At least, not financially. There were still many other unseen problems in their household, but as long as they weren’t on the streets Cadence was content. Mr. Harrison and Ms Lane (Cadence’s mother) didn’t realize it but Cadence knew about what was going on with them. She wasn’t dumb; she knew her salary from the café wasn’t enough to settle all their financial problems. She liked Mr. Harrison and she wished them the best, even if they didn’t know she did. Besides Cadence, five other teenagers worked at the café along with three adults.

Jane Perry was Cadence’s best friend. She was the youngest daughter of the wealthiest family in Ferris and her father had forced her to apply at the café because he didn’t want her to become too spoiled. It was a bit late for that… Jane meant well, but she was constantly looking down on other people and could usually be found right in the middle of the biggest gossip circles. Cadence loved her anyway.

Xavier Nicholson was a rough looking boy, a sophomore in high school, and the best baker you could ask for. Despite his blue hair, pierced lip, pierced ears, stone face, and all-around punk-tough-boy look he was very sensitive—and a great baker—was that mentioned? Xavier had moved to Ferris when he was adopted into a family who lived there. He’d lived a rough life in the city and didn’t like to talk about it, so no one ever bothered him about it.

Kayla Roberts was a petite girl with a fiery attitude. She loved to refer to the Caramel Café as ‘her place’ because they were the same color. Her mother was white and her father black, giving her a delicious caramel skin color. If anything was going on in the café among the workers that shouldn’t, you could be sure that Kayla was going to get in someone’s face and set things straight. She was the café’s little firecracker.

Alec and Alejo Ramirez were the café troublemakers. You could count on them to mess up orders, spill countless things, tease anyone and everyone, and then turn their big brown eyes on you and say they’re sorry. The two juniors came to the café when their abuelo passed away and they had to begin taking care of their abuela and small cousin. Mr. Harrison was patient with them, though, and kept them around because of their amazing coffee-making skills.

Two of the adults were Mr. and Mrs. Okita, lovingly referred to as Oji-chan and Oba-chan. The elderly Japanese couple took care of a lot of behind the scenes things like finances, stock, and other things that teenagers could care less about. Everybody at the café loved the two of them.

The other adult was Miss Laura Martin, a single-mother of a ten-year-old boy. She’d had her son, Jake, at sixteen, and now at twenty-six, working at the café and at the gas station down the street were the only ways she could get money to support herself and Jake.

Cadence took the scone and shake over to the new boy’s table. He thanked her half-heartedly and picked off a corner of the scone.

“Can I get you anything else?”

“No…but…could you do me a favor?”

“Uh, sure.”

He crumbled the piece of scone in his fingers and sprinkled it over the rest of the scone. “What time do you get off work?”

Cadence eyed him warily. “Soon…why?”

“I just wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Yeah. Okay. I get off at five. Meet me in front of the café.”

“Okay.”