Burning It Down, All the Way to Bat Country

Trinity's POV

Beep beep bee I rolled over and slammed my hand on top of my alarm. Why the fuck was my alarm going off at 9 am on a Saturday? SHIT! My date was today! I rolled out of bed and ran into my bathroom to take a shower. 45 minutes and all the hot water later, and I was stepping out and wrapping a towel around my body. I padded over to my dresser to grab clean underwear and toweled off quickly. I walked over to my stereo in my underwear and turned it on, docking my iPod in and setting in on shuffle. I smiled when the remix of Ice Cream Paint Job came blasting through the speakers. I walked over to my closet trying to figure out what to wear, and grinned when I found my favorite jeans, I knew the perfect shirt to go with them. I was still dancing around my room when my dad walked in. I grinned when the song changed to ‘Crazy Bitch’ and started singing along, not noticing my dad until I turned around. I froze, blushing 50 shades of red, and grinned before speaking,

“Hi daddy! I’m not listening to completely inappropriate music. How are you this fine morning? Ya know what; I’m gonna go change the song. Good plan, hold on a sec.” I walked over and picked up my iPod and hit next, smiling in relief when Owl City came through the speakers. I turned back to my dad,

“So what can I do for you?”
“I just wanted to make sure you were getting ready, Mitch just called, he’s coming to pick you up at about 11 now, he’ll have you home by 5. Apparently he has a whole day planned, you should have fun.” I smiled and nodded,
“Ok, thanks for letting me know daddy. I need you to leave now; I need to finish getting ready.” I grinned cheekily at him and he just laughed, shaking his head as he walked out the door. I walked into my bathroom where my hair dryer were, turned them both on, and proceeded with the forty minutes it took to dry and straighten my hair. I looked at my watch and squeaked; I only had 15 minutes for makeup. I decided to just put on some mascara, eyeliner, and lip gloss. I wasn’t one of those girls who caked on makeup. I shoved my trusty red converse on my feet and ran down the stairs, almost falling on my face at the bottom. I righted myself and skipped into the kitchen to grab an apple. I was walking to the living room when I ran into a wall and fell on my ass.

“Mother fucker, that wall was not there ten minutes ago!” I said to myself, and looked up when I heard a deep male chuckle, turns out Mitch was the wall I had run into. I grabbed his offered hand, and was pulled to my feet way too easily.
“Well, I didn’t think I was a wall. Are you ok?”
“Yeah I’m good, that happens a lot around here actually.” He smiled at me, pulling me into a quick hug.
“So, you ready to go? I have something big planned.”
“Yep, I just need to tell my dad I’m leaving.” He nodded and we walked out back where the guys were standing by the pool laughing. I saw Johnny in the pool fully clothed, they probably threw him in the pool again.

“Hey daddy, I’m leaving!” I shouted over to him, he waved and nodded,
“Ok baby girl, have fun. And Mitch, have her back by 9 ok? Trin, the sleepover got cancelled this weekend, Blaike and Evan got grounded.” I nodded and waved back, and Mitch led me out to his car.
“So, what do you have planned for today?” He laughed and looked at me nervously,

“Well, there’s this shelter that I volunteer at every Saturday, so I figured you might wanna help me?”
“Aw, Mitch that’s so sweet; sounds fun. What are we gonna be doing?”
“Well, first we’re going to the donation center downtown, where we sort everything and put it into boxes, then we drop them off at the four shelters we have in this part of town. After we drop the stuff at the shelter, we go to the kitchen and start making food for the people who are coming in tonight. Dinner prep starts at 4, we serve at 6, and we’re done by 8:30. Then I’ll take you home after we clean up. Sound good?” I nodded,
“Mitch that sounds great! This is gonna be so much fun!” I said, clapping my hands and bouncing in my seat. He just laughed and nodded, and we continued the short ride to the donation office. As we were walking, Mitch grabbed my hand and led me over to a scary looking guy, I swear, he was taller than Jimmy and bigger than my dad. I shrunk into Mitch’s side, he didn’t seem to mind much, and introduced me to the hulk,

“Trini, this is Saul, Saul, this is Trini, she’s the girl I was telling you about.” Saul smiled at me, and I waved nervously.
“Don’t worry Trin, Saul wouldn’t hurt a rabid bear if it was attacking him.” I nodded and smiled, trying to give the man a chance.
“Alright sweetie, I need you and Mitchy boy here to go and sort the girl’s clothes. He knows how to do it and where everything is, I’m glad you could make it. When you aren’t scared of me, I’ll tell you all of Mitch’s embarrassing stories, and trust me, I’ve got a lot.” I nodded and grinned before walking away with Mitch.

“Alright, so here’s how it goes, baby clothes are 0-12 months, toddlers are 2-5 years, girls are 6-10, juniors are 11-12, and teens. All the boxes are labeled clearly, and this is the pile that we have to sort into the boxes. Ready?” I looked at the huge pile before grinning and nodding,
“Bring it on.”

Two hours later and we had finished sorting and loading the boxes into the truck.
“Alright, on to the shelter!” I laughed and ran to the car, waiting for him to catch up.
“Ya know, for such a tiny thing, you sure are fast.” I grinned and nodded, sliding into the car and messing with his radio the minute he started the car. He started laughing when Framing Hanley’s version of Lollipop starting booming out of the speakers and I started dancing. We pulled into the lot of the kitchen just the song ended, and I hopped out of the car, excited to get to work again.
“Come on slowpoke, we have shit to do!” I yelled, dragging Mitch inside the building, where he then took the lead, considering the fact that I had no clue where I was going. He lead me into a big ass kitchen, where Saul was already ordering people around. He turned and grinned when he saw me,

“Ah, here’s my girl, can you handle sharp objects?” I smiled and nodded,
“Alright then, quarter the potatoes as Mitch hands them to you, then put the quarters into the water. Think you can handle that?” I smirked,
“Oh please, that’s a cakewalk for me, come on Mitch, let’s show the hulk here how it’s done.” I sharpened the knife as Mitch washed and peeled the first few potatoes, and quartered them quickly and precisely. We were done twenty minutes later, and walked over to Saul to receive our next assignment. He looked at us in surprise; he thought it was going to take us way longer.

“Alright you two, since you finished the potatoes so quickly, you can make sure we have cutlery, napkins, and cups stocked. Get the juice made, and get it on ice.” I snapped a salute and him and turned sharply on my heel, marching over to the giant coolers to make the juice while Mitch checked supplies. After that we cleaned dishes, put tablecloths out, and put the food into warming pans so we could serve it. It was finally 6 pm, and we were getting ready to open the doors. I was supposed to stay behind the counter with Mitch, apparently it was safer. I got put in charge of serving the mashed potatoes with gravy and the baked chicken, Mitch had control of the salad and dessert. I stood there for two hours, smiling and talking to the people who came through the line. I met some great people who had fallen on hard times, and my heart broke when I was talking to a little girl who had to stay in the shelter with her older sister because they didn’t have anywhere else to go. I cried with an old man who had been in the Vietnam War, and laughed with a lady who had awesome stories from the peace movements of the sixties. I spent some time watching Mitch interact with the people who came through, and once we were done and walking out to the car, surprised him with a hug.

“Thank you for bringing me here, it was a great experience.” He smiled and tugged me into another hug,
“Thanks for coming, not many girls would have.” I smiled and went back to cleaning up; we left about twenty minutes later. I looked at the clock on my phone; it was 8:55pm.
“Shit! I gotta call my dad, there’s no way you’re getting me home in five minutes.” I said to Mitch, he laughed and nodded, turning the radio down as I dialed my dad’s cell number,

“Hello?”
“Hey dad, I just wanted to call and let you know that I’m gonna be late, we just left.”
“Just left where? How late are you gonna be?”
“Just left the shelter, I’ll be home in ten, fifteen minutes tops.”
“Ok sweetie, wait, what shelter?”
“I’ll tell you all about it when I get home ok? I want everyone else to be there too, I only want to explain it once.”
“Alright baby girl, we’ll see you soon then, thanks for calling.”
“No problem daddy, see ya in a bit, love you.”
“Love you too baby, bye.”

I hung up the phone and smiled at Mitch, who just grabbed my hand and held it for the rest of the ride home. He walked me to my front door and we stood there for a minute, not quite willing to end the evening.
“So you had fun? It wasn’t a bad date?” I smiled at him,
“It was a perfect date, thank you.” He smiled back before leaning in, cupping my cheek and kissing me softly. My eyes fluttered closed and I swear; I saw fireworks. He pulled away and pecked my lips once more before turning and walking away.
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow ok?” he called; I nodded and waved, watching while he backed out and drove off. I walked inside when his taillights disappeared, and was met by my father with his arms crossed over his chest, glaring at the street.

“Daddy, what’s wrong?”
“He kissed you; I kinda have a problem with that!”
“Oh come off it Matt, you saw the same thing I did, he wasn’t touching her in any way to make her uncomfortable, hell, he barely kissed her!” I smiled gratefully at Steph as she came to my rescue, and she grabbed my arm; dragging me into the living room where the rest of my family was sitting. I laughed and sat down, waiting for one of them to ask how my date went. Lynnie finally got impatient and asked,

“Don’t just sit there, spill girl!” I laughed and launched into the re telling of my perfect date. At the end, all the girls sat there, before squealing and tackling me into a hug.
“Oh my gosh, Trin, that’s sooooo cute!” Jaz gushed, squeezing my shoulders before going back to Johnny’s lap. All the girls agreed with Jaz’s statement, going back to their respective boyfriends. I looked at the guys, waiting for their reaction; their opinion really mattered to me. My uncles smiled and nodded their approval, I looked to my dad. He stood and sighed, motioning for me to follow him to the kitchen.

“He sounds like a really great kid Trin, are you sure about him?”
“I’m sure about him, but I want to know what you think daddy.” He sighed before pulling me into a hug.
“I think I had better get ready for this, you have my blessing kid.” I squealed and hugged him tighter,
“Thank you daddy!”

Mitch’s POV
“I’m home!” I called into my house, throwing my keys on the counter.
“In here!” I heard my mom call from the living room. I walked in and gave her a hug, sitting down as requested.
“So how did it go?”
“It was great mom; I think I got it right this time. She didn’t complain about not going out to dinner or something, she was totally on board with volunteering.” I was itching to call her, and my mom could tell, she waved me off, I grinned and kissed her cheek before bounding up the stairs to my room, pulling my phone out of my pocket and laying o my bed. I dialed her number and waited for her to pick up.

“Hello?”
“Hey cutie,”
“Hey! I thought you weren’t calling me until tomorrow haha.”
“I know, I have issues with waiting. I just wanted to talk to you. What are you doing tomorrow?”
“I told Jimmy and Jasey I would watch Aja tomorrow so they could get some stuff done, why?”
“Want to go the park with me and Chris?”
“Haha sure, that sounds like fun. What time?”
“Maybe around noon? We can feed the little monster after the park.”
“Ok, sounds good. Well my dad says it’s time for lights out, call me tomorrow ok?”
“Will do, see ya tomorrow Trin.”
“Bye Mitch!” I smiled as I snapped my phone closed. Tomorrow would be fun.