Here we go with another chapter. We are now onto Friday, the ice cream social. We're almost done now. I know, maybe I should have waited longer for more reviews or something but for the record it's not my fault, it's my brains. So I don't think there's much to say here. Um...for those of you who are unaware, I have updated my profile and any updates on my stories, as well as posting them in the a/n's of my active stories, I am also posting them on my profile so hopefully that will help you all keep track. Now I will be starting school soon, but this should also be my last week of work so hopefully that makes you guys happy, meaning I should be able to get in a good amount of updates before school starts up again. So yeah, that should do it here and another thanks to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter. Now let's see what we can do with this chapter, shall we?
Disclaimer: Me own nothing.

"Whoa Tay, slow down." Chad said as he watched his girlfriend rush through nearly every corner of the kitchen. He didn't think he'd seen her look more stressed all week.

"Sorry Chad, no time to talk." Taylor said as she continued running, dodging nearly everyone she could. Even Zeke was almost losing his balance carrying some fresh brownies he'd made with the help of the head chef and...was that fresh strudel he'd made, too? Wow it actually looked pretty good.

Chad raised an eyebrow as he picked up Taylor's clipboard. she had it on one of the counters from the time being, apparently placing a check mark next to everything that had been checked on. He briefly glanced over the list. Check ice cream in freezer, more butter pecan? It had a star next to it so it must have been important. Order chocolate sauce;, caramel? Check, so it had to be done or in the process of being done, knowing Taylor. Scoops??? Why were there even so many question marks next to it? EXTRA PAPER TOWELS!!! Again, why so many exclamation points?

"Thanks Chad." Taylor told him, snatching the clipboard from his hands. She scribbled a quick note on the sheet, which Chad didn't even have enough time to read before Taylor was about to rush out of the kitchen.

"Taylor what's going on?" he called after her.

Taylor stopped briefly to face him, knowing she didn't have much time to spare. "The ice cream social is today Chad. I need to go to the other freezer and get out more butter pecan ice cream. Then I have to run to the store in town to get more chocolate syrup. And buy more paper towels, because it's bound to get messy out there."

"and why are you so freaked?" he couldn't help but chuckle.

"Do you know how many people are going to be at this social?" Taylor replied. "I'm not sure what's going to be worse - preparing for the social or actually serving the ice cream. And you're the bus boy so you're going to have to bring them their food and remember who gets which ice cream at which table. This entire kitchen is going to be a madhouse this afternoon and we've only got three hours to prep for it."

Chad raised an eyebrow. "It's eleven already?"

Taylor sighed heavily. "Yes Chad, because some of us have been here since nine a.m. having a few other issues to take care of. Why do you think I'm rushing to check for everything two hours after arriving?"

He walked over to her and gently rubbed her shoulders. "Ok Taylor, relax." he said as calmly as he could. "The social is gonna go just fine. You just worry about getting all the ice cream we'll need back here and leave the rest of the job to us."

"I'm just saying that this is what happens when some of us are told the morning of the event to start preparing for everything when we should have a day prior to make sure we have everything in order." Taylor told him.

"Understood. And I'm just saying that you need to chill. Imagine yourself bathing in a chocolate sundae." Chad replied.

"I don't know..." Taylor shook her head.

"Do you need some more encouragement?" Chad asked.

Taylor was about to open her mouth to speak until Mr. Fulton walked into the kitchen. "Ms. McKessie, chop chop. This is not some game show called 'Spilling Secrets to my Boyfriend', this is time to get everything for the ice cream social. Don't make me consider taking away that raise."

"Of course not Mr. Fulton." Taylor shook her head, turning to their boss.

"Then get right to it." Fulton replied before leaving.

Chad raised an eyebrow and looked at Taylor. "Raise? What raise?"

"I'll tell you about it later." Taylor told him. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek and headed out of the kitchen. "Gotta go. Talk to you later."

-CT-CT-CT-CT-CT-

It didn't seem like much time had passed but in reality it was a few hours later. Not even half the guests were in the dining room for the ice cream social and already the Wildcats were going crazy. There was order after order and they were doing everything possible to get the bowls and such ready. The sad thing about it was, customers who already asked for their ice cream would most likely be asking for more with all of the dishes that they were giving out there would be almost no time to wash them once they were in the sink and there could end up being a shortage of bowls. When did anything dealing with ice cream become so complicated? Now everyone knew what the waiters and chefs felt like in Friendly's if they ever gave away free ice cream.

"I need five more chocolates!" Jason exclaimed as he burst through the kitchen doors. He practically pushed the sheet of paper with the orders into Zeke's hand, who was trying to lead everything through the chaos.

"Don't give me the note, tell me what to do! I don't have any time to read it." Zeke replied as he pushed the note back into Jason's hands and continued working on the ice cream dish he had started on.

"Well...all this busy work has to mean time is flying by fast, right?" Chad asked hopefully as he carried in a fresh container of whipped cream.

"Think again man. It's only been fifteen minutes." Zeke replied as he topped the current order with sprinkles and a cherry. He placed it on a tray with three other orders and called Troy over. "Dude, your table seven is ready. All four of them!"

Troy sighed as he rushed over to his friend. "Dude I'm not even supposed to be back here with the tables or anything. It's my job to caddy today." he replied.

"Things change at the last minute man, besides I'm sure Fulton if paying you double for this." Zeke said as he started working on the order Jason just brought in.

Martha looked up from the ice cream she was scooping into a bowl. "Chad you'd better get back out there. I think your tables are going to get restless."

"How many of them are even filled up?" Chad sighed.

"I've gone out there a lot. There's supposed to be hundreds of people out there. I think there's too many people for the tables." Jason said.

"Look we can handle everything back here. Just get a move on and take more orders." Martha told Chad. "If anyone asks then tell them it'll be about ten minutes. Hopefully they'll understand."

Chad groaned. "This is not what I sighed up for!" He closed the fridge and picked up his notepad, rushing out to his designated tables to take more orders.

As soon as he left, Taylor burst in through the other entrance, with her clipboard as usual. It was becoming a part of he body structure at this rate, since she carried it around with her every day. "Please tell me it's going swimmingly back here. It's a madhouse out there."

"They gave out too many ice cream choices." one of the Wildcats said as they brought in another container of chocolate. The guy was on the tall side with dark skin and his black hair looked like it was all back in braids. Another Wildcat was right behind him, one of the cheerleaders. Her skin was the same shade and her hair was straight and jet black. "you have no idea how many times we have to run to the larger freezer to pull out more chocolate ice cream." he continued.

"And we ran out of one of the toppings." the girl added. "We sent a big group out to buy some more stuff just in case. We can't keep running back and forth like this."

Taylor shook her head with doubt. "But I checked everything this morning. I made a list of all ice creams and toppings that we'd need."

"I think you just overlooked a few details." the female Wildcat told her. "I'm not even sure where we need more help, out there or back here."

"Just be glad we don't have to serve Sharpay out there." Jason said as he took the first of the orders Zeke prepared before rushing out.

"What if Mr. Fulton comes back here?" Taylor asked worriedly.

"I don't think there'dbeany room for him in here. The kitchen's gonna be too busy being flooded with ice cream." the guy said before putting what was on the cart away in the freezer.

"Why can't you get Kelsi to help?" Troy inquired as he walked back in, overhearing parts of the conversation. Luckily there wasn't as big a crowd by the kitchen doors as there was around the rest of the dining area. "She's out there playing music, I can get her."

Taylor shook her head. "No, Kelsi's entertaining the group with music and has to be back out there for tea time. She's going to be starving by the time this is over."

"Well I'm supposed to be caddying today and here I am back here instead." Troy told her.

"That's because Fulton told you when you clocked in that you needed to be back here and it was more important than caddying." Taylor sighed heavily. "Look is there any way we can get more organized back here?"

"Not a chance, we're already at our own stations. The only issue is fighting over what to get out of the fridge and freezer at the same time." Martha said.

"Well there has to be an easier way." Taylor said.

Chad burst through the doors breathing heavily. He almost looked like his apron was going to fall off. "Guys if we don't get more ice cream out there to those hungry people I think they're gonna pull our torches and pitch forks from under the tables and form an angry mob and chase us right out of New Mexico!"

"Maybe we're all taking on too much at once." Troy suggested. "Can we buy some time to try and get more organized?"

"We can't do any of that. We all have other jobs to do besides make all of this ice cream." Martha told him.

"We're lucky we can even talk while we do this at the same time." Zeke added.

Jason ran out with the tray of ice cream he was carrying. "I'm lucky I haven't fallen over yet! The ice cream would fall on my head and make me look like a clown!"

"Give him like ten more minutes. It's bound to happen. Zeke man, more orders." Chad said flinging his notepad.

"Take it to one of the other chefs, I'm covering Jason's orders." Zeke replied.

"Martha..." Chad started.

"I'm juggling Troy's orders." she replied. "Can you ask one of the other wildcats? Maybe Heffa? Or Britt?"

"They just came back from lugging like five containers of chocolate ice cream!" chad exaggerated.

"Molly's outside taking some of the orders. Should I get her in here when I go out?" Troy asked waiting by the doors for an answer.

"No, then you, Jason, and Chad are going to have to split all of the tables she has between you three." Martha replied, chopping a banana for a sundae.

"Maybe we need more help back here than we do out there." Troy stated.

"Well arguing isn't gonna get us anywhere. We have to work and we have to work fast without screwing up. We got people hungry for ice cream out there. We can't let them down!" Zeke said.

Taylor wasn't sure how much more of this she could take. Everyone was raising their voices and seeming so paranoid. There were verbal fights breaking out and everyone was clearly stressed. Taylor had been stressed enough that morning preparing for everything. Now it was even worse because she saw everyone else stressing out and the crowd outside was growing by the minute. People were only going to ask for more ice cream and no one seemed to have the time or patience to give them felt her heart pounding against her chest and she began taking multiple deep breaths. Oh man...oh man what was going on? What was she going to do? What was she going to tell Mr. Fulton? Taylor was supposed to be in charge of all of this and it was making her a nervous wreck. She dropped her clipboard and grabbed her chest as she felt herself hyperventilating, her breath becoming caught in her throat, and her head pounding with a splitting headache.

chad turned away from the anarchy to bring out some ice cream to everyone. He stopped when he saw Taylor leaning up against the wall, struggling to keep her balance. Automatically he became worried and rushed to her side. "Taylor? Tay are you alright?"

But Taylor didn't respond. She just couldn't bring herself to. The pressure and stress was just too much. Normally it would have helped to have Chad just standing next to her like he was now but it wasn't working. It wasn't helping at all.

Chad quickly put down his tray of food and placed his hands on her shoulders as she began sliding down the wall. "Tay are you alright? Baby talk to me." he pleaded becoming more worried by her hard breaths and her facial expression that just spelled freaking out. He didn't want to see her like this, she wasn't supposed to be this freaked. In the background Chad could hear everyone arguing, whether they were working or not. He scowled at how ignorant they could be of one of their friends just having some kind of panic attack on the kitchen floor from watching them. "Will you all shut up?" he practically yelled, standing up to face the group. At that instant all of the employees turned to face Chad, wondering what got him so worked up so quick. "don't you guys see what's going on? Taylor's freaking out over here and it's cause of all your arguing. Stop it, you're scaring the poor girl!" he continued.

"What?" Zeke asked in shock. "what should we do?"

"We need to get help." Martha said right away. "I think she needs some water. Maybe a place to get away for some peace and quiet where she can't get stressed."

"I'll go find Fulton. The guests out there can wait longer for their ice cream." Troy said quickly, being the most level headed of the group at the moment.

Chad nodded and carefully picked Taylor up, leaving her clipboard on the floor and holding her tight in his arms. "Tell him I'm bringing her out to the pool."

"Why there?" Jason asked.

"Cause there won't be any screaming there!" Chad replied before rushing out to get Taylor out from all the torture in the kitchen.

-CT-CT-CT-CT-CT-

The pool was so much more quieter and relaxing than the kitchen ever was. Maybe it was because today was slightly chillier than the rest of the week had been so not too many people wanted to go swimming. But Chad had made sure he and Taylor weren't near any of the guests and that they were in the most peaceful spot they could find. He had her laying down on a lawn chair with a beach umbrella behind it to shield her from the sun's rays. As much as Chad knew it was his job to be in the kitchen and help with the social, his place was out here making sure that Taylor would wake up and calm down. At some point between them leaving and reaching the pool, Chad wasn't sure exactly when, she must have fainted because her breaths were light and her eyes were closed. He couldn't blame her, of course. He should have been more concerned if it didn't happen at all. But this was not like Taylor so he knew something had to be wrong.

With no watch on him for once, Chad wasn't sure how long he was waiting by her side for her to wake up. But her eyes did eventually flutter and aside from a flushed face, she looked a little more relaxed.

Chad sighed with relief watching her wake up. He kept his hand over hers, where it had been the whole time, and gently caressed it. "Hey. Hey there Sleeping Beauty." he said softly.

Taylor grunted slightly, most likely trying to get out the last of the stress that had taken over her. "Chad?" she asked quietly at first as she woke up. "What happened?"

"you passed out. There was a lot of arguing going on in the kitchen and you freaked." he explained.

"That hyperventilating...I thought it was just a dream." she admitted. She then went to rub her forehead. "But I guess it would explain the headache."

"Are you feeling any better?" Chad asked.

"A little, I guess, now that it's quiet." Taylor answered. "How did the social go? Is it over?"

"I'm not sure." he admitted. "But you were taking all these deep breaths and grabbing your chest, I told everyone to shut up with their fighting, and Troy went to tell Fulton what happened."

Taylor groaned. That was not what she wanted to hear. "So the ice cream social was a dud."

"you don't know that." he shook his head.

"no, I do. Mr. Fulton put me in charge of it and not everything was ready, I screwed up on the simplest of things, there wasn't enough of everything around the club..." Taylor started.

"That's not true." he interrupted. "you knew how many people were gonna be at this thing and it was the biggest turn around all week, especially after it's been so quiet around here after the Star Dazzle awards. It caught you off guard and it was just too much to handle."

Taylor shook her head. "There's not supposed to be too much for me to handle. I know I can do everything."

"Maybe it was too much for one day." Chad suggested. "Tay it's not your fault. You were just trying to check on us and help out. We're the ones who screwed up, being so stupid with our rushing and all. The ice cream was probably all melted by the time we delivered it."

"You're just saying that to make me feel better." she replied.

"Maybe a tad." Chad confessed. "But Taylor, it's just one day. It's a summer job. Everyone's allowed to mess up once. That doesn't mean it's the end of the world."

"I'm just so used to everything working out for me and being able to juggle five things at once." Taylor sighed. "This time last year I was reading a chapter for Chemistry while writing an English essay for a summer assignment during a Saved by the Bell marathon at eleven at night. This year..."

"This year you're not doing school work." chad finished, looking her directly in the eyes. "It's real life, a real actual job. It's not exactly something any of us are used to."

But before either of them could say anything else, Mr. Fulton made his presence known as he walked over. "Ah, Ms. McKessie. I see you're awake from your little nap."

Taylor sighed and looked at her boss, mentally preparing herself for the worst. "I wasn't sleeping, sir."

"I thought you would be able to handle all this. And yet not even a forth way into the ice cream social and I'm told my entertainment director is passed out, the entire kitchen has stopped working, half the staff left the area, and people had to wait over fifteen minutes for their ice cream." Fulton continued.

"Mr. Fulton, if I could just have a few minutes to explain..." she started as she sat up on the chair.

"There's no need for explanations, Ms. McKessie." he replied. "My decision is final. There will be no raise for you and I'm going to demote you to bus boy until you can properly handle your job."

"Bus boy?" she gasped with wide eyes.

"Bus girl." he corrected. "Whatever the terminology you wish to use." He turned to walk away until Chad let his voice be heard and stood up.

"Mr. Fulton...."

The middle aged man turned to Chad and sent him a very mean glare.

Chad bit his tongue, trying to figure out how to win this guy over. "Mr. Fulton...your excellency, sir...with all due respect none of this was Taylor's fault. This is her first job. You gave her too much to handle."

"I was told that she was efficient and an excellent multitasker. I can see that I heard very wrong." Mr. Fulton said coldly.

"She is. there's no one efficienter than Taylor." Silly Chad, that wasn't even a real word! He realized that and shook her head. "Look my point is, you can't find anyone better for the job than Taylor. You gave her a lot more to do than she was used to doing all at once, especially in the morning. And in the kitchen, we were all going at each others' throats trying to figure out the best way to get the members their precious ice cream and that's what got to her. It annoyed her that we were fighting and the social wasn't going as smoothly as any other event and it made her feel like she did a terrible job. But my point is, she didn't do anything less of a good job. That's what Taylor does. She lives to please people and help them and she was just trying to help us when she came to check on how we were doing but we were too stubborn to listen to her. So don't get her in trouble." Chad wasn't even saying all that just to defend Taylor or her job. He knew how much this meant to her and he could tell she was scared of this new territory called failing...or possible failing. And he knew how badly she wanted that raise and there was no way he was letting Fulton take it away from her or his name was Delila Pumpernickel...and boy was he glad it wasn't.

Mr. Fulton crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at Chad. It was almost like he was waiting for him to back down or throw something else in. But when Chad said no more, the man tilted his head towards Taylor. "Ms. Mckessie?"

Taylor picked her head up and gave a nod to her boss, still trying to get over what Chad had done for her.

"Take the next half hour to clear your mind and we'll start going over what we need for the Round Robin Tennis Tournament tomorrow. Be sure to let your co-workers know that you're alright and see me in my office about tomorrow in no later than an hour." he told her.

"Understood." was all Taylor could get out, nodding. As Mr. Fulton walked away, Taylor turned her head to face Chad. She watched as he sat down at the edge of the lawn chair and she sat up completely so she was sitting next to him.

"wow..." Chad breathed, "That was almost really bad."

"Yeah. It almost was." she nodded in agreement. She placed her hands in her lap and was silent for a minute, probably getting her thoughts together. "I can't believe you'd say all that to help me out."

Chad smiled and gently nudged her playfully. "C'mon, you know it wasn't your fault back there. And hey, after today we'll be so sick of ice cream that we won't wanna see it for another year." he joked.

Taylor giggled faintly and shook her head. "i guess you are right about that."

"So you're feeling better than?" he asked hopefully.

"Yeah...a lot, actually." Taylor confessed as she nodded. She looked at Chad and smiled at him. "And it's all thanks to you."

Chad returned the smile. "'S just me being a good co-worker."

Taylor shook her head and pecked him on the cheek. "It's more than that. It's you being a good friend."

Chad turned his head to look at her. "And a good boyfriend?" he asked hopefully.

She smiled and nodded. "A very good one." she answered pecking him on the lips.

"Ooh, someone's got some sugar to spare on them." Chad said slyly.

"Well being around all that sugar in the kitchen I'm sure you needed a little for yourself." she replied, playing along.

"Then how about something tonight?" he wondered. "We can both have a little sugar. Maybe share some dessert. My mom can pick us up and maybe I can get her to drop us off somewhere and I can walk you home."

Now how could Taylor say no to something like that? Chad was so sweet like that you'd almost think he was made of sugar. "I can go for that. Anything but ice cream."

"How about a fruit salad?" he offered with a grin.

"I think we can do that." she agreed.

But Chad just couldn't resist asking, "Can I put some chocolate syrup on it?"

That got Taylor laughing. That was so not unexpected when it came to Chad. "Nice try, lunkhead." she teased. "But it's not happening." she got off the lawn chair and headed back towards the kitchen.

"What if it was the chocolate syrup that had the label 'with calcuim' on it?" Chad asked getting up.

"Still not happening." she called.

Chad struggled to follow her. "Just a little syrup?"

"Nope." Taylor shook her head.

"A dab?"

"Not gonna happen."

"A drop?"

"Never."

"One little dot?"

That makes Friday finished, doesn't it? XD Thought maybe there should be a day where it got to be a real mad house at the country club and really crazy as opposed to the way overdramatic crazy on Wednesday. I started this chapter probably almost a week ago, but I had some time tonight so I was really trying to get myself into writing the rest of this chapter. apparently it worked, cause now it's up. XD So that now means there are two more days to go and the week will officially be over. Can't say I'm entirely sure when I'll have Saturday done though, but I'm hoping to have it complete over the course of a week. I have a few different ideas for Sunday, so that might take a tad longer to do. So that's about it here and after typing this...I don't even want any ice cream especially not at almost 12:30 in the morning! lol Night everyone!