“That one’s got her eye on the door,” Nans always said, and Aunt Melissa would sigh.

“She has big dreams. But she’ll come back,” she would reply. “They always do. Just wait and see.”

But with Jenna I wasn’t so sure. She was constantly talking about moving to Los Angeles, where the weather was beautiful all year. Jenna studied really hard and was always talking about her grades and whether they were good enough to get into a good college.

Jenna took the donut into the kitchen to eat. That was another rule here: no eating on the floor.

I know, it’s crazy, right? I mean, we make and serve food but can’t eat in front of the customers. You’d think they’d want us to advertise that the food is so delicious we eat it ourselves. But on the other hand, I guess it wouldn’t be good for a customer to ask us a question and us to answer with a mouthful of donut.

“Is Mom taking you home after work?” she asked Kelsey.

“I think so,” said Kelsey. “But we have to wait for Molly’s shift to end too. That’s another hour.”

“Well, maybe Uncle Mike can drop you off,” said Jenna. “I think Lily is driving me, or maybe Rich.”

Lily and Rich were both older, and both of them had their driver’s licenses. Rich was the oldest cousin, and Skylar was the youngest. Nans joked that her two grandsons bookended the girls in between.

At big family dinners, I always felt a little sorry for Rich because he was definitely outnumbered, but Sky loved him and followed him everywhere.

Finally it was closing time, which meant we had to clear the shelves, clean the counters, empty the trash, and close out the register. Grandpa didn’t like us to close out until actual closing time, because he said it turned away customers if they thought they needed to rush before you went home.

So Kelsey and I watched until the clock said six o’clock on the dot, and then we sprang into close-mode. We made a good team and played Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who had trash duty, which was the worst.

You had to empty the trash, throw the bag into the Dumpster in the back, then lug the trash can into the parking lot and hose it down. Even though there should have been just napkins and cups, there was always something really gross in the trash can. One time I had to scrape out gum, and it was awful.

“Great job today, girls!” said Dad as we signed out.

Everyone who worked at the Park recorded when they started working and when they stopped. Aunt Melissa was a stickler for records, and she was always complaining that someone didn’t log out.

“Ready to do it again tomorrow?” asked Grandpa.

Kelsey sighed. “Ugh.”