As they get to work I look around the living room, not sure where to start. I decide to clear stuff off the floor. I gather up all the clothes and bring them back in the bedroom, which is a mess. The mattress is off the bed and the nightstand is tipped on its side.
"How's it going?" I hear Danny say from the living room. I go out there and see him with three guys from the team. They're holding stacks of pizzas and one guy's holding a cooler.
"You might want to wait for us to finish before you bring that over," Kendrick says to the guys, looking over at Eve as she scrubs the counters.
"We'll just put it here for now." Danny sets the coffee table back on its legs and the guys set the pizzas on it.
"Hey, Brook," Danny says, noticing me.
"Hey, thanks for coming over early."
"No problem. The other guys will be over soon. Do you have directions for us or do you want us to just figure it out?"
"I made a list of stuff to get done. I was thinking everyone could take something on the list." I bring it up on my phone as I walk over to Danny. "I don't know if we'll have time but I was thinking it'd be nice to do some work on the outside, like clean up the weeds around the house. There's lawn tools in the garage."
"We could do that. Let me see what else what you got." He looks through my list, then says to the guys, "Start by moving all the furniture out. Mark's bringing the carpet cleaner. He'll be here in a few minutes."
I didn't know about the carpet cleaner but it's a good idea. We definitely need it.
"Did you see my text about the couch?" I say to Danny as the guys carry the old one outside.
"Already taken care of."
"What do you mean?"
"We got him a new one. Josh is bringing it over in his dad's truck. He'll haul away the old one for us and take it to the dump."
"You got a couch? How'd you pay for it?"
"Coach did. His sister works at a furniture store so he got a deal. It's a good couch, a lot bigger than the old one."
Within minutes, the furniture's cleared out and Danny and I pick up the other items scattered around the floor.
A couple guys around my dad's age wearing tool belts walk in.
Danny goes up to them. "Thanks for coming over." He turns to me. "This is Josh's dad and uncle. They do construction. They'll be patching the walls. Just tell them where to start."
I go over and introduce myself, then show them what needs to be fixed. I'm amazed so many people are willing to help. The people from my old school would never do this.
By late afternoon, the place is starting to look really good. The walls are fixed and some of the guys are coming back later tonight to paint. Danny will be here to let them in. The carpet's been cleaned and most of the stains are out. Eve and Kendrick did a great job on the kitchen. They worked together all day and Eve only yelled at him a few times. Kendrick kept checking her out but she didn't even notice.
"It's not completely done but it looks a lot better," Danny says, surveying the room.
"It looks great!" I say. "I love the new couch."
It's a black couch that's long enough for Dean to sleep on without his legs hanging off. It's fake leather but it looks real. The couch made the old, beat-up coffee table look even worse so Danny and I went to a used furniture store and got one that looks brand new. We got a couple lamps too, to replace the ones Dean's dad broke.
"You guys heading out?" Danny says to Josh and two other guys standing by the door.
"Yeah, but we'll be back later to help paint," Josh says.
"Door's fixed," Josh's dad says, walking up to me. "And we replaced the outside lights. Most of them were burnt out."
"Thanks." I look around the room at Dean's teammates. "Before everyone leaves, I just want to say thank you for doing all this. I know Dean and Jake will appreciate all you've done." I smile. "Well, Dean will probably be mad at me but he'll get over it."
"If he gives you any trouble, we'll kick his ass," Josh says, smiling. "It was good you did this. None of us were even thinking about it. Dean's lucky to have you."
"Okay, that's enough," Eve says, pushing her way past two huge guys. "We need to stop before someone starts crying."
