1.61 – Snapshot

“Is this how I do it?”

After days of selling works of art and photographs to various galleries and art stores, Maven and Callum had finally acquired enough money to at least achieve $30,000 of the $60,000 that they needed to open the retail store. Nathan and Marisa were kind enough to loan the rest of the money to them, and straight away, Maven got to work on buying the dream retail lot that they had been eyeing for months.

The construction was fairly quick, only taking a couple of hours to move in furniture and organize everything where they should be. Of course, Maven and Callum had asked for the basics and only to have the simplicities, so that it was cheaper. They could always make it look better later, with bits of clutter and even install a little bakery of some sorts. The pair of them wanted to grow their business large, and hopefully buy a bigger retail lot in the future.

Nathan, Callum and Maven arrived at their new retail lot early in the afternoon, with the three of them eager to see their new business.

“I’m totally the boss.” Maven laughed and Callum looked at Maven evilly, before Nathan stepped in.

“You’re both the bosses! This is a partnership remember.”

“Okay, okay. But, can I just say that I love how the building turned out?” Maven smiled as he looked at the new building.

“Yeah, it looks like something you’d see in the films! The overall exterior of the place captures what we’re trying to sell perfectly. Don’t you think so Dad?” Callum asked as he turned to face him and Nathan nodded his head with eagerness.

“Yes! I really adore your shop, shall we step inside?” Nathan asked as the three of them began to walk towards the entrance of their new shop, in which they named it…

Snapshot!

“Woah! It’s so massive in here!” Callum commented as he took in the spacious room within the shop and Callum was especially attracted to the red sofas which was placed underneath an intriguing wall sculpture composed of many different pieces fitted together.

“Callum, don’t break anything! You broke the mug this morning, and you also tripped down the stairs as we left to go here. Just… don’t touch a thing.” Maven laughed as Callum turned around in annoyance and stuck his tongue out at him.

“Don’t worry bro, I won’t.”

“So Pretty!”

Meanwhile, Callum failed to notice the double counters that were placed either side of the door. One would be for Maven while the other one would be for Callum, as they check out customers and/or store the money inside for when they deal with customers outside of the tilling area.

Counter #1!

And Counter #2!

But, as Callum and Maven ventured upstairs, they found that the living space had been left to basic standards as they requested it. They were okay with it for now, as they knew that as time progresses on, the living area would look a lot different that what it was now.

“I’m sleeping on the bed, you can take the sofa!” Callum laughed as he examined the room.

“Only if you cook, I’ll be watching TV then!” Maven replied as he walked out into the balcony. Callum meanwhile was too focused on seeing the living area, and seeing what improvements he could make to it later on.

“This place is so basic!”

After a while, Maven began creating a new portrait to sell in the store when it has it’s grand opening in a couple of days. Maven really liked the scenery that the store was surrounded in, so he tried to focus on one part of the scenery and paint that and hopefully, something good should come out of it.

After roughly sketching the shapes out for an hour, Maven finally got to painting the portrait and he felt like he was expressing a brand new adventure for him and Callum. He wanted to pour his hopes and dreams of the store into this painting, and he had no doubt within himself that he could do it.

Callum and Nathan returned later on in the day with the collection of paintings and photographs that the two boys had saved up to put in their store, and they had assembled quite a collection. As the pair of them hung up the paintings on the walls, they were astonished at how much effort had gone into creating such amazing pieces of art.

And, when they had finished, they gazed upon the shop walls with hopeful eyes. Callum and Nathan knew that these were going to sell well.

Photographs!

Not many paintings, but more will be added!

And, our leading lady arrived into the shop soon enough. After learning the location of the shop from Callum, it took June no time at all to figure out how to visualize where she wanted to go and teleport to him. June realized that she had grown so much in terms of her skills in teleportation and she was amazed at how awesome the shop looked.

Of course, she forgot to set herself down on the ground. So, June returned to her normal ‘Zen’ position and focused on returning herself back down to the ground safely, avoiding any unnecessary casualties before the opening day.

“Down I go!”

As June’s feet touched the ground, she looked around the shop for a little bit, taking in all of the decorations and all of the little things, and she was impressed. She couldn’t believe that her brothers had come so far from what they used to be. Maven as a child, who loved sprinkling rainbow glitter over his childhood paintings and Callum who loved Bunny Farm, and wanted to go play with all of the dolls.

She was proud to be their sister, and she also began to set herself the task of doing something greater than them, since she’s the heir.

She almost looks like she’s signing some kind of Presidential Campaign! Also, Gen 2 Picture?

“Junebug, you made it and you’re in your PJs… go and get changed.” Callum laughed as June quickly popped home to get changed before coming back to see him. June smiled at her brother as she strolled down the spacious room, looking outside the window.

“You did it, big bro! You’ve finally become a businessman. A word of advice, you better contribute a lot to the household, I’ll be on your case!” June smiled at her brother as he nodded his head.

“As you wish!”

“Also, do you think I could work here? You could even pay me like a real employee!” June smiled eagerly at her brother, and he couldn’t refuse her at all. Even though Callum knew June would’ve worked there for free anyway. He pulled June into a hug as he told her his answer.

“Of course you can!”

Maven had finally finished his second painting, and he was just adding the last finishing touches to it as he stared at it. He painted a Ferris Wheel, which he almost related to his own personal philosophy. In life, you are on a Ferris Wheel, you will be on top but you’ll also be on the bottom and sometimes you’ll be just in between, but you should learn to enjoy every moment you have in the middle and on the top so that when you get to the bottom, you are filled with joyful memories to make yourself feel better.

– Maven Devine, 2015

Callum greeted his brother a little later, and was surprised at the painting that he did.

“Woah, that looks awesome!” Callum complimented as he walked closer towards the painting.

“Yeah, I think it’s a masterpiece, don’t you think so?” Maven smiled towards his brother as he nodded his head.

“Hey, we’re going to do great you know, we’re twin brothers, we can do this.”

“How are you so confident?”

“Because Maven, we’re Devines!”