Forgive me if this is really bad but it's just a rough first draft that I haven't had time to even read over yet. Sorry if it's rushed too!

Brittany:

“Order’s up!” Brittany called over the counter with every ounce of verbal energy left within her. She fairly threw the to go bag to the man standing but a few feet away from the counter.

“Sheesh!” the old man grumbled, “You’d think they’d have nicer service in Chick-fil-A of all places.”

But Brittany, in her mad dash to get everything done before her shift ended, didn’t hear the comment and continued to run around in the small area taking orders, fixing the orders, and lastly handing out the orders.

“We need more lemonade!” she called to the two people in the back.

“We can’t!” Pablo, the Puerto Rican worker, called back, “We don’t have the stuff for it!”

“What? We just got a shipment a few hours ago!”

“They messed it up.”

Brittany gave an exasperated groan while throwing her hands up in the air. This was the third time this month the shippers had done the same thing! Was there anyone reliable? She whirled around to face the new stream of customers readily awaiting her to take their orders. She whizzed through the requests with speed that made the cash register dizzy.

“Whoa! Is Asia really that important to you?”

A familiar voice called Brittany’s mind back to reality from her mad scramble to get three milkshakes done at once. She quickly screwed the lids on and plopped them down on the counter without ever losing a drip.

“Why ever would you think that?” she clapped her hands down on the counter for a few seconds of relief.

The girl around Brittany’s age of sixteen faced her. Their short height matched too, but that was as far as it went. Emma’s black, shoulder-length hair was always well-kempt and very stylish no matter what the occasion whereas Brittany’s dark blonde hair was so thick and it had a hard time ever staying in any style she wished it to. And Emma’s confident air of authority and self-assurance cast a shadow upon Brittany’s quieter but yet diligent spirit.

“Maybe a little,” she replied with a sporty grin.

“Yeah, well, it’s probably the only chance I’ll ever get to go to Asia so…”

“Yeah, I understand,” Emma interrupted, “It’s not every day you get to leave the city, much less the continent.”

“Well, that, but also I just have this feeling… I don’t know. I just have this feeling that something really good is going to happen on this trip, ya know? Like, somehow, if I go there and write a really good column about it for the paper, maybe they’ll consider giving me a scholarship for college,” Brittany was already wrapped up in another daydream by the time she completed that thought.

“I hope so,” Emma sighed, “But look on the bright side! They already have a lot of confidence in you or else they wouldn’t have given you that $1,000 boost to get you started on your $3,000 goal.”

“Well, that’s true, but-“

“Excuse me!” an angry customer called out, “But I would like to eat before my stomach digests itself!”

“Sorry!” Brittany murmured before dashing back to the fry’s machine.

Aaron:

“And if God can heal a crippled hand I know He can heal your aching heart. Let’s have every head bowed.”

The instant the preacher gave the invitation to pray, Aaron had his heads in his hands begging God to provide.

“God, I know you can. I know you can! You gave me the money I needed for college. You gave me the money I needed to pay off my house mortgage. You even gave me a raise in my salary a few weeks ago! But now… God, I need $1,000 for Asia… that’s all! Please, God, if it’s Your will, please let there be enough that was gathered from the church this evening.”

“Amen. God bless you.”

Had he really been praying that long to have missed the preacher’s entire prayer?

Aaron lifted his head from his hands, allowing his fingers to run through his curly, red hair. His eyes were met with the sight of the entire auditorium of people rising up from their seats and stretching. Aaron did not waste any time practically running to the preacher.

“Pastor! Pastor!” he greeted him with both excitement and anxiety.

“Well, hello, Brother Aaron! You are just the person I’m looking for!” the older man smiled at him warmly while heartily shaking his hand.

“Oh, good! Likewise.”

“Come with me. There’s something you should see.”

So Aaron followed the pastor out of the auditorium and into his office a little ways down the hallway. The pastor pushed open the door to spray a gust of cold air into Aaron’s face.

“Pleas, take a seat,” he invited.

Aaron slid into one of the two leather chairs and waited patiently for the pastor to take his seat behind the desk.

“I’m sure you are wondering what the outcome was of the love offering this morning, correct?” the preacher asked as he leaned forward on his mahogany desk.

“Um, yes, sir. I’ve been praying about it all day.”

“Well, you are the assistant pastor, so that’s good to hear. We need more spiritual leaders in our church.”

“I agree!” Aaron replied. He had been praying about that too. It was one of his firm beliefs that prayer really did change things.

“Well, the offering in and of itself was… not enough. Unfortunately, we only gather $476.”

Aaron’s heart fell through the floor and hit the center of the earth. How could this happen? He had prayed to God so many sleepless nights laboring over whether or not he should go to Asia to visit and help a missionary family there. God had been leading Aaron in that direction and he had finally listened. So… why had God said no now? If Aaron didn’t have the money by tomorrow, he couldn’t go…

“But…” the preacher went on, “When I went to check my box this morning I found an anonymous letter in it. Maybe you’d like to take a look at it.”

Smiling, the pastor leaned over his desk to hand Aaron a white envelope. He took it, wondering why on earth the pastor would be requesting such a thing at such a moment as this. But, unquestioningly, he peeled open the envelope and saw a small slip of paper inside. Aaron pulled it out to see a blank sheet. In confusion, he flipped it over.

“Oh my goodness… Oh, praise God!”

There, laying before him in flawless black ink was a check for $524 written in crisp letters to Aaron!

“Thank you, Lord! Thank you!”

Joe:

“Amazing, isn’t it?” Joe fairly bragged to Stephanie, “I mean, when they asked me if I wanted to go to Asia, I was just taken over with the shock of it! Gratefully, they even offered to pay for it, too!”

“Really?” Stephanie replied in almost laughable sarcasm but Joe was too excited to notice.

“Yeah! I mean, I can’t imagine why my company would pick me out of everyone at the business to head up the new branch in Asia! There were about, what? Fifty other highly capable men.” Joe grinned that incredibly large grin of his and flashed his perfectly straight teeth to Stephanie.

“Yeah, it’s got me beat,” she went along, “So, how long will you be gone?”

“About a week,” Joe replied as he leaned over the railing of the bridge to gaze across the local pond.

“Oh.”

“But I might stay longer.”

“Oh!”

“But that depends on if it shoots up or not.”

“Sounds fun, Joe, it really does, but I’m about to be late for my meeting so I’ll meet you later, ok?” Stephanie tried to give him the slip but he was too quick for her.

“Oh, no you don’t, sis,” he stopped her, snapping back into reality, “You said your meeting wasn’t for another three hours.”

“Oh,” she halted and slowly turned back around to face her brother. His dark, brown hair was now tousled from the on and off gusts of wind. But his deep, chestnut eyes still gleamed sternly underneath it at her. “Well, yes, it is. Sorry.”

“Look, I’m just excited and-“

“I know,” she interrupted, “And you don’t have any friends to tell it to. I got it. Look, Joe,” she came up to lean on the railing beside him, “Maybe if you weren’t so consumed with just your life you would have more friends. I’m not trying to be mean but… I am your younger sister, after all, and I think it’s my job to let you know that-“

“I’m incapable of holding a relationship from someone other than the people who have the same DNA as me?” he finished for her.

“No! No! That is not what I was going to say, Joe!” Stephanie paused to sigh. She loved her brother and wanted so badly to help him, but… he always seemed to be getting himself into all these problems.

“I was going to say that you’re a wonderful person and you have a great personality! You just need to let other people see it, and be more willing to see other peoples’. Joe, look at me.”

He turned to look at her. Joe never got tired of looking at her honest, hazel pupils. She always meant what she said whenever he did.

“You are a good person. And one day soon I know someone is going to realize that and they’re going to love you just as much as I do. Now, you go to Asia and forget about this dump! Go and blow those Asians’ socks off!”

Joe just chuckled and hugged his sister.

“Oh, yes, you’re pep talks get better every time,” he teased.