The scene had been set. The plan had been put into motion. The Peachy Initiative was underway.
The initial steps had been successful. But the tricolor jaguar-patterned rabbit girl Penelope Peras had found out there were quite a few more steps to starting a business than what it had looked like in the video game she had drawn her inspiration from. She had expected that; she had done her research. Still, there were things that turned out different from what she had been expecting, and which turned out to be more costly than she had thought.
A business license was easy enough to get, but a tad more costly than expected. A secondary phone for business use only was super easy to get, and some money had been saved there by getting the cheapest brand and model of phone available and the most stripped-down carrier plan there was. An Employer Identification Number, Penelope thought, was not necessary as she was aiming to run her little parcel delivery service as a sole proprietorship, so she would not be employing any other people. As it turned out, when she visited the bank to open a business account, she did need an EIN for that, even as a sole proprietor; that was a small unexpected cost. Similarly, when applying for her business license, the rabbit girl had found out she needed additional permits and a business insurance - as a matter of fact, an extended insurance was very much needed because she would be dealing with packages belonging to other people and companies. Another higher cost she had not initially anticipated.
Apart from all that, the old delivery can she had acquired needed some fixing up. It had rust, it had old tires, it had a tired motor that blew blue smoke, and the paint was dull and very faded; not exactly very representative a vehicle. Garage costs for the repairs were out of the question; her finances were already wearing thin after all the licenses, permits and applications. She would have to put her silver tongue and endearing charm to work and ask for favors.
But she had prepared. And she also was prepared to deprive herself of some luxuries and even a small handful of necessities. She had downgraded her personal phone plan to save some money on that. She shopped for the cheapest specials and home brands at the local supermarket, which also had a small section offering sharply discounted near-expiration date specials such as 50-cent loaves of bread, and her dinners consisted of 99 cent burritos and hotdogs from the food stands in the park opposite the social and low-income housing and tenement street. She had stopped topping up the money on the card for the washing machines and dryers in the tenement building - her parents had a perfectly capable washing machine, and if she stopped wearing her clothes and didn't buy any new clothes, there would not be very much that needed laundering anyway. That also had the advantage she didn't need to buy any detergent and softener anymore. She had even canceled her Netflix and Disney+ subscriptions.
Some money still had to be spent, but Penelope spent it wisely. Notices on the supermarket notice board and the InterMarket ads helped her find a cheap second-hand paint gun - and her father had an air compressor. A set of six second-hand tires that were only a few years old for $20 apiece had been an amazing deal. A used exhaust kit for $100 was also too good to pass up; she could modify it, with help of her father, to make it fit the van. The thrift store had a used bolt of red denim that had faded to a not unpleasant pink color for only a handful of dollars; perfect for durable upholstery. Passing by a house that was being remodeled netted her several sheets of plywood and particle board from the huge dumpster sitting outside the house for free. Acrylic wall paint for house use was perhaps not the best choice for the van, but it was on an 80%-off special because it was baby pink in color - and it would still work. Masking paper was easy; Penelope simply grabbed two boxes full of old newspapers from by the paper recycling container behind the tenement building. And masking tape was not that expensive.
Saturday! Glorious, sunny Saturday! Time to get the family involved! After a call in the morning to let her mother know she would be coming to visit, and asking if she could please use their washing machine, Penelope got to work. She loaded up three large hefty shopping bags with all her unwashed clothes, put on some of her last clean clothes, gulped down a glass of UHT milk and a cheap raisin bun and bounded down the stairs after grabbing her purse. Everything she had collected over the past few days was loaded in the back of the van, the three bags of clothes were added as well, the van still had a third of a tank of fuel left, and it started after two new tries. Off she went!
The row of small semi-detached houses of Heart Street lay basking in the morning sun. In the front garden of number 16, a tricolor rabbit woman was tending a flower bed, and a leucistic jaguar man was pruning a hibiscus bush, wearing a pair of oversized sunglasses and a straw sun hat with a ridiculously wide brim. Both of them looked up at the noise of an engine roaring through several exhaust leaks, both of them quirked an eyebrow in surprise at the faded red, rusty old Toyota bread van parking along the curb in front of their house. Their eyebrows stayed quirked as Penelope cheerily hopped out of the right-side door and waved at them.
"Hi mom, morning dad! I'm here!"
"So we heard," the leucistic jaguar man remarked, pushing up the super wide brim of his straw hat with the secateurs he had been pruning the bush with. "What, pray tell, girl, is that?"
"My company van! Ain't she a beauty?" Penelope smiled, turning to pat the van's stumpy hood and giggling as she tilted her head. "Well, okay... no, she's not. But if the best dad in the world will help me a bit, we can make her a beauty!"
"Ri-i-ight," the leucistic jaguar man said slowly, finally lowering his eyebrow but instead lifting one of his upper lips into half of a playful smirk. "Well, I guess all you need to do now then, is locate the best dad in the world, don't you?"
"But I already know where the best dad in the world is!" Penelope giggled, hopping over the low front gate and hugging the leucistic jaguar man. "He's right here! C'mon dad, you'll help me, won't you? Pleeeeease pretty please with peaches on top?"
Her large, round, sparkling eyes with batting eyelashes pulled a chuckle from the feline man's lips.
"Alright already, quit it with the Bambi eyes, girl. I'll lend you a hand." He touched a fingertip against Penelope's flat, narrow nose. "But you are going to do some good hard work yourself as well, young lady."
"Of course! I'll work my little bunbun tail off!" Penelope nodded brightly, leaning up to smooch the jaguar man's cheek. "Mwah! Thanks dad! You're really the best dad in the world!" She let go and bounded over to the colorful rabbit woman. "And mom! Sweet, darling, awesome mom!"
"Oh no you don't, honey," the rabbit woman chortled. "If you want something, you can just ask, but you're not going to butter me up. I already had enough butter on my breakfast pancakes this morning."
"Ooo, pancakes! Yum! Are there still any left?" Penelope smiled brightly, hugging the rabbit woman. "And can I use the washing machine, mom, please? I have a bunch of clothes that need washing, I'm actually kinda running out of clean clothes, hee!"
"Oh go on then, honey," the rabbit woman smiled. "Is there a problem with the washing machines in your building?"
"Well, no, but I need to save all the money wherever I can to get my business off the ground, so I stopped putting money on my washing card," Penelope smiled. "It's surprising how quickly those fivers add up, you know."
"Well, I suppose you have to make savings where you can," the rabbit woman nodded. "It's okay, honey, you can do your laundry here for now. Go on and load up the machine, I'll make you some pancakes." She tilted her head a bit. "You do seem to look a bit thin, are you still eating alright?"
"To be honest, I'm down to expiration date specials and the cheapest off-brand instant soup and noodles I can find," Penelope shrugged with a light chortle. "It's also surprising how much money you can save on groceries when you stop caring about quality and variety."
"Oh honey, you gotta do better than that, you gotta take care of yourself," the rabbit woman said with a shake of her head. "Go on inside, I'll get you a few things for your freezer."
"Don't spoil the kid too much, Becky," the leucistic jaguar man chuckled.
"I'll spoil her just enough," the colorful rabbit woman responded with a small grin. "Do you need help bringing your stuff inside, honey?"
"A bit, I have three bags and I can only carry two at a time," Penelope chortled.
"Fine, I'll carry one then."
The two rabbits took the three large shopping bags full of clothes out of the van, while the jaguar man cast a critical eye over the vehicle's exterior and the part of the interior he could see. He also noticed the items loaded in the back of the van and got a pretty good idea of what kind of work Penelope was planning to have him help her with.
Inside the house, Becky, Penelope's mother, led the way through the kitchen to the utility room at the back of the kitchen, where the washing machine was. They loaded up the machine with a full load of clothes and set the cycle before returning to the kitchen, where the colorful rabbit woman started making a few more small, thick pancakes with the stuff that was still sitting around from breakfast. Penelope's father also entered the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee which he took into the living room, followed by Penelope who joined him at the large table by the front window with a glass of milk.
"So your van needs an exhaust patch at least," the leucistic jaguar man started, sipping his coffee. "The tires are not too great anymore either, they're getting bald so you need to replace them, have you considered that?"
Penelope nodded, drinking her milk with a smile.
"I have a whole exhaust kit we may be able to make fit, and I have replacement tires too. They're a few years old, but still in pretty good shape. Do you know where we could get them mounted for cheap, dad?"
"The Agricultural Co-op north of town will let you do it for free if you do it yourself."
"Ah, well, okay... that's great, but I have no idea how to do that."
"I know how. We'll do that first so we can get it out of the way, it's a decent drive to the Co-op and it will take about fifteen minutes per tire. And there's six, if I saw right?"
"Yeah, there's double wheels in the back. Is it okay if I stay here while you bring the wheels to the Co-op, dad? Then I can already start taking off the old exhaust and all, do some work while you take care of the tires."
"I'd rather you not go under that van while I'm not here with you, Peaches. But you can start on some other work on the outside, that'll be fine. I noticed materials in the back of your van that told me you aim to paint it?"
"Yeah, it needs to look a lot better, I need to make a good impression with any first customers I'll manage to find. I got a paint gun, you have a compressor, right?"
"I do, that'll work. And you can use my sander and grinder to take off the rust. I think I still have some cans of rust treatment sitting around, you can use those as well."
"Thanks, dad! You're awesome!"
"Yeah yeah yeah," the feline man chuckled, looking up when his wife entered the living room with a plate of pancakes. "Go and chomp your pancakes, Peaches, I'll go put that heap of yours by the garage and put it on jack stands. Are the keys in it?"
"Mmmwm, mmyeah, but you gotta... mmn... wiggle them a bit to start it," Penelope nodded with her mouth full, chewing and swallowing. "And the steering wheel is on the passenger side."
"I'll figure it out, I've driven heaps worse than that," the jaguar man chuckled, standing up.
Penelope nodded happily while she attacked the stack of pancakes. Her father playfully ruffled her long ears with a paw while he stepped away from the table and left the living room, while her mother took the empty glass to the kitchen to fill it back up with milk.
It was going to be a weekend full of very hard work. But Penelope had the best help she could wish for, and she had plenty of drive and a healthy amount of work ethic. There may have been some sacrifices she had needed to make in her personal life to give her newly started company a good start, but it was worth it. The Peachy Initiative was still well on the track to success!
