"Spring Break—The Awful Job" Victoria Grissom knew that most people her age spent Spring Break partying, or at a vacation—but for her, it was a solid week of grueling labor. It was her very first job, and not a terrible one to start out with—she was cashier and bagger at a small grocery chain—but to be working at all while everyone else was having fun was just plain wrong. It was just wrong. Vicki needed the money, but not that badly. She would be working all five weekdays, having only the weekend off to relax and prepare her body and mind for the rest of March. She groaned and protested, but that didn't save her. It was good fortune that she knew some of her coworkers. Mira van Dijk, a regular in some of Grissom's classes, was a cashier/bagger as well, and was equally happy to see young miss Vicki (of course, she hated working during Spring Break as well). There was also that older girl—what was her name? Vai-something? It was that girl with two mothers; she worked there as well, but on a different shift, so Vicki rarely saw her. The biggest thrill of all was having June there, stationed right at the office for customer service. Her wheelchair afforded her more obstacles than she liked—things like reaching counters and shelves was more difficult for her—so in a sense they were all working somewhere they didn't like, doing things they hated, sacrificing Spring Break, and all for a paltry sum. "It could be worse," Vai murmured not long after she came in for her shift. Sliding miscellaneous items into a plastic sack, she made a face and said, "I hear Avelina's got an even crappier job than this." "What is it?" "She's a janitor, cleaning college dorms." "Yuck." Vai nodded, at least thankful she wasn't doing that. Poor Avi! Having dichromatism limited her skills in the job market, but in reality it was her fault for not signing up for the "right" job at the right time. Her laziness got her that bad job—fortunately for a week—so she'd have to stick it out and wait until her service was ended. "Not exactly the romantic visions we tend to have when we think of occupations," said Victoria sadly. "Janitor, cashier, bagger... But at least we're getting paid." "If you can call our checks payment. I may as well call myself a slave." A sigh. "Mira seems to be doing all right." "That's because Mira can cuss in Dutch and nobody will understand her. What about you? Aren't you Welsh?" "Yeah, but I can't speak it. I heard that Rai Zanders knew a girl that could." "Now that's not a whole lot of help," said Vai miserably. Vicki sighed. "Yeah, I know." Vairocana was slightly more experienced at her job than the younger girl, so she spent some time helping her get into a groove. Soon, she told her, she would be stuffing sacks like a "pro", quickly and decisively, and later it would come without any thought at all—but that was the problem. A brain-dead cockroach wouldn't be challenged in that line of work. It was just dull, dull, drearily dull, for hours at a time, and all the while their legs ached and their feet groaned from standing, walking, standing, walking. Mira was very thankful that she actually knew some people at work—well, people who actually worked at work. Skyler was a slacker, and once she found her groove, she really started to hate him, and spent as little time around him as possible. She didn't want to end up making up for his mistakes, but eventually she was forced to, soon darting here and there to sack things, or cleaning up this spill, or wiping off this counter... She was glad to be bilingual; muttering nasty words in her mother tongue was a great stress reliever, and nobody could get on her case about it because they didn't understand her. Mira and Victoria eventually decided to work together, since they knew each other and could convey some kind of understanding with a mere look. That they also shared the same generic shift didn't hurt either (June worked much longer hours, and Vai came in about two hours before either of them left). Signing in for that day (Tuesday), Mira was assigned a register and a lane, and went to it dutifully. Victoria braced herself for a long, long day of sacking other people's food, and knew she would envy the truckloads of groceries as she herself had only brought an apple and some crackers for lunch. The first half-dozen customers weren't so bad—they bored the brains out of both girls since they had bought so few items—but then one or two came in with ungodly amounts. Mira, who could sometimes be downright mean, looked down her nose at overweight people. What a correlation: t'was the rotund, the obese, the large, the stout that always seemed to buy the most items, especially the fattening and sugary kind. Hmm. She had to wonder why (not really). Victoria soon felt burdened by the obscene amount, but she had no choice: all the open lanes were full, with one bagger each. "It's days like this I wish I were a cashier," she muttered. She spent her first break that day alone. Mira was still busy and so was June, so she sat by herself in the "open" break room near the magazines, picked out something to read, and flipped through, searching for interesting articles. As anyone could attest, the five minutes or so prior to her break always dragged on and on, stretching for hours—but the fifteen minutes she was allotted for a refresher sped by in a blink! Victoria put down the magazine barely three seconds after she picked it up (it seemed), groaned stiffly, rose, and trudged back to her post. The truly awful part about all this was that, unlike Avelina, she was here for the long run unless she found someplace better. June, meanwhile, had wanted to spend more time with her girlfriend, but her duties at the front office kept her busy. She had been working at that store whenever she could, and picked up the responsibilities of a customer service manager quickly. This of course led to troops of people crowding around the desk making obscene demands, some so idiotic that even her patience wore out. One woman just kept on talking, well after services had been rendered, oblivious to the long line of impatient people behind her! "Ma'am," June said, "I hate to interrupt, but there are other people who need to be served." "Whuh?" she groaned, leaning in to hear better. Elderly people—what an insipid bunch! June repeated herself and got a foul look from the woman, who shuffled off muttering how rude the young lady was (naturally unaware of her own impolite behavior). June quelled her anger by breathing in deeply, holding it, and releasing it, pinching the bridge of her nose until she was focused again. "Hello!" she said, attempting to smile. The man next in line was scraggly, obese, and spoke an awfully-garbled Spanish. June was, without a doubt, totally clueless to his needs. Speaking to him was slightly harder than conversing with a dead man; somebody else from the office came up and assisted her. Oh, gee—June just had to wonder what cave they hid themselves in while she was swamped. As many as possible, she reckoned. Victoria got lunch with Mira, but missed being with June. The wheelchair-bound Tramble girl had taken her break earlier, but slipped Vicki a note when she could. It was written on a ripped sheet of regular paper, blue ink, but Tramble's elegant style was still there, so it had not been constructed in complete hast. It read: "Sorry I couldn't join you, so much work to do. Need vacation—oh wait, we're on vacation. (grumbles) Let's get together later for a romantic evening! You game? Love, June" Victoria smiled; a date sounded fantastic. Too bad she had four more hours to go. Vai came in just when she was needed the most—but then again, she was needed all hours of the day. "I swear," remarked Victoria to Mira, "the management has no clue what they're doing! It's like they're all just...they're idiots! That's what they are, they're brainless mindless idiots who don't know what the heck they're doing! You and I, and June, are the only people who know what they're doing here." "Not Vairocana?" replied Mira. Vicki frowned. "Oh yeah, her too. Well, I don't see her that often, so I don't know." "June doesn't say?" "No, we don't talk about work. I wanna spend as little time as possible in this place." "I don't blame you," muttered the older girl. "It's bad enough as it is, what with all the selfish pushy pigs around here. We certainly don't need to add more stress—speaking of which, guess who skipped work again today?" "Starts with an S and ends with an R." Mira smiled. "Oh yah, definitely. He should really be fired. I mean...I have never seen a lazier person! Even I am not that bad!" "Once you get to it, you're a really hard worker," noted Grissom. "I guess you just have to be pushed, like all those times Miss Madsen gave you those assignments that were due the next day." A customer came in with small children, and the two girls set to work. Seeing kids, especially those that weren't shy, made Mira feel a little more relaxed. Also, having just the right amount of groceries to scan (and bag) made things easier too. While they were attending to the family, Vai walked over to a nearby register and activated it; she would be cashier that day. "Lucky girl," mumbled Victoria. She had been trained as cashier as well, but except for one or two times, she had just been a bagger. She liked being cashier much better, especially when people had a whole lot of things. Vai didn't get a bagger, so she sacked everything herself. ...... Vicki and June were not exactly a steamy love couple, but their dates were nice and the time they spent together was pleasant (their sex life was as sparse as mountains in Illinois). Being with each other refreshed them from the long, hard hours working at that store—and prepared them for more long, hard hours. Sometimes they did flirt with each other and exchange words, or even kisses if they were daring enough (they rarely shared breaks). Mira knew they were a couple and crooned over them, comparing the two to their "anime counterparts", Subaru and Tsukasa, until the joke became overkill. "I've hardly seen more than a few episodes of dot hack anyway," Victoria told her during break. "I don't see how we're alike. I know Subaru is a handicapped girl outside of the World, but I just don't see the correlation. And I'm hardly Tsukasa." "Well...it's just... You're so cute! And they're so cute! But I guess it does all focus on her wheelchair." Vicki gave Mira a cold stare, but said nothing. She didn't mind being teased, just so long as the joke didn't drag. And Mira had been calling them by their alter egos since Halloween, maybe even earlier. "We're not the only ‘anime couple' in school, you know," June reminded her. "Blake and Usha are back together, did you know?" "Yes, I heard." Mira didn't say anything else, but what was there to say? Her relationship with the other two ladies had been as torrential and random as a storm; she didn't want to get involved with it again. If Usha wanted to be with Blake, fine. Mira never understood why she had been so attracted to the dark-skinned bureaucrat anyway, so perhaps this was for the best. Besides, she had other prospects in mind, girls that wouldn't dump her and run off with some Hawaiian sleazebag. "If you're gonna call us Tsu and Su," June continued, "you may as well call them Anthy and Utena." "You're forgetting Asuka and Rei," Vicki murmured. June's eyes bulged. "Gabrielle and Lilian got back together?!" "I dunno, I think so. I haven't heard from them in awhile." "Maybe you should call. They're both your friends, and yours more than mine." "Yeah, I probably should." The doors of the break room swung open before another word could be exchanged, and the trio looked up, seeing a vaguely familiar face. Mira scowled. "Wussup, bitches?" said he. "Get lost, Skyler." He just laughed and joined the three of them, popping open a Pepsi he might or might not have stolen. "So wussup? Been scouting around for some fresh pussy?" "Knock it off." "It's suddenly become unpleasant in here," June stated, loud enough for the lone male to hear. "Victoria, would you be so kind as to escort me somewhere more refreshing? The local dump comes to mind." "Ouch," hissed Skyler, "major ouch." The two of them left before they could hear more of his vulgarity, leaving poor Mira the task of handling him alone. She scowled and said a few choice words in Dutch, none of them pleasant. ...... On Thursday, Vai saw somebody come in that made her feel a little more relieved. She actually grinned (hardly anybody saw her smile, so she must've really been happy) and waved as a handsome older boy walked in, limping just barely. He even hugged her, raising the question of whether or not Vai had finally gotten a boyfriend. Unfortunately for her, this wasn't the case: he was just a friend. "You two know Ethan?" she asked of Vicki and Mira. Neither of them did, so she introduced him. "Uh, well, this is Ethan Nikholai, Avelina's boyfriend. Ethe, this is Vicki and Mira; I go to school with them." "Salutations," he spoke, taking their hands. Mira smiled back, relieved to finally run into a male who was neither rude nor flirtatious with her (Skyler was both). "I heard Avi's got an awful job," Vai said, voice full of concern. Ethan's face turned dark. "Yes, she's just not been herself lately. I wish the week would go by faster so she could get out of that place. She tells me she's the only lady around there—her age, I mean—so that makes her the, uh, unfortunate target of much affection." "Can't say I blame them," said Vai with a smile. "She's a great kid. So what're you here for? Between the four of us," (she gestured towards June up front), "we know this store pretty well." "I'm not really shopping for a lot, just breakfast things." "Get the oranges," Mira said; "they're on sale. Cereal and Pop-tarts too." "She'd know!" hissed Victoria under her breath—"She eats them every day!" "I do not!" "Yes you do, every color and kind! She scarfs at least two packages during lunch!" "I do not!!" "I've never seen her eat a single healthy thing in all the time I've been here!" "Shut up!" Vicki laughed and ran away, perhaps to take a break, to attend to some other person, or maybe (most likely) to hide. Mira snorted and vowed revenge; Ethan chuckled softly and got help from a much more reliable source—talking with Vai. ...... June seriously envied those whose legs still worked—but as long as Vicki loved her, she could fly. It didn't matter anymore that they were about three years apart in age or even both girls—it was definitely Love they shared between themselves, sweet and heartwarming. The night before their weekend, that Friday evening, they wanted to steal as much time for themselves as they could, because soon school would start again, and with it their new job. They would hardly have any time for romance, so they needed to take it when they could. Victoria's house was full, so they went to the Tramble estate. Mom and Dad were out on a date (and amazingly enough, so was May—but not with Janine!!), so that left the two girls alone, which is exactly the way they liked it. After dinner and a movie, June and Victoria stripped down to their skin, took a bath together, and went to bed as lovers, fighting valiantly to push aside the "horrors" of their new job. It was the end, it was the beginning.
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