This story is set shortly after the events of "Charging into the Night" in the show's timeline.
CHAPTER 1
Friday afternoon, quarter after four at the Pirate Ship dining lounge inside Surfer's Paradise resort. Up to that point, the work day at the restaurant had been a busy one for the on-duty waitressing team of head waitress Kelly and her subordinates Emma and Lo, typical for the start of the weekend at the hotel. Usually, Kelly, in a typical display of mean-spiritedness, would stick the junior staff working under her (particularly Emma and Lo) with having to serve some of the Pirate Ship's more difficult customers, including those regulars with rambunctious children (like the Marvin family), finicky customers and those who were poor tippers, while she kept the better customers for herself.
This time around though, such luck was few and far between for Kelly. While the Pirate Ship regularly bustled with activity that kept the wait staff busy, the past week had been unusually busy in the midst of the tourist season, and due to there being more of the difficult regulars with their usual demands and complaints, and less of the good customers coming around to eat that week, it was starting to take its toll on the dining room's senior server. This past week's been such a pain in my butt, Kelly thought to herself as she went off to post one order at the kitchen's pick-up window and wait for another order to arrive for delivery. Now I know how Daddy's girl Lo and Emma the surfer wannabe feel about getting stuck with the crappy customers because it feels like there've been nothing but that type coming to the Ship this past week. I feel so stressed from the whole week between contending with out-of-control rugrats running around the Ship at will, customer complaints, lousy tippers and dealing with Lo and Emma's screwups with customer orders, I think I may explode!
The final straw for Kelly came soon after as she was bringing an order of soup and salad to another customer, when Mark and Todd Marvin, the bratty sons of Mr. and Mrs. Marvin (who, as usual, were paying no attention to what their wild offspring were doing as they waited to place their orders), ran right through without paying attention to where they were going and knocked right into Kelly, causing her to lose her balance and to spill the soup and salad order all over a customer at another table nearby. After apologizing to the now-messy customer for spilling the soup and salad on him and directing him to the men's washroom to get cleaned up, then apologizing to the customer who had the soup and salad order and telling her that she would have a fresh order ready for her in a few minutes, Kelly caught up to the Marvin boys and, grabbing each of them by the backs of their shirts, marched them back to their parents' table. "Do you realize your kids just caused me to spill an order on one of my customers because you couldn't be bothered to keep an eye on them while they were running around?" Kelly said to Mr. and Mrs. Marvin in a hushed tone, her voice seething with simmering anger. "It's restaurant policy for customers with children to keep an eye on their kids at all times in the dining lounge for safety reasons!"
Mr. Marvin seemed not to notice how Kelly was feeling at this point. "Well, I don't remember reading anything about such a policy in here," he said non-chalantly. "Me and my family came here to relax and to eat, and we're still waiting to place our orders. Would you mind serving us now?"
"Management reserves the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason - including refusing to keep unruly children under control," Kelly fumed, keeping her voice low but now almost at her breaking point. "Now take your kids and please leave!"
"Well, I never!" Mrs. Marvin said as she and her husband got up and took their kids to leave. "See if we ever patronize this restaurant again just for that!"
If I never saw your faces in here again, that would be too soon for me, Kelly thought to herself about the departing Marvins. Turning around and spotting Emma heading toward the pick-up window, she called her over to where the remnants of the soup and salad were on the floor and on one of the tables. "Hey, Surfer Girl! I need you over here!"
Wondering if she had done something wrong, Emma hustled over to the table where Kelly was. "Hey Kelly, uh...what's up?" she sheepishly asked her boss.
"I'm going on my break," Kelly said to Emma. "I need you to get a clean cloth for this table and to clean up the rest of this mess on the floor."
"Well, I was just on my way to get another order from the..." Emma began, but upon seeing the angry look on Kelly's face, she wisely chose not to finish that sentence. "Right, I'll go get that new tablecloth," she said as she gathered up the soiled tablecloth and hustled off to the hotel's laundry room to avoid getting ranked out.
After Emma left, Kelly started toward the kitchen, storming past Lo and almost cutting her off as the only daughter of the hotel's wealthy owner attempted to deliver a dinner order. Kelly cut through the kitchen and headed straight into the common locker room area which connected to it, then sat down on a bench in front of some of the lockers. Taking off the pirate hat and eyepatch that formed part of her work costume and putting them on the bench beside her, an overwhelmed Kelly, feeling her lower lip trembling as the events of the past work week flashed through her mind, buried her face in her hands and began to cry.
Well, that's Chapter 1. I decided not only to make Kelly the main focus of this story, but also to put a bit of a twist in her, to make her appear more vulnerable (and this is only the beginning). No worries though, I've started her out mean like she normally is on the show, but stay tuned.
Meantime, tell me what you think so far of this tale.