Title::..Workin' Day and Night
Spoilers::..Journey
Rating::..PG for teen-themes
Genre::..Fluff
Characters::..Mercedes and Kurt
Author's Note::..A fluffy Glee fic to give y'all a break from all of the Quinn-angst I seem to write. This fic was inspired after watching Matthew Morrison, Chris Colfer and Amber Riley's appearance on the Jonathon Ross Show, during the show's first season. During the interview Amber says her first job was at an Ikea store, this instantly prompted me to imagine Mercedes working at Ikea and when answering the phone she would sing, or when telling her customers how much change they received she would sing that out too, lol, random, I know :P
The first scene is something all mid-teen and above aged girls can relate to. It may get a little awkward for any guys reading it. So boy readers (if any) you have been warned!
The title comes from the song of the same name by the magnificent Michael Joseph Jackson! It's a fun, upbeat, dance number. You might like to listen to it as you are reading the fic and imagine Mercedes singing it, perhaps accompanied by Kurt. The song actually has nothing to do with having a job, the 'workin' refers to a relationship…but we'll ignore that for the purposes of the fic, shall we?
This fic isn't based in a specific time on the Glee calendar. It's after everything that happens in Journey, but they're back at school, but as this was written before season 2 premiered nothing that happened in Audition affects this fic.
Summary::..You got me workin' day and night, Mercedes and Kurt get their first jobs together at Ikea.
Mercedes was in a panic. She couldn't fill her lungs with the correct amount of air in her anxiety. Her hands trembled as she used them to navigate through the objects filling the bottom draw of the upstairs bathroom. She reefed through the drawer with reckless abandonment, she didn't care how disorganized everything was becoming, she only knew she needed all of the objects out of the way. Her heart was pounding much quicker than usual.
But it was all for nothing. The small, decorated box she had been searching for was still nowhere in sight. She pushed herself away from the counter exiting the tiled room. She began downstairs. Her efforts were slowed by the strong cramps which seized the lower part of her torso. She moved carefully through the spiking pain, which left her to feel like a tender piece of meat.
Searching through the bathroom on the bottom floor she found no solutions. She tossed everything out of the way but not a single box was revealed to her. She slammed a drawer shut, pausing to listen to the satisfying thump. She felt like bawling, especially when she thought about how she would have to clean up the large mess she had created for absolutely no reason at all.
Upon exiting the bathroom she slammed the door shut behind her. It hardly helped to relieve her stress. She thought of the situation she faced and felt she might become hysterical if she could not find a solution within the next few minutes.
She could hardly believe this was happening to her. This was some kind of nightmare. The blood patches on the toilet paper had confirmed the worst week of the month had arrived. It was a manageable trauma; a box full of tampons, another box containing pain killers and the last box stocked up on chocolate was all she needed to survive, as long as Rachel Berry wasn't around to drag Mercedes' mood down to rage. With the box full of tampons missing she felt on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Getting to the store normally wouldn't be such a problem. But today her father was pricing new lawn mowers and on the opposite side of Lima was her mother, supporting her little sister through her first ballet lesson. Mercedes didn't have her own car, making her newly gained driver's licence practically useless. The mall was a half-hour walk away from her house; meanwhile the closest convenience store did not stock the brand correct for her comfort. She was stranded without any tampons.
She didn't particularly want to make such a phone call, but she could think of no other remedy. She felt very embarrassed as she bought the contact up on her phone. She put the phone to her car, cringing with each dial tone she heard.
"Hello." His chipper voice coming clearly through the speaker. She kept her lips locked tightly as she inhaled a deep breath through her nose. "Hello?"
She cleared her throat, forcing herself to speak before he grew too annoyed and hung up. "Hey Kurt, it's me."
"Hey Boo, what's up?" He asked casually.
"Are you busy?" She inquired. "I mean I'm not interrupting, am I?"
"The only thing you're interrupting me from is making a decision between a strawberry donut or a chocolate one." He replied. "How many I help you?"
"I need you to take me…" She paused, clearing her throat again. "Take me to the mall."
He perked up after hearing this. "Shopping? Brilliant, I'm getting my keys right now."
She laughed nervously. "Okay great, I'll see you soon. Love you."
"Love you too, bye." He replied automatically, blowing a kiss into the receiver for her as he always did before hanging up.
She locked the house behind her and went to wait for Kurt in the soothingly warm sun. His car pulled up, the polished surface shining in the bright sunlight. She lowered herself gingerly onto the passenger seat. He turned the music down upon her arrival. She showed him the biggest smile she could manage, which apparently wasn't very convincing.
"Are you alright?" He asked whipping his sunglasses off in concern. "You look terrible and I mean that in the best possible way."
"I got my period, but no equipment to plug the flood." She stated.
He quickly returned his attention to the world outside the windshield, starting the car up. "You needn't say more, I'll take care of it all."
"Thanks babe." She replied, reaching out to pat him on the arm. "I hate bothering you with my crap like this. If I had my own car you wouldn't need to worry about any of this."
He shrugged a shoulder. "So get a car."
She scoffed. "Yeah, right. I gotta get money first." She closed her eyes, concentrating on her breathing as an attempt to relax the tight grip the cramps had on her waist. She forgot about getting her own car almost immediately, instead she enjoyed that Kurt had Beyoncé playing on his iPod.
It was the first Saturday of spring. Kurt had some serious redecorating to do. He needed to bring his room into the new season. He took Mercedes along with him to Ikea to check out the new range.
Mercedes wasn't entirely sure what she was looking for. She followed Kurt and when he glanced back for her opinion she showed him a shrug or a nod. She didn't have a strong opinion to any of it; it was just furniture to her. Some of it looked tacky, a collection were nice and there were more that seemed very posh. It was clear Kurt could see something she was missing.
Her expertise came in locating the most comfortable couch. She moved from one chair to another. She was seeking a chair with enough cushioning to support her body, but too much cushion created the unappealing over-stuffed feeling. She always lingered a little longer in reclining chairs. She liked to get a bit wild in the rocking chairs, to test what they were made of, which always worried the on-looking staff.
She was growing more bored with every chair Kurt walked past. She was swaying back-and-forth on a porch swing. She began to sing as an attempt to amuse herself. "He rocks in the tree-tops all day long, hoppin' and boppin' and singin' this song…"
"Cedes!" Kurt called from the opposite side of the room. She looked over to where he was waving her over. "Quick, get over here!"
She got up and trotted to him. "Have you found something that you like? Finally?"
"I've found something amazing." He replied, grabbing her hand and holding on to it securely while he used his free hand to point.
She looked at the notice he was indicating to. It was a positions vacant poster. This branch of Ikea was seeking junior staff members. The poster told them it was an exciting career opportunity. It encouraged 'energetic' and 'out-going' people to submit their résumés to the front desk before the end of the month.
"What do you think?" He asked, breathless in his excitement.
"I think we have to get home and put our résumés together right now." She replied.
He grinned. "I was hoping you would say that." They turned and left the room. They rushed past the items he had flagged as his favourites. His redecorating was placed on the back-burner for now.
The nerves jittered around in Mercedes' stomach. She felt like she could bounce around the cab of the car like a rubber ball. She could feel the energy pulsing through her. She attempted to contain herself but she couldn't stop her foot from tapping on the floor. Her mouth was dry while her hands were sweating. She placed the piece of paper in her lap so as to free her hand, wiping the palm on the side of her jean-clad thigh. When she picked the résumé up again she quickly swept her eyes over it. No matter how many times she checked it she was always certain she would find an embarrassing mistake.
She felt the car slowing and so looked up. Her first sight was Kurt getting out of his own car. She instantly unbuckled her seat-belt. "There's Kurt, I gotta go." She pushed the door open and already had one leg out of the car. "Thanks for the lift Mom; I'll see you later this afternoon." As soon as she was out of the car she rushed toward Kurt. When she reached him she threw her arms around him. "I am so nervous."
"Let me see your résumé." He said, taking the paper from her.
As she was reading through his a feeling of intimidation settled over her. "Yours is amazing, you're guaranteed to get the job with this."
"Don't sell yourself short I would hire you on that out-fit alone." He said. "It's to die for." He returned her résumé to her hands. "Are you ready to go in?"
She exhaled slowly. "I guess so."
"Come on, let's do this thing." He linked her arm with his. "Eye of the Tiger Boo, Eye of the Tiger."
They walked side-by-side to the customer service desk. Luckily there was no line and they were able to immediately hand their résumés to the employee. Both acted as energetic as possible, smiling brightly and talking politely.
To Mercedes it all seemed to go by so quickly. The person who had taken their résumés had only asked them one question, to clarify the contact numbers presented on the piece of paper. As they were exiting the shop she couldn't help but feel as if she had gotten keyed up over nothing. She was somewhat deflated.
"Hopefully the rest of the losers in this town will exercise some sense and stay away." He said.
"We need to get some mad positive thinking going." She suggested. "We will get the jobs."
"Yes and with the jobs we will get amazing discounts." He added.
She grinned. "And money to get me a sweet ride."
"Do the dance." He instructed and they began to crump in the car park.
"You wanna get a milkshake?" She suggested.
"Definitely." He agreed, holding the passenger door open for her. She climbed into the car and looked at the Ikea logo in the side rear-view mirror. She sent as many good vibes as she held in her body toward the logo. She hoped all of this excitement wasn't ill placed.
One phone call, an interview with the employer, a congratulatory phone call and one week later Mercedes found the shine was beginning to wear off her new job. Having a job was nowhere near as exciting as she had thought it would be. She hadn't worked there long enough to hate it. But she could easily name a hundred places she would rather be.
She was constantly picking up the mess of disobedient kids. Every shift ended with running a vacuum cleaner over the floor. On a Saturday morning when she arrived before the store opened she had to change the designer sheets on the display beds. During the day she moved around the store re-fluffing pillows and ensuring price-tags were attached to the correct pieces of furniture.
Aside from Kurt none of the staff wanted to talk to her. The rest of the staff were over thirty and had worked here for longer than a year. They didn't approve of new kids, for some reason they thought she and Kurt didn't know what they were doing. The owner of the store was the only one who was willing to give she and Kurt a helping hand, the others thought helping out the new kids was a waste of their time.
Before obtaining the job Mercedes had never imagined how much of her time it would eat up. Moving back-and-forth from the store room to find out if certain pieces were in stock zapped a lot of her energy. But she supposed it was all worth it for the pay check on Friday afternoon.
She climbed into the passenger seat of Kurt's car. After buckling her seat belt she leant back, her eyes instantly closing. "Oh man, I am going home and going to bed straight away."
"Bad news." He announced.
"What?" She groaned.
"Friday night Glee practice." He stated. "We have to bring our 'A-game' to the competition this year, remember?"
She sighed loudly. "Can we pretend we forgot and just go home? Please?"
"I'm afraid not." He replied, starting up the car. She opened one eye to look at him. Suspicious, she wondered why he showed no signs of fatigue while she was ready to fall into a coma.
Six weeks had passed and Mercedes was pleased to find the complaints the employees had been making about her had decreased to almost non-existent. It was a relief. It made her withstanding the week to gain her pay check slightly easier. She was getting used to the situation, but her enjoyment stayed at an all-time low whenever she was within the store.
While the fellow employees were gradually warming to her they continued to bitch about Kurt. At first she couldn't understand why they would say such things about him. It didn't sound like Kurt. She had never known him to be lazy.
She decided to do some snooping and gain her own information. Upon watching over Kurt she was shocked at what she found. He really was lazy. She lost count of the amount of times she saw him making a beeline for the toilet. He walked into the store room and didn't reappear for at least half an hour. When he spotted a customer who seemed a little lost he walked as slowly as he could over to them, as if waiting for the customer to either find what they were looking for or have someone else help them. She was horrified to look up from her work and see him with earphones in his ears more than once. She even spotted him sending a message (or updating his Twitter status) on his mobile phone. He was a terrible employee, the others were right to complain about him.
When she saw him fixing his nails rather than looking out for customers she felt like slapping him across the face. But she didn't say anything. Instead she concentrated on her work, the fund for her own car grew every week and that was the only thing that mattered. If Kurt wanted to slack off it was his problem, not hers. She decided not to say anything to him.
Mercedes didn't plan on saying anything to Kurt about his terrible work ethic. This plan was ruined when she was forced to work beside him. She couldn't keep her mouth shut when he was slowing her down so much.
For today Mercedes had been picked to man the phones at the customer services desk. All kinds of inquires came through on the phones. People requested help with assembling their purchases in which case she opened a copy of the instructions and tried to stay calm while the customer groaned. Inquires about whether they were open on certain holidays were very common.
But the majority of the phone calls she received concerned people asking if the products they had seen in the catalogue were currently in stock. Mercedes was not supposed to leave her post and so it was the responsibility of whoever was working the floor to check the stock room for her. Today this responsibility fell to Kurt. Before ever asking for his help she knew it would not go well. The fact that he had the audacity to listen to his iPod while being paid to work was a sure sign he was going to cause her a lot of trouble.
Trips to the stock room took Kurt at least fifteen minutes. This did not sit well with many customers. Especially when Sandy Ryerson arrived at the desk requesting a couch in a different colour than they had on display. He had no patience; apparently there were other affairs he needed to attend to.
Finally he gave up waiting. "Never send a teenager to do a job that you want done properly." He snapped as he stormed off in the direction of the stock room. At that point in time she could see where he was coming from, it was a valid opinion. He returned to the desk with an order form, which she filled out quickly, smiling and being as charming as she knew how to be. She wished him a good day but he didn't return the sentiments.
"Can you please point me in the direction of your supervisor so I can lodge a formal complaint about the worst service I have ever seen?" He requested. She wanted to argue, or maybe even beg with him. But one of the first lessons her boss had taught her was that the customer was always right. Silently she raised her arm and pointed to where her boss was usually stationed. Mr Ryerson marched off. Once he was gone she let out a loud groan, placing her head on the desk.
"Kurt!" She snapped.
He strolled over to her with a pleasant smile on his face. "Do you want me to check anything?"
"Why don't you check to see if your brain is still working?" She replied, finishing by slapping him on the head.
His mouth dropped open in shock. "What are you doing? You're messing up my hair."
"And you're messing up my job!" She bit back. "I could get fired over you moving slower than a snail."
"Take a chill pill." He said.
"No." She snapped. "I'm working my butt off and you're not even trying."
He opened his mouth to say something further but he was stopped when someone pointedly cleared their throat. They both looked up to find their supervisor standing there. "Can I speak to you?" He requested. She gulped as she got up; she felt her stomach drop down to her butt, weighed down with dread.
Kurt took the bullet for Mercedes. He took full responsibility for Mr Ryerson's complaint. He insisted she be left out of the firing range. She was flattered by his selfless act. She felt guilty for being so angry with him when he was proving himself once again to be a wonderful friend.
This was not the first gripe the manager had heard about Kurt. He had no choice but to fire Kurt. Kurt took it very well, not arguing for a second. He nodded, said he would wash the uniform and return it, then exited the building calmly.
Mercedes asked for her break and followed him out. She rushed across the car park after him. She called out to him before he could climb into his car. "What did you do that for?"
He furrowed his brow, apparently confused of what she was talking about. "Do what?"
"Let him fire you like that." She stated.
He shrugged. "I don't care about the job, I never did."
It was her turn to furrow her brow. "What?"
"I only applied for the job so I could hang out with you. I don't care that they fired me; I would've been upset if they fired you. Like you said you've been working so hard." He explained. "Sorry I was such a pain in your butt, I just couldn't take it seriously."
She was very confused. "We're gonna talk about this later."
"Okay." He replied. "I'll come pick you up when your shift ends."
"Thanks." She said. She walked toward the building her confusion mixing with relief.
It was a yard full of used cars. 'Pre-loved' was the cute term the owner had employed. All of the cars had been done up as much as possible, getting rid of any ugly marks left behind by the original owner. The finishing wax caught the sun, creating a shine that instantly got Mercedes' attention.
She spotted a yellow car; it had a small dent above the front right wheel, other than that it was fine. The interior was spotless. The seats had wide bases and the back seat was spacious. She figured she could fit a fully grown person in the large trunk. So far as she could tell it was perfect.
Kurt came along with her. Thanks to his father he knew a lot more about cars than she ever would. He checked under the hood and could find nothing wrong. When she started the car he thought it sounded fine. He couldn't find a single thing wrong. It was the perfect car on all accounts.
They took it for a test-drive. There was only one placed to go. She took the car to the beach. Along the way she turned the radio on and dialed it up as high as it would go. The buttons took a second to react but the sound was clear. He pulled a hat securely onto his head when she warned to roll the windows down. She rolled the handle around, letting the fresh air in. She didn't mind her hair getting messed. She enjoyed the feeling of the wind playing amongst her hair.
She parked the car in a spot overlooking the beach. The salty air drifted into the cab, clearing her head. "I love this car."
"You're gonna get it?" He asked.
"I have to." She stated.
He held his hand out to her with the palm facing the roof. She put her hand over his and they wiggled their fingers in sync. "You did it Boo, I'm proud of you."
"Thanks." She grinned; she had never felt so accomplished in her whole life. She turned the key and the sound of the engine starting was like music to her ears.
The End.