Pretty In Pink

Thank you to those that are following The Kids Are All Right. Here's a little something to tide you over until I'm able to post the continuation of the story. It should be up sometime next week.

This is just a short story that literally came to me in a dream. It is based in the same universe as The Kids Are All Right. For those of you that are keeping track of timeline; this takes place in the summer that Jane comes back to Toronto to help take care of her sick mother and to finish school at University of Toronto (so I'm looking around summer of 2012, just after Holly J, Sav, Anya and the rest of the seniors left Degrassi). At this juncture; Jane and Spinner have met up again and have decided at this point (timeline wise) to become friends again. Spinner had just broken up with Emma (so she could be with Sean) and Mrs. Mason had passed away recently.

While the book and book series listed in this story is fictional; I know people that are like Spinner in this story. It's meant to show a bit of a softer side of one of my favorite characters. It's dorky, but meant to be sweet and a bit touching.

The morning rush had slowed down at The Dot. Since Degrassi was out of session for the time being; there would be no real rush at this point in the morning. Jay had just left to go to work; threatening in his way to be back with Manny for lunch. Spin smiled at his friend as he left. He left his post behind the counter and quickly cleaned the tables. He refilled the condiments at each table and at the counter and placed the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. He went to his office and checked the schedule. Lucas would be in around eleven to help with the lunch rush at the sandwich station. Emma would come in an hour before Lucas to help wait on tables. He looked at the small pile of paperwork that sat on his desk. He would work on it after the lunch rush; Kendra would be in to help with some of the accounts. He was glad that his adopted sister was studying accounting; he could keep the books straight, but she was much better at it. He took the beat-up looking paperback book off of the desk and left the office. He made himself a cup of coffee and took a seat behind the counter and started reading.

He had finished a chapter when the bell on the door chimed. He placed the prayer card back into the book and placed it on the counter. He looked up and smiled at the friendly face that walked in.

"Morning Jane! Need a cup before the hospital?"

Jane Vaughn walked in and smiled at her friend. She held a piece of paper in her hand. She walked up to the counter and placed it down next to the book.

"I have the application for employment all filled out. I'm just hoping that you'll be able to work around my class schedule in the fall."

Spinner chuckled as he picked up the application. He took a drink from his coffee and placed the cup down. He reviewed the application and smiled.

"Do you have your class schedule yet?"

Jane looked at Spinner sheepishly. "Uh not yet?"

Spinner sighed. He looked at her. "I remember saying that for the fall I would need that to figure out your shifts." He looked over the application again. "You have the experience from California. I don't see why I shouldn't hire you."

He looked at her again. "Are you sure that you want to work with this merry band of misfits? We can get a little crazy here."

Jane laughed. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that I can handle myself. I'm a big girl, Spin."

Spinner nodded. "I know. You helped out here when you could before." He placed the paper on the counter. "I'll have you start working tonight. You'll be working with Adam and we'll show you the closing procedures." Spinner stuck his hand out; in which Jane shook.

"Welcome aboard the H.M.S. Dot."

Jane laughed with Spinner on this. He turned around and made her a cup of coffee to go. She happened to look down at the counter and the beat-up paperback. For some reason it caught her attention. She picked it up and looked at it. She smiled and fought very hard not to laugh. She knew this was the book that Spinner was reading as she walked. She started shaking from laughter. Spinner turned towards her, not noticing what she was laughing at.

"Okay I have one double with no milk." He placed the coffee down and looked at her. "What are you going on about? What's so funny?"

Jane held up the book for him to see. She snorted in laughter. Spinner looked like a kid that got caught with his hand in the cookie jar; causing Jane to laugh again.

"You're reading a 'Witches of the Watchtower' book?"

Spinner stammered over his words as he tried to explain; causing Jane to laugh harder.

"Spin this is a book geared for teenage girls. Why in the world are you reading this?"

Spinner watched his friend laugh at him about a book. He shot daggers towards her. He quickly snatched the book out of Jane's hand and picked up the application off of the counter.

"Yeah, go ahead and laugh." Spinner stalked off around the corner and forcefully opened the supply closet. He took out a t-shirt and came back around the corner. He threw the shirt at his friend; which landed right in front of her.

"If you're done, your coffee is right there. It's on the house this morning." Jane noticed the controlled rage in his voice. "Here's your uniform; it's a medium. If you want a bigger size, you can find it in the supply closet. Be here at four sharp, or I'll reconsider hiring you." He stalked off and slammed the door to his office.

Jane looked after Spinner as he left. She was surprised at the anger. All over a book? She picked up the shirt and tested it. It fit on her form with no issues. She started to head towards the office but thought against it. She headed out the front door and into the rest of her day.

Later that night…

Jane had made it in at three-thirty for her shift. She was hoping to catch Spinner and apologize to him before her shift. She had met his sister Kendra, who was the night manager. She got to work; befriending Adam almost right away and reconnecting with Emma and her brother. They had spent most of the night running around; taking care of orders for many of the Degrassi students. As the evening was getting closer to eight-thirty; the wait staff spent their time cleaning up and refilling items at the tables. As The Dot became more and more empty, the staff got to spend more of their time talking. Lucas had some food ready for the staff and was in the process of cleaning behind the counter. Jane had sat down and was setting up silverware for the next day.

"Not too bad for a first day little sister." Lucas smiled at her.

"If not a bit tiring." She sighed. She reached for one of the plates; only to have her hand smacked by Adam. She looked at him in surprise.

"No no; those are for the weekly meeting." Adam smiled at her.

"Weekly meeting?"

Emma came around and helped Jane with the silverware. "Yeah. Spin does this thing where when he hires a new employee. I can't explain it right now."

"Yeah." Kendra smiled as she came out of the office. "I'm surprised that he didn't mention it to you."

Jane blushed in embarrassment. "Spin and I had a little bit of an issue when I came in for my uniform."

Lucas dropped his scrub brush and turned to his sister. "It wasn't about a book, was it?"

Jane looked at her brother in surprise. "How did you know?"

Kendra and Emma did a facepalm at the same time.

Lucas turned to Adam as he spoke. "That's ten you owe me Torres!"

"Damn it!" Adam growled as he went for his wallet. "I really need to stop betting against you!" Lucas just laughed as Adam handed him a ten. Adam got up from his spot.

"I'll get the trash bags."

Emma chimed in. "I'll give you a hand." She grabbed a pair of scissors and followed after him.

"Poor Gavin." Kendra sighed. Lucas placed a hand on Kendra's shoulder as he followed the two out into the back area. Kendra nodded as he left.

"Did I miss something?" Jane asked.

Kendra nodded. She gave a cup of coffee to Jane and ducked behind the counter. She came back up with a bottle of clear liquid. She took a cup for herself and poured a quick shot of the liquid. Jane could smell the faint odor of alcohol from the bottle. She poured a little into Jane's cup. Jane looked at her boss in surprise.

"Drinking on shift? Spinner wasn't kidding about this being a different ship."

Kendra smiled. "No this will help for what I'm about to tell you. Everyone that works here will hear the story, sooner or later."

"Wait, everyone here knows?"

Kendra nodded. "I'll explain everything. I'm asking that you don't interrupt me." Jane nodded as Kendra continued. "When I was younger, mom and dad used to read me the stories in 'Witches of the Watchtower' series. Spinner would hear the stories from my room. We both liked the stories, even though I got the edited versions. When my dad passed away; mom went to work. She worked a lot of weird hours. I was kind of spoiled and I liked to be read to in order to fall asleep. Gavin used to read the stories to me, although unedited."

Kendra took a good drink as she continued. "As we grew up, he continued to read the stories. I; of course, stated that I was too mature for such stories. He followed the stories, but as I'm sure that you joked; they were written for teen girls. It was one of those little things that he remembers about my dad."

"Since mom passed away about six months ago; we found the books in her house. He couldn't part with them. He took the whole series with him to his home. Do you remember which one in the series it was?"

Jane thought for a moment. "I think it was 'The Wizard's Tower'."

Kendra smiled as she finished her cup. "Whenever he misses dad, or now mom and dad; he reads that one book. It's his way of remembering them. That was the last book that dad had started before he passed."

Jane wiped the forming tears from her eyes. "I laughed at him Kendra."

"I'm sure that he'll forgive you. You weren't the only one that laughed when they found one of the books on his desk. He was afraid that Lucas wouldn't come back after what they did to him. I wouldn't have blamed him."

"Okay, not really feeling all that comfortable over here." Jane squeaked.

"Spin took it easy on me." Adam spoke as he reentered. "I loved the books as a kid."

"I wasn't one of the crew when I found out." Emma smiled. "Of course, I saw them and asked. He told me the whole story."

"You had the easy initiation then?" Lucas smiled, causing Emma to blush.

"I know way too much about you guys." Adam laughed. This caused everyone else to laugh as well. They all turned when the front door opened. Spinner walked in with a couple of pizza boxes and some drinks. He placed them down on one of the tables.

Jane walked over to him and hugged him. "I'm sorry about this morning. I didn't know."

Spinner smiled his million dollar smile. "Jane; you're forgiven. Truthfully, I wasn't that mad about it. I actually never was that angry."

Jane looked at him confused. "But the anger and the shirt? The slamming of the door?"

"If you would have followed and apologized; we would have been fine."

"It was an act?"

Spinner sighed. "I will admit to overselling my part, but I was hurt. Since mom left us; it's been harder some days than not. Today was a harder one."

Jane hugged her friend. "I'm truly sorry Gavin; I really am."

He hugged her back. "As I said in the beginning; you're forgiven."

Jane broke the hug; looking him in the eyes. She felt a little flip-flop in her heart. She smiled as she spoke. "So does this get me out of the initiation?"

Spinner looked up and at his crew. "Well what do you guys think?"

Kendra smiled. "She's a good worker. She kept up with Adam and Emma." She gave a thumbs up.

Emma shrugged. "She's a good learner. She'll do fine." Thumbs up.

Adam agreed and gave a thumbs up.

"Lucas?" Spinner asked.

"I agree with what's been said. However, she's my sister and she laughed." Thumbs down.

"Well it's unanimous." Spinner grinned.

Jane looked at him. "Wait?! How is that unanimous?"

"Lucas is supposed to disagree with you; you two are siblings. He still sides with the crew."

"I've been keeping desserts off to the side for a couple of months now; waiting for this moment." Lucas laughed. "Don't worry sis, I brought you a change of clothes."

"You see;" Spinner continued. "Each one of The Dot employees had to go through an initiation. Kendra has to work with me; that was her initiation. Emma and Pete had to help rebuild The Dot with me. That was their initiation. Lucas was the one that received the initiation that you're going to go through. Even Adam went through it."

"Although it's not as bad as you think." Adam smiled deviously.

"Why do you think we have showers on premises?" Emma smiled. "On the first day; everyone had to do it."

"Oh God." Jane groaned.

"Oh don't worry, after the first couple; you get to fight back." Spinner smiled. "We put up plastic in the arena. You'll do fine."

Emma, Kendra and Adam gently led Jane to the back; smiles all the way to the back.

"You have the bucket of ice cold water?" Spinner asked innocently.

"You know it. I leave that honor to you; my captain." Lucas smiled, picking up the tray of cooked food and following into the back.

Spinner smiled. This was going to be a good summer.

Thank you for reading! Let me know if you would like to see other one-shots to my Degrassi universe!