Thirty minutes didn't seem like enough time for a 10 hour shift, but Korra was ready to take anything. She had been on her feet guarding the lazy river for 5 and she needed to sit. Now.
Kicking open the door to the (newly refurbished and air conditioned) break room, the lifeguard threw herself into a chair next to Tahno, the only other guard in the break room.
"A kid threw up by the wave pool today," he announced, his nose wrinkling in distaste. "Shit's stunk for fucking two hours."
"It's 97 degrees today," Korra deadpanned, "Of corse it's going to stink. Did housekeeping take care of it?"
"Two hours later. Bumi called it on the walkie to the housekeeping supervisor, but they didn't get around to it until three hours ago."
"Nice. When'd you start your break?"
"About 27 minutes ago. I'm about to head back."
"You suck."
"Yeah, yeah. I gotta cover Kuzon's post, so he should be here in five minutes. Later."
"See ya."
With the exception of the three overworked housekeepers hiding behind the door, Korra was the only employee who was on break at this time. She glanced at her watch; it made sense since most of the employees had their breaks two hours ago.
There was really nothing in the break room to entertain Korra. After about five minutes, the guard got tired of the obnoxious yellow walls and decided to take a stroll around the shops the waterpark had to offer.
She'd never really been on this side before anyhow.
'They've always had shitty music selection,' Korra thought distastefully as she exited the break room.
Somewhere between Crazy Frog and the 3rd consecutive Justin Bieber song, Korra found herself inside an empty candy shop next door to the break room. A wall of sweets greeted her as she entered, the only noise (other than the shitty music) the ringing of the door's bell.
"Hey there."
Korra jumped, whipping around the see who was speaking behind the pyramid of fudge of brownies on the checkout counter.
Her eyes widened.
"Oh h-hey. Um, what's going on?"
The boy standing behind the counter was about six feet of dark, lean water park perfection. Dressed up in the ridiculous non-guard, normal employee khaki shorts and Hawaiian shirt ('Fucking hideous,' Tahno said one day), Korra couldn't have found the boy behind the candy any better looking in such an attire.
He was about her age, perhaps a little older, with dark hair that stuck up in the front like a ducktail.
His light brown eyes were trained on Korra strangely.
"How can I help you?"
"Oh!" Korra said at once, feeling silly, "I was just looking around. I've never been inside any of the park stores before."
"Well," the boy answered, wiping the counter down with a rag, "guards don't really come in here on their break."
"It doesn't really look like anybody else does."
"Just for today," he explained, "Maybe this week. Once school lets out, we'll have better business, but until then, it's just me here alone."
"Oh, right..." Korra paused for a moment, and then asked, "What's your name?"
"It's on my tag," the boy said, nonplussed.
It was true; the name tag pinned onto his Hawaiian shirt read "Mako." She laughed, feeling a bit awkward.
"Yeah, I can see that, but it's still nice to ask."
Mako thought about it for a moment before nodding, "I'm Mako."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Korra. So, uh, what do you do when there aren't any customers?"
Mako huffed, "Nothing, really. Wipe down counters and endure the terrible music."
Korra's mouth twitched.
"It is bad, isn't it?"
Korra's feet did not protest her standing for an additional half hour, as she was too preoccupied with the candy boy. In the first twenty five minutes of his acquaintance, she found out many things about Mako.
He was a year older than she and they attended the same university.
He had a younger brother who Korra coincidentally knew since he worked as a guard too.
He worked as an intern for the local police station on his days off, since his major was Criminal Justice.
He liked the candy shop since it's fairly quiet inside.
And Mako generally dislikes lifeguards, as the majority are loud ("and stupid," he griped.) With the exception of a few, Korra herself now being added to that list.
So, when the time came for Korra to return to her shift, she bade her new friend farewell.
"The next time you, uh, get bored or whatever, just come in here, okay?" Mako said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. Korra grinned at him, feeling positively giddy at his invitation to hang out with him again.
"Yeah, totally. So, um, I'll see you around?"
"Uh...yeah, totally."
"Great!"
"Awesome!"
"Cool!" Korra nervously laughed, backing out the door, "Um, bye Mako."
"Later, Korra."
Korra didn't hear the bell ringing from the door as she exited, and she certainly didn't hear any of the awful music from the water park playlist for the rest of the day.