"This… No, this can't be real." Nurse Joy re-read the message a half-dozen times and she still couldn't pick her jaw up. No amount of pinching could wake her from this nightmare.
It was a simple message about the hiring process. Her superiors had reviewed the candidates, all one of them, and came to a conclusion about who would become a brand new Nurse Joy under her tutelage.
The name at the bottom of the message read: Grunt.
Nurse Joy busied herself with preparing the backroom for Grunt's initiation. She brought out some little snacks from the cafe because she knew Grunt would be hungry when she showed up. She prepared a uniform for her to put on, so she wouldn't be waltzing around in rags all day. She even prepared some custom notes, so that Grunt wouldn't have to delve into the more detailed instructions on her first day.
And still, she was unprepared for Grunt's arrival.
"Yo! I'm here for work!" Grunt announced as she burst through the door.
"Good morning, Grunt." Nurse Joy rose to her feet. "Please, remember to use your indoor voice when in the Pokecenter. There are often children and injured Pokemon around who may not appreciate the extra distre-"
"Sweet! I've been waitin' for some grub," Grunt said, as she marched up to the table Nurse Joy had prepared and grabbed a handful of malasada. "Oh yeah." Her words struggled to get through the barrier of fried dough. "That's the good stuff!"
"Quite." Nurse Joy forced a smile as she watched Grunt finish off the malasada. It weakened a little when she grabbed another, then another. She was wielding one in each hand and taking bites out of each. "Hungry, are we?"
"Yeah!" Grunt announced and sent a small shower of crumbs flying out of her mouth. They collided with Nurse Joy's pristine pink uniform. "Oh crap, lemme get that."
"That's not necessary, I-" Nurse Joy found herself speechless as Grunt wiped a hand across her uniform and licked said hand clean of crumbs. "… Perhaps we'd better see fit to getting you changed before we begin. Finish off your meal, then step behind the curtain over there to change into your uniform." She pointed a finger to the small changing area she'd prepared.
"Yeah, sure." Grunt shoved both malasadas into her mouth and made her cheeks puff out. She marched off to the curtain area, wiping her hands off on her tank top as she went, and Nurse Joy busied herself with the instructions she'd prepared. The tank top was going to be washed regardless, so what did it matter if Grunt had no sense of hygiene or cleanliness? It certainly didn't matter in the field of medicine.
As long as Nurse Joy could keep lying to herself like that, Grunt's tutelage would pass by like a spring breeze.
"Yo! What's the deal?!" Grunt's bark yanked Nurse Joy out of her happy place. She peered around the corner of the curtain. "There ain't a wig in sight!"
"Nurse Joys never wear wigs." Nurse Joy tugged gently on one of her hair loops to demonstrate this fact. "And we never will. I thought that since your hair is pink already, you could simply style it yourself."
"Yeah, uh, I don't know how to do that." Grunt stared at Nurse Joy.
Nurse Joy stared back.
"… I'm not askin' for help," Grunt said.
"Oh." Nurse Joy shook her head. "Are you going to learn it yourself?"
"Help's for losers!" Grunt suddenly yelled as she stepped out from behind the curtain clad in most of a Nurse Joy uniform. Most, in that she hadn't put on the sandals and she'd kept the little band around her thigh. "And my hair's fine the way it is anyway!"
Nurse Joy stared at the absolute mess that was Grunt's hair.
"Well, you're going to have to if you want to work at this Pokecenter. The sense of familiarity our uniforms bring is very comforting to new Trainers," Nurse Joy explained.
"I said I don't want any help, yo!"
"I wasn't offering an-"
"None!"
"I kn-"
"Don't help!"
Nurse Joy narrowed her eyes at the young woman, whose lips were already poised to yell a rebuttal.
"I'm… Going to do your hair for you," Nurse Joy said softly.
"Fine, if you're gonna nag me about it." Grunt stormed over to the table, swiveled the nearest seat, and sat on it with her legs around the back. "Be careful with the merchandise, ya hear?"
"Certainly." Nurse Joy went to the medical supplies to retrieve her Pokemon grooming tools. Grunt wasn't exactly a Pokemon (They tended to have a better sense of decorum), but they'd serve until she could learn to style her own damned hair. She hadn't brushed Grunt's hair for a second before a blood-curdling screech came pouring from the girl's lungs.
"Yo! What's that for, huh? Ya tryin' to take off my scalp or somethin'?" Grunt did her best to glare back at Nurse Joy, but she didn't have much mobility with her hair tangled in a brush. "Old bag tryin' to make me look ugly so you can get all the cuties?"
"I… No, I'm brushing your hair," Nurse Joy explained. Just for that comment, she decided not to be very careful with the next stroke. "You're going to have to start doing this yourself," she explained, as Grunt's legs flailed to the tune of untangling hair. "And then it won't be quite so dreadful. Do you understand?"
"No!" Grunt cried.
Nurse Joy decided to ignore the stream of complaints, and the handful of curses, that followed. Before long, Grunt stopped acting like she was being murdered and sat perfectly still as her hair was pulled back, then set into the shape of two perfect pink rings. It was a little short, but that could be fixed with time.
"What do you think?" Nurse Joy asked as she presented a mirror to Grunt.
"Tch. Whatever. It's fine, I guess." Despite her words, there was a little pink in Grunt's cheeks as she looked herself over. "Hey, when do I get the stuffing?"
"Stuffing?" Nurse Joy packed away the grooming kit.
"Yeah, y'know, for your chest? There's no way yours still look like that at your age."
"… Let's move on to nurse etiquette."
