第 2 章 (Chapter Two) アルバイトの人 (Part-Timers)


"Did you know a new coffee shop moved in next to us?" Leaf asked, fingers tapping 'S.O.S.' in morse code on the counter as she waited for her shift to be over. Standing next to her with an equally bored expression was a red-headed waitress whose own hands were tightly clenching a ceramic mug in an attempt to not burn down the whole place.

Misty let loose a long hiss, the air slowly brushing past her clenched teeth. "Why'd we decide to work at Staryubucks rather than...well...I don't know, someplace where we could earn more than minimum wage?"

"College graduation is in a few months; no degree, no good job. Besides, after Gary disappeared, Professor Oak's medical bills have gotten even worse. He's like a walking heart attack because of that idiot. "

"Fucking dumbass, he should now better at this age…."

Misty groaned at the college bit.

"Did you have to remind me?"

"Well, you asked…"

The redhead closed her eyes and thought back to her anger management classes, desperately grasping at straws to keep cool. Then again, those classes came to an abrupt end when the teacher, so irate from an afternoon trying to get Misty to think positively, had jumped out of a window.

She was still sending out condolence letters.

Sigh.

"It's good weather for an arson."

Misty raised an eyebrow, "You get the flamethrower, I'll stock up on ice cream, and we'll meet each other at eight."

Leaf smiled just the tiniest bit and glanced down at her watch. "Hardcore man, hardcore. Forty seconds left until freedom."

"I can't dooooo thiiiiiis anymoooo-SHIT!"

Just as she was going to finish whining,a loud crash of thunder shook her out of it. Rubbing her arms, Misty tried to rid herself of the goosebumps. "Is it time yet?"

"Yup."

Quickly changing and clocking out, they gathered their things and paused at the threshold of the cafe.

"Do you think it'll rain?" Leaf chewed her lower lip in contemplation, rifling through her bag in case she had brought an umbrella.

"Nah, we'll be fine."
"If you say so."

With that, the two young women stepped out onto the filthy streets of Lumiose and headed off to check out the neighborhood.


It had been an awful day. To be fair, every day was an awful day to May, today was just a little more devastating to her mental sanity. She had punched in a few hours early to get the overtime bonus, rearranged all the documents in the inbox according to her boss' prefered system of organization (what shade of cream the paper was), and kept one of her coworker's children busy so he didn't try and fax his butt on their high-tech, expensive scanner again.

Playing babysitter wasn't in the job description.

"I should get paid extra," May muttered, rubbing her grumbling stomach as she waited for the insurance claims to get forwarded to her computer. She would've taken a lunch break but Mr. Hayden had practically forbidden it, the root cause being the fact that the faxed butt scan had been sent to his email via her computer. How the boy even got on when she had only left for the break room once was beyond her.

"I'm leaving, good work everyone, see you tomorrow!"

Speak of the devil.

Drew. Flowerpot. Hayden.

Lovely. She was without lunch and patience and he, despite being able of both body and mind, got to head home first. The day hadn't even really started yet! She wasn't all that familiar with foreign work policies but there must've been something in Kalo's laws that said something about this.

Wrinkling her nose and waving a rather unfriendly finger at his turned back, May couldn't help but think, "Have fun, asshole. I hope you throw up your thousand-dollar coffee all over your sparkling clean marble floors."

The whole floor inhaled deeply and she paused. As it took a moment for her to realize that she had not only thought but also said such a thing, Drew had that time to whirl around and flounce over to her. Oh Arceus. He flounced.

Despite the fact that he was berating her, the only thing on May Maple's twenty-two year old airheaded brain was that Drew, the Flowerpot Hayden, had bounced over in exaggerated rage. Once they started, she couldn't stop the giggles that poured forth.

"C-C-Can you walk over again? I want to get this on camera!" She gasped out between breaths.

As his face turned a bright maroon, he shook with irritation. "Look here, April-"

"Is it already time for the tomatoes to sprout? You better hurry along to the fields, your brethren are waiting for you."

"That's it! You're fired! You don't even deserve a pink slip, it's a waste of trees just like you living is a waste of air! Get out now!"

As the gravity of her situation hit her, May visibly deflated, the smile on her face dissipating. "I-I…"

"Shut up. You know what? Get your camera out now and you can video tape me walking away to write your letter of dismissal," Drew hissed, whirling around to stalk off in an overly dramatic way. Sure, the boy would probably marry Harley (Arceus knows they're both drama queen), but May couldn't deny that he looked good in those jeans.

Chucking her styrofoam cup away, she logged off her computer with an uneasy smile, treading out without looking anyone in the eye as she entered the elevator. "It's not like you liked your job, anyways. This is a great opportunity to start over, to do something you really like," May mumbled. As she stepped out into the lobby and crossed the street towards the parking lot, she groaned. The 'Goat 2 Go' she usually took to work was snatched up by another card holder. Walking didn't seem like much of a choice, either, because the clouds from earlier had finally had enough and it was raining cats and dogs out there.

'The next bus isn't until two hours from now but Dawn's expecting me...'

Screw singing in the rain, she was going to cuss out her boss in the downpour.


"I don't care if she was your mistress or the queen of England, she's damn fired and there's no way in hell I'm letting March or whatever her name was back into the company," Drew hissed into his blackberry as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Where am I? At a Rolling Rocks concert, obviously." The sarcasm oozing out of him was slowly gathering into his head, inflating it more than his ego already had. Heck, the amount of venom a businessman usually excreted within an hour was enough to kill a cobra.

He hung up quickly, pocketing the phone as he marched into the coffee shop. 'Bean There' was relatively new but had received five stars on 'Help!' ((A/N: Yelp parody, ya get it? Yey.)) and as far as he was concerned, that was good enough. Nothing killed a migraine like a hot cup of coffee and an even hotter one-night stand but he was too high up to indulge in any "unsavory" practices or he'd lose it all.

"Welcome to 'Bean There' and we hope you'll enjoy our punny name just as much as you will our drinks," Paul recited dully from behind the counter, somehow tricked into the job as head "waitress" by Dawn.

He still didn't get why she had placed the cat ears on his head but it didn't matter, the ears made Troublesome happy and when she was happy, she was just the tiniest bit less troublesome.

Drew deadpanned, unsure whether or not to fall to the ground laughing, ask to snap a picture for the boys back at the office, or to help his friend keep the remains of his dignity.

"Why hello, little kitty, I didn't realize they let animals work here."

Being empathetic was something Drew had yet to figure out.

Paul's eye twitched as he tried to remain calm. "Why hello there, you sonofabitch, I didn't realize assholes had refined ta-"

"Paul, shut up!" Dawn scolded, glaring at him for a moment before turning to Drew with a friendly smile. "I'm so sorry for his behavior, what would you like to drink?"

It took a moment for the two men to get over her rapid mood change but when they did, Drew turned to Paul with a raised eyebrow, commencing a conversation amongst friends that only they could understand.

'Girlfriend?'

Paul shot him a horrified look, 'What the hell, man?!'

'Nice job, she's hot.'

'Drew. No.'

'Whyyyyyy?!'

'Seriously, we talked about this. You can't just-'

"Well...I have no idea what the heckie you two are doing but um...I don't have osmosis so...I'll just…go back to cleaning out the coffee pots…" Dawn trailed off, cobalt eyes flicking between the two cluelessly until she gave up, spinning around to walk briskly to the sink and scrub at the stained pots and mugs.

Now that she was gone, Drew went back to talking normally and handed Paul the cash. "Well whatever's going on, be sure to invite me to the reception."

Paul glared at him but took the money and set to making his friend's regular mochachino. Not only was Drew high-maintenance as a person, he had expensive and annoyingly complicated requests half the time.

"Please drink it right away, I want to hear you scream in pain while your ugly mug is still visible," He muttered, shoving the cup towards the green-haired menace.

"If you want to see an ugly mug, just look in the mirror." Drew smiled cheerfully and raised his cup, "Cheers~"

Paul couldn't resist a small smirk and shook his head, "Up yours, you git."

Ring-a-ding-ding

Before Drew could reply with a mildly inappropriate (and vaguely sexist in the normal manner of his) comment, two women walked in, enveloped in a heated argument until one of them-the one with long brown hair-stopped dead in her tracks.

"Gary the Fucking Oak where the hell have you been?!" Leaf nearly screamed at the brunette lounging on the sofa.

Freezing, he shot her a mortified look and hurriedly shot out of his seat, making a run for the back door .

Lunging after the man, Leaf practically tackled him, clinging fiercely to his back as they fell to the floor.

"Just falling all over me in public, such impropriety Leafy," Gary mocked, gasping for breath as she moved him into a headlock position.

"Is that really what you want to say after leaving for an entire month without notice?! Do you know I filed a missing person report?! Your grandfather nearly had a seizure and I had to cancel our plans with the-" She choked, trying to keep from crying.

Paul raised an eyebrow and casually raised a hand flippantly, not unlike a child correcting their teacher. "Please murder your boyfriend in the back alley, it's bad for business if we get shut down so the police can investigate a crime scene."

Leaf flushed red and she crawled off of Gary, somewhat ashamed she had let herself act in such a manner before strangers.

"It's nice to know you missed me," Gary muttered, rubbing at his neck and wincing.

Misty couldn't help but feel a twinge of annoyance mixed in with the second-hand embarrassment she had acquired from watching this. "You realize you just up and left without any sort of notice and have been...well, whatever the hell you wanted while your family and friends have been worrying?"

Hearing all the commotion, Dawn walked out of the kitchen to join the ruckus and smiled up at Paul, "It's certainly been getting lively recently, hasn't it?"

Paul groaned and rubbed at his temples as Gary pulled an irritated Leaf into his arms and stroked her hair making soothing noises while she struggled to get away, kicking at his ankles and stepping on his feet. "That's one way to put it, Troublesome."

"Aren't you glad we're not like those other couples?" Dawn laughed then slapped a hand over her mouth, glancing at him nervously before looking anywhere but him.

"I wasn't aware we were a couple," He deadpanned and she turned even more red.

"I...erm...didn't mean it like that...Just...we work...peacefully...at this shop and-"

Thankfully, she was interrupted by a soaking wet woman on a roll and Ash back from the toilet bursting into the room simultaneously.

With just one look at the arguing couple wrestling on the floor (/coughs/somehow those two always ended up on the floor/coughs/), two embarrassed co-workers, and redhead ranting to no one in particular, the two newcomers groaned.

"I always miss all the interesting bits!"

Because, of course, eight angry coeds in a small coffeehouse was destined to be interesting. To make it even better, with the appearance of the bandanna-clad woman, they had realized it was pouring outside and between them all, not a single one of them had an umbrella.

Letting out a collective "Shit", everyone in the room was finally on the same page.