CHAPTER 2 - WALKOUT
Note: The events in the second part of this chapter are, like in part of Chapter One, a take on the events of the Season Two episode "The Captain, The Grom, His Job and Her Dream", but with Sabrina taking Lo's place as Rosie's cleaning partner.
The following morning, Ripper was on his way to the second floor bathroom, accompanied by Greg Kahale, the big Hawaiian grom who had arrived with the other newcomers, who was on his way there with a toothbrush and toothpaste.
"...so the way I heard it, that seagull took off after her and chased her all 'round the hotel and she just wouldn't stop screaming," Greg said, telling Ripper the tale of what happened to Sabrina when she tried to find out where the Office was on her own after she failed grom initiation a few days earlier. "When I came back here to grab something I forgot, she shot past me like a lightning bolt and right up the stairs. The girls told me later on that Sabrina locked herself in the bathroom upstairs 'cause she was afraid the seagull was gonna drop another one on her head."
Ripper laughed a little about Sabrina's second encounter with the seagull. "I bet Sabrina won't look at a seagull again without dropping to a fetal position on the floor after that," the Australian surfer quipped. "Maybe that'll teach her not to sneak a look at the Office without being initiated."
"Think that'll stop her?" Greg wondered.
"Beats me, mate," Ripper shrugged. "Wouldn't surprise me if she tried again though," he added as he and Greg went into the bathroom, Greg to brush his teeth and Ripper to use a toilet stall.
About a minute later, however, amid the sounds of Ripper's farting, Greg dashed out of the bathroom coughing, overwhelmed by the smell of Ripper's "gas attacks". "Man, that reeks!" Greg said in between coughing spells. "Had to get outta there before he contaminated the joint!"
Later on in a hotel guest room, Rosie and Sabrina were in the middle of cleaning the room, except for one problem: Rosie was doing all the cleaning herself, while Sabrina did nothing to help out, choosing instead to order room service for herself (delivered by Emma, who was unimpressed with Sabrina's slacking on the job), watching TV while eating, then gabbing on her cell phone with a friend from back home outside on the balcony before she ducked into the guest room's bathroom.
Rosie next went into the bathroom to start on cleanup there when she found Sabrina standing in front of the mirror above the sink, attempting to tweeze her eyebrows. "This is so hard when you have to do it yourself," the blonde girl complained as she raised her tweezers to her right eyebrow. "OW!" she then squealed as she plucked away an eyebrow hair, right as Rosie spotted the toilet overflowing nearby.
"Sabrina, the toilet!" Rosie said, pointing out the overflowing toilet to her. The head of Housekeeping then spotted the reason for the toilet blockage when she saw some used makeup kits and brushes floating at the top of the bowl. Sabrina glanced at the toilet briefly before she went back to plucking her eyebrows. "Did you just flush your old makeup?" Rosie then asked.
"Doesn't everybody?" Sabrina said cavalierly while plucking another eyebrow hair.
Sabrina's comment, along with her slacking, non-existent work ethic and irresponsible attitude, ticked Rosie off good. "That's it!" Rosie snapped, pounding her fist on the sink shelf to catch Sabrina's attention. "I am going to the spa and you are gonna clean this up!" she said, indicating the mess in the bathroom which Sabrina had made.
"Rosie, relax," Sabrina said non-chalantly before going back to her eyebrows. "Just leave it for the hired help." That comment was the last straw for Rosie, who then grabbed a plunger and drove it onto Sabrina's head. "Eww! Eww! EWW! EEEWW! EEEWW!" a grossed-out Sabrina griped while trying to pull the plunger off the top of her head.
"Either you make this room shine," Rosie ordered Sabrina in an ultimatum, "or I rat your lazy butt out to Carter! Now, SCRUB!" Rosie then walked away to head down to the spa and relax after spending all morning dealing with Sabrina, who finally was able to get the plunger off her head moments later - only to slip and fall on the wet floor, then have the plunger land business end-first on her face.
"...and that's how I found out the hard way how Ripper got his nickname," Greg told Bummer as the two hotel employees walked through the lobby toward the public washrooms, where Bummer needed to go because his bladder was feeling full and he desperately needed to urinate. "I didn't believe Reef and Broseph at first when they told me, but after that episode in the boys' bathroom at the staff house, I sure believe 'em now, bra."
When Bummer reached the public washrooms though, he groaned when he saw signs on both washroom doors that read "Closed for maintenance". "Ohhh, what genius decided to close all the public washrooms for cleaning simultaneously?" Bummer complained. "First the washrooms at the golf course clubhouse, now the ones here off the lobby!"
Seeing the distress Bummer was in from needing to relieve himself but having to hold it in, Greg decided to have a little fun at the ex-day manager's expense. "You know, I bet Mr. Ridgemount's got heated toilet seats in the bathrooms up in his penthouse," he said as he and Bummer started back through the lobby.
"Forget it," Bummer said. "Mr. Ridgemount threw me into the pool at his penthouse last time I set foot in his executive washroom, and that was when I was still the manager! What do you think he'd do to me now that I'm lower on the staff totem pole?"
"C'mon man, you're doin' the pee-pee dance in public," Greg said as he noticed Bummer's fidgety and twitchy behavior while hopping along. "Picture it, bra - heated floors, scented candles, the latest sports and business magazines..."
"If I don't go soon, I'm gonna burst!" an impatient Bummer groaned again as he moved toward the Pirate Ship, hoping that the washrooms there would be open.
"Ever make your staff do the pee-pee dance themselves when they needed to go back when you were the manager?" Greg asked.
"Okay, I get the point," Bummer said through clenched teeth, realizing that Greg had probably heard the tales the rest of the staff told him about when Bummer was in charge. "But I'm still not using the bathrooms in the penthouse again, not after that last time!" When Bummer and Greg arrived in the restaurant, however, they noticed the same "Closed for maintenance" signs posted on both washroom doors. "Oh, come ON!" Bummer then whined when he saw the sign on the men's room door. "This isn't funny anymore!"
"Hey, you always cracked down on staff for breaking rules when you ran the show, right?" Greg said. Bummer could only moan and nod his head in response while hopping in place as he continued to restrain himself.
"And that includes using a public washroom while it was closed for cleaning?" Greg then asked. Bummer nodded again.
"So, haven't you wanted to break one of your own rules yourself?" Greg asked rhetorically.
"How do you think I ended up where I am now?" Bummer said. "What's your point, anyway?"
"And what're the odds that all those 'Closed for maintenance' signs put up on all the washroom doors at once are someone's idea of a practical joke?" Greg said. "If it's true, then what do you gotta lose by goin' in anyway?" As it turned out, unknown to both Greg and Bummer, Greg was not far off the mark on his speculation, as Sabrina had put the signs up on all of the public washroom doors around the hotel when she was supposed to be on floor-mopping duty earlier, as a prank against both the staff and the hotel guests.
"Fine," Bummer said with an exasperated sigh as he opened the men's room door to rush inside, relieved to finally be able to use a washroom without worrying about seeing a "Closed for maintenance" sign on it. When Bummer came back out a few minutes later, Greg said, "Feel better now?"
"Much," a greatly-relieved Bummer replied before stepping through the doorway - only to stumble over a bucket of mop water before he could even get two steps from the washroom door. "Grrrr!" Bummer growled in frustration after just managing to avoid falling to the floor. "Who left that bucket of mop water in front of the door? I'm lucky I didn't get hurt tripping over it!"
"Say, wasn't Sabrina the one pushing mop in the DR today?" Greg pointed out. Though he was no fan of Bummer's after hearing the stories of what Bummer did at the hotel last summer, Greg was glad to rat Sabrina out because he liked her even less due to her snobby attitude and her bullying of Bonnie not long ago.
"Figures," Bummer said as he looked at the bucket while walking toward the pick-up window. "She didn't even bother to change out the used water in there. Right now, it looks like whatever it is that passes for the cream of mushroom soup from the kitchen." Once again, however, he realized his mistake in commenting about the food near the pick-up window when he heard something slam loudly on a counter inside the kitchen.
"ZAT EES EET!" Chef barked angrily from the kitchen before he stormed through the door to confront Bummer. "Monsieur Baumaire, you have eensulted my cookeeng for ze last time!" he snapped at Bummer before using a dish towel to slap him across both cheeks. "Laissez-nous aller maintenant, messieurs!" he then called in French to the kitchen staff. "Personne n'insulte notre cuisine et s'échappe avec elle!" he said in response to taking offence to Bummer's off-handed cracks about the food from the kitchen. Right then, the entire Pirate Ship kitchen staff of chefs and food preppers filed through the kitchen door and followed Chef out of the restaurant in solidarity.
Moments later, Kelly, who had been at the front desk talking with Johnny about a booking of the dining lounge for a private event and was now on her way back there, was surprised to see Chef leading his kitchen staff out the door. "Chef, what's going on?" the Pirate Ship manager demanded to know. "Why're you and all your staff leaving?"
"Mademoiselle Kelly, my staff and I are goeeng on strike!" Chef told her. "We are walkeeng out een protest unteel zat sacré idiote Monsieur Baumaire apologizes for eensulteeng our cookeeng! Eef he does not apologize, zen we QUEET! Nous permettre d'aller maintenant, messieurs!" he then said to the kitchen staff, who began following him toward the front entrance of the hotel.
"What?! Guys, wait a minute..." Kelly then said as the kitchen staff walked out, trying in vain to keep them from leaving. "Please, be reasonable! The DR can't run without you in the kitchen!" Her cheeks flushing red in frustration and anger and her fists clenching, she then turned her head toward the Pirate Ship's entrance and yelled "BUMMER!"
Bummer, who clearly heard Kelly's yell from outside in the lobby, now looked worried, while Greg, who saw Kelly marching in and then noticed Bummer's anxious look, quipped, "Ohh, you're in for it now, dude."
"Bummer, what did you do?!" Kelly snapped. "I just ran into Chef a moment ago and he looked steamed! What did you say to him to make him and the kitchen staff stage a walkout?"
A nervous Bummer started babbling almost incoherently trying to explain himself, prompting Greg to get involved. "Oh, he just compared the soup from the kitchen with the mop water in that bucket over there," he said casually.
"Congrats, Bummer," a clearly displeased Kelly then said sarcastically. "Thanks to you and your big mouth, the DR may lose its entire kitchen staff! Real nice work." Turning around to walk out of the restaurant, she added, "I want to see you in the locker room in a few minutes for a meeting. I want you to round up Reef, Greg, Ash, Trevor and Sabrina to join you there while I go get Carter and get him to convince the kitchen staff not to quit!"
After Kelly left, Bummer turned to a grinning Greg and glared at him. "You really enjoyed stooging me out to Kelly, didn't you?" he said, not sounding very impressed.
"'a'ole pilikia, bra," Greg quipped, using the Hawaiian phrase for "You're welcome". "All in a day's work." Greg then strolled off to the staff locker room, while Bummer sighed, rolled his eyes and grumbled, "Why me?"
Next, Kelly has to organize an ad-hoc kitchen crew to keep the Pirate Ship going thanks to Bummer's blunder - but will she be getting more than she asked for with the temporary kitchen staff?