"Hey, hey." Max greeted, opening the door to their place and catching sight of Original Cindy and Bree sitting with a cup of tea.
"Hey Max, Bree was jus'tellin'me 'bout her past, how old ya think the girl is?"
"I don't know." Max said out loud, but her head screamed seventeen.
"Don't the girl look 'bout nineteen or twenty though, she only seventeen. Seventeen and the girl finally ran away from where she's stayin' at 'cause she was tired of it. Says her daddy immediately flipped, sending all sorts after her."
"I can imagine." Max said, almost tonelessly. The two girls looked at her and Max covered with a smile. "Original Cindy, you know Normal's gonna be chasin'our ass if we don't get going soon, and he sure ain't gonna hire no one who comes in late with us."
"Ya, a'ight, lets party."
"Sketchy." Original Cindy called loudly into the other room, "Getch yer ass butt out here, we headin'to work."
"Sketchy's here?" Max asked, eyeing Original Cindy.
The two girls laughed, "Yeah Max, he came over 'bout 6:30, checkin'on our girl."
Max checked her watch, saw it was almost seven.
"Oh, Cindy tells me you got a Ninja 650 Max, I'd love to try it sometime."
"Sure, no prob." Max smiled.
"You two got a death wish." Sketchy spoke up coming from the kitchen. "In fact," he paused, "Bree, you got a death wish just stayin'here with Max, I mean, she gets into all sorts, I think you 'd be safer over my place."
Max rolled her eyes. "Can we get going, remember we still have a morning of beggin' before Normal."
"A'ight." Cindy said, standing up and gathering the cups and tossing them on the counter. Thirty seconds later they were on their way to work.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You want me to what?" Normal asked, staring at the three of them.
"Hire our girl here." Max stated again, "You been lookin'for a fresh face Normal, admit it." \par \par "A new face so I can fire you idiots."
"Whoa, whoa." Sketchy spoke up, "Normal we -"
"Shh!" Normal said, looking Bree up and down. "You a friend of Max's?" he asked Bree.
Bree nodded and Normal turned to Max.
"Last time I hired a guy you knew, he ran off, what's so different 'bout this girl?"
"That's just it." Cindy pointed out, "Last time, it was a guy, now all us girls, we a lot more dependable than guys."
Normal looked at Bree, "Can you bike fast?"
"What kind of a question is that Normal?" Max asked stupidly.
"Hey, the girl looks like she ain't had nothin'to eat in a week or two, I don't want her dropping on my pay roll."
"I'll be fine, really." Bree finally said.
Normal humph'd, and looked her up one more time. Bree smiled sincerely. "You're on trial for one week, do good and your hired, screw up and your fired, grab a locker where ever, I'm not responsible for anything stolen from it. Max, you get her set up with the equipment and bike, the rest of you scat, get moving! This is a messenger service!"
"A'ight." The group smiled.
Herbal approached, introducing himself in his quick sounding psycho babble, Bree stood shocked for a minute then grinned, "I'm Bree, and thanks." she followed his confusing handshake in a way that seemed easy.
As Max showed her the ups and downs of the biz, Bree took it all in, remembering every word that was said, she also took a few minutes to study a map of Seattle, it's sectors and streets, although she knew them fairly well, it wouldn't hurt to brush up. And plus, it was easy to memorize the streets, it was what she had been trained for at Manticore. Memorizing Geography and routes, plans. And their own barcodes.
In an instant she was back in a Manticore classroom, repeating her barcode over. "Three, three, four, zero, four, nine, six, seven, two, five, four, four." she mumbled quietly. Max turned to look at her.
"What?" Max asked.
"Uh.. N.. Nothing." Bree muttered, turning slightly red.
"Right," Max said. "Okay, that's it, we'll go grab our first delivery from Normal, he's an ass sometimes, ignore it, everyone meets back 'bout twelve for some lunch, feel free to join. If I don't see you then, meet me back here at Four and we'll head off. My friend invited us over for dinner, he wants to meet the famous Bree." Max made up, lying as little as possible. That was the trick, lie as little as possible and you never got too mixed up.
"Famous?" Bree asked, alerted.
"Oh, I told him how you saved Sketchy and all, he's great, you'll like him."
"Oh, okay I guess." Bree shrugged, heading off.
"C-ya." Max called as Original Cindy met up behind her.
"What's up boo, what'd ya wanna say to me?"
Max turned to talk quietly, not noticing Bree'd stopped for a second to tie the shoes she'd borrowed from Max.
Bree bent down, noticing how dirty the floor was but ignoring it, she almost fell over when she heard Original Cindy comment.
"You mean this girl's like you?"
Max hushed her, but Bree was still listening intently. "Not exactly like me, she's more, advanced than my type. Anyway, I'm takin'her to see Logan, 'cause apparently there's some big ass government officials that have her traced to Seattle, Logan wants her to ship out but I dunno."
"Ship out?" Cindy asked, "That girl just found a place to stay and get some food, and he wants her to ship out?"
"I know, I know, it ain't too stylish on his part, but he's worried about her too."
That was all Bree needed to hear, she stood quickly, bumping into someone who fell, dropping some packages, Normal.
"Can't you guys watch where you're going?" Normal asked loudly.
Bree's heart rate picked up, "Sorry." she muttered, looking back at Max and Cindy, who were looking at her, watching her. Bree took off as soon as she met Max's eyes, which told all. She knew everything.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
