"Hey, Reichardt! Get in here!"
"Gimme a minute, Paul!" The young lady had just clocked in at Steve's Auto Repair. Despite being the only female on staff, Patricia was easily more knowledgeable in automotive matters than half of her coworkers combined, and yet received the least respect of any of them. Never mind that she was a female high school dropout with only as much experience as she'd gotten in trade school. The fact was, she was owed at least a little dignity, seeing as half her job was cleaning up the screw-ups her colleagues were prone to making.
Patricia finished changing into her work uniform, a standard-issue striped shirt with "Patty" emblazoned on a patch near her collarbone (she'd been meaning to request one with her full name, since being referred to by her childhood nickname was more demeaning than anything else), then headed into the garage area. Sidling up to her supervisor, a short, balding man in his late forties, she asked, "So what's the story this time?"
"Just a standard oil change and tire rotation this time," Paul shouted over the noise of the garage, in his usual far-too-uptight-for-a-job-like-this manner. "'Cept the lady wanted us to check the spark plugs too. Says she doesn't trust the ex-husband to fix them properly."
"I know that feeling." She didn't really know that feeling; she just wasn't sure how else to respond.
Paul raised an eyebrow. "You just make sure you don't botch this one, yeah? We don't want another fiasco like the Miata from last week."
Patricia rolled her eyes. "Cut me a little slack. It's not like I could've known the guy's toddler put a block of cheese in the gas tank."
"Whatever. You just better be careful. One more issue and you're in deep, got it?" Her manager scowled and walked away, leaving Patty to her work before she could even respond. She sighed, and got to work.
As she worked, she reflected, as she often did, about how her life got to this point. Where had it gone wrong? Why hadn't she paid more attention in school? Maybe then she could have done something with her life. If she's been more like Marcie, maybe she'd be a success.
Ah, Marcie. It had been a long time since Patty had heard from her closest friend. The girl who used to follow her around like a lost puppy, and yet here she was, looking up to her old friend as a role model. Times sure had changed. Not like Marcie had become any different, mind you; she'd somehow managed to graduate college without even having to set foot in high school. To top that, she graduated summa cum laude with a degree in medicine! At seventeen! And this wasn't at some nondescript community college, mind you; this was at Vanderbilt, also known as that snooty southern school where you probably couldn't get in unless you had a GPA higher than Einstein's IQ. Even now, she was probably wowing those tightwads at Cambridge, wherever that was. Patty didn't really remember. All she knew was, Marcie was everything she could never have been, and she couldn't help but be a bit jealous.
And then there was Charlie. Good ol' Chuck. She'd used to mess with him from time to time–he was always so easy to tease–but truth be told, she kind of missed him. Mostly because she needed a punching bag, but also because, well, he actually got it. Whatever "it" was. There'd always been something behind all that wishy-washy "eternal loser" business, but she never was able to figure out what. He'd helped her through some really tough times, and made failing school a little less painful. If he and Marcie showed up together on her doorstep, even for only one day, she'd probably be the happiest person on earth.
As the day went on, Patty endured the usual bevy of thankless criticism, passive-aggressive snarkfests with the other guys, and an all-too-tiny paycheck at the end of it all. Looks like another less-than-spectacular Christmas at the Reichardt house, she thought to herself as she drove home, the darkening sky reflecting her mood. But then again, maybe it wasn't so bad after all; if there was anything Charlie had taught her, it was that Christmas is as good as you want it to be, no matter what the circumstances are.
And Patty wanted a whole lot this year.