CHAPTER 8

"EH?! You're not sure if you'll make it on time?!," the voice on the other line shrieked as Randy held the phone away from her face.

"Well I-"

"If you were at Samezuka earlier, than why did you go back on the train?!"

"Well, YEAH, but I DROWNED and all. And I didn't want my friends to know where I WORK-"

"Eh? Your friends were with you?," the voice asked as if Randy didn't JUST TELL HER where she had been earlier.

Sighing, Randy rubbed her hand over her face. She was EXHAUSTED with this woman.

"Yes."

"Oh, now I know why you wasted so much precious time! If I were you, I wouldn't want my friends to know where I worked!," her 'Aunt' laughed. When said Aunt didn't hear any laughter on the other line, she quickly changed the subject.

"Anyway, get here RIGHT NOW!," she boomed. Randy winced as she pushed the 'OFF' button.

Sighing, Randy sat in her bedroom, thinking. She forgot that she had work early on Saturdays. She just assumed that she changed her work hours after finding out that she had school on Saturdays. She realized she did not, and her Aunt was displeased. Aunt Junko was not her real aunt. She was a friend of her mother's from college, at a time when Mrs. Litelli said were her 'glory days'. Now, her Aunt ran a restaurant on the busiest street of the Outskirts. This street was home of some of the most popular attractions miles around, which made her Aunt's restaurant a popular one.

After the gang left Samezuka, they stopped back at the high school and went off their separate ways.

"Riterri-san," Makoto started, "we were all thinking of getting ice cream. Would you like to join us?"

"Ah, well, Mako, um, after drowning and all, I kind of want to just...lie down…"

"Ah! I'm sorry, I almost forgot that had happened! Of course you need rest! Well, maybe some other time, okay?," he asked with a kind smile, even though Randy felt bad after denying his friendly request.

She agreed to meet with all of them some other time, and after her departure with the gang(and Kou), Randy biked back to her apartment, taking a nice, long nap. Her dreams were filled with a chiseled redhead with shark teeth. It was when she woke up a few hours later did she realize that she had work today.

And that was how Randy ended up biking in the evening to a restaurant ten minutes away.

And she biked their in her uniform.

"Shit, why the fuck did I think it was a good idea to fucking wear this shit?," she asked herself repeatedly. She knew it was a good idea. If she came in without her uniform, there was a good chance that she would get fired. She usually just came to work in her schoolgirl uniform, then changed at the restaurant. But knowing her Aunt, she would fire her for not only tardiness, but for not showing up in uniform BECAUSE she was tardy. And if she was fired, that would mean no freaking food, no freaking water, and no freaking candy bars to help her get through the shit that was her life. But what if someone saw her in this? That would be the ultimate price to pay.

Finally making up to the street, onlookers gaped at the girl wearing the maid uniform leaping off of her bike. She parked it in the alleyway like she usually did, and she strode into the restaurant as if it was a completely normal situation.

Randy worked in a maid cafe.

The moment she stepped in, she was dragged to a desolate corner by the ear.

* "OW, Auntie!"

* "Pipe down, you'll cause a scene," her aunt spat.

A shiver went down Randy's spine as she took note of the look on her Aunt's face.

* "Where the FUCK have you been, child?"

* "I was busy, Auntie! Cut me some slack!," she whined. All she got in return was a smack upside the head.

"Be late again and you'll see what will happen!," her Aunt hissed as she sashayed back to the counter(or as Randy liked to call it,'the front desk'.)

Flipping her hair in a huff, Randy looked around to see where her fellow maids were. Brenda, Sasha, and Gabriella were waiting tables. Crystal was examining her nails and scanning the room, which meant she was the one who covered Randy's shifts. Once Crystal's eyes locked onto Randy's, she made a beeline for the girl with the masculine name.

'Shit,' Randy thought as Crystal grabbed her lace collar.

* "This BETTER not happen again. Do you fucking understand?," Crystal hissed into Randy's face, not caring who was staring.

"...Yeah," was all Randy said before Crystal walked out of the restaurant, cussing to herself.

This maid cafe was famous for its assortment of foreign maids. Currently, all of the maids who worked there were from America. So, when they wanted to say something that wasn't "lady-like," they decided to speak in English. If they said something vulgar in Japanese, there was a chance that they could be fired, and that was SO not going to happen.

After she officially checked in, placing her 'work' card into its slot, she stepped back into the cafe, beginning to wait tables of the perverted humans who decided to eat here.

"Hello~! What can I get for you, nyan?," Randy asked in her high-pitched 'maid voice.'

Did she mention that she hated her job?

"Heehee, can you swallow, little girl?," a pervy geezer asked Randy, causing his fellow perverted geezers to snicker.

She really hated her job.

After (forced)laughing, she took their REAL orders, and walked away with a frown on her face. Not before being pinched in the butt by the same geezer who spoke to her. She froze, wanting to kick the man's teeth in, but she continued walking away with her head down. She could hear his gritty laughter behind her, and she only took deep breaths to keep herself from killing somebody.

"Hey, can I get some burgers and a large 'moe' shake for table 11?," Randy asked the chefs, two girls who just got out of some culinary institute who Randy actually DIDN'T hate.

"Sure, thing hun!," one of them chirped while the other whipped some batter.

Randy placed the paper with the order on the iron counter, walking to a different table.

This time, there were perverted teenage boys calling out rude slurs at the other maids. Randy rolled her eyes at their disgusting behavior, but she forced a smile and took their order.

"Nya~! What can I get for you boys?"

"Hey, can I touch your boobs?," one of the boys asked, causing the other boys to laugh their heads off.

"Ne, you can look, but you can't touch, okay~?," Randy smile cutely, but inside she was seething.

"Oh, I'm LOOKING!," a more confident boy in the group hollered at her, causing everyone else to laugh as if he had said the funniest thing in the world.

Randy giggled, willing herself not to cry on the spot. After she took their orders, she waited a few other tables and got everyone's food as fast as she possibly could. This had gone on for a few more hours, exhausting Randy to no end. Finally, after four hours of waiting ungrateful customers and receiving unwanted touches, Randy changed out of her maid uniform back into a pair of sweats and a tank.

"Auntie, I'm leaving," she said to her Aunt.

* "Bye, bye, Racquel," her Aunt called, pinching her 'niece's' cheek.

Randy was so happy that she had left some clothes at the cafe itself. She decided to leave the uniform at her workplace, and come in with whatever she pleased. She just couldn't take another look at the one dress that brought her horrible memories. She hasn't been in Japan for long, and she already had a new traumatic experience!

Biking home, she cursed herself for biking in the dark of the night. It took twice as long to get home, since she had to be extra careful not to bike into the street. Parking her bike on the rack, she went upstairs and into her apartment, knocking off her shoes as soon as she entered.

*"I'm home!," she hollered, knowing she wouldn't get a response. Her mother was out in who knows where, doing who knows what, as usual. She didn't know if her mother had a job. All she knew was, according to her mom, ' "I get your food on the table, I pay the bills, and I make sure you go to school. Now you can't report me to child services, since I do all that shit,"' her mother had said earlier, dragging out her cigar smoke.

Randy lied on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. She had to admit, her life now was a lot better than it was in the Hood, with her...no, she wouldn't think about him. Shaking her head, Randy tried to get rid of memories as she crawled under the covers and closed her eyes. She could be doing anything in the world right now, and yet she was trying to sleep at 9 o' freaking clock, just because she was SAD. She was too disgusted with herself to notice that her phone was buzzing.

Drifting to sleep, Randy would dream of a future where everything wasn't as shitty as it was right now.