Usually Hannah adored her part time jobs. There was nothing she would rather do with her spare time than wait tables or make pizzas at JKP with her father, or repair bikes and work behind the counter at Storm Chargers with her mother.
Both her parents had to work long hours due to their career choices. RJ still didn't have many employees working for him. Casey, Lily and Theo had all left their jobs years ago when they started they started a family (or in Theo's case, went to school). When Fran and Dominic came back from their rather long vacation, they helped RJ out with the store for a few months, but soon quit as well, leaving RJ alone to run the parlour during Hannah's childhood.
Same thing happened with Kelly. Most of her employees were now long gone. Dustin quit his job at Storm Chargers a few years after serving as a Ranger. Blake was forced to quit the day he signed with Factory Blue. There was no way he could balance a part-time or full time job and a career. Hunter had to quit as well a few days after his Ranger career ended. Like his brother, he couldn't balance his career with a job at Storm Chargers.
For most of Hannah's life, bonding time with her parents consisted of being in their respective shops. For Kelly and RJ, it seemed everyday was bring-your-daughter-to-work day. They couldn't complain though. As difficult as it was to balance their own careers with their duties as a parent, having Hannah around helped their business. After all, the young girl grew up around pizza and extreme sport's equipment. When she was four, she was already helping her father carry desserts to certain tables. At five, she was helping Storm Charger customers buy the right helmet or protective equipment. Other parents thought she was adorable, and loved coming back just to watch her help out. Some other customers loved challenging her knowledge, and continued to return to either JKP or Storm Chargers to ask her about items on the menu, or the tools in Storm Chargers.
When Hannah was legally allowed to begin working, RJ and Kelly were very grateful to pull her on board. After all, hiring their own daughter meant they didn't need to waste their time with interviews, or ask around for references from teachers or go through the endless hours of training. Hannah already knew what to do, when to do it and how to do it. It was all second nature to her. Bake pizzas, take them to the table. Help customers find the item they're looking for, ring it up.
Though the perks of working for your parents were great, what Hannah loved most about her job was what came after.
Hannah loved working with her father because as soon as closing time came, RJ would flip the sign, lock the doors, and the father and daughter would start cleaning the store. To Hannah, this was never a chore. Her father was one of the most interesting and creative men she knew. He had found many different ways to have fun while cleaning the tables. Hannah's favourite games consisted of squirting every table with the cleaner and dividing the store in half. First person to clean their half of the store gets to watch and laugh as the loser cleans the opposite gender's restroom.
Hannah loved it, because she took after her mother. In any game, sport or activity, she was champion, and RJ always found himself cleaning the women's washroom and squealing when he would be forced to clean the sanitary disposal unit.
Working with her mother was another story completely. Cleaning the store was a job Kelly always took seriously, and Hannah hated it. However, once everything was clean, items needed to be put away.
This was always fun. Customers were terrible at putting this away where they found them. Hannah would find gloves with the helmets, helmet with the shoes, shoes with the surfboard wax and surfboard wax…
Well, everywhere.
Because the store was in such disarray at the end of every night, it was tiring to walk back and forth trying to locate the proper items. What Hannah and Kelly did was toss everything, hoping to land it back in its proper bucket (if it belonged in a bucket), or hang up the items on the shelf. And all this would have to be done before the buzzer went off.
Hannah and Kelly would also divide the work. Hannah would organize the front of the store, and Kelly would organize the back. Whoever finished first would get their choice of one of the two skateboards Kelly kept in the back. Whoever didn't finish before the buzzer went off didn't get a board at all.
The last part of closing up consisted of cleaning the dirt marks off the floors. A long time ago, Kelly and Hannah had discovered that it was easier to clean the floors with the skateboard, because you simply had to roll over to the next patch of dirt and whip it clean. What made this last game so fun though, was that both boards used were broken. One, no matter what you tried, wouldn't turn, and the other had a wheel that wouldn't spin. Kelly and Hannah would laugh for hours as they tried to clean.
However, tonight wasn't one of these nights. Hannah wasn't working at JKP with her father. Tonight, there would be no race to clean the parlour.
She wasn't working with her mother either. Kelly had caught a terrible virus a few weeks ago and had been in bed sick ever since. For a while, Storm Chargers had been closed, with a notice to customers that it would open up again soon. But Kelly wasn't feeling any better.
RJ knew it was important to open up Storm Chargers again. With two businesses to support, the James family needed to bring in the money. JKP was a very popular store, so for a while it could support the family and pay the bills for Storm Chargers, but RJ was starting to stretch his luck, and customers were getting very impatient.
With Kelly's consent, he reopened the store. However, he was needed back at JKP. He couldn't run the shop and neither could Kelly.
The job belonged to Hannah.
Everything had gone smoothly. Most customers knew Hannah very well, and when they heard the news that she was covering for her sick mother, they had no problems with the fact that a seventeen year old was temporary manager of the store. Some of them even wished her mother well and gave her a generous tip for all her hard work and dedication.
But the end of the day was near and Hannah began to worry. Of all days for her father to choose to reopen the store, he had to do it on the day Storm Chargers was open late: Friday. Most sporting events happened on the Saturday (Kaylee's law. It helped keep many athletes in school during the school year), so Fridays, parents and athletes were rushing in at the last minute to purchase whatever they needed for Saturday. Kelly had decided, many years ago, that to help these customers, as well as earn more money, Storm Chargers would close at midnight.
Hannah bit her lip nervously as she looked up at the clock. Five minutes left until she could lock the doors.
She turned to windows to gaze outside. There wasn't a single customer left in the store, and she wanted to be sure that no one would come in last minute.
It was dark outside. Very dark. The lights in the parking lot were flickering on and off. Cars traveling along the streets were few and far between now that most people were tucked into their beds.
Hannah turned away from the window at focused her attention on the mess in the store. Cleaning it up wouldn't be the same without her mother. Tossing items into baskets wasn't fun when there was no one to poke fun at you when you failed. And how much fun could riding a broken skateboard be when there was no one to laugh with you.
Hannah let out a long sigh. She rested her head in her hands and began to count the row of shelves.
Six. There were six rows.
She turned to the clock. Two minutes had passed. She groaned again, about to let her head fall on the counter when she heard a soft bang. She jumped up. Her heart was racing as she looked around the store, trying to see if maybe a customer had snuck in while she had been checking the clock.
She noticed a helmet had fallen off its hanger. This usually happened. Customers didn't know how to put them away properly and slowly but surely they would slide off and crash to the ground.
Hannah walked over to the helmet and picked it up. She checked to make sure the shell wasn't cracked before putting it back where it belonged.
Suddenly, she felt very uncomfortable. She was alone in this store, in the middle of the night. The sign on the door read open. Anyone could come inside, and at this time of night, anyone truly meant anyone.
Hannah rushed back behind the counter, pressing her back against the wall. She looked at the phone and for a minute wondered if she could call her father and ask him to close JKP up early.
She shook her of that though. One more minute and Storm Chargers would be closed. Once the doors were locked, and the windows were covered, Hannah wouldn't have to worry about anything. Hannah chose to put her mind at rest by heading over to the door. By the time she reached it, it would be time to lock up.
She slowly moved away from the wall and stepped towards the door. Just as she turned the lock to close up the shop, a man jumped out of the darkness, hitting the glass door. Hannah screamed and jumped back in terror.
"One thing!" the man said, holding up one finger to show Hannah. "It'll only be a minute!"
Hannah shook her head, "I'm sorry, sir. We're closed."
The man pulled back his sleeve, showing Hannah his watch.
"It's 11:58 on my time."
"Well, it's…" Hannah turned to check her clock and groaned as she watched it change to midnight. Technically, this man had arrived before the store was closed and he could file a complaint for not being allowed inside because Hannah closed the doors early.
But Hannah had a bad feeling about letting this man in. Maybe it was because he had jumped out of nowhere and almost made her wet herself, or maybe it was because Hannah wasn't used to being alone so late at night in an empty store without either parent.
"Please, kid. I'll even pay you from here. I just need some gloves. Look, I have the money!"
The man flashed a fifty dollar bill. Hannah turned to her till. Maybe if she lied and told him she had no change left, he would go away.
"I'm sorry. The till's been counted half an hour ago. After 11:30 it's policy that we only accept debit or credit."
"What kind of a stupid policy is that?" the man frowned. "Look, my son has a race tomorrow and I need gloves for him!"
"We open up at 7:00 tomorrow morning. You can stop by then and pay with your fifty."
"But I need to get them now!"
"I'm really sorry, sir…"
"You locked up early? Look kid, what will it hurt if you let me in? If you hadn't of locked up early, I would be inside anyways."
"I locked up a few seconds…"
"Kid, let me in."
Now Hannah felt really uncomfortable. She shook her head.
"I can't, sir."
"Open the damn door and let me buy the fucking gloves!"
Hannah could only think of one thing to do. She turned around and started running to the back room.
"MOM!" she screamed, loud enough so the man could hear her on the other side of the door. Hannah knew her mother wasn't in the back room, or even in the store for that matter, but she knew the man wasn't aware of that fact. She hoped, even prayed, that even the thought that there was someone else in the store would scare this man away.
She disappeared behind the door for a second and waited to see if this man would call her on her bluff. The store fell completely silent. After a minute, Hannah started to make her way back to the front of the shop.
As her hand touched the doorknob her ears picked up a sound. After years of training with her father, Hannah's ears were sensitive to even the smallest of noises. She felt her stomach turn and her heart stop. She heard a click and the front door of the store opening slowly.
He was inside.
Hannah stepped back slowly, hugging herself as she did. Now there was nowhere to run. Hopefully, if she stayed in the back, he would grab what he wanted and leave. Ideally he would leave the fifty, but Hannah could only assume that if this man broke into the store, he wasn't about to pay and leave change.
Hannah was about to start sobbing when she heard a hard cough. Hannah carefully moved towards the door and opened it ever so slightly. She peeked through the small crack and saw someone moving around the store, putting things away.
Another cough pulled Hannah out of her fear. She opened the door, causing the person to look up and smiled.
"There you are, sweetie," Kelly smiled, her voice rather hoarse. Hannah let out a long breath of relief.
"What are you doing here?" she asked her mother.
Kelly frowned, "Just because I'm sick, doesn't mean I'm going to let my seventeen year old daughter close up the store alone in the middle of the night. Do you know how many creeps and jackasses come at this time?"
Hannah nodded, "I can imagine."
"I would have been here sooner," Kelly said, "but I threw up getting out of bed."
"Why didn't you call dad?" Hannah asked.
"I'll be fine," Kelly smiled. "It's just a bad bug. And do you really think your father knows how to clean this place properly?"
Hannah took her mother's hand and gently pulled, "You can go over to the couches and rest. I'll…"
Kelly stopped dead in her tracks when Hannah touched her hand. Hannah felt shaky, and her grip was stronger than normal; almost like she was trying to hold on tight to her mother. Kelly looked down at her daughter's face and noticed she was pale. Her eyes were Kelly's final clue that something was wrong. They weren't shining brightly like they normally were, but moving around the store, checking every corner once, twice, three times.
"Hannah," Kelly said softly, adjusting her hand so she was holding her daughter. Hannah looked up at her mother, "are you okay?"
"Yeah," Hannah nodded. "Now go to the couches. Please mom, you're sick."
"I'm fine, sweetie," Kelly said. She looked down at her daughter again, "Hannah, did something happen?"
Hannah shook her head, "If you say you're fine then I'm fine."
"I'm not playing, Han," Kelly frowned. Hannah sighed.
"There was a man…"
"The man I saw running away from the store?" Kelly asked. Hannah nodded slowly.
"I closed up a few seconds early and he wanted to come in. I told him no, because I didn't feel right about it and he started yelling."
Kelly pulled her daughter in for a hug. "You did the right thing, sweetie."
As she held her daughter close, Kelly looked over her shoulder at the door. She had seen the man running away from the store and though nothing of it, especially when she had to use her key to get in. She figured he had simply tried to open the door, found it was locked and was racing back to his car.
Hannah suddenly pulled away when Kelly coughed again.
"Mom, go get some rest. I'll clean up."
Kelly couldn't leave her daughter. Not after what happened. Even if she was going to be in the same room while Hannah cleaned, she couldn't fall asleep knowing her daughter was terrified.
"I can't rest," Kelly smirked. "Who's going to kick your ass in the floor cleaning contest?"
Hannah smirked, "Can we set the buzzer for five minutes this time?" she asked. "I want to get out of here fast."
Kelly nodded. The buzzer was normally set for ten minutes, but tonight she was going to make an exception.
"Perfect," she said. "That'll give us enough time to complete our race and we'll be able to head over to JKP before your father closes up."
"We get to watch him clean the woman's washroom?" Hannah smiled, forgetting about the incident. Kelly nodded.
"I've got leftover candy in the car from when your father lied to me and took you to the movies."
Hannah chuckled nervously, "About that…"
Kelly suddenly pulled away from Hannah and set the timer on the buzzer. Hannah shook her head and laughed as her mom got a head start on organizing her half of the store.
This is what Hannah loved about her jobs; spending quality time with her parents. Working past close was really the only alone time she got with either her mother or father, and she enjoyed every minute of it.