Sunday was his off-day, the one day a week he was permitted to do no work. It was the day he was supposed to relax. It was also the day he got an Email from his boss asking him to please be the daycare security for roughly two weeks.
Apparently the last one had quit, and from what he could gather, people weren't exactly lining up to take the job. They had supposedly asked quite a few of their staff members, and they all refused.
So this 'request' was more a plead for him to do it. He had asked for a more thorough description of what this job entailed.
They had responded with all he had to do was stay behind the security desk, and ensure no one left or came in.
Usually, he wouldn't have a problem accepting such a job, but he would be surrounded by children. Ray didn't dislike children, it was the opposite, he liked them. But he wasn't good with people, he wouldn't be surprised if he somehow accidentally made one cry.
But then again, this would only last 2 weeks at most, and all he had to do was stay behind a desk, he could deal with that.
His therapist had said it would be good to interact with people more. He supposed that being surrounded by children would be a good start.
-x-
Walking into the Pizzaplex at 7am, he had made his way to the front desk, where the same bored teenager sat on her phone. He ignored her, entering through the gate using his card. He went to his locker, where he had been informed his new uniform would be.
The lockers were empty, the other employee's no doubt having arrived in their uniforms, and therefore having no need for the lockers. Either way, he opened his locker to inspect what he'd have to wear for the duration of his daycare-duty.
It was a long-sleeved light yellow shirt with a collar and two buttons, and his normal black pants, as well as an optional black jacket with a picture of a sun and moon on the back, as well as 'SECURITY' written where a breast pocket would have usually been.
He changed into the uniform, and made his way to the daycare, he didn't encounter anyone on his way there, all the other employee's already at their stations preparing for the day.
He stood before the extremely large entrance of the daycare, and took a left, where he made his way up a set of stairs, and knocked on the door at the end of the short hallway.
He heard some shifting, before a tired voice answered. "Come in."
He walked in to find a man face-deep in paperwork, said man looked up at him, showing off a large pair of eyebags fraiming tired brown eyes. The man sighed, carding a hand through messy black hair, before holding up a small stack of paper.
Ray stared at it for a moment, before stepping forward and taking it, The man huffed, then leaned back on his chair, taking a long look at him.
"Those are the Daycare rules, and what your expectations are." the man drawled, using his hand to prop his head up.
Ray nodded at the man, they stood in awkward silence for a moment, before the man snorted, and brought a hand forward, "I'm jason Baron. The Daycare manager, and your temporary boss. Call me Jason"
Ray shook the man's hand, before nodding, "Ray Jayrs." he said, the man, Jason, nodded, using his other hand to cover a wide yawn.
Jason looked up at him , "I hope i don't get any complaints from you, Ray." He tilted his head, then waved a hand dismissively, "Now get out of here, I have paperwork to do." The man looked down at the stack of paper in distain.
Ray took the dismissal for what it was, and left quietly, making his way to the closest door to the staircase.
There was a dest to the left, where a girl sat, to the right was a set of doors, and straight ahead, sat an entrance to a slide, the upper half of the wall was glass, giving him a view into the large daycare.
He turned to the only other person in the room, a teenager at the desk staring straight at him. He went up to her, or more precisely, the tablet on the table. He swiped his card across it, clocking himself in.
"Are you the new Daycare Security?" A curious voice enquired, he turned to the girl, Bright pink streaks intertwined with light brown hair set into a high pony. Large hazel eyes staring up at him.
He nodded, she pursed her lips, her eyes flickering to the glass wall, where the daycare could be seen. "You shouldn't go down there." She said quietly.
He tilted his head slightly, She looked up at him with worry clear on her face, "You shouldn't go there." She repeated, "It's dangerous." she whispered "No one else wants to work there for a reason. The Daycare Attendants, they're creeps. The sun one is so loud and overbearing, the moon one's a monster." she shivered.
Ray frowned, She mooved closer to him, voice quieter, "You can stay here, I won't tell." She promised, eyes flickering to the daycare once again, fear and distain clear on her face.
Ray took a step away from her, "It's fine." he said to her, before walking to the set of doors on the other side of the room, ignoring her shouts of 'come back' and 'it's dangerous'.
He could tell she was being genuine in her worry, but one of his only requirements for this job was to be at the desk, or more precisely in the daycare.
He had known from the start that this was not a popular position, but he hadn't known it would be this bad.
Ray wasn't a person dictated by other people's opinions, he always made his own observations, and from there he would form his own opinion. So he payed no heed to the girl's warnings, if the robot was dangerous, he would see it for himself.
Gossip was often exaggerated more and more as it was spread.
He entered the daycare, and surveyed the large room. The ceiling high, the play structure almost touching the roof, a large ballpit with a slide leading into it. The slide which started at the sign in desk.
Spotting his desk at the other end of the room, and next to the large entrance, he made his way there. He twitched as he heard shuffling from above, stopping in his tracks, Ray turned and looked up, where he could see half of a long grey tower attached to the wall.
At the top he saw something yellow peek at him, then the yellow thing jumped onto the edge. Turns out the yellow thing was an animatronic, he recognised it as one of the Daycare attendants.
He watched as the thing leapt right off the edge, going full-speed for the ballpit. The animatronic landed with a splash, colourful balls flying everywhere. Before the rainbow shower could even end, the animatronic sprung right out of the pit and stood crouched right in front of him, face inches apart.
"Hoo hoo hoo! Hello there new friend!" The animatronic sung energetically, the rays on his head doing a spin.
Ray blinked a few times, before taking a better look at the animatronic. He was yellow, his face round and orange sun rays poking out of his head, a permanent grin plastered onto his face, eyes completely white. But if he looked hard enough he could see a small pinprick of light. Ray assumed it was his pupils.
"Are you the new security guard! The last one didn't like it much, but i sure hope you do!" The sun hopped excitedly.
"I'm Sun, Sunny, Sunshine, Sundrop, and anything else you wanna call me! I'm the daycare attendant, I get to have fun with the kiddies!" Sun, as Ray chose to call him, introduced himself.
Ray took a small step backwards, and nodded. "Hello." He said quietly.
Sun stared at him for a second before taking a hop backwards, "Welcome to the Superstar Daycare, what's your name?" Sun vibrated on the spot.
"Ray." He said, "Ooh! That's such a cool name!" the animatronic cheered. Ray blinked, before nodding, and pointing at the desk "I need to get to my desk." He said, the animatronic swivelled its head to the desk, and seemed to deflate.
But bounced right back up, "That's okay! You need to do your job Mr Security Ray!" Sun waved at him, before bounding to the arts and crafts station.
Ray blinked at the retreating figure of the most energetic person he had ever seen, then turned and continued on his way to his desk. Where he took his stack of papers out to read.
Basically, it was the same thing he read the first day he came, except the Daycare attendants couldn't touch him without permission, and thwy weren't allowed at the security desk.
He read through the papers a few times over, before placing them down, he looked up just in time to see Sun jumpink into the ballpit, but this time without a splash.
He noticed that all the balls that had been thrown out by his previous ballpit dive had been cleared.
Just then a bell chimed, and a screeching child barrelled into the ballpit. The child let out another screech as Sun jumpde out of the pit with said child hanging from his arms. The child giggled happily, then jumped onto the floor and ran straight to the playground.
Like a flood gate opening, more and more happily screeching children came barreling into the ballpit, each varied in age, but almost all of them were just as happy to see Sun as the animatronic was to see them.
He watched as groups were formed, and children ran around screeching and laughing. It was all so loud, so much louder than he was used to, but it wasn't bad.
Watched silently as Sun flitted from group to group, joining them for games, and enthusiasically starting larger games that everyone participated in.
But every now and then he checked the daycare camera's as his job required, but other than that he stayed in his desk and observed the daycare.
At 10, it was snack-time, Sun gathered tables and chairs, the children sprinting to take their seats. Sun left through a door to the side, coming out with multiple paper plates. Each plate held tiny carrots, cookies, and pretzels, he handed them to the children.
Once it was ensured that everyone had their own plate of snacks, Sun turned and skipped to Ray, who watched as the animatronic approached.
"Hi hi!" He waved enthusiastically. Ray raised a hand, and moved his hand in a small wave, which seemed to be the right thing to do, because the large 8ft Daycare attendant somehow brightened.
"It's Snack time, So I brought you a snack!" Sun held out his arms, a small baggie with tiny carrots cupped in one of his palms.
Ray stared at it for a moment, before looking back to the Sun's unmoving face. "It's not good for you if you don't eat something for snacktime!" Sun waved a hand enthusiastically, but the baggie was still cupped in his other hand, safe from being shaken.
Ray reached for the baggie, he had to reach over the desk since the animatronic couldn't pass the invisable berrior that was the security desk.
He took the small baggie and placed it by the computer, Sun's ray's spin, before he hopped right hack to the daycare children. Ray stared at the tiny carrots for a moment, before he opened the packed and took a small bite.
-x-
He left for break at 2pm, as his schedule requested. So, he left his station and made his way to the large door, and made it out just as the lights turned off for nap-time.
He immediately noticed the amount of people, pushing at each other and voices raised to be heard over the chatter. He didn't quite cringe away from it, but he did look distinctly uncomfortable.
Ray sighed softly, before making his way into the fray. He skilfully slipped through, fluidly dodging people and making his way to the stairs.
After an uncomfortable journey consisting of evading human touch and blending in, he arrived at the dancefloor. He spared a brief glance to the floor, where a small crowd danced, most consisting of teenagers.
He kept close to the wall, and made his way up the stairs to the large DJ booth, where the DJ, glanced at him, before allowing him to enter without trouble.
He sat down by Dj's legs, leaning his back against one of them, not long after he settled, a few Mini's came scuttling to him, climbing him like the spiders they were made after.
-x-
The rest of his time at the daycare was uneventful, he sat on his chair, and occasionally checked the camera's. As the bell chimed for 3pm, Sun rounded all the children up, herding them to the doors.
He watched as the parents signed out on a tablet the Front-desk girl held for them. The children were taken without a fuss, Ray made his Way to the entrance of the Pizzaplex to take his leave.