𝐴 𝑅𝐼𝐶𝐻 𝑀𝐴𝑁'𝑆 𝑊𝑂𝑅𝐿𝐷 𝕪𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣𝕖 𝕩 𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕣

1

The square LED ceiling light situated at the far right of the store flickered every 3 seconds.

Just an observation made by a bored convenience store employee. The girl was slouched over the over-crowded counter top, dozens of multicoloured snacks and sweets barricaded her, acting as a partition between her and the rest of the world.

She had worked at the convenience store for a few months now, yet her coworkers still considered her a newbie, in fact, most of them knew her as 'newbie' or 'new girl' it was rare for them to call her by her real name. They even shared childish jokes amongst each other, an example being 'send newbs'...which to an extent y/n found funny.

Josh- short for Joshua, a shaggy brown haired skater boy with an attitude, was the main reason why the whole newbie thing started. It was a Thursday, late afternoon and y/n's shift was just about to end, the mellow light of the afternoon sun wafted through the large windows at the side of the shop, dust particles suspended in the air, moving freely around the area. Y/n was about to pack her belongings as she was getting ready to leave...

"Why are you packing your things away, you still have some stuff to do." Josh slightly craned his neck to get a better look at y/n's face.

"What? I've finished everything, plus my shift is about to end."

Josh shook his head and smiled, lazily pointing at one of the freezers. A couple of cardboard boxes sat in the corner.

"I found this in the back." He replied.

"The back? Do you mean the storage room?"

"No the back, the storage room and the back are two different things, the back is where the fresh food is stored, the storage room is where the older one is kept..."

Y/n's face dropped, this whole time she packed the shelves with close to spoiled food. She  released an exasperated sigh.

"...You packed the shelves with old food haven't you?" Josh couldn't contain his laughter "you're such a newbie."

"Who's a newbie?" A bleach blonde girl with an extremely evident fake tan, whom y/n now knew as Mary-lee-Anne also know as Leeann (a walking stereotype), cut in.

"The new girl over here," Josh gestured with his head.

The girl looked down in embarrassment.

"Ha! Lol, hey newbie."

Suddenly a customer emerged from the row of shelves, a curly black haired, brown skinned man, now know as zane, (he was extremely beautiful with the voice of an angel) joined the conversation.

"Ah zane meet newbie!" Josh said.

"Pleased to meet you newbie."

"Guys my name is y/n,"  she reminded them.

"Newbie is more fitting don't you guys think?" Josh replied

"HA HA HA! You're so right Josh~~" Mary-lee-Anne enthusiastically agreed.

"Hey, don't worry newbie, it's your first day, everyone makes mistakes." The scruffy man flashed her a cheeky smile"...but I must say, no one has made a mistake this stupid before," the man continued laughing.

'The only thing stupid here is your presence' She thought to herself.

"Was the mistake really that bad?" Zane chuckled.

"You see all these shelves? They are packed to the brim with old food- hell, that packet of crisps you have in your hand will probably go off tomorrow."

Zane widened his eyes, and looked at y/n.

"You really made a mess haven't you?"

Y/n sighed,

"Why is there two different rooms anyways? Shouldn't one room be able to serve both of the purposes you described earlier?" Asked y/n

Wiping the tears of  laughter from his eyes, Josh replied,

"Well...yes and no, you see, the storage room acts like a food bank, there's tons of homeless people around here, the boss wants to do something to help them ya know?"

"I see...well that's very thoughtful of the boss-"

"I mean feeding them the scraps doesn't seem very thoughtful to me, but I guess beggars can't be choosers eh?"

Y/n smiled at his comment, she was thinking the same thing but decided to keep her opinions to herself, she didn't want to condemn her boss for his questionable humanitarian actions on the first day.

"Anyways, let's get back to work, y/n has a lot do- zane I'll get you an new packet of crisps."

And from that day onwards y/n became very aquatinted with the shop, making sure she learned the inns and outs of the building- she couldn't afford to make a mistake that big again, it would probably cost her her job.

Y/n's financial situation was depressing to say the very least. She lived in a rundown apartment not too far from the shop, she wished for the day she could gain financial freedom and achieve a life where she wouldn't have to work so hard and sacrifice so much just to be awarded with a minimum wage that hardly payed for the bills, but until then she would have to work even if the circumstances weren't desirable.

However she couldn't complain too much, the little convenience store job she managed to score was by far the best job she'd ever done, at least she didn't have to work for creepy bosses anymore or have insufferable coworkers constantly nagging her. Plus the shop for the most part wasn't very active so y/n could do whatever she wanted- most of the time she slept, watched a couple shows on Netflix or read some fan-fiction when no one was watching. This job was truly a blessing.

The chime of the tiny copper bell reached her ears and alerted her of a new customer. Her job began.

♱ ♱ ♱