Dirt Lifter | Craig of the Creek High School AU

You're telling me this egg bent a dick?

It was Jason's Friday evening shift, and it was as undemanding as usual. There was a lot of weekend prep to be done, but that was mainly in the kitchen. He was the only exclusive waitstaff, which meant no one else was helping with that, but the Gray Deer was empty enough where it didn't matter. Besides, he'd rather shoot his own head off than work side-by-side with Elizabeth, and he was fine with the tradeoff. He'd begged Jonah not to hire her, and either he listened or she found a better job elsewhere, because she hadn't stepped foot in the diner since.

Despite its flaws, Jason really liked the diner. It may be a rundown piece of shit that only Jonah, Travis the cook, three regulars and himself cared about, but it was their piece of shit. They had that old bell on the door, which reminded Jason of old western films with cowboys and shootouts. There were tables in the back that shined gold in the afternoon sunlight. They had a tub of hollandaise sauce that made anyone who ate it sick, and that Jonah refused to throw out because it wasn't past its expiration date yet. The staff did not get on your back about things unrelated to work, unless you did so first. It was a second home to Jason, if you could consider his actual house a 'home'.

His dad hadn't told him to get the job, either. He got it himself, with no parents involved.

Jason took the order of two girls that had walked into the diner. One had her hair tied up in a high bun, and the other had on a headband. They sat in the booth next to the door.

"Can I have the pancakes please? And an iced tea," Headband ordered.

"Eggs benedict please," High-Bun asked with a smile. "And just water for me."

Oh, you poor girl, he thought, but didn't say anything about it. He repeated their order back to them, to check that he had everything.

They nodded.

"Perfect. I'll get your drinks."

He turned around to go to the kitchen, and they broke out into gossip.

"D'you know that kid?" Headband said, loud enough that Jason and most likely the entire diner could hear.

"Nope," High-Bun responded. She was pretty loud, too, but not nearly as loud as her friend.

"He was the old Forest Scout leader that used to boss everyone around at the Creek."

Jason walked a little slower.

"Oh shit, really?"

"Yeah, Jackson, I'm pretty sure."

Okay, she got his name wrong, so she obviously had no idea what she was talking about. Their conversation will be full of misinformation, and not useful for Jason to eavesdrop on. He left them, and went to the back to give the order to Travis.

He popped his head into the kitchen. Travis was making scrambled eggs, and Jonah was on dish duty. Despite being their boss, he still pulled his weight around the diner. Jason appreciated it.

"Pancakes and eggs benedict," Jason said to Travis.

He nodded. "On it. Get the drinks."

The drinks took under a minute, and Jason was right back out with the tray. Those girls were still talking.

"I don't know, but he's not like the biker guy," Headband continued. God, she was loud. Jason could hear her from inside the kitchen's thin walls, but he had tuned her out. "It's about his parents."

A pit formed in his stomach. Surely, they've moved on from him as a topic. He couldn't possibly be that interesting to talk about.

"Tony Olsen said his dad was cheating on his mom with like, his secretary, or something."

His stomach dropped and he stopped walking. His head snapped to stare at their table, but he looked away when he realized that anyone could tell he was eavesdropping on them.

What the actual fuck did she just say?

More importantly, it was literally not true.

High-Bun agreed with Jason on this. "No fuckin' way, he made that up. That's movie levels of bullshit."

"I know, but I swear. And like, the kid's still not really over it. Tony said he's in denial about it. They got in an argument about it once, 'cause Jackson kept saying it was fake and Tony kept saying it was true."

Jason was now thoroughly invested in this gossip that couldn't even get his name right, and he was appalled. That argument led to him quitting Forest Scouts altogether, instead of just opting out of getting Falcon Scout. He had realized that Tony was a complete drama-seeking control-freak asshole that couldn't accept being wrong about one fucking thing, and who wasn't worth being friends with, even if everyone else in the troop thought he was the perfect scout. He wasn't perfect, for many reasons. For example, he told their 'friendship breakup' story to these random freshman girls, for some fucking reason.

"That's rude of him," said High-Bun. "I mean, how does he know? Was he in the room when they were doing it?"

Headband shrugged. "I mean, it's Tony."

"That's fucked up. God, I feel bad for the guy."

"Yeah, and he got really messed up about it, like, I heard-" her voice lowered for the first time since she got there, but Jason knew what she was saying, and he knew she was still wrong.

He did not deliver the drinks, or hear the other girl's reaction to Headband's whispers. He turned right back around, leaning into the kitchen window.

Jonah stared at him first. Travis glanced at him, but kept working the grill.

"Can I kick someone out?" Jason asked.

Jonah shrugged. "Are they paying customers?"

"They are teenage girls. One ordered the eggs benedict. They will never come here again."

He kept scrubbing a dish. "Do what you want."

Jason marched back up to the girls' table.

"Hello," he said, voice coated in saccharine politeness. "I'm sorry, but you are disturbing some of our customers. I have to ask you to leave."

Headband looked confused. "We're not being that loud."

Yes, you fucking are, he did not say. Instead he said "We have heard complaints from other guests, and would find it best if you leave this establishment."

She looked around the diner. "Nobody's even here."

"Get." He gritted his teeth to not yell. There was no fake sweetness left in his voice. "Out."

"Fine, whatever," High-Bun said. She stood up. "We'll take our business elsewhere."

Headband didn't say anything, but scowled at Jason as she followed her friend up and out of the restaurant.

The door crashed behind them, bell ringing with their exit.

High-Bun yelled "Asshole!" Jason could hear her from outside.

The audacity of them, he thought, just walking in here and gossiping about him, right in front of him, while he's trying to do his job. At least here, he could do something about it.

He picked up the tray. He had to dump their untouched drinks before he could move onto other his other tasks.

"Assholes," he mumbled to himself.