Perks of the Job

Chapter One

"I've got some news for you," my good friend since middle school, Rebecca, spoke to me over the phone. It was a Wednesday, nothing interesting ever happens on Wednesdays, so I was curious as to what this phone call was about.

"What is it?" I asked trying not to sound too eager to know what she was talking about; after all, she never said if it was good news.

Call me skittish, but I never really liked to receive news; good or bad. I just like to live my normal and boring life, and news was almost always guaranteed to bring about change. I didn't care much for change.

I lived a normal life in a boring town with average friends and had very uninteresting qualities. I didn't play sports or participate in any extracurricular activities or clubs. I was kind of a loner and far past the point of being a loser. My only two friends, lucky for me, were my best friends, Rebecca being one of them.

"Relax, Ev," she spoke into the phone on her end, knowing, despite not seeing me, that I was a little nervous about receiving any kind of information concerning me. Naturally my mind always went right to thinking the worst, like everyone found out some big secret of mine or something embarrassing. "Guess who just got a job at Maxine's?"

My eyes widened a little. Rebecca had been working at Maxine's Clothing and Accessories for a few months now and she loved her job. She didn't talk about it all the time, and she definitely wasn't annoying about the fact that she had a job while I and our other friend Kathryn didn't, but when she did mention it, she seemed to really like it. Nearly everything she'd ever said about that place was positive, except for the fact that she had to work kind of late some nights, but that wasn't too bad.

Rebecca had convinced Kathryn and me to apply to get a job so we could all work together. It was a relatively small, family business, but they had a lot of employees. At first the thought of working with my two best friends seemed kind of dangerous; we'd probably just talk the whole time, get no work done, and end up all getting fired.

Upon more thought, it didn't seem like such a bad idea anymore. We'd known each other for years, we worked well together, and we knew better than to compromise our jobs over conversation. It was then that I finally gave in and put in my application.

I'd only dropped off the papers not three days ago; I couldn't have gotten the job already, could I?

"Who?" I asked, though I was sure it was me.

Rebecca's next words weren't as nice to hear as I thought they were going to be. "Kathryn," she said cheerfully into the receiver. I didn't know whether to be happy for Kathryn or mad at Rebecca. Why would she call me to tell me that Kathryn got a job?

In the midst of my debating over which emotion to feel, I heard Rebecca let out a little giggle followed by her explanation. "And you, silly! Do you think I would seriously call you just to tell you Muller got a job?"

I laughed to myself a little; one, to let out the tension that had built up, and two, because I just got a job.

This is what I was talking about when I said that news brought about change, and though this was more than likely to be a good change, it was still change! This was a defining moment in my high school life; having a job meant having money and having money meant more freedom and independence, so in a way, I'd just grown up a little. I had a responsibility now, something more than school to worry about. I couldn't tell if I was happy or . . .

"Really?" I replied, fanning some of my excitement, though not all of it. "That's so great, I'm so excited." I was nervous, I will admit, that I actually had a job and real responsibility now. Sure, there was always school, but somehow this was different. If I messed up in school, I'd get a bad grade that I could easily make up, but if I messed up at work, I could get fired.

I told myself to relax and not focus on the potential negatives, I had a job! This was a good thing.

"Yeah," Rebecca answered. "My boss asked me to call you to tell you, but she still wants you to come down for your interview."

"Okay, cool. When is that?" I asked.

"Tonight." Tonight? My interview was in the same day? I wasn't ready for this, what if I messed up?

"Don't worry, Evan," Rebecca told me, probably able to sense my mental panic over the phone. "Mrs. Harris is super nice, and you've already got the job, she just wants your information to fill out the legal forms with."

This was actually reassuring. Rebecca was right, I already had the job so there wasn't anything to worry about.

Now I started to feel my happiness really set in. I had a job working with my two best friends in the entire world and I was going to be making some extra cash; what could be better than that?

I thanked Rebecca for calling me to tell me the news after she gave me some pointers on how to talk to my new boss. From what Rebecca said about her, she seemed pretty cool and really nice so I wasn't as nervous to see her anymore as I put on my jacket and made my way to Maxine's.

The store had been around long before I had moved to the town. It started out as a small family-run boutique, but over the years it had grown into a larger, full sized clothing store. Nearly everyone in town shopped there, including myself. I lived within walking distance, which was good considering I didn't drive.

I entered the store and was immediately greeted by a tall woman with red, frizzy hair pulled back into a low ponytail. She looked relatively young though the circles under her eyes showed her age and stress. Despite the fact that she looked dead tired, she offered me a genuine smile as she walked over to me.

"Hi, I'm Mrs. Harris, but you can call me Maxine if you like. You must be Evan." I took her hand as she extended it to me and shook. Despite my usual awkward nature, especially around people I didn't know, she seemed cool and easy to talk to, so I smiled back to her and replied, "It's very nice to meet you Mrs. Harris."

She took me into her office and asked me some general questions like, "Have you ever worked a cash register before? What was your last job? Do you mind working late?" I answered all of her questions as best as I could, revealing my lack of experience. I had never had a job before and I didn't know the first thing about how to operate a cash register, but despite my inexperience, she still hired me.

After about half an hour of chatting and giving her my and my father's information, we shook hands and I officially had a job.

...

Hi, so my name's Stevie and, as you might have figured, I love writing. It's sort of my way to vent out my feelings because I don't really think therapy is my thing (trust me, you can ask my therapist.)

As noted in the beginning of this 'story,' the events that take place really are based off of things that happened to me in my own life when I got my first job (which I still have, by the way.) The 'chapters' are really going to be more of journal entries for me that I am putting into story form with more interesting, but still accurate, dialogue for you all to read. (So pretty much, I'm Evan.)

People's names have been either partially or completely changed to preserve their identities (note how my name's not actually Evan...)

ALSO if you like this story (it's okay if you don't) it would be totally awesome if you went and checked out my other story That Photograhpy Life (again, it's okay if you don't) but I actually think I like that one even better than this story, but do whatever you like.

With that being said, I hope you enjoy the story and if you want to give me feedback, that'd be great and much appreciated!!