Recreating History, Repairing Mistakes

Part 15

Alice enters Pop's just under half andhour later with her head held high. She doesn't mind the looks andthe whispers, she really doesn't, and she's proudly showing that.It's the first time in twenty years that she wears her leather jacketin public and she'll be damned if she'll let anyone ruin her goodmood because of that. Not even running into Hal right now would keepher from smiling or would disrupt the confident way she walks over tothe counter.

It's so different coming here as aSerpent. She can't really describe it, but the whole place feelschanged and definitively not like she's just been here with herfamily. She used to believe that the tailored skirts and heels gaveher power in specific situations; the money she used to have being ofhelp, too. But the mere sight of the big snake on the back of herjacket has people respect her immediately. At least those who are notlooking down at her with for being in a biker gang anyway. And,seeing as it comes with the gang anyway, she intents to take fulladvantage of it, too.

She leans against the counter, takingin her surroundings. A lone waitress is way too busy in a corner,looking like she's no actual idea what she's supposed to do. Notolder than herself the first time Alice started working here, butshe's confident she at least never looked so out off her element.This is going to be the smoothest job interview she ever had andprobably ever will have. The first time around, she hadn't been aSerpent yet and Pop had not exactly been thrilled when she'd walkedinto work in her very own leather jacket a few months after hiringher. There'd been a strict no-Serpent policy as far as the waitresseswere concerned, simply because where there's one others would soonjoin and a bunch of them had been just about as easy to e controlledthan a pack of hungry wolves. She'd been the only high school parttime worker who had actually been able to do the job properly andwithout complaining however, which left her employed but she had topromise to keep her trouble away from the diner.

She'd succeeded for the most part. Atleast during her working hours. What her boyfriend decided to doabout the guy hitting on her from two booths over, hours after hershift ended, was nothing she had any say in. Not in public anyway.She might have been bad ass and downright bitchy on occasion, butshe'd secretly loved his jealous and protective streak and had neverdone anything to stop him from intimidating others. She'd tell himshe's capable of looking after herself behind closed doors, butthey'd both known she didn't mind.

As far as she knows, there are still noSerpents to be hired, but she used to be a good employee and she'snot sixteen anymore, she knows how to keep her professional andpersonal life separate; for lack of better words. Besides, there's nodenying that help is very much needed and appreciated, so she thinksit really doesn't matter where it comes from. It's not her dream jobanyway, she'll probably try to find something more permanent andsuitable, so what would it hurt to employ her for a few months whileshe gets her new life in order and deals with the repercussions ofher old life.

She knows FP used to love seeing her inher waitress uniform and had said more than once that he thought thejob was made for her. He probably still would today. But twenty yearsago it had been an after school job to make some money of her own,only to be lasting until graduation when she would get on to have a *real * job. This time, this right here * is * her real job, given sheeven gets it and she's not sure she wants to spend the rest of herlife waiting tables in a small town diner.

Alice averts her gaze from the awkwardscene before her and scans the rest of the diner. As long as she'snot working here yet, she's in no way going to take pity on theteenager and help her out in some way. Trying to make believe shehasn't noticed anything seems like the best way to get out off it.The place is empty enough, since it's the middle of the week. A fewpeople are taking their breakfast before heading off to their ownwork, there's a mother with a little boy not old enough for schoolyet and a newborn who seems to be in over her head and, there are afew teenagers definitively skipping school. She shrugs her shoulders.As long as they're not hers. This would have bothered her not a fewweeks ago, but then she can't help but ask herself if it really * had* bothered her or if it had just been what was expected of her.