Summary:
It's been a year since Jason's death. Cheryl's trying her best to save money, to get out of her oppressing house and mother, like they had planned with Jason.
That's when she's made to share all her shifts down at the café with Toni Topaz.
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It wasn't that Cheryl was competitive, or anything like that – although there were certainly people who would argue against that. She didn't have to win, or be the best. She didn't really want to, but after being conditioned into it from birth, well. She couldn't help it, sometimes. Things got into her head, screwed with her mind.
So, it wasn't that she had to be the worker of the month. She didn't need to satisfaction of having her picture up on the café wall, knowing that she had worked hard for it. But it seemed to Cheryl that it was a very self-evident fact that she was, by default, the best that the Vixen Venders had ever had or ever would.
She should've been worker of the month every month, all year round. It was how things were around here.
Yet, the picture up on the wall right now did not say Cheryl Blossom – Worker of The Month, April. Nor did it sport her picture, the one she'd matched her eye shadow and shirt for, and which had then turned out to be black and white, so it hadn't really mattered at all.
No, this month's best worker was someone else. Cheryl frowned at the picture, her arms crossed. Toni Topaz was someone Cheryl wanted nothing to do with, if possible. She was smirking in her picture, but not in the endearing way some people smirked. Toni looked smug, arrogant. Look at me, her crinkled eyes seemed to say. I took your position. I'm the best worker.
"Not for long," Cheryl mumbled.
"Sorry?"
Cheryl twirled around, a ready-made smile plastered on her face. It fell flat when she noticed who it was that was standing in front of her. "Toni Topaz," she pronounced, tilting her head. "What a pleasant surprise to ruin my morning on this fine Sunday."
Toni rolled her eyes. She was pulling her hair up into a careless ponytail – some wisps escaped, and she tucked them behind her ears. "Don't start, alright?" She asked. "I'm not any happier about sharing all shifts this month than you are."
Cheryl opened her mouth, affronted, then closed it. "I'm a delight to work with," she argued.
"Uh-huh." Toni turned away from her to assort their tea collection. Her nails had been painted green, which Cheryl didn't think fit very well with her hair, but it wasn't like Toni was any kind of epitome of fashion sense, anyway. "Sure you are, when you're not bitching about every single thing under the sun." She paused, and put her finger on her chin in an impression of someone thinking something over. "Oh, but right. That's never."
Cheryl's lips pulled into a frown. "It's not like you're any better, Miss Scholarship."
Toni huffed in something like amusement. Her eyes never left the jars of tea leave mixes. "Yeah, I'm on scholarship. That's such an original insult, Blossom. How about we focus on working, instead?"
They never shared shifts. It was one thing Cheryl was grateful to her boss for. She may have been a thorn in her side most of the time, but she understood interpersonal relationships, and that some people just didn't work together. Cheryl and Toni were those people.
Toni had transferred to the same college as Cheryl half a year ago. Suffice to say, they hadn't hit it off. Toni was majoring in social studies, or arts, some other useless degree like that. Cheryl had no clue how she'd gotten a scholarship, when word was she'd skipped most of high school after joining a gang, but she'd gotten it nevertheless.
