The Hardy-Mart

Friday

"$0.14 is your change. Have a good day, ma'am and thank you for choosing Hardy-Mart." I smiled. The old woman took her bags without another glance at me and muttered something that sounded less like 'thanks' and more like 'curse upon your children'. The entrance door ringed as she left. My smile disappeared with her.

"Why does everyone hate me?" I raised my arms in mock grandeur, calling out to the empty convenience store. To the left of me, several boxes fell to the floor and were pushed aside.

"People don't hate you, Candace." said a boy appearing from the storage room carrying several casings filled with instant-powder sweet tea. His name was Parker Welch, my weekday co-worker. He clocked in at a dignified 5'10" (we measured once when a shipment of rulers came in), with hair like a bag of cheetos, and an inch of pudge all around him. And not even the slew of freckles on his self-assured face could mask the geek/nerd/dork smoothie that was his heart and soul.

"Oh, yeah? Whenever you're cashier, everyone acts generally pleased. They act like I'm some sort of punk when I'm here."

"Can you blame them? You do look a little bit..." he stopped, noticing the death stare I directed at him, "Never mind...I think it's the weather. I always work on sunny days. Today's kind of cloudy, don't you think? It must affect them some way."

I shook my head as if to say 'I hardly believe you', but said nothing. I knew what he meant. I did look punk. Mostly due to my dark-colored wardrobe. Everything I wore was either black or almost black. Occasionally I wore something different colored, but today was the same as the rest. I was dressed in black skinny jeans and a gray t-shirt with a skull on it. My hair was cut in a choppy bob and was currently un-brushed and messy due to a mishap earlier that day.

Underneath the counter lay a large, hidden algebra book and several papers shoved inside. I pulled it out and started working on the last questions of my homework assignment.

"You're not supposed to do homework during work hours." Parker crowed.

"I work five to nine every school day and you expect me to get it done for school the next day without working on it here? No one's around and besides, I saw you working on that History report last Thursday in the back room."

"That's a different story. It was due the very next day. Math homework is the easiest thing ever."

"Maybe to you. Damn! Why is solving for X so hard? This frackin' calculator won't work properly..."

"Here, let me see..." Parker jogged to my side and put his head right by mine. I inched away, feeling slightly uncomfortable. Was he really dumb enough to put his head that close to me? Word at school was that I'd shanked the last kid who bumped into me. All talk, obviously, but I was a little surprised he'd risk it.

"See, you just have to distribute here...yeah, like that—no, you divided wrong. See? Like this..."

In seconds I was finished with the homework page. And when he was done I shoved him away from me.

"Crap, Parker. You're like some math genius."

"Like some math genius?" He scoffed, turning back to his food-packing, "I am a math genius! I've won the state math competition twice in a row. Now, literature, that's another story."

I only raised an eyebrow.

"So, it's the weekend. Thank God." I half smiled as Parker shuffled to put the tea away.