Spiritmal, By The Light Of A Star

11. Working life

"So, you want to join by being the cashier of my humble Lotus Seed Bakery?" The old lady at the counter turned around to face me and Star, pushing up her glasses while she did so in hope of seeing us clearer with her bad eyesight.

"Yep! I thought I could help out with the cash register." I answered, Star nodding in agreement to emphasize my words.

"Eh... why not? It's worth a try. We pay our employees twelve dollars for every hour. Are you fine with that?"

I pondered the amount for a moment. It wasn't that much. However, it should be able to sustain me and Star in terms of food. Housing could be taken care of easily, me having packed a tent and all in my bag. It seemed good enough for now.

"Ok then, I'll take up the offer." I agreed.
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"A bag of mini lotus buns costs two-fifty, a wolfaburger costs three dollars... so, the grand total is five-fifty." Calculating the change, I quickly handed the excess money back to the customer, thanking him as he picked up his goods.

"You must be new here right? I haven't seen you before." The customer raised an eyebrow at me.

"Umm... yea..." I answered as I set to work calculating the next customer's change. "I thought I'll work here for a bit."

"Hmm... I see..." the old man answered as he walked out of the stall.

"That was... weird?" Star remarked, whispering into my ear.

"It's not very surprising." I whispered back to her. "The resistants most likely buy bread from here frequently. They'll obviously be surprised to be met with a new face."

Star sighed. "Are you sure you want to do this? It's quite boring actually."

"Well, boring to you but not to me! Since you're so bored, why don't you help by sorting out the freshly baked bread? I'm sure Mrs Fross could do with some help, she is quite old after all.

"Fine..." Star muttered, flying off to convince our employer to let her sort out the bread.

"Ms... how much is a packet of fried lotus seeds?"

I turned my attention to the next customer, a small girl, and smiled at her. "A packet's a dollar."

"Could I have two?" She questioned, handing over a two dollar bill.

"Of course!" I answered, giving her what she wanted.

"Next!" I called out once more, only to find a pile of stuff that the next customer wanted to purchase. Apparently, he wanted to purchase six bags of mini lotus buns, twenty bags of fried lotus seeds, twenty berry-lotus macaroons, five boxes of wolfacookies, ten berry sticks, twenty bottles of berry juice, five shortberry cakes and two packets of assorted cookies.

I tried my best not to groan as I calculated the total amount, coming up with a grand total of one hundred and twelve dollars and fifty cents. Why in the world was simple math so difficult to calculate? I was glad that I had a calculator, knowing that I would never survive without it. Finally finishing up the calculations, I went on to the next grumpy customer that looked like he would have bitten my nose off if he could. It looked like the working life wasn't going to be easy. In fact, I wondered if I would survive a month doing this job.

Oh well, I'll just have to wait and see if I actually survived.
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"Goodness! That was tiring!" Star complained as we left the bakery temporarily for a lunch break.

"It sure was." I answered Star, walking to a nearby noodle stand in hopes of getting a steaming hot bowl of noodles for myself. "On the bright side, we did earn seventy dollars this morning. You did great Star, earning us an extra ten dollars. Mrs Fross had been really impressed that you know how to sort bread."

"Yea, the perks of being able to communicate with your trainer and actually learn stuff. Still, who knew that sorting bread could be so tiring and difficult." Star continued, muttering quietly while munching on some dried berries that I carried around with me.

"Oh well..." I sighed. "We could always search for another job if this one doesn't work out. However, it's only been a day. Who knows? We may actually grow to like this job!"

Star stared at me, her look showing that she was completely not convinced by whatever I had claimed.

"Come on Star! At least give this job a chance?"

"Fine..." she finally agreed, turning back to her lunch while doing so.

Lunch would be over soon, but while it lasted, I hoped that I could enjoy it to the fullest. At least working life was enjoyable to a certain extent, even though it was extremely tiring. Ahhh... life is great isn't it?