chapter 1: first day

It was a miserable day. How could it be anything but? Amber had walked half a mile in a straight downpour, only to be starting a job at some fast food joint. She was drenched from head to toe, and was already not looking forward to her first day. Everyone dreads the fast food industry, but she had no other alternative. No one else was hiring, and her previous employer let her go due to downsizing. Why even let her on in the first place if they were planning on downsizing?! She let out an angry sigh at the thought that helped stop tears from forming.

She walked in and wanted to try and dry off. There were another 10 minutes until Amber's shift started, so she had to at least try to look presentable.

“Oh good! You’re here!” an older woman blurted from behind the counter. She was tall for a girl; about 5’10”. She must have been in her early 30’s; very pretty and skinny too with hair to her shoulders that had very little gray to it. “You must be Amber. Come on back; I’ll get you your name tag and uniform.”

The old lady scurried to the back. It was a bit early, but what the heck. Amber always wanted to leave a good first impression. She walked behind the counter and into a back room where the older lady was waiting for her.

“I have to go ready some paperwork, so why don’t you dry off in here and change into your uniform. I guessed a size small, but if you need another size just let me know!”

The woman hurried out the door and closed it behind her. She seemed to be in such a hurry even though the place was practically empty. A towel was left in there for her, so she dried off and started to change into her uniform.

The clothes fit well. Amber was a curvier, 5’ 5” girl in her early 20’s. Most jeans didn’t fit her properly, so she generally stuck to leggings. She had a slim waist, but a rather large ass. She was used to getting stares (and, unfortunately, cat calls) but had grown used to it. The shirt fit rather snug on her large chest to where she had to tug it down a bit to get it to fit properly. Her long, black hair flowed down just before her ass. It still had a wet sheen to it even after she attempted to dry it. She took a deep breath, sighed, pinned on her nametag, and walked out the door.

“Sorry” said the older woman, having nearly leapt forward to greet her. “I never introduced myself. I’m Sarah; I’m one of the managers here at Dairy King.” She darted her vision to the counter. No one was there. “Is this your first time working in fast food?”

“Um, yes?” Amber answered.

“Oh, I’ve worked at a lot of them!” She laughed. “This is the longest I’ve ever worked at one place though; almost 3 years!” Sarah just kept glancing back at the counter.

“Is everything okay?” Amber inquired.

“Oh? Oh. I always get nervous with new hires! Reminds me of when I first started! This is the slowest job I’ve ever had, but all of my other jobs were always CRAZY busy! Must be that fast food, PTSD!” She laughed awkwardly.

The nerves were starting to rub off on Amber, which Sarah noticed immediately.

“Oh don’t you be nervous though! I’ve only been a manager for a couple weeks; you’re actually my first hire! That’s why I’m a little nervous. We treat people well here. Plus, it’s getting colder out, so it won’t really ever get too busy for awhile!” Sarah said.

“Why even hire me then?” Amber asked boldly. She was grateful to have a job, but why hire someone if business was slow? Especially since she was just thrown out of her last job for similar reasons.

“Well, we had a couple people quit; going back to college I guess. With you here and me included, there are only 4 of us here today.”

“Four people?!”

“OH but that’s plenty! I’ve been here long enough to know!” She laughed. “It’s easy here; you’ve nothing to fear!” Sarah said reassuringly. “There are more people on staff obviously to cover days off and sick days.”

Amber didn’t know what to think of Sarah. She was jittery and awkward, but very nice and had a caring tone in her voice; even if she acted like a total spaz.

“I have that paperwork to do, but before that, let me introduce you to the other two here.”

Amber followed Sarah to the front counter.

“This is Jeremy. He generally runs the window.” He seemed uninterested. He was short; shorter than Amber even, standing a little over 5’. He was also a bit hefty.

“Hey.” Jeremy turned away from his phone. His eyes were dull until he caught a glimpse of Amber.” “Oh! Uh-”

“And this is Stan!” Sarah interrupted. Stan was in the process of making a milkshake behind them in the kitchen. He was about 6’ tall and was pretty skinny.

“Stan SHOULDN’T be making milkshakes for himself. “Sarah said in an embarrassingly unintimidating tone.

“Oh, uhhh, this is for the new girl!” He handed her the finished milkshake “Here!”

Amber took the milkshake. “A bit cold for a milkshake, don’t you think?” she giggled as she spoke.

“Well, we ARE Dairy King. We do have hot food, but this is what people come here for.” He smirked.

“Alright, I’m going to leave you with these two. I’m off to my office. Stan, teach Amber here how to make some of our items off the menu.” Sarah scurried off to her office. “Great to meet you Amber!” She said before closing the door.

There was an awkward pause between the remaining three. Amber was new and didn’t know what to do, while Jeremy and Stan weren used barely doing anything. There’d be customers here and there, but never anything two people couldn’t handle; let alone three. Amber sipped up some of the milkshake while waiting for someone to speak up. Jeremy was the first to break the silence.

“I can teach you the win-”

“Come back with me to the kitchen.” Stan interrupted.

“Hey, wait!” Jeremy spat back.

“Boss lady said for me to train her. Back to your window Jer bear!”

Jeremy grumbled under his breath and walked back to his station.

Stan was really nice; funny too. The job WAS easy. It didn’t take long for Stan to show her how to do everything. Jeremy was excited to show off the Window; even had a few customers come by. Stan and Amber prepped the food, and Jeremy handed it out. Jeremy was a bit odd, but she got along just fine. Sarah didn’t really ever come out of her office. Didn’t seem like she really did anything.

Time went by fast; Amber was having fun. The worry of starting a new job after having lost her intern job was nearly wiped away. She was still embarrassed to be working fast food after having graduated college, but it was only temporary. She’d bounce back, and this job seemed like a fun place to work until other places started to hire again.

Time flew by so fast Amber didn’t even realize it was closing time. Sarah finally came out of her office.

“Closing tiiime!” She sang.

Without missing a beat, Stan and Jeremy started cleaning up for the night. Amber seemed shocked, but she caught on quick and followed their procedure. It was easy enough. Before shutting off the milkshake machine, Stan started making himself one.

“Making one for the new girl again?” Sarah glared.

“Y-yea!” He stuttered.

“It’s alright; business is slow. We end up throwing out inventory anyway; mine as well chock that up as lost stock too.” Sarah shrugged.

“Sweet!” Stan said in glee. He handed the milkshake to Amber.

“Thanks again” She laughed. “These are pretty good, but it’s cold outside.”

“I mean, I could take it back; I’d have one for each hand!” He smiled.

“No, no I’ll keep it!” She pulled the milkshake back as if she was protecting it.

Stan laughed, “See you tomorrow!”

“See you tomorrow!” She replied.

Sarah was waiting outside for her staff to get out the building. She seemed annoyed; like she had some place to be. “Alright guys, come on! Out!”

Jeremy was outside waiting with her. Stan popped out, followed by Amber. Sarah locked up quickly, nearly ran to her car, and flew out of the parking lot. Stan had already said his goodbye, so he walked to his car and left. Jeremy looked at Amber, but averted his eyes when she noticed. He kept to his phone, walked to his car, and drove off. Amber started walking, sipping on her milkshake the whole way home.