chapter 5

"Carmen?" "Carmen??" "Carmen???"

A small hump in the bedcovers writhed around, audibly venting its frustrations. Begrudgingly, the shape began to collapse to reveal a quite disheveled Carmen. She looked to be in the midst of some sort of booze hangover from the night prior, evident by the frizzled hair and mascara blotched over the front pillows. Sitting upwards, she immediately clenched her bloated middle. She didn't really know whether the pain was coming from rich milk chocolate still slowly digesting in her or the few hours old vodka trying to kick their way back up. In the midst of trying to nurse the pain, she spotted something folded up nice and neatly in the corner.

"What the.."
Carmen slowly got up and groggily trudged toward the rectangular pile. Rubbing her sleepy eyes to see, she saw the fully red Mendez Munchies uniform, fitted with the red cap to boot.

"uuUUUUUURRGGGHHH FOR FUCKS SAKE."
Carmen loudly groaned as she fell back on the crumpled duvet in disgust, remembering the deal she made.

--

"There's my girl!"
Carlos exclaimed as he heard his daughter mope loudly down the stairs. The uniform Carmen wore didn't exactly fit her right, appearing quite baggy around the midsection and thighs. It was quite unorthodox to find a Munchies employee who wasn't at least chubby, so stretched out clothing was the norm.

"Ready for your first day on the job?"
His greeting was met with only a disgruntled sigh.

"Alright, alright..I know it's early, I won't pester you with many questions. I won't ask you to do much today, but just promise to listen while I show you how things are done, ok?"
Carmen mumbled back with something resembling a "yeah".

Reaching the humid and hazy kitchen, Carlos deeply inhaled the familiar scents of delectable food. The sizzling bacon, the scrambling eggs and the tang of hot grease never failed to give him a welcoming feeling of home.

"Sure is a sight to behold, eh?"
Carlos said proudly as he gazed upon all his steel contraptions.

"That's.. one way to put it."
Carmen grimaced, already finding difficulty in identifying any source of oxygen amongst all the steam and stenches radiating the place.

"Right, ok! First off, let's get to know the deep fat fryer.."
Carlos announced giddily as they began to pace through various cramped spaces to the top left corner of the kitchen. Carlos had been waiting for this moment for years; the time in which he could finally pass on his know-how and legacy of the family business to his daughters.

Carmen on the other hand, couldn't really care less for whatever lesson her Dad was about to lecture her about. Tuning out the noise in front of her, Carmen instead decided to scan her surroundings.
Whenever she was home, she never dared to wander around these parts. She viewed the kitchen and its fatty foods inside it as a danger to avoid, ignore and overcome the temptation and achieve her goal to be a pro soccer player. But now, she was in the lion's den, with the key thrown away.
Everywhere she turned, she saw calories; the clink-clanking of plates, the pouring of soda, the maple syrup oozing into the ridges of a waffle. No matter how erratically from side to side she wriggled her nose, the thick, dense waves of aromas found a way to creep up on her. Feeling a slight twinge of self control fade inside her, Carmen quickly tried to focus on anything else in the room, something that didn't relate to food or drink or any other strong contributing factor to obesity.

"Ah yes. The floor..seems to be made out of.. floor.."
The mental fidgeting was cut, however, by a short but noticeable rumble in her stomach. In the midst of everything that had been going on this morning, she had forgotten to give herself breakfast. Without the power of a granola bar to keep going, Carmen was becoming more and more convinced to consume the next fried food she saw. Carmen's mental spiralling was mercifully cut by a warm, affectionate hand grasping her shoulder.

"Look, honey… you're eighteen. You're your own woman now, I of all people should know that. If you're having any second thoughts about this, you can walk right out that door, your choice, you're an adult after all."
"But just give me this; just please give this thing a shot. If you don't half ass things and give it your all, I think you'll get the hang of this in no time! This place has a special charm I know you'll love eventually."

Before Carmen could give her rebuttal, Carlos immediately held Carmen in a strong embrace, wrapping his burlesque arms tightly around her slender figure.

"Love you."
Carlos said warmly before heading off.

"Alright, dad..."
Carmen remarked nonchalantly as she shuffled away, not wanting to be embarrassed any further in front of her new coworkers.

As Carlos placed his hand on the exit doorknob, he glanced back over to see Carmen, somehow, mistakenly using a spatula to hammer down on a beef patty. He couldn't help but chuckle to himself at what he saw, as he knew there was no chance in hell Carmen actually listened to a single word of his speeches. But he also knew that didn't need to intervene. Call it a gut feeling, but Carlos betted on himself that she'd find her little unique way to figure things out. It was the Mendez way, after all.

--

Carmen sighed as she stopped wholloping the burger. Her arm was starting to get tired, and she was beginning to feel like she was doing something wrong with all the glares she was sensing from some of the cooks.

"Man.. fast food work is hard."
Carmen whinged to herself.

"Sure works up an appetite…"
Her subconscious couldn't help to butt in as she caught a glimpse of a tray full of goodies being hauled out. She really shouldn't, but she did miss breakfast. What other option did she have?

Perusing over to the fryers, Carmen peered down at crispy, freshly made fries. She could practically hear each piece sizzle, begging and teasing her to eat them all. She couldn't help but lean in and snatch one of them, instantly humming to herself in satisfaction as the taste reached her tongue. It felt sort of liberating, in a way. After all the years sticking to a strict diet of bland granola bars, she had forgotten what a carb actually tasted like; what it actually felt like.
She loved the warm sensation the singular fry gave her, the feeling that slowly travelled down her body until it settled in her tummy. She wanted more.
Peeking quickly from left to right to make sure no one else was looking, Carmen frantically snatched a handful of fries onto a nearby plate and dashed to the nearest break room.

--

Anna firmly clicked open the clamps of her little plastic lunchbox. As much a chore as it was to prepare a salad each morning, she knew it was the only good food she'd see in this den of grease she called her workplace. She never really wanted to apply for this job in the first place, but the thought of being on the job with her good friend Bailey seemed much more fun at the time than taking the Whole Foods gig down the road.

Speaking of Bailey, Anna glanced over to see her pal wolfing down a cheeseburger with no regard, as per usual these days. Anna had been meaning to get her plus-sized friend onto a diet for a while now, but Bailey's growth had accelerated to a point to which she found it hard to ever find a moment to speak with her when she didn't have some treat in her hand or mouth. Anna had always known Bailey as chubby growing up, the "fat friend" of the group. But now, Bailey could only be described as downright obese.

Her waist bulged and spread outwards in all directions. Anna frowned as she saw Bailey's stomach resting and spreading across her lap, seeing it fold and form rolls as she hunched over in her seat to swallow more melted cheese and beef, seemingly on a mission to expand her frame even more.

Even though Anna took precautions to sit a few inches to the right of her, the spread of Bailey's flattened thighs still jutted outwards to constantly rub against Anna's slender leg. She squirmed slightly as the soft, cellulite ridden tree trunks threatened to engulf them both.

Looking to her face, Anna couldn't help but notice Bailey squirming as she downed the last piece of her burger. She had been feasting for what felt like ages now, progressively slowing down in the rate she consumed with each bite. It didn't seem like she was hungry at all anymore, but yet there she was, grabbing another from the table.

"...You ok?"
Anna asked, puzzled.

"MmBURP ye-yeah I'm good."
Bailey belched, making Anna recoil a little. There was a noticeable strain to her voice, but Bailey kept on going with her burger regardless.
Exhaling a little to herself, Anna picked up her utensils and dug into her salad.

--

It didn't take Carmen long to get comfortable in her new workplace. As the days went by, she became increasingly more skilled at avoiding any notion of work and finding the opportunity to snack whenever she could.
A personal favourite of hers was to "mop" the dining area floors, where she would instead stealthily shuffle herself into a hidden corner booth to lounge about and snack on whatever meal she'd managed to smuggle over.
As much as she hated to admit it, Carmen was completely in love with her father's cooking. It felt like she hadn't even touched a granola bar in two weeks now. Although she wouldn't admit it, Carmen's diet now almost completely consisted of Mendez Munchies goodness.

This newfound enthusiasm for her job led Carmen to devote more and more hours after school to "lend a hand" to her parents. Over time, work began to eat into her after school soccer practices, with her eventually deciding to skip them in favour of staying in the kitchen. Gloria was more than happy to write up the ever increasing amount of absent notes, as gave her more opportunities to watch afar as her baby girl grew even further.