Joey showed up at Green's at ten minutes to six on Monday morning. It was best to show up early on the first day to leave a good impression, account for unforeseen delays and make sure you had enough time to get ready. Or so his dad had repeatedly drilled into him since the interview. It checked out with what Anahi had told him, though, so he made sure to be early.
Unfortunately, the door was locked and Joey had no idea who to contact to open it. Ms. McClain had told whoever was in charge today about him, right? It shouldn't be an oversight?
He stood in front of the door for a while, probably looking like either a fool or a burglar. Then he started pacing anxiously. The nerves kept getting worse with every passing minute.
Finally, at 5:59, a guy a bit older than Joey arrived. He had a messy mop of hair and a baggy sweater.
"You Joseph?" he asked. Joey instinctively stood up straighter and nodded.
"I prefer Joey, but yes. Are you training me today?"
"Something like that. Name's Justice." He pressed his thumb on the fingerprint scanner next to the door and opened it, motioning with his chin for Joey to enter.
"Nice to meet you."
"Sure. This way." Justice walked to the small room where Joey had been interviewed and looked over the lockers. He opened one and pulled out a shirt, which he quickly changed into while Joey awkwardly waited.
"So..." Joey said, summoning what felt like all his courage to break the silence. Why was this so much more nerve-wracking than facing Phantasma? Was it the lack of adrenaline? Sheesh.
"Right. You get a locker, and we've got a shirt for you. Dress code is pretty lax, but make sure you have dark pants and shoes. Preferably black, but if you show up in navy the only one who's gonna bug you is Demon Crystal. Speaking of, make sure you always clock in on time unless you're me. Be ready the second your shift is due to start or she'll blow her top.
"I'll vouch for you this first day, but don't forget to be punctual. Now we've got a locker for you right...here." He punched a few things on the number pad on the locker before motioning to Joey. "Enter a four-digit pin. That'll be the code to open it."
Joey obliged, choosing the numbers 6337. He opened the locker and it was completely empty. Was he supposed to find a uniform in here? Or what was going on?
"Perfect. To lock it, just close it and press the lock button." Justice demonstrated with his own locker before moving back into the main storefront.
Joey followed, trying to absorb all the information he could. Luckily he was wearing black pants and shoes today so the dress code wouldn't be a problem. He'd managed to remember that much from the orientation documents Ms. McClain had sent him.
"We're supposed to open at 7:00. So why do we arrive at six?" Justice sounded bored out of his tree as he talked, but Joey did his best to listen. "Simple. Check old stock, remove expired stuff and put out fresh stuff. Green's prides itself on providing the freshest - who the hell am I kidding? We just want it to look like we've got good stuff so people buy from us and not our competitors.
"There's also a pre-store cleaning we're supposed to do, but if there's no time feel free to skip it. Now this is our chill storage room. All our backstock is here, and we get pretty much daily deliveries. You'll have to bring it back and organize it. The entire room is basically a giant refrigerator. Next to it is the freezer storage, which is very cold. I'll run you through where everything goes, but if you forget just look for like items and store the new stuff nearby. And before you take anything out of the storage, check to make sure it's the most recent so we don't get expired food.
"Spare uniforms are over here in this closet. There's also cleaning supplies. Don't forget your uniform, though, or the demon'll have your head. For now, we'll grab one that fits you, and you'll use it until your official one comes in."
"What the difference between a spare and an official one?"
"This." Justice pointed to the left side of his chest, where his name was stitched in fancy script. "Which is why you don't wanna lose it. The first one's free, but Crystal charges through the nose for any replacements. Including spares. So, wash it regularly and never forget to bring it to work. She'll shame you if you need to borrow a spare. I keep mine in my locker most of the time. When I get a day off, I bring my three shirts home to wash them. Right, you can get extra freebie uniform shirts depending on how long you stay, but most people get out as soon as they can.
"Anyway, that's uniforms. Grab one that looks like it'll fit and try it on."
Joey hesitantly looked through the shirts and took one that felt like the same size as his other shirts. He turned to look at Justice, who was watching him with a bored expression.
"What's up? Can't change in front of me? We're both guys. But whatever."
Joey felt embarrassment crawl up his face as Justice closed the closet door. He was just not used to other people watching him change! It didn't matter if they were both guys; it was weird. The fact that Justice had no problem with it made him the unusual one. He switched shirts as fast as he could and went back into the main store. Justice looked him over and nodded.
"Great. I'll give you a second to put your other shirt in your locker in a minute. But next, fingerprints. This is how you'll clock in and out. Panel's back in the break room."
Joey looked around the store as they walked back to the locker room. And he felt overwhelmed. There was so. Much. Stuff.
Please don't tell me I have to learn all of this in a day.
When they made it to the break room, Justice fiddled with a panel on the wall while Joey opened his locker and put his shirt and backpack inside. He locked it right when Justice turned back to him.
"Alright, put your thumb on the pad. Press down firmly and it'll read your thumbprint and that'll be your login basically."
"Like this?" Joey carefully pressed the scanner. It beeped once and a yellow light flickered on.
"One more time. The first bit's pretty annoying. Turn your thumb slightly this time."
Joey did as he was told, and the beep and yellow light appeared again. All in all, he had to do five or six cycles of scanning slightly different bits of his thumb. When he was done, the panel beeped twice and a green light flickered.
"Great. You are now clocked in, Joseph Queen. I know the initial scanning's a bit of a pain, but by getting as much of your thumb as possible scanned, you make it less likely it'll give you a bad reading. Like this." Justice pressed his middle finger against the scanner, and it let out several short, shrill beeps and blinked a red light.
"What happens if you get a bad reading? Besides the beeping and the red light."
"Nothing. Unless you get three bad readings in a row. Then it sends a signal to the military that we're being robbed. Same system for unlocking the front door. You just use your thumb on the scanner. And it keeps track of who's coming in when, so don't show up to unlock the door at three a.m. or Crystal will give you a very thorough questioning. Even if you forgot your phone in your locker, leave it until normal store hours or your shift to get it. And I have to say that because it's actually happened."
"How could you not notice your phone was gone for that long?" Joey quietly wondered. Justice shrugged.
"Guy was an idiot. He lasted about five days total before going back and crying to his rich parents. Anyway, that's your preliminary set-up done. I think. Let's see...fingerprint scanned, locker set up, temporary shirt - your official one should be here in a couple days depending how busy the factory is - and a rundown of the store layout...yeah we're good. Come on. I'll walk you through setup."
Joey nodded and followed. The next seven and a half hours were spent mostly trying to cram as much of Justice's bored explanations into his head as possible. There was a half-hour lunch break and two fifteen-minute breaks, but it felt like so much.
By the time it hit 2:00, he was ready to collapse. He barely remembered Justice telling him to show up at the same time the next day. How did Joey not have the endurance for this? Shouldn't he have more stamina after his training with Lightning?
He wasn't sure how he made it home. He just knew that when he did, he needed a nap.
