Novel Excerpt #2

Protagonist Sam meets the newbie at work.

Sam and Andy continued to eat in awkward silence until Trevor, an assistant manager, entered the room. Everybody who worked with Trevor knew when he was approaching. Whenever he was on duty he inexplicably wore the store’s main set of keys, a large set of around twenty that opened everything with a lock, on a clip attached to his belt. Most of the employees thought he did this to make himself look important, but all it did was draw attention to his ample waistline and cause him to literally jingle with very step.
‘Sam, have you almost finished your break?’ Trevor said, sounding mildly irritated and checking his watch.
‘I have five more minutes, I’m back out at two.’
‘Make sure you’re out on time, we have a new team member starting their first shift and I’m buddying them up with you today.’
Sam resisted the urge to scream and simply gave Trevor a nod, who retreated with the slowly fading jingling of metal.
‘Lucky you.’
‘Shut up, Andy.’
Sam quickly wiped his mouth of any unsightly gravy stains, disposed of the last few scraps of soggy chips and stalked out the door, trying his best to ignore Andy’s combined smirking and chewing.
As he made his way along the series of short, sterile corridors that led back out into the store, he tried to guess where this newbie would get ranked on his personal list of most irritating Bargain Barn employees. He couldn’t see them cracking the top three, an elite cluster of people that while dreadful at their jobs happened to be rather excellent at getting under Sam’s skin.
There was Jenna, who had lasted eight months and departed nearly a year ago. Sam hated her mean-natured gossiping, patronising smile, and constant hair-flicking, and hated even more that after every shift he worked with her he would retreat to his bedroom and fantasise about her. Carl was at number two for peculiarity alone. He hardly spoke to anyone ever, even customers, and always managed to avoid any kind of strenuous work, shuffling from one end of the store to the other gingerly adjusting merchandise into perfect lines or piles. But number one with a bullet was definitely Tracy, a forty-something woman who Sam saw less as a woman and more as a constantly flapping mouth with a mane of flaming red hair attached. When she had been transferred to registers Sam had secretly been delighted.
Only secretly of course. He would never open up and tell anyone he worked with exactly what he thought about them, or this job, or this place, or anything. No wonder management constantly stuck him with the task of showing fresh victims the ropes. To them, he was a model employee with not a bad word to say about anyone. Whatever this new person was like, they would be safe in Sam’s hands.
Now out the door, thankful that he was not bombarded with demanding shoppers as it was a quiet Wednesday afternoon, Sam suddenly realised he had no idea where to find his new co-worker. His confusion ended quickly as he saw Trevor’s short, rotund frame near the stock room door, his girth almost fully obscuring a slender figure in uniform standing behind him. Loping closer, the imminent awkward meeting made Sam feel even more self-conscious then usual. His lankiness, poor posture and unflattering red uniform shirt that had been ordered a size too big gave the appearance of an older person, though his pale, boyish face balanced things out.
It was a girl, Sam now saw as he approached them. She looked around his age, maybe a little younger, slightly shorter than him, with wavy light-brown hair. Her face was oval, with sharp cheekbones, snowy skin and hazel eyes. If she was wearing make-up, it was extremely subtle. Physically, she was plain, which Sam hoped would equate to being quiet and harmless. She was lightly tugging at the collar of the new polo shirt, which was still rough and slightly stiff from having never seen the inside of a washing machine. Trevor looked up and saw him approaching.
‘Ah, Sam. This,’ he made a brief waving motion in the direction of the girl ‘is Nicole. She’s had some group training, but nothing practical. Maybe just continue with whatever it is you’re going to be doing, let her help and give her some tips along the way. And remember to cover the essentials that she’ll need to know when on her own.’ Trevor shuffled off after these typically vague instructions.
Sam forced a small smile that he hoped would appear welcoming.
‘Hi,’ he said with a raise of his hand. ‘Sam.’
‘Hey.’ Nicole also smiled, with a little more enthusiasm. ‘Uh, actually just Nic will be fine.’
‘Ok then.’
‘One syllable names are just easier for everyone, yeah?’
‘Yeah, I guess so.’ Sam remained mute for several moments, the half smile still fixed on his face like he thought this was a joke he was supposed to acknowledge. He flushed slightly when he realised that wasn’t the case, and that Nic was, obviously, waiting for him to show some kind of initiative.
‘Ok, well, I have to put out some toys that just came in so I guess that you can just tag along since that’s what Trevor said? Don’t worry, it’s easy. And you’ll learn how to bring stock out correctly and price things using the PDT scanners. Then maybe I’ll show you the computer system?’
Why Sam was speaking in questions he did not know. It’s not like Nic had much of a choice. What was she going to say, ‘No, maybe not, maybe I don’t want to do any of this pointless shit because it will make me as sad and pathetic as you’? Nic clearly didn’t understand his tone either, raising her eyebrow in a look that seemed to say ‘You’re the boss.’ The look quickly changed into an encouraging smile.
‘Sure, sounds good.’