The Girl In The Candy Dress

“As I’ve said before sir, the cinema is full. Which means there are no more seats” I say for the millionth time running a hand through my hair.

“But I want to see this session, I’ve bought my popcorn and everything” he continues to argue.

“Well, you should’ve booked your tickets earlier. I can’t let you in, you’ll have to wait until the next session at 8:30pm” I say more aggressively.

“I want to speak to your manager” he says bluntly.

I drop the pen I was holding, rolled my eyes and walked as slow as I could to my manager’s office. Before I walked in, I straightened the red and white candy dress, which in other words is my uniform.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s cute and all but it’s so impractical. It’s too short, the shimmery, red shorts underneath the dress scrunch up to the groin and the damn white, small apron does nothing but add an extra layer to my hips and stomach area.

I quietly knock on my manager’s door and here a “come in” from the inside.

“Oh! It’s just you Zoe, thank god. Is everything ok?”

I love my manager, Katerina. She understands that most of the workers are all students and have other things to do other than work. She always makes sure we are ok and helps with everything possible. While managing a family! I adore her.

I smile sweetly at her and nod my head, “Yeah, it’s just-“

“An annoying customer?” She finishes for me. I giggle and nod in reply.

She gets up from her desk and walks out to deal with the shitty customer. I follow behind her and return to my register to continue serving.

As I clear the line and start to clean up for the next busy sessions, I hear my name get called. I turn to the direction of the voices and smile when I see who they are from.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the two funniest guys ever…

Harrison and Jack.

These two are like twins. They think alike, they dress alike, they do everything together and they are just hands down the best guys.

“Hey, Zoe 101” Jacks says, leaning over the counter.

I raise an eyebrow and look at both of them.

“Don’t you two boys have cinemas to clean?”

“Don’t you have a candy bar to clean?” Harrison shoots back.

“Touché” I say smirking.

By the end of my shift my legs are about to snap and my eyes are drooping. I have closed the candy bar and counted the money in my till. As I go to sign off Katerina comes in looking stressed as hell.

“Hey Zoe, you off?”

“Yeah my shift is over. Is everything ok?”

“Everything is great” she says with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “Anyway, I won’t be in for the next couple of days as we are interviewing people to hire. We are kind of short on staff a bit. But anyway, I’ll see you soon, have fun at school and get enough rest” she says in a serious tone. New staff? We haven’t had new staff ever since I was hired which was seven months ago. That’s weird.

“You too Katerina” I say smiling. I walk out to the carpark where my mum waits in the car with my two younger sisters. I jump in the front seat and as soon as my ass has planted on the cushion seat I let out a relieving sigh.

Man, I am tired. I still have school tomorrow, oh joy.

Hint the sarcasm.

“How was work?” Mum asks, while starting the car.

Why do people ask ‘how was work?’

Like work is…work. I’d rather be in Hawaii sipping on Coconuts and eating Oreo Cookie Pancakes in my bunny onesie.

“Good. A bit busy…actually it sucked shit” I admit.

My mum’s eyes widened. “Language missy”. We pull into our driveway and I open the back doors for my sleepy sisters in the back seats of the car.

“Wakey wakey ladies”. I pick up my youngest sister, Annabelle. My middle sister, Becky, slowly awakes and zombie walks to the house from the driveway. As we get in, I place Annabelle in her bed and Becky slowly climbs the ladder to the top bunk.

“Night Zo Zo” I smile and reach up to kiss her forehead.

“Night Checky Becky”.

I love my sisters and am so protective of them. I treat them as if they were my own children. That may sound pretty ridiculous, but that’s what big sisters are for, right?

As I climb into bed after a relaxing shower, I grab my phone and start scrolling through all my social media feeds. Don’t lie, you do it too. As I feel my eyes starting to give up on me, I look at the time, ‘12:47am’. I should probably go to bed and actually look normal in the morning, unlike a zombie. But for some reason what Katerina told me was still at the back of my mind.

Who were these new staff at work?