About a week later I hadn't heard anything from Hugo’s yet, so I went to the store in the morning to see if I could talk to someone. When I pulled into the parking lot in my silver Mazda Tribute, I saw that, as usual, it was extremely crowded. After searching for a decent spot for about five minutes, I gave in and parked far away.
Just as I had predicted, the peppy head manager, Darcy, was right there when I walked in. Darcy was the kind of person who never missed a beat and always wore an animated smile on her face. If you don’t like people who walk with a skip in their step and speak with a lot of enthusiasm, then you would probably want to punch Darcy in the face.
I attempted to slide past without her noticing me, but was unsuccessful.
“Hey Kara!” she hollered.
I turned around, gave her a small, toothless smile, and said, “Hey Darcy. How’s it going?”
“It’s going great! How are you?”
“I’m good,” I said, trying to think of an escape.
“Well, that’s just fantastic!”
“Yeah. Well listen Darcy, I gotta go talk to Mike, so I’ll see you later,” I said, slowly inching my way around her.
“Okay, it was nice to see you Kara!” she gave me a little slap on my shoulder as I nodded and turned away.
I made my way to customer service and asked the employee if Mike was in today.
“Yeah, he should be in his office,” she replied. I thanked her and headed to the stairs at the back of the store.
Mike was a friendly, middle-aged man with a clean haircut and a calming air about him that made you feel relaxed and comfortable. Much less excitable than Darcy, he greeted me with a casual smile and a handshake as I took a seat, introduced myself, and explained my situation.
“Well, let’s check the database for your application,” he said as he began to click and type around on his computer. “Hmm let’s see...oh yes I remember you now! Excellent grades, very involved in activities in and outside of school, good family background. We’d definitely like to have you as a part of our team.” He concluded our meeting by handing me a few papers to sign and telling me that I would start training on Thursday. We shook hands and that was that; I got the job!
When I got home, I could hear the hum of the TV coming from the living room, which meant that my brother and sister had finally woke up.
“Hey, how’d it go?” my older sister, Kallie, asked as I plopped onto the couch and sunk into the cushions.
“Good,” I casually replied. “I got the job.”
“Awesome, congrats!” she said, sounding surprisingly interested in my news. “Now we’ll get to work together!” A devilish smile crept onto her face and I sarcastically grinned back at her.
“That’s just terrific,” I chuckled. “Are you gonna be training me?”
“Yeah, probably. What day did Mike tell you?”
“Thursday.”
“Then yeah, I’ll be training you.”
“I’m hungry,” my older brother, Kato, obnoxiously blurted from the love seat.
“Well wait a little longer, fat ass,” Kallie snapped. “Mom will be home at twelve-thirty. Maybe she’ll get us some fast food when we tell her about Kara’s first job.” Kato chortled at her grouchiness and went back to watching TV.
Kato was a sophomore at the University of Berkeley in California, but was home for summer break. He’s the kind of person that other guys envy and girls drool over. Tall, handsome, smart, athletic; he had it all. His sparkling green eyes and his height both ran in the family, but his curly hair was what set him apart from the rest of us. He kept it cut relatively short so that it frames his chiseled face, but didn't go past his ears; just barely longer than a buzz cut.
Just as my sister had predicted, when my mom got home and I told her my good news, she told me to pick what we should eat for lunch. After lunch I called my best friend Riley to tell her my good news.
“Congrats!” she exclaimed. “That’s so awesome! Now you can buy me popcorn at the movies!” She couldn't hold back a laugh as she said this last part.
“Nice try,” I laughed. We talked for a while longer, made plans for the weekend, and said our goodbyes.
I spent the rest of the evening contemplating how I felt about my new job. I was excited to learn new things and make some money, but I wasn't too keen on losing my summer free-time. I figured that in the long run, it would all pay off.

Each day leading up to Thursday seemed to roll by slower than most summer days. On Wednesday I cleaned my room, walked my dog, and spent a fair amount of time on the computer before finally hitting the hay. However, sleep did not come very easily that night. I guess I was both nervous and excited for my first day on the job.
A throbbing pain in my right temple woke me up at seven the next morning, so I attempted to cure it with a bowl of cereal and some ibuprofen. No luck. After watching TV for about an hour, it was still there, so I decided to lay down and relax for a little while. Two hours later I woke up and panicked because I thought I was gonna be late for work, but it wasn't even noon yet. Mike had called Wednesday afternoon to remind me about my training shift from two to five PM, and that I should wear black pants, a brown or black belt, and black shoes; I would be given my work shirt when I arrived.
A little while later I took a quick shower, threw my hair into its usual french braid, changed into my work clothes, and headed downstairs. Even though I only lived about five minutes away from Hugo’s, I figured I should leave about fifteen minutes early so I would be there in plenty of time.
When I walked through the door, I saw my sister cashiering and felt a little more comfortable. She finished up her order, stuck the ‘register closed’ sign at the end of the conveyor belt, and made her way over to me.
“Hey,” she greeted me. “First things first, you gotta go upstairs and clock in.” She led me to the back of the store and up the stairs to the break room. When we had squeezed through the narrow hallway and into the room, we saw a boy about my age, whose name tag said “Zak,” sitting at one of the tables. He was about as tall as me and just the right weight for his height. He had spiky hair and a nearly perfect complexion.
“Are you Kallie?” he asked my sister in a cool, calm voice.
“Yeah, you must be my other trainee,” she replied. He nodded and she motioned for him to come over and learn how clock in and out. Once that was all said and done, we headed back to the front of the store to officially start our training.
We met the two managers that we would be working with, John and Vicky. They were both in their mid to late twenties, average height, and very welcoming and encouraging to Zak and I. Kallie's first task for us was to take a cart and grab thing from each aisle of the store so she could teach us how to bag it all. When we were in the dog food aisle Zak stopped pushing his cart and turned to me.
"I honestly have no idea why I'm working here," he admitted sheepishly.
I gave him an encouraging smile and said, "To be honest, I don't either. My parents were nagging me too much, so I caved." He laughed and we continued navigating through the aisles until we each had one item from each aisle. We returned to the front of the store where Kallie taught us everything we needed to know about bagging groceries, and then put us to work with actual customers.
About an hour later, John left and a middle-aged bald guy named Jeff replaced him. When he came over to my sister and I’s register to scan alcohol, he patted me on the shoulder and said, “How’re you doin’ kid?”
“Good,” I replied shyly. He finished the scan and stood behind me as I bagged groceries.
“No, no, no,” he scolded. “Chicken has to be bagged separately in case it leaks. Did you ask them if they want their milk in a bag?” All of his questions and demands were extremely overwhelming, so I just shook my head no. Luckily, he got called over to another register and had to leave me.
“Don’t worry if he intimidates you,” my sister said. “He’s kinda hard on everyone.”
“Thanks,” I said as I gave her a grateful smile.
Time seemed to be ticking by ever too slowly. I glanced at the clock for the tenth time in the last half hour, and saw that I only had about five minutes left. I gave a slight sigh of relief, but that quickly vanished when I saw Jeff marching towards me.
“Alright kids,” he said to Zak and I. “I’m gonna teach ya how to do outside trash real quick. Follow me.” He turned towards the front doors and Zak and I exchanged nervous glances as we followed suit. He already had a few black garbage bags and latex gloves in hand, and he grabbed a cart on the way out.
“All you have to do is swing the lid back, take the bag out, put it in the cart, and dig in the bottom for any stray trash that didn't make it in the bag,” he explained as he handed us each a pair of latex gloves. “After that, take the lid off of the cigarette thing here, grab them by the handful, and put them in the trash bag. Do that for both sides, and when you’re done, come find me inside and I’ll show you where to take it. Got it?” We nodded, but I could tell by the frightened look in Zak’s eyes that he was just as lost as me.
After Jeff had gone back inside, Zak and I exchanged hopeless glances, and got to work. I nearly fell into the trash can trying to get stray things out of the bottom, but Zak caught me before I could. Cleaning out the garbage can wasn't all that bad, but the cigarette trash was one of the worst things I have ever done.
I've hated the smell of cigarettes ever since the first time I went to my grandma on my mom’s side’s house. She was a pretty heavy smoker, so her house always reeked from the fumes. Whenever we came over, she would try to refrain from smoking around us, but if she couldn't, she would go out onto the back porch and take care of it. She died about two years ago and I didn't even cry at her funeral. Actually, no one from my immediate family really did, not even my mom (her daughter). I guess I just didn't feel that close to her because she never allowed much time for us to see her. When we did get to see her, it was brief, so we never really got to know her.
My grandpa on my dad’s side also smoked. Unlike my mom’s mom, I felt very close to my grandpa. When my siblings and I were little, we used to go over to his apartment to watch TV and ride on his elliptical that he kept in his living room. Throughout his life, he suffered from throat and lung cancer, so he spent a lot of time in the hospital. When I was eleven and he was battling throat cancer, we went to visit him. He couldn't even speak, so he had to use a pen and paper to communicate with us. Even though he put on a smile for us, I could tell he was in serious pain. When he died about six years ago, I cried for a long time because he was the first major relative I had ever lost and I couldn't imagine life without him.
"Kara?" Zak's voice snapped me back into reality.
"Oh, sorry," I replied. "This stinks. I don't remember seeing this in the job description." We shared a laugh as we tied up the garbage bag and put the lid back on the cigarette trash.
When we got back into the store, Jeff was frantically running around from register to register, assisting the cashiers. We decided to stand off on the side and wait for him, rather than interrupt and make him even more irritated. When things had finally died down a bit, he approached us.
“Why’re you two just standing around?” he asked.
Zak and I glanced at each other with puzzled looks. “Um, because you told us to wait for you when we got done with the trash,” Zak said.
“Well, you could’ve bagged groceries while you waited,” Jeff snapped. “That would've sped things up a bit. Whatever, follow me.” He spun around and Zak and I tried to muffle our giggles as we fell into step behind him.
By the time the garbage was dumped and Zak and I were finally told that we could go, it was twenty minutes past the time we were supposed to get off. We went up to the break room together and clocked out.
"Well, when do you work next?" he asked as he punched in his number.
"Um, I think I work four to eight on Saturday," I replied as slung my cross-body purse over my shoulder. "What about you?"
"Same! Good, I don’t think I could survive Jeff alone," he grinned at me and I smiled back as we descended the stairs. When we got outside, he hollered goodbye as we went to our separate cars.

My mom bombarded me with questions before I even got the chance to close the front door and hang up my keys.
“How was your first day of work? Did you make any friends? What did you learn?” she asked.
“Woah mom, gimme a minute to settle in,” I laughed as I plopped onto the couch. My feet felt like they had twenty-pound weights on them and my calves were on fire. I just wanted to relax and try to remember everything I had learned today, but I knew that if I didn't talk to my mom, she would be upset. “It was alright. I trained with a guy my age named Zak. He was nice.”
“Well, good,” she said, smiling at me. “I’m glad you made at least one friend. How were the managers?”
“John and Vicky were really nice. Jeff was...interesting,” I said.
“What do you mean by that?”
"He's the type of guy that knows what he wants how he wants it done, and if you don't do it exactly as he wants, you're screwed."
"Well, some people are just that way."
"I know, I know. I just hope I don't have to work with him every time." I sighed and made my way into the kitchen to grab a Coke.
“I made brownies!” hollered my mom from her chair in the living room.
“Oh, great!” I called back. I searched the counter for the round, multi-colored dish my mom usually kept the brownies in. My mom made the best brownies in the entire world. Whenever she made them, they were gone by the next day. I took one out, threw it on a paper plate, and returned to my spot on the couch.
“When do you work next?” my mom asked.
“Saturday from 4 to 8,” I said. “Same with Zak.”
“Well, good!” she said. “At least you’ll be with a familiar face. Make sure you get your schedule into the computer calendar so I can plan stuff around it.”
“Alright, I will.” My family had this mass calendar on the computer that had every event for every person on it. If you want everyone to know about, you put it on the calendar. It always worked best when we had to make dentist or doctor’s appointments.
During dinner, Riley called and asked if I wanted to go to the movies with her.
“Well, I’m eating right now, but I can throw my hair up and be ready in about ten minutes,” I said.
“Sounds good to me!” she exclaimed.
“I’ll drive this time since you drove to the mall last weekend,” I said. We hung up and I gulped down the last of my milk and shoved a dinner roll into my cheek.
“Where’re ya headed?” my dad asked as I stood up and took my plate over to the dishwasher.
“Riley and I are gonna go see a movie,” I mumbled, my voice muffled by the roll. “I’ll be back by ten-thirty.”
“Alright, drive safe,” my mom cautioned. When I first turned sixteen, my parents were extra cautious about letting me drive places with a passenger. They had lightened up a significant amount in the past few months, but still gave me a tentative farewell.
Since the majority of my french braid had fallen out over the course of the day, I took it out and tossed it into a high, messy bun. I grabbed a twenty from the cash box in my closet, stuffed it into my wallet, grabbed my keys, and hollered goodbye as I closed the front door.
“So what movie are we gonna see?” I asked Riley as she climbed into my clean car.
“I was thinking that new romantic comedy with Ryan Gosling,” she said.
“Oh alright, I really wanna see that one,” I said. We plugged my iPod into my car stereo and jammed out to our favorite summer songs.
“So, how was your first day of work?” she asked as she cranked the radio down to a dull roar. She had her seat belt on (one of my many car rules) but she turned to face me as best as she could.
“It was good. Met this kinda cute guy named Zak,” I said. I explained how my day went and had just finished ranting about Jeff when we pulled into the movie theater parking lot and began searching for a close spot.
“Damn, I've never seen it so packed on a weeknight,” Riley gawked. She was right. After searching for a few minutes, we gave up on a close spot and settled for one in the back corner. It was so windy outside that my loose strands of hair were attacking my face and restricting my vision. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the moon and the stars illuminated the black night. We approached the ticket line, glanced at each other, and sighed.
After waiting in an agonizing long ticket line, we got in yet another long line at the concession counter. Luckily we had gotten there plenty early, otherwise we would have missed the first fifteen movies of our movie.
We were making our way into our theater when suddenly, I bumped into someone, knocking a few pieces of popcorn onto the ground and sloshing my drink.
"Oh, sorry," he mumbled as we continued walking. We looked up at each other for a brief moment, and I got this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach as I glanced into his brown eyes. Or were they green? I couldn't tell in such a short amount of time. All I knew was that they were beautiful and took my breath away.
"Did you see him?" Riley whispered when we were out of earshot. "He was cute! And his friend wasn't too bad either."
"Yeah, he was pretty cute," I laughed as we took our seats, settled in, and waited for the movie to begin.

When I woke up the next morning, the sun was blaring in my eyes.
"Good morning!" my brother said enthusiastically as he lifted the other shade on my window.
"What're you doing?" I asked in a daze.
"It's almost noon. Get cho lazy ass outta bed!" he said in his most ghetto voice possible.
I smiled and said, "Oh fine," as I pulled my covers back, slumped out of bed, and went to the bathroom to wash my face.
"Got any plans for today?" Kato asked when I plopped onto the living room couch to watch TV. Every morning in the summer, the TV was on a first come, first serve basis. Whoever woke up first got to have the remote and pick the channel. Kato always picked the History channel because there was always either a Pawn Stars or American Pickers marathon on.
“Nah, I think I’m just gonna lay around today,” I said. And that was exactly what I did. It was the best do-nothing day I ever had. I spent the majority of the day on the couch in the basement, watching Netflix, eating Peanut M&Ms, and on the internet on my iPod.
The next week, I was scheduled to work for four hours every day except Friday, so Riley and I decided to get a group together and have a movie night at my house. At about noon, we went to McDonald’s to eat and make plans for the night.
“Who all do we wanna invite to this shindig?” Riley asked as she took a monstrous bite out of her Big Mac. Some ketchup dripped from the back of the burger onto her hand, so she shuffled the burger into one hand and licked the ketchup off.
“I was thinking Becca, Trent, and Alli for sure, and then maybe Tori and Owen,” I suggested tentatively.
“Well, Becca and Tori haven’t really gotten along very well since Becca started dating Tori’s brother, but I think they’ll be fine,” she said.
Suddenly, a scrawny boy about thirteen years old came up to us holding something in his left hand. “Excuse me, is this yours?” he asked, opening up his hand to reveal a pair of headphones.
“Oh, yeah those are mine!” I exclaimed, accepting them from the boy. “They must have fallen out of my purse when I got my wallet out. Thank you so much!” He nodded and backed away bashfully.
“Anyways, you should send out a mass text to make sure everyone can come,” said Riley.
“Should we tell them to bring a snack or not?” I asked.
“Nah, my mom owes me some money so we can just use that to buy some at Hugo’s,” she replied.
“Perfect,” I said as I finished my burger and took a sip of my watered-down Coke. We finished eating, threw our trash away, hopped in her car, and headed to Hugo’s.
“Hey Kara!” John greeted me as we walked past him on our way to the candy aisle.
“Hey John!” I replied, stopping next to him to chat for a few minutes. “This is my friend Riley. Riley, this is one of my managers, John.” They acknowledged each other with a smile and a wave.
“Say Riley, are you gonna be in need of a job soon? We’re basically always hiring,” John asked as he ran his fingers through his short, dark brown hair.
“Haha no thank you. I actually just got a job at American Eagle,” she replied confidently with her winning smile.
“Well, congratulations and welcome to the working world!” he said, grinning. She thanked him and we waved goodbye and headed for the snack aisle.
The store was definitely decorated for the summer season. There was a huge beach display towards the back with lawn chairs, patterned towels, fake water, and colorful bags full of pool toys.
We picked out a variety of sour and chocolate candy and snagged up some chips from the chip aisle.
“Oh!” Riley exclaimed. “I almost forgot! Before I left, my mom told me to grab a gallon of milk on the way home.”
“Brr,” I shivered as we neared the dairy department. “I’m so glad I don’t have to work back here. I’d have to wear a lot of layers.”
Dairy was the largest department in the store, next to produce. There were about ten different types of milk (that I knew of) and around fifty different kinds of yogurt. The head of the department was always posting notes on the bulletin board in the break room, begging people to “Join the Dairy Team!” I considered it a couple of times, but I liked being in all the action, interacting with customers. Plus, dairy usually had to work later hours and I liked working during the day and early in the morning.
We rounded the corner to the milk section, but were stopped when we ran into an employee. He was a boy about our age with a blonde buzz cut and brown eyes. Wait, those eyes looked all too familiar.
“Oh, sorry,” he said. Then he paused and took a step back. “Wait, do I know you from somewhere?”
“Well, I work here,” I replied, slightly baffled by his sudden inquiry.
"No, no. I've seen you somewhere else." He thought for a brief moment, then snapped his fingers in revelation. "That's it! You're the girl from the movies. The one I ran into. Wait, you work here?"
It took me a moment to register his words, but there was no doubt about it. It was him. The boy with the beautiful eyes. "Um, yeah," I said, still trying to believe my own eyes.
"Well, it's nice to meet you," he said, casually extending his arm. "I'm Jack."
"Kara," I said as I put my hand into his. It fit so easily and naturally, almost like a puzzle piece. We held it for a few seconds, looking into each other's eyes, then broke it in a flustered hurry.
"We better get going," Riley said, a grin overcoming her face. "Come on Kara." She grabbed my arm with her free hand and pulled me away.