Hope Springs

One of the first things that I noticed when I went outside was that it was more than a little chilly, like I had thought. It was freezing. The second thing I noticed was that the leaves were starting to turn colors a little early. They were still green of course, but some leaves had started to turn pretty shades of orange and gold. I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my coat and started the short walk to the diner. I had gone about three blocks and was just beginning to see the lights of the town. In another two blocks, I had arrived at the entrance of the diner.

From the outside the diner was cute. It was a red brick building and on the outside in big block letters it said Clara’s. They seemed to have a drive-thru and they also had a sign hanging in one of the windows that said Clara’s is hiring! Come inside and ask for Clara if you are interested! 2 openings! Whoever had written that seemed to be very perky.

I pushed open the door and entered the diner. The bell from the door tinkled and I looked around the diner. The floor was black and white tile, although some tiles here and there were turquoise. The walls were a pristine white and had crown molding. The tables were made of wood and the chairs at them had light blue cloth cushions. The booths were made of wood as well and the cushions were also of a light blue. In the very front of the diner, about ten feet away from me was a large granite counter, with a cash register and a blonde sitting there tapping on her phone.

I stepped up to the counter, slowly taking my hands out of my pockets and cleared my throat causing the blonde to look at me. She locked her phone and gave me a small, shy smile. She was pretty, I decided. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a fishtail braid and her blue eyes were slightly hidden by a pair of glasses. I also noticed that she had a light dusting of freckles across her nose.

“Hi I’m Hadley,” She said, extending her hand and I shook it. “Are you here to talk to Claire or to eat?”

“Claire,” I answered before saying, “How did you know?”

“Well it’s not often that we get a teenager all by herself, and I noticed you looking at the Help Wanted sign earlier, so that was also a clue,” Hadley answered smiling and hopping off of the chair that must have been behind the counter. “I’ll take you back to Clara’s office.”

She led me to the very back of the diner where there was a small office. Hadley knocked on the door and it swung open revealing a petite woman with white hair and piercing green eyes. She was dressed in a white blouse and black dress pants and her hair was pulled into a bun.

She glanced at Hadley before looking at me, “Are you here for a job interview?”

“Yes,” I said after a moment of hesitation and the woman nodded.

“Great,” She turned to Hadley, “Get back to work Hadley.”

“Okay Claire,” She answered before waving at me and hurrying back to the front counter.

Claire disappeared back into her office and after a second I followed, closing the door tightly behind me. The inside of the office was very neat, nothing was out of place. There was just a desk, a file cabinet, and a bookshelf. The bookshelf seemed to be filled with cookbooks and self-help books. I took a seat at one of the chairs which was directly across from the desk and Claire grabbed a paper and a pen.

“You are here for the waitress job, right?” Claire asked, uncapping her pen and I nodded. “Name. How old are you?”

“Trinity, and I’m sixteen almost seventeen,” I answered, rubbing my hands on my jeans. Despite how cute she looked, Claire was very intimidating.

“Do you have any previous experience with waitressing? Have you had any other jobs? Any references?”

“Um...No, no and no. This would be my first job,” I answered, feeling myself beginning to grow more nervous. I was sure that not having any other experience would definitely be a deal breaker but Claire continued to ask me questions.

Why do you want this job? Will you work hard? Why should I give you this job? What skills do you have? What kind of wage do you want at first? On, and on the questions went and when there were no more questions I became more nervous than I already was.

“Thank you for your time Trinity,” Claire said, “From what I can tell you seem to be a very nice young lady, and you seem to really want this job but you don’t have any waitressing experience. That seems to be the only thing that is making me nervous about hiring you.”

“But surely you can have someone train me,” I answered, clenching my hands in my lap. “I know I don’t have any waitressing experience but I can learn.”

“Hadley is the only waitress that we have, right now,” Claire murmured, “And she is a little too busy with trying to be a hostess and waitress. It’d be much easier if you just had a little bit of experience but...”

I sighed, “But I don’t. I can waitress, it can’t be that hard.” I sighed, unclenching my hands and then clenching them once more. “I need this job; you can have like a trial period or something. I work for a week or so and if I don’t meet expectations then you don’t have to hire me with minimum wage.”

“A trial period,” Claire mused, furrowing her brows in thought and glancing down at the paper she had written on. She looked back up at me, “You will have a three day trial period. Monday after school, Wednesday after school, and Saturday morning. Our three busier days. I do want you to have this job Trinity, but I need to make sure that you can handle this.”

“So tomorrow I come in for part of my three day trial period,” I murmured, “Okay. Thank you so much Claire!”

The old woman smiled, “It’s no problem Trinity. Just make sure that you are here at three thirty, and that you are dressed for work. White blouse, black dress pants, and black shoes. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I nodded and hurried out of the office. Once outside of the office I finally allowed myself to relax. I had somehow miraculously gotten the job, sort of. I passed by the front desk and Hadley reached out and grabbed my arms, causing me to halt.

“So,” She asked, excitement in her voice, “Did you get the job?”

I looked at her, and let a small smile slip onto my face, “Sort of.”

“How do you sort of get a job,” Hadley asked, “Isn’t it either a yes or a no?”

“Well typically,” I answered, “But it is a sort of because Claire is giving me a trial period. I work but I don’t get paid, and if I do well then I”m officially hired with pay.”

Hadley slowly released my arm and I lightly massaged my wrist. She had a very tight grip.

“So you’ll be working here then, sort of,” Hadley answered and I nodded. “Well I guess that is better than nothing, at least it isn’t Sheri or Miranda working here. Those two are nightmares.”

“Aw expressing your love for us again,” a sickly sweet voice said and I turned around, my eyes nearly bulging out of my head.

There were two girls who had just entered the diner. They were both very pretty, dark hair and dark eyes but they didn’t seem normal. They moved with a certain grace, and their posture seemed threatening. Not to mention they weren’t wearing a lot of clothes. One of the girls was wearing a crop top and booty shorts and the other girl was wearing something that I could only call a bra and spandex shorts.

“Sheri, Miranda,” Hadley said, her voice less than enthusiastic. “What are you doing here? And why aren’t you really wearing clothes?”

“We’re here to talk to Claire about getting a job here as waitresses,” one of them said, I think it was Miranda. She flicked her hair over her shoulder and pulled at her crop top, “And we’re just so hot. Our skin is burning,” Miranda pouted, “I wish that Max was here. He would know what to do to get rid of this burning heat.”

Hadley snorted, “My cousin wouldn’t go near you with a ten foot pole. I actually distinctly remember him staying at least ten feet away from the both of you. Maybe you guys should go back to your boyfriends instead of fawning and obsessing over my cousin.”

Miranda and Sheri both huffed before marching out of the diner. Clearly, they hadn’t come for the job. I think that they had just come to try and rile Hadley up.

I paused, and looked at Hadley before blurting out, “So they have boyfriends but they obsess over your cousin?”

Hadley let out a small laugh and nodded, “Yeah. It’s pretty pathetic and I really feel bad for their boyfriends, but they think that Max is the epitome of hot and sexy. I don’t get it and if I did it would probably be really creepy. Max has always had girls fawning over him but he isn’t a player. I think in the past two years he has gone on two dates and he refused to even kiss the girl he was going on the date with. I think he was just being nice,” Hadley shrugged before her eyes went wide. “I’m so sorry you probably don’t even care about that. Oh my God I am so sorry for just telling you all that,” She profusely apologized and I laughed.

“It’s fine Hadley, I guess that you just needed someone to vent to or something,” I said with a smile, “Seriously don’t worry about it.” I pointed at her, “This just means that if I ever want to vent about something I am going to vent to you.”

I made my way towards the door and waved, causing Hadley to grin and say, “Deal. Well I’ll see you tomorrow then, bye Trinity.”

So far it seemed that I had nothing to worry about. Claire seemed nice enough and Hadley seemed like she would be a good friend. Hopefully tomorrow would go just as well as today had.