A Girl for Halloween

A Girl for Halloween: A Slow and Sweet Gender Realization Story

"Alright Dad, I'll go to the interview!" I said, finally giving in after a long debate.

"You're making the right decision, Jason."

My father had recently lost his job working a desk job for a local brewery. Because of that occurrence, my parents were no longer able to contribute any more money to my college fund. So the circumstances were either I go to community college for a year, or I can go to a University right away, as long as I got a job.

Finished with the conversation, I made my way up to my room and called my buddy Kyle about the news.

"Good to hear man!" he said enthusiastically, "Having a high school job will probably be good for you anyway. It'll teach you some responsibility and get ya some spending cash."

We chatted some more about school and then said bye for the time being.

Even though it was a Friday night, my dad had scheduled an interview for me at this Halloween store chain that just opened up in our downtown area. Being a teenage boy, this was not ideal, as I wanted to go out with friends, but I told my dad I'd go. I threw some shoes on, and took the car to the Halloween store.

I pulled up and parked. The store was called 'Merlin's', and had a picture of a cartoon wizard next to the fluorescent letters above the store. Merlin's had rented space in our strip mall, so you could still see the remnants of the letters from the sign for the pizza place that used to be there.

I walked inside and the place looked surprisingly impressive. In the front were Halloween decorations like fake skeletons, ravens, etc. In the back were the costumes and a few changing rooms. There seemed to be a lot of costumes; there were some for men, women, children, and even pets. But overall, the place was well decorated and looked like the move-in process was coming along for just being September 28th.

"Can I help you?" the woman at the counter asked.

"Yes, I'd like to speak to the manager. My name is Jason and I'm here for a 7 o'clock interview."

"I can help you with that. I'm Sandy Hogan, store manager."

Sandy was a portly woman with light-brown hair and kind eyes. I shook her hand and she walked me to her office in the back of the store. We walked past the decorations and the costumes on the way back. There were even more costumes than I previously thought from first glance. Only the men's costumes, however, were hung up on the racks. The women's ones were all piled up to the side of the store in their packaging.

We got into her office and told me to pull up a chair near her desk. "So tell me about yourself, Jason."

We talked about school for a little while, and I explained that I'm a volleyball player at my high school, a pretty good student, and hoping to make a little money to help with college.

"Well, Jason, you seem like a nice kid, and we need workers, so it looks like you've got the job!"

"Thanks so much! When do you want me to start?" I inquired.

"Come in at 9am tomorrow to start organizing costumes. You'll meet all the other workers then too."

We shook hands again and I left the store and went home happy. For the rest of the night I hung out with my friend Kyle. I told him about my job and he seemed excited for me to start tomorrow.

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Saturday morning came along and I woke up at 8am, got ready (showering, combing my shoulder-length brunette hair, getting dressed, eating, the works) and then drove off to my first day.

I walked inside and was greeted by Sandy. "Welcome Jason! Are you ready to work?"

"You bet!" I responded cheerily. "What should I start on?"