Stranger Things Imagines

New Employees

"I'm taking a break!" Steve's voice gets higher as he tries to defend himself.

"You've been 'taking a break' for over an hour! It's your turn to do some work! I feel like a corpse."

(2) Over time we have obviously gained some regulars. Some of those include the kids. Each visit they rent some kind of nerdy movie - it helps if Eddie's working. There's been a few rare moments when they pick something else - so it's fun guessing what they'll choose. However, with Max, it's always the same.

"Hi, Y/N." She greets me as she enters the store.

"I swear you spend more time here than at your house."

"Can you blame me?"

"Hey, red." Eddie wanders in with a box of tapes.

"Hey, Eddie."

"Let me guess... You wanna rent Halloween."

"Duh. You wanna come over and watch it with me tonight?" She asks her trailer neighbour.

"Can't, sorry. It's Hellfire night and I've got something big planned." He politely declines.

"Oh, yeah. I knew there was a reason I planned to stay in tonight." I stifle a laugh as Eddie's face reads 'why do I put up with this?'

(3) As I said, the kids come in a lot for many reasons. A lot of the time they don't even rent anything they just want us for something. They don't care about the fact that we're working when they're running around hopped up on sugar and naivety. We've all threatened to ban them for life at one point or another.

Friday, 4pm. It's the same every week. After school the kids will cycle to the store to tell us about the day/week and to generally annoy us as they procrastinate doing their homework. On this particular Friday afternoon, they have more energy since it's finally summer vacation. Running around the shelves, somehow they trip each other up and stumble into the shelves - sending boxes worth of stock flying.

"I spent all morning organising those!" Robin's voice cracks as she shrieks whilst the rest of us glare at them.

"Banned." Steve doesn't shakes his head.

"For life." Eddie doesn't miss a beat before face-palming.

"Why couldn't I just work with Nance?" I mumble and stare blankly as I resist the urge to murder them.

(4) There was a failed robbery one time. I pride myself and my lack of a will to live in derailing the guy's plan. Anybody else would think I'm insane - my colleagues prove that constantly. All of them hide behind shelves as the criminal storms in and makes his demands.

"Hey, hey, hey. We can figure this out but you can't take our money, dude." Steve walks over trying to be the hero.

"Steve." I interrupt him whilst still leaning on the counter. "I've got this." He reluctantly retreats and join the others watching from.

"Money in the bag now!" The masked man with a gun yells yet I remain unphased.

"Dude, I get that you're probably in a tough financial situation right now - maybe you have some kids you gotta look after. I get it. I sympathise with you, I really do. Let me tell you why this plan is a bad one. Do you really think you can get good money from a Family Video in Hawkins?"

"Y/N, what are you doing?" Robin scolds me from the horror section but I ignore her.

"Mate, I work here and I don't get good money. If I did, I wouldn't still be here. Another thing, did you honestly think this intimidation act would work?" I continue without a care.

"She's a psycho." Eddie sighs.

"Yeah, she's gonna get us all killed." Steve agrees.

"Maybe it works on other people but not me. I'm 18 and working on minimum wage in a town that nobody ever seems to leave - I don't give a shit that you have a gun. I'm just counting down the days to be honest. There's a better way to provide for those kids."

"I-I've never had this before. I-I don't know how to respond." The guy is stunned. "I don't want to do this. I got laid off a couple months ago and I can't afford to feed us all and pay the bills."

"I hear you. There's some vacancies within a few miles. Go interview for some stuff - someone will take you on and you'll be making money in no time."

"Yeah, um, thanks." Still confused, he slowly exits the store.

"What the hell was that?" The others rush over to me.

"Facts. I've had this a few times."

"You have?" Eddie asks considering I didn't know him at the time so I never told him.

"Yeah, just wanted to help the guy get back on his feet whilst making sure I actually get my money."

(5) Depending on who I'm working with on a particular day, we'll play music or watch some movies from our selection when it's slow and the others aren't there. Sometimes we do it regardless. It's always a unique experience with each of them swapping out. I have many memories from them.

(6) Another thing that mainly Eddie and I do during the slow moments is prank call people we know. He also spends a lot of time hogging the phone to chat to the Hellfire club and Corroded Coffin. Most of the time it's Dustin or Gareth on the other line.

There's been plenty of wild and random things to happen within these 4 walls. When I first started working here with Eddie, I thought we'd be gone within a month either by quitting or being fired. It was a rough start. Even on the bad days, I couldn't asks for a better group of friends to work with.