MONDAY
The break room was a mess. Actually, everything regarding the employees and not their customers was, generally, run down and outdated. If it wasn't directly for customer use, corporate didn't care even if they claim to be a "big family" here at the Cloud 9 franchise. It started, during their morning, when everyone put their things in the lockers and Mateo complained about the lack of space to hang coats, "Ugh, can we, like, get some coat hooks or something?"
"Well, before we do that, can we fix this drip?" Amy pointed at the ceiling, "Or, like, at least get a new bucket?"
"Oh, I would love to fix that, but, no, corporate only gave us $15 for Break Room repairs, and we blew through that on the bat traps." Glenn said.
"Speaking of corporate, this memo just came through. "This time of year, many of us suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. Look out for the following symptoms of depression"." Dina read.
"Pfft! Who would get depressed here?" Glenn asked.
"Listlessness." Dina read off.
"Come on."
"Irritability."
"You wish."
"General discontent."
"No way."
"Apathy."
"Give me a break."
""Above all, remember Cloud 9 cares. This memo clears parent company of any liability for employee suicide.""
"Hmm, Cloud 9 really does care." Once again, Garrett was sarcastic.
"Well, they did send a letter." Dina nodded.
"Dina pratically named off half the people working here," Genevieve shut her locker, "I feel like that, most of the time, even when it has nothing to do with the holidays."
"Maybe cleaning out the lost and found will cheer you up," Garrett told her, "Let's go to the stock room everybody. I hope I get something useful this year."
The coworkers huddled in the stock room as they took turns closing their eyes and grabbing an unclaimed item they found laying around the store. Dina complained, impatient, "All right, tick-tock, come on."
"I think I saw a stuffed giraffe in here, and Harmonica loves giraffes, so, uh, ooh!" Cheyenne pulled her hand out, Jonah exclaimed, "And it's a wig!"
"Ooh, I can't give this to her. She'll think I'm slamming her for being bald." The young mom frowned.
"Oh, oh, it's a VHS copy of "Murder, She Wrote," seasons three, episodes seven through nine." Garrett looked at his prize.
"Oh, God. Cargo shorts?" Mateo looked offended.
"A journal. All right, what do we got here? A lot of boobs."
"Oh, look at this. There's a squeaker in it, too. How cute is that? Ahh, there it is. My birds love these."
"Come on down, Genevieve." Amy clapped and ushered her forward. Genevieve closed her eyes and rummaged through the bin before pulling something out, "Really? A ripped open pack of Halo tube socks?"
"Lucked out." Jonah grimaced.
Genevieve tossed them back into the bin before Jonah pulled out a leather jacket. As Mateo and Jonah fought over their items, Sandra spoke to the dispersing crowd, "I know this is a weird time, but my birthday's on Friday, and it's gonna be at Dave and Buster's. I'll just email you the details."
TUESDAY
"What does it mean to change? To embrace progress? To transform? Cloud 9 is pleased to announce that our in-store brand "Halo" has now become "SuperCloud." A new day has dawned."
"All right, there you have it." Jeff turned off the tv, "So it's a big day today. We start our rebranding."
"Does rebranding mean they're redesigning the store?" Cheyenne asked.
"No, we'll be taking our in-store product "Halo" and changing it to "SuperCloud.""
"And how are they different?" Jonah asked.
"That, uh, what I just said. It used to be called "Halo." Now it's called SuperCloud. Maybe I'm not, um, selling the excitement of what's happening today. Let's see if this helps. You know, I gotta tell ya..."
Everyone zoned out during the rest of the meeting. Jeff was walking around, observing customer's reactions to the change and how employees handled their questions. Turns out, he nitpicked at every little thing and made his disappointment in certain employees vocal. Including Dina, who was seething.
"Ooh, look out, ladies." Garrett alerted, "Here comes a stylish dude."
"Yeah, somehow he makes baldness look cute." Mateo said.
"Hey, I'm not talking about Jeff. I'm talking about the other guy."
"Yeah, obvs. I was kidding. Jeff is like the ugliest guy in the world. So busted. Like stretched-out Danny DeVito."
"Hey, guys, excuse me." Jeff approached the group who pretended to be working, "I want you to meet Rex Joshi. He's in from the main office."
After meeting Rex, Dina glared at Jeff's back and went straight to bitching, ""You're the manager, so you're the most at fault here.""
"That guy really sucks." Carol said.
"Total asshat, right?"
"I hate his little eyes." Justine said.
"I hate his stupid face."
"I literally hope he dies." Mateo jumped in, "Yeah, I, I hope he does. I hope he dies. I really hope he dies. Just dead."
"He put a check mark next to my name because a customer had to wait more than two minutes in line," Genevieve complained, "Like, I'm fucking sorry they filled their cart up and don't want to bag their own groceries themselves!"
"Yeah." Dina groaned, "If he thinks he can do better than us, why doesn't he try working a shift himself?"
"Yeah." They all agreed. Noone was pleased to meet Rex and find out that he went to college with Jonah who had the reoccuring nickname, "Ice man." The week was dragging by, but everyone hoped Jeff wouldn't come in to supervise tomorrow.
WEDNESDAY
"Hey, Adam, it's Carol at Cloud 9. I got your number off of Amy's emergency contact form. I heard about you and Amy, and I just wanted to see how you were you-ing. "Youing"? How you were doing. Why am I so nervous?"
By Wednesday, Genevieve was so over the stressful week. She didn't expect herself to be dragged to a lunch with all her female coworkers planned by Dina.
"This is for your own good." Dina told Amy, sitting around the table and picking up a menu.
"Yeah, you didn't have to kidnap me, Dina."
"Kidnapping is what you do to children. You're pushing 40. I abducted you. All right, everybody. First on the agenda, free talk. A couple of ground rules. No shop talk. Also, no religion or politics. Too divisive. Also, don't tell a story about someone we don't all know. It makes people feel excluded. Other than that, sky's the limit."
"Have you guys heard the new Fetty Wap song?" Cheyenne said, immediately interrupted by Dina, "We're not talking about music! Okay? That's just a bunch of sounds, and I can hear that anywhere."
"I'll take a Rusty Spaniard." Myrtle ordered.
"I'm gonna have to see some ID." The waiter said.
"Are you kidding? Look at her face. She's like 2,000." Genevieve audibly laughed at Dina before trying to cover it up with a cough. The conversation was stalled as everyone ordered food and drinks, waiting. Amy tried to find something to talk about, "And, um, Sandra, you're still with Jeff?"
"Um, yeah. It's fine."
"It's fine? This is ladies' lunch, Sandra. We need deets." Dina told her.
"Oh, okay. Um We spend hours on the phone, just talking. He loves my taste in music. I spend the night at his hotel when he's in town. We make love on silk sheets. Oh, God, he's gentle and strong. Sometimes he's dark. He took me to the edge of his balcony once and he asked, "Are you afraid?" And I said, "Yes." And he said, Good. That's how I feel with you." And then we made love. And then we ate dinner. And it was fancy. He thinks I'm prettier than my sister. Yeah."
Genevieve watched as two waiters came over with trays of drinks, after Sandra finished talking, whispering, "Thank God. Over here. Yup. Ours. That's hers."
A little while later, while Sandra went to the bar, Carol snuck off on her phone, "Hey, Adam. It's Carol. I had a missed call from an unknown caller. I thought maybe that was you. Anyways, I'm at lunch with you know who. Awkward!"
When Genevieve came out from the bathroom, she found Dina, Amy, Cheyenne, Myrtle, and Justine laughing loudly, "Okay, obviously, I'd kill Glenn. Umm, probably just like slit his throat or tear him limb from limb. Uh, then I'd marry Darren, and I've already fucked Garrett, so I guess him again. No. No, no, no, really. I have. Don't know why we're laughing, because I did. On Black Friday after we all got sick. I had to erase the security camera footage."
Genevieve and Cheyenne cackled at each other after hearing Dina's confession.
"You're gonna tell him you know?" Cheyenne asked, giggling.
"I wouldn't be a friend if I didn't mercilessly tease him about it." Genevieve chuckled, feeling the alcohol start to affect her.
The afternoon ended with Genevieve recording their drunken karaoke for snapchat. And, yes, they did go back to the store tipsy.
FRIDAY
"Are we the only ones from work here?" Cheyenne asked, entering the Dave and Buster's behind Genevieve.
"I just got here too. Let's go see."
"Genevieve! Cheyenne!" Sandra greeted her coworkers, excited to see them, hugging them.
"Happy birthday, Sandra." Cheyenne smiled, giving her the gift bag.
"Happy birthday." Genevieve handed her the card, "Wow."
"Yeah. My family's here. Come on, I'll introduce you." Sandra led them to the big group.
"This is so sad." Cheyenne whispered through clenched teeth.
"No one else from work is here." Genevieve whispered in her ear, "How messed up is that?"
"I texted Mateo."
"I texted Garrett and Justine."
"I hope more people from work show up. She invited everybody, right?"
"I think so. She sent everyone emails."