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I was having a weird ass dream of a man and his friends in Mario world, and they were escaping Bowser and the man got on a hang glider to get to a cliff ledge. When he landed he went into fucking labor. Yeah, that is right, a cis man, going into labor, in the Mario world, trying to get away from Bowser. And then suddenly all of his friends were there. Like they came out NOWHERE, they just appeared from nowhere. He then proceeded with the labor, shockingly short for labor to be, and he gave birth to a goat. It got extremely emotional with everyone worried about the baby being able to live, and like if he gets bullied because apparently, this goat baby is going to go do human baby things, and human toddler things, and human child things like going to school. And they were worried that the goat would be bullied for being, you know, a fucking goat. It was left off with I think his partner (dude, that man for sure cheated on you with something) saying something like “Well we will always love and care about him. He will find people who accept him for him (apparently it was a boy) and that is what going to stick in his life.” Everyone that was present started crying and sobbing, while the partner and man were looking at the goat baby smiling like I think new parents would. I wouldn’t know cause I saw a newborn and that shit is disgusting, I would throw it. My alarm started ringing and broke the dream into a million pieces before I could find out how the hell that baby goat got out of him. IT HAD HORNS!
Anyways, I was awake at 5 in the morning, you know the devil's hour. I groan into my pillow thinking about the dream I had. I am never taking Benadryl again. That shit always gives me the weirdest dreams I could ever have! I guess I am going to need to find a new allergy medicine for my anxiety hives. I get up to turn off the damn thing and then make my bed to try to wake me up. It sometimes works, but most of the time doesn’t do shit.
After I make my bed I stare at it for a few seconds, or minutes I can’t tell you. Eventually, I come back to reality and grab my clothes for the day and go to the bathroom to see that my black hair is everywhere. I had to work for a while to tame it down to make it look kinda presentable to society or something, put on the clothes, and then I grab my bag and some water and pray that I didn’t miss the bus again to school.
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Once school is done I get a ride with my boyfriend Will Solace so I can get to work, since my sister Hazel has had this big group project to work on after school, and my mom is still at work. Will works at the restaurant down the street from the thrift store that I work at. So, it is convenient for both of us.
“How was your dear honey? Didn’t you have state testing today?”
“It was okay, I somehow binged all 5 tests in the day. Like I tried with the first ELA one and then I got to the essay portion and was going to half-ass it and then I barely got halfway through and I thought ‘fuck it’ and just submitted it. Then I got the first math one and I know I am going to do horribly so I didn’t try that much, then I started the second one and tried a lot less than the last one. By the time I got to the science one, I was just picking at random. Also, I had a horridly weird dream last night.”
“What was it about? Did you know that dreams help the brain process things going on in our lives?”
“That makes me really scared now of the dream and what that means for me.”
“Oh it can’t be that bad Nico, just say it.”
I tell him the whole thing with every detail of it. Will’s expression changed from calm to ‘what the actual fuck did I just hear and is my boyfriend okay?
“Oh god, that sounds horrible and very impressive at the same time for some reason. And I don’t know why.”
“You and me both, how is college going?” While I am a senior in high school my boyfriend is a year older than me and started college to get his bachelor's degree to go to med school and therefore become a doctor.
“The same as always. Both a beautiful and hell of a ride.”
“I can’t wait to go to college now Will, tell me more.”
“Shut up Nico,” Will says playfully.
They then stayed silent for the rest of the ride.
I kiss Will goodbye and good luck for today since there is a festival in town and that means visitors from other places which means that he is going to be swamped with customers, and that means more Karens to show up.
I walk through the employee-only entrance that is at the back of the building. But I couldn’t walk in all the way because Mr. D was blocking the hall to the staff room where to clock in, with the forklift.
“Hey Nico, let me get out the way for you, don’t want to be late again.” Mr. D then started to slowly move the vehicle but Nico knew it could go faster and still be safe even if there was something on it, which there wasn’t. Mr. D always got on Nico and the rest of the coworker's nerves, it is no secret he didn’t like them all that much. They can’t complain too much though, he was the boss of this place and they all still had part-time jobs.
“Thanks, Mr. D,” I say trying to sound happy and actually grateful. Pretty sure it didn’t work.
He is now finally out of the way I go to the staff room and look at the list of names and things to do. You get assigned three different ones per person and switch them around. But sometimes you get something that needs to be done like once a month. That happens to be one of the days because I got ‘Recognize the children's bookshelves.’ That is the worse job anybody could get. Can’t wait.
I put on my employee apron, ‘at least it is not a full employee uniform.’ And put on my name tag, and walk out of the room. I then brace myself for the customers that act like dogs fighting over the last bit of food. And I walk out of into the war zone.
‘Oh! Thank the lord there are not that many people here!’ I speed walk to the book section and see Jason Grace organizing the young adult and adult books. ‘That lucky bastard.’
“Hey, Nico!”
“I am alive.”
“Well, that is good.”
We then started to work on our receptive sections.
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I had just finished a shelf out of 6 of them. Kill me. When I started organizing the bins at the bottom when Annabeth come up. “Hey Nico, I saw that you were doing the shelves and I want you to separate them by picture books and chapter books.” She says with a label maker and all.
“Annabeth, I will be lucky if I finish this by the time my shift ends you are expecting me to fix this absolute fucking mess AND organize them!”
“Yes.”
I sigh deeply, my arm crapping holding the books on the shelf up.
“Okay, I will do my best but don’t expect anything too grand from me. Or hell for it to even happen.”
“Great. . .need any help?”
“Annabeth go back to the back and do the collectibles.”
“Fine.”
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I was almost done with these damn bins. When Jason came over. “Hey, I got these from the chart so here.” He says and now I notice he holding A HUGE stack of books.
“I hate you. I hate you so much.”
“I know. I would hate myself too if I was doing this.” He leaves the stack and goes back to the young adult and adult books.
“I DON’T THINK I CAN FIT ALL THESE BOOKS HERE!” I shout to Jason, who pretended not to hear.
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‘OH GOD, I DON’T THINK THERE ARE ENOUGH BOOKS TO FILL IT! FUCK! Oh, my knees and arms hurt. I am going to stretch for a second so I don’t get a cramp. I learned my lesson the hard way.’
I walk over to Jason to see his progress. “Looking good Grace.”
“Thanks, Nico.” Jason says absent-mindedly more focusing on trying to find where he put. . .all the John Grishman books. ‘Man there is a lot of those coming lately.’
I look over to the collectibles stand to see what Annabeth is up to. And I see she is not there.
“Hey, Jason where is Annabeth? I haven’t heard any calls for collectibles where did she go? She was running it like 15 minutes ago.”
“Um, I am not sure. She didn’t give the keys like she would if she had to go do something in the back or go for a break or the bathroom.” Jason says breaking out of the John Grishman trance he was in. I walk over to see if she left the keys cause she didn’t want to disturb Jason in a spot where only we know where it is.
“I found the keys! She probably didn’t want to break your beautiful John Grisham trance that you are in.” I say swinging the keys in a circle.
“Oh! Are you over this cabinet thing?” A customer says.
“Um-”
“Oh! No that’s me. I just needed my coworker here to make sure the mugs didn’t break. Let me help with that.” Jason saves me from an awkward conversation. I will have to thank him later somehow.
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“Is that it Jason?”
“Yeah, that should be it. I am going to go work with Caylsop on the paintings and wall decor. You did a great job, Nico.”
“Thanks, have fun.”
I watch him go. I go to the employees only to ask Chiron what else needs to be done today.
“Could you go through the movies and music and anything marked 21 and under put in the bin.”
“Yeah, I can do that.”
I grab the bin and go over to the movies and see a lady standing right in front of where I need to go through. ‘Time to talk to people.’
“Um excuse me ma'am could you move the chart so I can reach that section?”
“Hm oh, what did you say.”
“Um, could you move your chart-”
“Oh of course!”
“Thank you!”
I then start going through them. ‘25, 25, 25, where the hell is the tag oh 24, 23-’
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I was still doing my job. I have found one to throw away so far. I saw an older guy come over to look at the movies. And then sees me throw another one in the bin.
“Are you guys throwing those away?”
‘Why the fuck are you talking to me? I am just trying to do my damn job, and you guys just have to ask about it. What if you guys just mind your own damn bees wax my god.’
“Yes, we throw away the ones that have been here the longest or move them to our other locations.”
“Huh, that is interesting.”
‘It is interesting you are obviously annoying to me trying to do my damn job. I don’t want to talk to anyone there is a reason I usually stay in the back of the store where you can’t annoy me.’
After a couple of minutes later he is gone.
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Calypso came over to me when I was neck-deep in the movies.
“Hey Nico, do you know where- OH GOD DON’T SCREAM!” Leo says very startled by Nico.
“Oh my god. You scared me. And you guys talk about putting a bell on me. Geez. Anyways your amazing wonderful-”
“SHUT UP!”
“Oh, come on. You tease me about Will why can’t I do that with you and-”
“STOP! No one other than you knows since you accidentally found out because Hazel found out by accident. It was all one big accident you found out.”
“Okay, okay. . .your amazing-”
“Nico. Don’t say anything that could be traced back to who they are exactly.”
“Fine. They are doing paintings and wall decor.”
“Okay, you didn’t need to do that.”
“I was just doing what you asked of me, Valdez. And you asked me to not say anything that could clue someone in on who they are. So I did.”
“Thanks, Neeks.”
“Never call me that again if you want my help to locate your lover.”
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“You are making great progress Nico,” Chiron says as he wheels his wheelchair closer so he can see in the bin.
“Thank you, Chiron.”
‘I will never admit how happy that makes me feel that he is proud of me.’
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‘And finally done. And perfect timing since I get to clock out now. This was a pretty alright day. I am so proud that I was able to finish that monster of a bookshelf. I can’t wait to go to bed everything hurts like hell. Then again I was holding like 20 pounds of books for 3 hours straight. What do I expect? But it was a pretty good day all things considered. I am glad though that I don’t have work tomorrow. I wonder what Will has planned for that date?’