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Yo I'm Spark! This is my story on how i ended up working as a costume character at an amusement park and how I met a really cool person...
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I walked into the empty apartment and slammed down on the couch. Taking a slight sigh, exhausted from having multiple terrible job interviews. I debated whether to wait for my roommate, who told me she had a lead on a job, or go back to looking for corner stores with wanted signs. I picked up the newspaper and started glancing over the job listings, finding an abundance of jobs way over my resume. The small mass of text font overwhelmed my brain and after a few moments I laid my head on a pokeball pillow. Just before I could give up and place the paper down, Candela burst through the door.
“Hey Spark!” She waved at me, chucking her bag at a chair. Her bright amber eye glistened as she went over to sit next to me. “So I know you were thinking of getting a job since you just got on summer break, and god forbid we need the money for this place… and I think I’ve found the perfect one.” She grabbed a slightly crumpled paper from her bag.
I got up from the couch and took the paper from her hands. Glancing at the big words ‘JOB APPLICATION’ I began to slowly read the job description out loud: “Here at Professor Willow’s Pokemon Park, you will be tasked with entertaining our guest as our...Park’s Mascot?!” I turned to Candela who had a fun but sinister smile. “Candela! I am NOT being a mascot for my summer! You might like acting like a clown, but if I wanted to look stupid, I would just play League of Legends!”
She cracked a laugh at my strange but true analogy, “Oh C’mon dude! It’s not that bad! Blanche and I have been doing it part-time for months now. Listen, I just heard from the manager that they’re introducing a new Zapdos and I already told him that I have a perfect person who can start tomorrow.”
“But Candyyyyy!!!” I was feeling disgruntled about the whole situation. First of all, I'm honestly not that big of a Pokemon fan, only playing the first game and that app that was big for like 2 months. Also, the thought of being a Park mascot made me feel very embarrassed. I went to the park when I was young and always found the colorful costumes characters they had very amusing, but thinking of actually being that person in the costume would be too foolish to bare.
Her excited face turned sour at my complaining, “No Candy-ing me! I didn’t wanna pull this card but, you haven’t payed rent in 3 months and frankly, we need money! Now either you do this, or you go back to taking those ‘odd jobs’ you hate.” She started waving her finger at me like a mom scolding a child.
I shuddered when she brought up last summer’s ‘odd jobs,’ especially how I would spend my time making money by walking dogs and spinning restaurant signs. Debating it in my head for a moment, she looked at me awaiting my answer. I stared over the job application again and stressed at the albeit reasonable pay. “Mmmmmmmmm… Fine-” I snapped, “Fine I’ll take the job…”
She spontaneously jumped for joy at my response, “Oh yes Spark! We’ll have so much fun! I’mma call Blanche and our manager to tell them the good news.” She happily skipped to her room, before turning around giving me one last piece of advice, “Oh, I then suggest getting some sleep, we have a big day tomorrow!” She shut the door behind her, leaving me alone in the loft.
I let out an annoyed whine at the strange predicament I quickly got into. I toppled myself on the couch again, pondering that if my search at the mall today was better, I would have refrained from this situation. I felt any lousy pretzel stand or Hot Topic would be better than dressing up as a giant pokemon in 80 degree weather.
From the other room, I could hear Candela laughing to someone on the phone, probably talking about how I’ll be joining them as another flamboyant-colored bird costumed character. The overbearing guffaw at my torture slightly irritated me. After grabbing some food I retreated into my room to get away from my loud roomie.
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Candela kicked down my door the next morning with a hearty wake up call, “Geeeet up Spark, don’t want to be late on your first day!”
I tried to not move from under my blanket in hopes that she would leave me alone, but next thing I know it, she started to forcefully shake me awake. “Uuuuuugh I’m up,” I moaned pulling my face out of the comfortable cocoon. Peering with anger in my eye, she shrugged me off and went into the kitchen to fix up a quick breakfast.
It took me a few minutes to actually get up. I pushed my stomach off my bed and started rub the sleep crust out of my eyes. I grabbed the alarm clock on my bedside table, ‘7:30.’ I took a deep sigh thinking about how this was the earliest time I’ve woken up since my morning class freshman year. Regardless, Candela was right; I had to get ready for my new lousy job.
I got changed and walked into the loft, where I found Candela sitting around the coffee table with a mouthful of cereal. She stared me up and down with a confused emotion. Pointing at me with a spoon, she asked, “Dude, what are you wearing?”
“Wh-what? It's just what I usually wear…” I looked at myself again, fixing my bumblebee jacket.
She chuckled to herself while putting down the spoon in her bowl. “First off, its summer, so like you need to chill with the layers. Second, you won’t even be able to move in the costume if you wear black skinny jeans… I’m just saying, if you don’t want to pass out from heat stroke you should wear something light, like me.” She stood up and showed her ‘exercise’ outfit, a grey sports bra with matching shorts. Reluctant for the job I didn’t even want, I agreed with her outfit change and we quickly drove to the park in Candela's Honda Civic.
We made our way to the employee parking lot of Professor Willow’s Amusement Park near the backside of the park’s facade. I took a deep breathe as Candela stepped out of the driver’s seat. She noticed me a bit shaken from first day jitters and smiled softly to calm me down. “Don’t worry Spark, just follow me and everything is gonna be alright.”
Her warm gesture made me return the smile, even though I still felt she was responsible for this torture. “Thanks Candela.”
We walked across the lot of cars and she led me to a set of doors labeled ‘Employees Only.’ Inside the doors led to a big space filled with people getting ready for the park’s daily opening. As Candela pointed out her fellow co workers, it felt like I stepped into a mystical world that ran behind the park. I got acquainted with some of the people, most of them working as concessions or gift shop workers. They all seemed to have a kind of respect for Candela, like she was a general in an army.
I followed Candela like a lost puppy as she walked around the tunnel system hidden from the actual park. She toured me around the employee area showing me all the essentials: break room, quick-exits, secret doors to the park, etc. We walked around for about half an hour until Candela jumped when looking at her watch, “Oh shit, we’re late!” She grabbed my arm and dragged me around to a lime green door.
We hurried into the door where we were greeted by a sterling silver haired person. “You’re late...again… Shouldn’t you have brought him to get ready? Hey Spark.”
I awkwardly waved, “Hey Blanche-”
Candela burst of excitement cut me off, “Sorry! Sorry! But we’re here!”
Blanche rolled their eyes as Candela, who was still scolding their girlfriend. While they had a conversation on our tardiness I started hovering around the room. The walls were lined with a variety of costumes, from spare employee uniforms to large Pokemon costumes.
I brushed my hands passing through the hanged outfits until one certain one caught my eye. Protected by a clear plastic covering was a familiar yellow Pokemon.
I gulped trying to get their attention, “Hey guys...is this the costume?”
They both turned around to me holding up the outfit. I unzipped the plastic covering to reveal the bright yellow body suit with black and yellow wings dangling from both sides. Candela pulled down a costume, a yellow and red one, off of the hanger pole and smiled at me, “yeah that's the one! Better get changed we have 10 minutes!”
I tensed up at the idea of actually going out to people, but I had no time to really question it, or what I have to do. I took the outfit off the hanger and rotated it around to get a good look of it. The costume seemed standard, it was like a set of plush pajamas with two brown leggings coming down from the bottom, a giant spiky bird tail, and a casual zipper lining the back. I looked up from the bodysuit to find the others were already dressed in the Moltres and Articuno costumes they usually don. “Ummm… Candela? Blanche? Alil’ help?”
They both stared at me with both a glimmer of innocence and a rush of time. Blanche finished zipping up the taloned booty covers around their feet and headed to assist me with my costume. “Here just...like this” They took the costume from me and pulled down the zipper and held it open so I could step in.
I placed one leg through the suit and pushed it through till it made its way out onto the hard-carpeted floor. I repeated this step and pulled the body up to my waist. The shorts that I changed into earlier started to bunch up, but they sure are better than a pair of skinny jeans.
I shimmied the fluffy suit to my shoulders and stuck my arms through the wings. With some wire to maintain its shape, I found a small opening for my hands to fit through. Along with the bodysuit, the plastic cover had some black gloves in it; the silk feeling gloves felt comfortable on my hands.
Blanche went behind me and aided by pulling the zipper up. After tying my pair of vans inside the costume’s bird feet and slipping them on, I looked into the mirror behind the door. I was in a mix of embarrassed laughter as I looked at myself, a giant black and yellow bird man. Candela and Blanche joined me in checking their costumes via the mirror. Compared to the stunning fake flames of Candela’s costume, or the radiant blue shimmer of Blanche’s, my costume had a sort of stiff, electrifying look.
Just as we were making final preparations, a knock came from the other side of the mirror. The noise startled me, making me almost trip over my own over-exaggerated feet. Candela and Spark called out to the guest in unison, “Come in!”
The door swung open to, my surprise, an oldish-looking man wearing a lab coat and green backpack. In a hearty voice, he called out to us, “Come on you guys, we’re late for call time! Did you get the new guy ready?”
My eyes lit up when I recognized it was Professor Willow, or at least the guy who played him. His greyed head of hair and calm smile filled me with nostalgia of how I would always see him opening the park.
Blanche finished putting their hair in a neat bun and answered him, “Yes sir!”
Candela, still checking costume of any errors, slightly turned to the man. “Yeah! Oh Spark, this is Danny. He manages us and plays Professor Willow.” She jumped over next to him and started poking at his face, “Don’t get fooled! He may look like an old man, but he's not even 30!”
He tried swatting Candela’s hand off of his make-up caked face, “Yeah, yeah! Just don’t mess me up.” He cleared his throat and put out his hand to me, “So you must be Spark, good to have you on the team!
I flashed a big grin and shook his firm hand. “Thanks, It’s good to be here!” I mustered up a happy expression, not trying to show that I didn’t actually want the job.
He retracted his arm and tugged a bit on his hair, which I just realized was a realistic wig. “Great, so Candela told you what you’ll have to do?”
“Ummmm…” I peered over to Candela, who was trying to ignore the conversation, in hopes of not to bring up how late we were today.
He turned to Candy, who was trying her hardest not to make eye contact. “I see… Well worry not for now, I’ll be able to train you later, just go out and help me open the park. Follow these two and you’ll be fine!”
“Ok…” I felt unprepared about everything. It’s usual for first days to be awkward, but it was my first time I was just pushed into the job.
Just then, a small chime rung through the employee tunnel system. A calm automated voice started speaking on an intercom: “Attention employees, the park will open in 5 minutes.”
“Alright guys, it’s time to open the gates. Let’s go!” Danny left the three of us to make last minute arrangements.
“Alright Spark! You ready for this?”
I started scratching my blonde head, “I...guess?”
She and her girlfriend began to laugh. Blanche walked over to a shelf and pulled down three masks, each one for the costumes. They tossed the Zapdos one at me, almost making me drop it. I examined the head, as spiky and cartoonish as the Zapdos in the games; I placed it upon my shoulders.
Blanche tilted and shifted the head to make it look more presentable to our guests. “Don't worry Spark, you’ll be able able to suit up in your costume by yourself once you get used to it.”
One final check in the mirror and I was staring at a yellow bird, fully geared to get ready to meet the kids. Candela and Blanche finished up their preparations and we headed to the parks entrance to welcome all the new guests.