A New Path by Lilly W. (top fiction books of all time .TXT) 📕

      Yeah, right. A little homemade sign is worth that much. My suspicion must have shown to my face by the way he snapped at me.

      “Don’t you doubt me, girl. You broke the bottom board to, the one that holds this together.” He holds out his hand. “Money”

      “I don’t have any money” His face turned bright red with anger.

      “I will not take pity on you. You will work here for two months. That’s a long time yes, but how will people know there is work needed here if the sign isn't here? Come tomorrow at 9:30 am. Don’t be late.” With that he went into the restaurant.

     I look up at the sign.

    Sam's Sandwiches

    Great, I have to work at a sandwich shop for two months! How can he just tell me I’m going to work in a place like that? All I did was break a stupid sign.

      I start my walk home. As I walk I get madder and madder. Why? Two months? Yeah I said I need money and 16 is a good age to get a job but I don’t want to work there. If it’s like the outside it’s crap, like everything in my life.

     I make it to my house and see the cars parked in front and hear the music coming from the house. Another one of his parties. Just what I need right now. I walk around the house and go to the back door. I smell of smoke hits me. The reason I go to the beach and to the library is to get away from the smoke and parties.

       To get to the stairs you have to go through the living room. And that just happens to be the place the party is. I take a breath and walk through the doors. I creep to the wall around both drunk boys and girls. I look over and see my dad sitting on the couch surrounded by girls, some of them look about my age. Tod is in the corner with his girlfriend. I make it to the stairs, then to the upstairs hallway.

      “Hey, where are you going, Mia.” I turn to see someone stumble up the stairs. One of Todd's friends, Dan. Two years older than me.

      “Sleep” I turn and go to my room. I pull out the key. Yes I have a key for my room, only because if I don’t lock it I find people in there asleep or doing other things. I feel his breath on my neck and his hands go to my waist.

     “Mind if I join you?” Dan’s thumbs rub circles on my waist. I unlock the door.

    “Yes I actually do.” I pull away from him and go in. He tries to go into. “ Good night, Dan” And I slam the door in his face, something I do all the time.

     I hate my room. From the bright blue walls to the fluffy floor. I reminds me of the times I would have friends over. My bed is in the middle of the room and a desk sits in the corner next to the dresser next to my few clothes.

    I go over to my bed and climb under the blankets. I will have to get up at 9:00 in the morning to get to stupid work on time. And I turn on the radio that sits on the night stand. Questions fly through my head like mine rocket ships.

   What do I have to do? How much will I get paid? What is the time I have work? How will I go to work and school? How will I get up at 9:00 in the morning?

   I close my eyes and the sound of music slowly ebb away.

 I slowly open my eyes. Light streams into the room. I look at my watch.

        9:10

       I close my eyes again, then realize I have somewhere to be. I jump out of bed and pull some new clothes on brush my hair and teeth and am out the door in 5 minutes. I run down the street, Sams is two miles away.

       I run up the the entrance at 9:29. I use that extra minute to catch my breath again then head into the restaurant. A bell tinkles over my head.

      I can’t believe what I see. It’s not a subway thing like I expected. It’s a nice restaurant. The walls are a light peach color and there is a front register by the entrance and the smell of delicious food floats to the door from the back. There is a sign that says the speechless. Ribs? Chicken? I thought it was a sandwich shop?

     “What is your name, sign girl?” Sam says coming out of the kitchen.

     “Well it’s not sign girl. Its Mia. Why?”

     “Why? Because you work for me know, Mia.” He tells me. “Follow me.” Then he walked back into the kitchen. I hurried to follow. Once I got in there he handed me a pair of clothes.

     “Put these on. There’s a bathroom down the back hallway and to the right.”

      I go down the hall and to the right and sure enough there is a small bathroom. Once I get into the bathroom I inspect the clothes. There is a pair of dark jeans and a white tank top and a red apron. I put them on and look in the mirror.

      Bright green eyes look back to me. My face is surrounded by dark brown hair that goes to my waist. My tanned skin shows my dark pink lips. I could be called cute, by a troll. I put on the apron and walk to the kitchen. This is the first time I’ve worn jeans in a couple years, I never had the money.

      “Well you clean up nice.” He tells me. “Here take this.” He hands me an order pad. “And this” He hands me a pen. “You are to follow Ruby around today and tomorrow you will do it on your own. Right down everything the customer says. Go through them doors and she will find you.”  

I go through the doors and see a woman with long blond hair, same clothes as me, dark red lips and way too much makeup. I can tell she doesn't take crap from nobody. She comes up to me.  

     “Hi, I’m Ruby. Follow me.” She walked over to the counter that runs in front of the kitchen window. Then she faces the dining room. “I will teach you everything you need to know in the next hour and you will follow me around all day. Ok?”

    I nod. “I thought this was a sandwich shop? Why do you have ribs and chicken?”

   “Because that’s what we started with. Then we improved, but we are still known for the killer sandwiches.” She smiles. “Now let’s get to work”

     I spent the rest of the day learning how to get drinks, soup and dessert. The hardest part of the day was to face the people when the people came in and when they left. They walked in the door and Peggy meats them and tells them where to sit. Then me and Ruby will give them the menus and get them drinks, tell them the specials and to greet them.

     I could tell that Ruby needed help, she was rushing back and forth. She was in charge of all thirty tables. Ruby said we would split the tables once we got going. 8:00 p.m, the day was finally over. We cleaned up and both of us sat at the counter, This whole day sucked, I hated it.

    Sam comes out of the kitchen and hand them menus. I look down at it in confusion. Sam laughs.

    “You work hard you get a meal. On the house” There’s nothing like free food.

    “I’m not the one that did everything, Ruby is.” I look down at the table.

    “Yes you did, you helped me and I’m glad you're here. You should have seen some of the people that came here to work. They thought that if they were nice to the people they didn’t have to do anything.” Ruby smiles, and takes a breath. “I’ll have a chicken breast, with the side of soup.” Sam nods and starts to head to the kitchen then stop.

   “Mia, you will eat. What do you want?”

   “Fine, Fries and soup please.” He shakes his head.

   “Hamburger and fries coming up. And you can get the soup yourself.” He leaves to the kitchen. I look over at Ruby.

   “He doesn't take no for an answer does he?” She sighs.

   “He just is happy to have found somebody.” She looks at her. “Ok so I’ll tell you how it works. We get paid each Friday. We know you have school and you can work 4:00p.m to 8:00p.m. On the weekends you work 9:30 to 8:00. Long shifts yes, but a lot of people can’t keep the job.” She gets up and goes over to the soup pots. “ What kind do you want?”

    “Chicken noodle” I smell the hamburger and chicken flow through the window between the kitchen and dining room.

     Ruby brings the soup and puts it in front of me. I dig in, I didn’t eat breakfast or lunch and all day I’ve been regretting it.

      “ You keep all of the tips and you will get paid as much as you deserve. Sam and I will be the judge of what you get. On a good day you can make $30 in tips. And of course the money will get taken off for the sign. Trust me it will not be easy. But the way to get good tips is to go over the top to make the customers happy.” Ruby then looks at me. “You got that?”

      “Yes” I say finishing the soup.

      “Dinner is served” Sam declares as he carries in the food. He sets the most delicious looking sandwich I have ever seen. “Dig in, you deserve it”

       We close up and head our separate ways. Even though tomorrow is sunday we still have work.

       I slowly head home dreading going to work in in the morning.

       School is a week and four days away and now I have to deal with work to. I hope none of the people from school came in today. Tomorrow I will have to do everything by myself. Well, the fifteen tables I have. I agreed to have the right side. There are 7 workers all together.

       Sam the head cook and owner. Mod and Nibe the other cooks. Ruby the manager and Lenette the waitress who works half time. I know this because Ruby told me she never came in on time. Nolie is the admission, also the person who tells you where to sit and then is the one who they pay.

      I get home and go in the way I usually do, but there is no party. I have no idea why, but at least I don’t have to worry about them.

      I change and go to bed, but also set the alarm to 8:30. Just because I needed half an hour to fully wake up, by laying in my bed.

      As I close my eyes and let the dark invade, I hear sirens.