Ellie Quin Book 2: The World According to Ellie Quin (6 page)

CHAPTER 8

‘Hi Hufty, it’s been a while again. I really must record my diary more often. Well, where do I start? Things have changed a bit since the last time I did some diary. Jez lost her job dancing at that night club, but…she decided that it was for the best. It’s made her think about what she wants to do with her life and she’s really set her mind now on getting off Harpers Reach. So, being the bossy loud-chik that she is, she made me quit my job at the slap ‘n’ grill….it was a daggy job anyway….so we could both
upsize our income
together. I think that’s the phrase she used.’

‘In a way I’m sort of pleased that that happened; Jez losing her dancing job. I think she would have stayed there forever otherwise, and she deserves better than that. Anyway, it’s good, because now we’ve both decided to work towards the one goal together. We’ve made a pact….a deal sort of. Well, it’s more like a mantra; ‘
Off-world or die trying
.’ What do you think? Catchy, huh?’

‘Oh yeah…I called home and spoke to Dad again. He’s still hopping mad with me, but not as bad as the last time I spoke to him. I told him I had somewhere to live, a good friend and some work to keep me busy. He made me promise to visit soon, which, you know, I’d like to do, I really would. I miss them all so much, but it’s more than I can afford right now. A shuttle flight back home would be like, I guess….it would take me a year to earn that much. Anyway, if I can save a bit every month? Well, we’ll see.’

‘Dad told me, he’s starting to change over the crop now. He’s taken the tubweed out of Betsy and changed the filters and climate control. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it’s going to be pretty gross getting things right with the meat crop he’s trying out. They’re so hard to keep alive. Yeuuchh! He says Sean’s Dad is going to help set it up for him, get it right so they don’t end up with the mess they had the first time he tried.’

‘Speaking of Sean, I wonder how he is? I guess the Freezer must have taken him back to that army planet and they must be all defrosted now and doing their training. I asked Dad if Sean had sent anything yet, but he said there’d been nothing so far. I hope he writes. You know, I miss him too. I know he’s out there, he’s seen space for himself….I wish I could see what he must be seeing. I’d love to tell him I’ve seen an alien. I wonder if
he
has yet? Crud! I wish Sean would write to me; give me an address so I can tell him everything that’s happened to me. I know he would be super-impressed. I know he would.’

‘Oh well Hufty, I’ve got to go now. Jez’s shouting to me to get a move on. We’ve both got an interview at this fast food place, ‘StarBreaks’. The creds are good there, and it’ll mean we’ll be working together. Which will be nice. I think.’

*

‘So, what makes you the right girls for the job then?’ asked Mr Noah. He leant backwards in his chair, studying them carefully as they both looked at each other.

‘Well,’ Jez started, ‘we’re both hardworking chiks. We really are….and dedicated to any job that we take on, dedicated, and fiercely loyal of course,’ she continued.

Ellie studied Noah, and realised looking at him, and then casting a glance over his rounded shoulder at the other staff, busy serving a lunchtime crowd, that she knew the answer he was after.

‘Because we look pretty normal, right?’

Jez cocked an eyebrow. But Noah nodded slightly.

‘Quite right.’

Ellie had noticed that coming into the city; so many of its inhabitants seemed to be genetically
varied
in some way. Mostly, what differed were the skin colours. She had seen so many
natural
colours ranging from a zombie-like white, to an almost lemon yellow or a bright citrus-orange…to the darkest midnight black. That kind of diversity was mostly a result of engineering; skin hues toned to best suit the rays of the varied stars in Human Space. There were, of course, many other noticeable traits she had noticed; people hairier than normal, taller, thinner, thickset, lean. A well known characteristic of citizens from much larger planets was that they were engineered to be shorter and more muscular in order that their bodies could cope better with a higher gravity environment. It was no secret that the Administration made sure that babies were best suited to the worlds they were destined to live on. Common sense really. What it did mean was that on a world like Harpers Reach that seemed to attract drifters from other worlds, it made for an interesting mix of genetically modified people.

But there was something else she had noticed, mostly from watching the toob. There was a perceived
norm
, a preferred look, that
most,
if not
all,
the celebrities and presenters on the toob conformed to. The look was referred to as ‘gene-neutral’.

Looking at Noah and his staff, she could tell he preferred his workforce to look as gene-neutral as possible. Not too fat or thin, not too tall or short, not too orange or yellow or black; not too far off the ‘normal’ coffee-to-cream skin colours that most people were used to seeing on every advertising holoscreen in the city.

Gene Neutral.

‘Yes,’ he added. ‘No place in StarBreaks for some of the odd-looking drekks out there. No one likes a freak handling their food for them. Not even another freak, I can tell you.’

Jez nodded. ‘Yeah, well no way we’re freaks, Mr Noah.’

Ellie noticed something else too. No male staff, or at least none that she could see right now.

‘And they got to look
nice
too,’ added Mr Noah. ‘No one wants their StarMeal handed to them by somebody with a hair-lip, or a mono-brow, or spots or dry skin.
Nice
looking people, if you know what I mean,’ he said. His eyes travelled quickly over Ellie’s narrow frame, and lingered long and lecherously on Jez’s more pronounced contours.

‘It’s a busy StarBreaks here, one of the top five outlets in New Haven,’ said Noah cracking his large knuckles. ‘I hire only the best girls here. The best looking and the hardest working.’

Noah stood up, his wide frame jiggling beneath his loose-fitting shirt. He pointed through his plexiglaz office door at the bustling activity outside. The twenty-foot long service counter was manned by half a dozen young girls, many of whom, Ellie guessed, were probably young farm girls like her.

She noticed they were all far prettier too.

‘People come here for their StarFagurter because they get served quicker than anywhere else, and they get a pretty smile free with the food. I don’t do Happy Meals, or novelty plastic toys, or two-for-one promotions. I don’t need to. My StarGirls bring the customers in,’ he said continuing to address them - Jez in particular. ‘So that’s the blah-blah-blah bit. Now here’s the deal; I pay six and a half creds an hour. You want the job?’

Jez turned to Ellie and shrugged her shoulders. ‘Actually, that’s not bad,’ she muttered.

‘Uh….I’m afraid the offer’s only for you,’ said Noah to Jez.

Jez shook her head. ‘That case, no. We come as a pair Mr Noah. If there’s no job for Ellie too, then I’m not interested.’

‘Plus,’ he added quickly, ‘you get to keep one percent of your till takings. The more you convince them to up-size, the more you take home.’

Jez did a double-take. ‘You do a commission on top of the pay?’

Noah nodded, ‘you notice all my girls are smiling out there?

‘That’s pretty good money, Ellie.’ Jez said. She squirmed with guilt as she considered the offer for a moment.

‘Crud! Jez, take the job. I’ll find something else easily,’ Ellie replied forcing a wan smile. ‘You should go for it.’

Jez pursed her lips while she wrestled with the dilemma.
She
had encouraged Ellie to chuck in her last job. It had been
her
Big Idea for them to both go hunting for work together, offering their services as a team. She felt responsible for Ellie, especially now she didn’t have any job at all. But then, the money here seemed pretty damned good. Jez knew she could effortlessly flirt her way to making customers double up their orders; earning a nice helping of till commission on top of what was a pretty decent pay package.

Dilemma-dilemma-dilemma….

Finally she turned back to him. ‘No, it’s both of us or nothing doing, Mr Noah.’

Noah put his hands on his wide hips and clucked and whistled whilst he studied both of the girls. His eyes darted from Jez to Ellie, and then back again. Ellie found herself subconsciously straightening her back, thrusting her slight chest forward and pouting her thin lips ever so slightly at Noah. Hating herself for doing that and then slumping back in the chair. She gave up. She knew she couldn’t do that flirty kind of thing as well as Jez.

‘Are you a smart kid?’ he asked Ellie.

‘Yes, I think so.’

‘You pick things up quick?’

Ellie nodded, ‘sure.’

‘And you’re a hard worker?’

‘Yes, a very, very hard worker, Mr Noah.’

He shook his head and smiled wearily. ‘Okay, I’ll take you both on. But you,’ he said pointing at Ellie, ‘I think I’ll put you on the call-ins cubicle.’

She sighed with relief, pleased that she wouldn’t be walking away on her own, still looking for a job out there without Jez beside her.

‘Yeah, you can take the call-in orders. Think you can do that chik?’

‘Yes sir, I’m sure I can,’ Ellie answered cheerfully.

‘Of course you can. It’s not rocket science.’ Noah gestured for them both to stand up. ‘Alright then, interview’s over. Tomorrow morning at seven sharp, I want you here, and in uniform.’

The door slid open with a soft swish, and the chaotic noise of the service counter outside flooded in. He reached down towards a locker and pulled out two bundles of shrink-wrapped clothes, each bearing a large golden ‘S’.

‘Your uniforms,’ he said, ‘come wearing them tomorrow morning.’

Ellie and Jez headed out of the door. Noah lightly patted Jez on her butt as she passed by. ‘See you at seven, don’t be late,’ he said with a wink. Jez gritted her teeth as she followed Ellie from the StarBreaks fast food restaurant onto the pedestrian walkway outside.

‘Ugghh. What a complete slime ball,’ she said pulling a face.

‘We got the jobs! We’re working together!’

Jez smiled. ‘What did I tell you? Think Big, Smile Lots.’

They wandered to the edge of the walkway and Ellie leant against the guard rail, looking down at the churning city below. They were on one of the highest pedestrian zones in the city, a plaza of shops and eateries that filled the empty space between three large, closely clustered towers. ‘It’s an amazing view from up here.’

‘Yeah, doobie view,’ replied Jez distracted, studying the shrink wrapped package in her hands suspiciously.

‘Let’s see then,’ said Ellie as she tore open her package and pulled out the uniform. It was a pair of navy blue trousers and a sky-blue shirt, the yellow ‘S’ proudly displayed on two breast pockets, and the collar.

‘Hey, that’s not so bad,’ she said hesitantly. ‘Could have been worse, I guess.’

Jez looked back at hers with a wary expression as she opened her package. She pulled out a navy blue ultra-mini skirt, that was clearly barely going to cover her crotch and a skin-hugging sky blue lycra top. She studied them with disgust.

‘Oh, please,’ she said. ‘These are so cheesy.’

‘What’s that?’ said Ellie pointing at something else in the package. Jez looked down and pulled out the final item of the StarBreak uniform; navy blue knickers with a fluffy white pompom on the rear.

‘Oh for fregg’s sake,’ she muttered holding the garment up in one hand and staring at it with disgust. ‘I didn’t notice any of the counter staff wearing these.’

Ellie cast her mind back and recalled a flash of white as one of the girls behind the counter had bent over, almost double, to pull out a tray and sauce cartons from a low shelf
facing
the service counter. No doubt a contrived design of the restaurant’s layout to ensure a teasing glimpse of white bunny-tail for the waiting customer.

A sky car roared past, momentarily bathing them both in its brilliant headlight beams.

‘Oh well,’ Ellie patted Jez on the shoulder, ‘just think of the money. All that extra commission a good-looking girl like you can earn.’

Jez nodded. ‘It’s not the ogling from losers like that I mind,’ she nodded towards the queue of customers leading out through the restaurant’s doorway onto the plaza. They were mostly male, of course, standing silently in line as they waited for their fast food lunch. ‘I’m used to seeing their kind at Dantes. I can handle a bit of eye-fondling Ellie-girl. It’s this cheesy-peasy uniform, I’m gonna’ have a problem coping with. That and Mr Noah undressing me every time he looks at me.’

Ellie smiled sympathetically. ‘We don’t have to take this job. I’m sure there are others.’

‘Crud…let’s give it a go. The money sounds good enough. And we’ve got ourselves a goal now anyway. The sooner we can buy our way off of this poo-stack the better.’

Ellie couldn’t have agreed more, although she wasn’t the one that was going to have to wear the bunny tail knickers.