Working Class (Percie)

[Elanora Brennan]

It was coming to the close of Nora’s first week as Percie’s secretary and she felt confident she was finally getting the hang of the job and what was expected of her. She was effectively in charge of sending invoices, handling the paperwork and fielding phone calls. Surprisingly enough the socially awkward girl fielded the phone calls with ease, it was easier knowing what she had to say to them and not being faced with the actual person.

Nora sat at her desk that had been set up on the other side of the room within Percie’s house, there were couches in front of her and beyond that the desk that was Percie’s work station. She had been watching the women work during her week here while she herself worked to get herself accustomed to the tasks she had been assigned and she had noticed that Percie spent a great deal of time locked away in the photo developing room. Nora had just hit send on the most recent email invoice she had typed up sending it on its way to the client to be paid and she looked up to see that Percie had returned to her desk again.

Looking around she realised she was just about out of work to do for the day and the phone had been pretty quiet today, wringing her hands together slightly she decided to bite the bullet and rose from her desk. Stepping around it she approached her tall brown haired employer a little nervously, “Sorry to interrupt Miss Hobbes but I was wondering, I’m nearly finished the work you gave me, and well I was curious would it help if I learnt how to develop the film for you? It just seems to take so much time that it might be helpful if I could help?” She asked somewhat rambling but trying to pull herself up so it didn’t go on too long.

Nora was enjoying working for Percie, there weren’t too many actual in person people to deal with and computers she could do. Plus she had enjoyed the company of Percie’s black cat Watson on the occasion when he had decided to insert himself between her and her computer demanding attention in the way only cats could pull off. She didn’t want to ruin all that by annoying Percie with her awkwardness too much, for fear she would get fired.

[Percie Hobbes]

While Percie was fond of both digital and traditional camera's she'd always found a certain amount of stress relief when she spent a portion of her time in the dark room developing photos. But her preference for using traditional film of late was hindering her ability to do everything else in a timely manner. She sighed quietly as she sat down and started shuffling through things on her desk, where had she been before an emailed reminder of a meeting tomorrow had come across her inbox? She was startled out of her thinking by Nora's question. Also it was still a little unnerving for her to be called "Ms. Hobbes" by anyone who wasn't an authority figure in her life, or a civil servant. She'd have to break Nora of that habit quickly.


"Nora, call me Percie," she instructed for what felt like a hundredth time. She wasn't angry and her tone was light with the reminder. She felt Watson bump up against her leg and reached down to pet him as she considered Nora's request. She liked that the younger woman was observant, that would most likely be helpful later and it would help her do her job. "That's a good idea actually. I should have thought of that sooner myself," Percie admitted. She stood up and walked over to the table where she'd set her camera earlier. "Here, I put a new roll of film in there, how about you go out and snap some pictures? Take as long as you'd like. When you're finished I'll show how to develop the film and then we'll see about getting something to eat and going to the office supply store. You'll need some extra things for your desk and I haven't had time to get anything recently," she offered with a smile as she held the camera out. "Just be careful" she cautioned.

[Elanora Brennan]

”Right, Percie sorry” she said, it was still weird to her to be on such personal terms with her boss but if it was what the boss wanted she would try to get herself used to using it. Nora smiled slightly as the women agreed it was a good idea excited to get to learn something new. Nora watched at Percie got up and retrieved the camera from a side table and brought it back to her desk.

As Percie held it out too her Nora frowned slightly she hadn’t factored this into the plan, she didn’t know much about photography she was a drawer not a photographer. She kept her hands by her side as Percie talked about plans for Nora to take photos then something about food and a supply store, she was barely listening as she eyed the camera with worried eyes. She didn’t want to break the camera and was scared that she might, there was no way she could pay the women back if she did. Reluctantly she held out her hands and cradled the camera in both of them as if it were the most precious thing in the world.

“I promise I will be extremely careful” she said, while scared she also didn’t want to reject the opportunity, if she was going to learn this of course she couldn’t expect her boss to supply the film even if she hadn’t already developed her own, it made sense not to trust the newbie with photos from an investigation, as if she ruined them during development that was important evidence that would be ruined. Suddenly she was regretting this decision to learn how to develop film what if she did ruin a batch of photo’s one day,

You just need to take it one day at a time Nora she mentally told herself as she nodded to Percie and headed back to her own desk. Carefully setting the camera down she took her coat from the back of her chair and placed it back on, she hesitated at her gloves wondering if they would hinder the photo taking progress or not, deciding it was best to wear them then to risk her fingers getting numb from the cold and fumbling to hold the camera she placed them on before picking up the camera in both hands and heading for the door.

“I won’t be long” she said before heading out the door, once outside she took a deep breath and looked around wondering what to photograph. Percie lived and worked out of her house which was located downtown toward the end of a street that was otherwise filled with apartment buildings, looking around Nora was drawn to the graffiti that adorned a few of the buildings, not the horrid tags but the well thought out pieces that told a story. She couldn’t help but seeing them as art more than some people might lifting the camera to her face she looked through the view finder and played with the settings a little finding it a little awkward but not too bad with the thin gloves on, deciding she liked the angle, she snapped her first photo.

With no way of checking if it was any good without developing it she didn’t linger moving around the streets she snapped photos of the different artistic graffiti scattered through the buildings, snapping a few of a group of people hanging around and some of some birds, pretty much anything she came across, the majority of her clicks capturing the graffiti though. What could she say she was an artist at heart and appreciated other art even art that was considered illegal.

Before she realized it she had run through the film and cradling the camera in her hands made her way back to Percie’s house. She paused for a moment outside the door still unsure about just walking in since it was her home/business it still felt weird not to knock though. She pushed through the front door after her moment’s hesitation and headed instinctively back to her little desk placing the camera carefully on top of the desk before removing her gloves and jacket. Glancing at the clock she realized she had been gone for an hour without realizing it.

She picked the camera back up and went and placed it on Percie’s desk, Percie wasn’t at her desk though and she wondered slightly where she might be, but not wanting to go poking through the place to find her. Watson jumped up on the table then making her jump before she took a breath and smiled down at the cat moving her hand to scratch his ear gently. “You must learn not to scare me like that Watson, it’s not nice” she scolded the furry creature with no actual anger in her voice.

[Percie Hobbes]

While Nora headed out to take pictures Percie took the opportunity to finish up a few client reports, made a couple of phone calls and faxed some paperwork to her accountant so that in two weeks Nora would be paid. Right now she didn't need the girl every day (except that she was in training now and every day seemed like a good idea), but already Percie could tell that she'd be able to get a lot more work done if someone else was around to answer the telephone and send out invoices along with all the other little chores Percie did on a daily basis to make sure she could work smoothly. Thusly, Nora's first lesson had been how to use the coffee machine.

Percie didn't want to be "that boss" but she'd requested that if Nora got up to get her own coffee that she would check Percie's cup and get her coffee too, otherwise Percie would get it herself. Since the older woman drank an inhuman amount of coffee on a daily basis having someone else able to fetch it for her was useful. Speaking of coffee...Percie wandered into the back of her house and brewed another pot of coffee. She leaned against the counter as it brewed, cup handing loosely in her hand as she contemplated the best way to teach Nora how to develop the photos. It was probably best to have her practice a lot before Percie allowed her to develop important photo's which meant she'd have to devote a roll or to of film to the training process. But that wasn't necessarily a terribly high expense, plus if Nora took some nice photo's she could display them somewhere or enter a contest...something.

When the coffee beeped to signal it was finished Percie poured herself a cup and wandered back into the office in time to see Nora petting Watson. "Welcome back!" she greeted the younger woman warmly as she took a sip of coffee and walked over to the door that housed the dark room. "So obviously first things first is to flip this little sign here so that we don't accidentally walk into the room when it's being used and ruin the film," she said as she flipped a small sign that said "open/closed" on it's different sides to "closed" and opened the door. "Are you ready?" she asked needlessly as Nora agreed right away.

Leaving the door open for Nora to follow and to allow light into the small room she flipped on the red light and motioned for her secretary to shut the door after she'd entered. "So obviously if you shut the door first you won't see anything, there are no normal lights in this space, just the red light, so make sure you turn it on first before you shut the door and begin," she instructed as she then pointed to a small table on the side where Nora could put the camera while she prepared. "Set the camera there and come over here, are you able to see okay?" she asked curiously. "No fear of small places, red lights, or chemicals?" she checked good-naturedly while at the same time hoping none of the answers were yes.

[Elanora Brennan]

Nora jumped at the excited welcome back behind her even though she knew who it was, she turned around and smiled at Percie. She noted that Percie had already headed to the dark room, she lifted the camera back up cradling it in both her hands before heading to follow her boss into the dark room. She simply nodded as Percie explained about the sign, this she already knew as it had been drilled into her in a nice way her first day here so she knew never to interrupt when Percie was in the dark room. “ready” she said with a nod as Percie pushed open the door, Nora let her boss enter the room first and watched as she went straight to the red light to flick it on and motioned for Nora to shut the door.

Stepping inside she pulled the door shut blocking all light from the room except that put out by the red light, it was kind of surreal and different to normal light taking a moment for her eyes to adjust. She nodded along with the explanation it was common sense really, just like you would turn a normal light on before entering a dark room, she thought she could remember that. Nora moved to set the camera down as instructed, the longer she was in the room the more her eyes adjusted to the light and she realized it wasn’t too hard to see in here really, though she would probably always pause for a moment when first entering to let her eyes adjust just to be on the safe side.

“Yes I can see and no I don’t have any fear of small places, red lights for chemicals” she answered the boss’s questions eager to get started on learning something new, she loved learning new things and expanding her knowledge and was so happy to be here doing this job instead of just waitressing or being a cashier somewhere she felt like on top of being totally socially anxious all the time she would also feel pretty mentally un-stimulated in a job like that. She turned her attention back to Percie ready to listen carefully to the first steps, thinking that she would make a list of all the steps when they were done so she could have a cheat sheet to look back on until it was all second nature.