On My Way [Kali]

[L.C. Milliner]

Inspiration!
--outfit

L.C. was on her last leg. She had applied for almost every place in town, and still, no one called. She stayed up at night worrying about it. How would she afford a place of her own, let alone college tuition and the like, without a steady job? She was so desperate that she was about ready to give in and ask Zac if the bodyguard thing was a valid job and if the position was still open if it actually was. Her problem was that she had no work experience, except a couple of babysitting jobs from when she was little, and those barely qualified. She couldn’t even pick up something useful like gardening, or raking leaves or something. Everyone else was doing that.

The girl trekked through town with her hands in her pockets, sighing and looking at the ground, dejected and melancholy. Why couldn’t something go right, for once in her life? Just once. That was all she wanted. Not world peace or a fast car or true love, just a job. She and every other American were the same in that respect. Pilot ridge seemed to have a low unemployment rate, and she was contributing to that number, however slight.

Swallowing, L.C. felt her throat was dry and decided that she was thirsty. In an attempt to pick herself up, she shuffled into the coffee shop that doubled as a bar on nights. She eyed the counter full of drinks she wasn’t allowed to have and sighed, getting in line as she looked at the menu above the cappuccino machines. She squinted and bit her lip, deciding on a small caramel latte. She dug through her bag and dug out the money for it, pausing as her hand brushed by a stack of applications. Had she filled one out for this place yet?

No, she had not.

Hoping was all she could do at this point, stepping up to the register with bills in hand. Thank god no one was behind her yet. “Hello. One caramel latte, please. Small.” She paused, fidgeting, and bit her lip. She tried to smile, but it was so weak that it wasn’t worth the effort. “Are you taking applications for anything?” She didn’t care if she was a coffee brewer or just a cleanup girl. Hell, she’d take waitressing at this point. Just please, let there be an opening.

[Kali Caraway]

outfit~

Kali was very tired today. After a year of working every day, with a day off every now and then was finally catching up to her. Her two cooks, and bartender just weren't enough. The two kids she had employed to work the counter like herself had helped greatly, but then they both up and quit for whatever reason or another. She'd survived before them, and she could survive after them, but now that she knew what it was like not having to do everything, it made actually doing everything harder.

But Kali refused to put up a Help Wanted sign because of all the people she'd have to deal with and scheduling interviews. She didn't want to make it obvious because she wanted to hire someone because she'd like for any future employees to take the initiative. However, as it seemed she had forgotten to put up the stack up job applications this morning when she was cleaning out the drawers, she had looked at quite the handful of people already but no one really connected or made an impression on her, mainly because they were all non-metas who would potentially have a problem with her completely meta-staff. She wasn't discriminating against non-metas, but she didn't want to enable a future problem.

Business ran by as usual, and she accurately predicted when there would be a rush and when it would be slow. So it was pretty textbook whenever she didn't have to call a cook up to take care of the cash register while she spoke to a prospective employee. Now she was back behind the counter, greeting everyone that came in and making idle chit chat with those that purchased something. When a teenaged girl came in, Kali smiled like an old friend at her, "I love the crap out of that bag." She'd said as the girl got in line. When it was her turn to give her order, Kali saw her eyeing the applications. "One caramel latte, coming right up." She said as she put her back to the counter to start preparing the drink.

She grinned to herself when the girl asked about the applications. Did she call that, or what?

"Well, my dear," she replied with a wistful tone as she turned back and gave the girl her drink, "I am, actually. But who has time to read nowadays. Things will slow down in a minute or so, you chill out here and I'll be over to interview you. That'll be two dollars." She gestured to the latte and then waited like a happy camper.

[L.C. Milliner]

The lady serving her was one she had seen before, she had really bright colored hair and she seemed pretty cool. L.C. wasn’t certain who she was- she seemed like the manager of the place, but someone had told her once she was only the cashier, and then she heard she was the owner, the bartender, the owner’s daughter, and a slew of other titles. She wasn’t sure what to think, other than that she was a nice and downright pleasant person to talk to on occasion. True, she had never said more than ‘I’ll take this please’ and ‘thank you’ to her, but she could tell by her tone that she enjoyed her job.

She smiled when she complimented her bag and felt a bit better, but still not enough to alleviate the awful mood she had been in. She still needed a job, and then she needed to move out of Sean’s house, and she needed to figure things out with Zac. Too much stress, too much. She was going to give herself gray hair and a heart attack at this rate with all the worrying she was doing. The only things she had going for her were that she didn’t have a parent breathing down her neck, she wasn’t pregnant, or on drugs, or something stupid like that.

When she asked for an application, she was not expecting the woman’s response at all. She almost dropped her coffee on herself in surprise, but kept a firm hold as her eyes widened. She stood stock still for a moment, waiting for the punch line, but she realized that dear god, she was serious and she nodded fervently. “Of course. Err.” She gave the woman her two dollars and nodded to her, pointing to the chair without saying anything for a moment, still trying to wrap her head around this insanity. “Thank you so much. I’ll just, ah, sit.”

L.C. all but fell into a chair as she sipped her coffee, going over what she needed to say in her head. Prior work experience was zero. GPA was around 2.7. She was nineteen and still a senior. She sounded more like a liability than an employee, especially with her criminal record, even with Hammel getting her off the hook all the time. L.C. slumping in her chair and cringed internally, looking up to the heavens in a silent plea for help.

Otherwise this was going to be a nightmare.

[Kali Caraway]

Kali nearly giggled when the girl looked shocked at hearing that she was actually hiring. This girl must have been employment shopping all day and hadn't found anything in her size. Kali grinned at the analogy she'd just thought of, and almost repeated it, to share the hilarity with the rest of the Kafe, but held back at the last second because the poor girl still seemed to be processing what Kali had said. When she pointed at an empty chair and just looked at her for a moment, Kali gave a little nod of her head in encouragement and a wink. "Park it, and I'll be right over." It was a promise and words of reassurance. Then she turned her attention to the man pleasantly waiting in line.

She served him and the three people behind them, ran into the back to tell the cook that they were about out of giant cinnamon rolls and would need some more more and that she was about to interview a girl for a position. She washed her hands and then grabbed her drink next to the register, a lovely combination of most of the fountain drinks, and a shot of 5 hour energy---poor Kali was addicted to those things. She'd die without them. She took a sip as she made her way across the Kafe to the girl and sat down.

"Aaaaalrightly then, sorry about the wait, but we always get a flux of business right now--morning shift gets off for lunch and the part-timers stop in on the way home." She flipped her hand up, almost in exasperation, but Kali liked the rushes, it was boring otherwise. "Now. I'm Kali Caraway, owner and founder of Kali's Kafe....sign says it all." She meant the big ol' sign out front, it got a chuckle from herself before she continued. "So, who would you be?" She asked with her friendly smile as she extended her hand across the table for a shake.

[L.C. Milliner]

Sipping a latte was not a good way to relieve jitters, especially the kind that came with a job interview. By the time Kali sat down, L.C.’s leg was bouncing up and down fast enough to rival the needle on a Richter scale. She nodded at the woman as she sat, indicating that the wait was no problem. She’d tell her so, but she didn’t trust herself with talking just yet. That would have to wait until later, unfortunately. Of course, L.C. also had to worry about her eyes popping out of her head too- she was speaking to the owner. The only time she ever spoke to an owner was when she was in trouble or was about to be. “Nice to meet you. I love this place.” She blurted it out before she could even think about saying it.

When asked about herself, however, L.C. was at a loss for words. Where could she begin? Should she just start at the carnival and work her way over, or should she just tell her a broad spectrum of random yet useless factoids about her? She opted for neither of the above and gave a standard answer instead. “L.C. Milliner. Just L.C.” She doubted if that would stick long, but if she had to have a nametag that read ‘Lyra’, so be it. “I’m nineteen, a senior in high school. I go to Hammel, up on the hill.” There wasn’t much else to say, but she tried to find something. Anything.

The girl’s eyes darted around the shop with frantic abandon in hopes that something would spark her creativity and she could give just the slightest bit more information, but all she encountered was a quick movement out of the corner of her eye that drew her attention. When she turned her head ever so slightly to look, she found she was locked in a staring contest with a very large green reptile. “What. Is that.” She asked, drawn away from the current topic as she gauged the sheer ludicrousness of the current situation. Here she was, interviewing for a job, and there was a bright green reptile.

Was she hallucinating? Because that would royally suck.

[Kali Caraway]

Kali beamed when the girl said she loved this place. Kali loved it too, absolutely and irrevocably. She'd put her entire heart and soul into this place and she was always so happy and relieved when people told her they loved what she'd set up her, or how awesome the atmosphere was. It was like seeing your own child compete in the Olympics--err something like that anyway. Kali could tell this girl was pretty nervous, her leg was practically vibrating. Kali smiled a little warmly at her.

"L.C.? Interesting, what's that stand for? If anything; just curious." Kali wasn't about to force anyone to go by their actual name since she didn't do that herself. Her name was Khalua, but she didn't introduce herself as such and her signature was Kali. Though L.C. might have those sort of parents that just name their kid initials without actually having a meaning being it. Kali knew a few people in college like that, a TJ, and an AJ that had absolutely no meaning.

"Oh Hammel! I went there, like thirty years ago." So that was an exaggeration, more like five or six years ago. She was only twenty-four. She grinned a little at her. "So what's it you can do? You know what? You might know the cook I've got from Hammel. Alex McKenzie? That ring a bell?" Kali unknowingly asked. Alex was a good kid, honest and mature for his age. And his appearance mislead one into thinking he was totally a punk but he was one of the sweetest people Kali knew, she definitely thought of him like a little brought. She also had no idea about the connection between Alex and L.C., though she did know that Zac La'Rousse--one of her regulars--had punched him in the face over his girlfriend.

Oh High school drama.

This girl really was nervous, Kali could tell as she looked about the Kafe. Kali sat back and observed for a moment, allowing the girl to gather her thoughts. The girl's eyes found Larz in his tank and Kali giggled a little at her disbelieving question. "That's Larz, my dear. And he is our mascot, or pet. You wanna hold him?" She asked as she stood and walked over to his tank. She reached over the top (having to go up on her tip-toes) and picked up the iguana and then returned to her seat with him in her arms. She was used to his claws so she didn't even wince as he held on to her bare arms. "He is about a year old now--I got him as a baby when I opened the store."

[L.C. Milliner]

Immediately L.C. was faced with a problem: tell her employer her real name or not, which would lead to a lot of annoying questions. It wasn’t like her name was awful, like ‘Hortense’ or something, but it was still the name her mother had given her and she didn’t like going by it. She had thought about legally changing her name a hundred times, but had no idea how to go about doing it. Perhaps she’d stop at that one law firm in town on the way back to Sean’s to inquire about it. As it was, all she could do now was cough up her real name and try not to flinch. “Lyra Camille. But I really like L.C. better.” Really. She’d write an entire college thesis on why she loved her initials better than her name.

“Really?” The idea that the owner of the local café was an alumni of Hammel shouldn’t have been surprising, in retrospect. It seemed like the town was made up of people affiliated with the academy. There were no normal people in this town anymore. “I grow spikes.” She said, deciding against demonstrating in public for the moment. She figured the thin veil of a disguise over the school had enough holes in it already. If the people of Pilot Ridge didn’t know anything about it, they were lying to themselves or were just plain stupid. Or Sean was erasing memories right and left. That sounded plausible.

When asked about Alex, L.C.’s eyes widened and she nodded quickly, head bobbing rapidly. “Yeah, I know him. He’s in art with me.” They had a conversation just the other day about her future. She expected that he would be very surprised to hear about her applying, even more so if she made it in. She did neglect to mention that she had accidentally given Zac the idea to punch him in the face, but that was more or less on a need-to-not-know basis.

And yes, L.C. was nervous. She had never had a successful job interview in her life and her work experience was zero. Her only qualification for the job was her ability to tell good coffee from bad. The only thing that could’ve made things worse was if the reptile decided it wanted to eat her. It already had its gaze fixed on her like it was planning to scratch her eyes out. When Kali removed him from his tank, L.C.’s hair almost stood on end as she watched her bring him over. “Larz.” She repeated, the name sounding foreign on her tongue. She debated holding him but shook her head at the offer, his claws looking a bit to prickly to mess with. “He’s... unique?” She tried to think of a fitting compliment, but that was all she could think of.

[Kali Caraway]

Lyra? Her name was Lyra? For someone that went through elementary school with a name like Khalua, Kali really felt for the girl and nodded sagely when she said she preferred L.C. better. "My real name is Khalua. I mean, how can parents do that to their children? Don't they know any shred of strangeness gets them picked on and ridiculed?" Like Kali really gave two shits about getting made fun of--even in elementary school, Kali wasn't a pushover. She had two older brothers to thank for that. However tough her skin was, getting made fun of because of her weird name wasn't a happy memory.

Grow spikes? "Badass." Kali was never one to filter herself unless she was talking to someone in the court house or law office. In her own place though? Hell no. "I am a glorified mime." She put her hands up like she was in a box, and pressed a little bit, imagining a glass wall to be in front of her. If L.C. was any sort of perceptive, she would notice that Kali's palms were up against a see through surface. But then she let the imaginary wall in front of her disappear and her hands moved an inch or so through it then she grinned. "Awesome at parties, but useless in a fight." Unless someone decided to throw a rock at her or shoot her. She could stop stuff like that, but not living things.

Kali smiled a little when it turned out that L.C. was in his art class. If, by the end of this interview, Kali had any questions as to the type of person L.C. was, then she could just ask Alex's opinion of the girl and make her decision based off of that. As it was, however, Kali sensed a troubled girl with an urge to gain some independence. She could totally be off base or not, but the girl was really nervous so she supposed that meant she was counting on getting a job. That was perfectly fine with Kali. She remembered what it was like, trying to get a job while still in high school. Employers didn't want to hire teenagers because of lack of experience or limited working availability. Kali wasn't like that. If she could get even three hours off everyday, well that was three more than she had and she could be thankful for that. And she didn't mind training newbies. She enjoyed teasing them; especially when the training involves the cappuccino machine because it makes a noise similar to a dying car.

Larz was her little quirky animal she didn't get to have as a little child. As a kid, she wanted an menagerie of strange animals and the answer was always, "the dog would eat it." So she could only just fantasize about the Banana Python, just dream about cuddling the Chinchilla, day dream about the Coatimundi, and pine over the Macaw. Kali loved the slightly off normal animals and planned to own at least one of everything before she died. Larz just happened to fall across her lap and she decided spontaneously to get him. He had been named before she got him, but the iguana looked like a Larz to her so it stayed. She stroked the side of his head fondly for a moment, but she could tell L.C. wasn't particularly fawning over him. "He's never bitten anyone. That I know of at least. I'm sure to keep him well fed. He absolutely loved those cicadas." She stood and returned him to his tank with a few more strokes along his neck and then returned to her seat.

"What sorta job would you be wanting to have here?" She asked with a faint tilt of her head. Tradition would have that the cooks would all be males and the waitressy/cashier types would be females. But Kali knew a lot more men that could not cook than women, and cute boys got just as many tips as cute girls. Kali hadn't exactly had her heart set on the positions she would like to hire for, but hearing what L.C. had in mind would help her decision.

[L.C. Milliner]

Badass? Really? L.C. sat up in her seat and blinked, smiling under Kali’s (Khalua sounded so weird and Hawaiian-ish. Now L.C. knew that when she thought there wasn’t a name worse than hers, she was wrong.) sudden interest in her. Most people heard spikes and automatically thought about getting impaled. Of course, that could have something to do with her introducing herself as an Iron Maiden, but hey, cut her some slack. Right now she was just happy her possible employer wasn’t full of anti-meta sentiment. Her mime thing was actually pretty cool. L.C. nodded and appreciated it for her short demonstration, wondering if she could make ladders or something similar. More study was required.

Alex did mention the café to her during their conversation. L.C. had honestly forgotten about it, but it was coming back to her. “He seemed pretty psyched to work here when I talked to him.” It wasn’t a lie either- if he had hated the place he wouldn’t have told her about the job, right? Even if she didn’t make it, she could at least put in a good word for her friend (Maybe?) and maybe help him out a bit.

Unlike Kali, L.C. was never one for pets as a child. She didn’t want a dog or a cat or a ferret or a rat. She had all the animals one could ask for anyway- horses, tigers, lions and a camel were all part of the carnival entourage. There was even an elephant for a year or two. Whenever she felt the urge to have a pet she’d wander over to the animal trailers and help out with the horses, cleaning their stalls or walking them around. The camel was mean enough to keep her from wanting any ‘exotic’ animals. She had never encountered a lizard though, so her distance from Larz was merely a precaution taken a bit overboard. “I’m not good with animals.” She said, trying to generalize so she wouldn’t offend her. It was kind of true- the tigers never liked her much, after all.

“Uhm.” L.C. blinked, realizing that Kali really was considering her as an employee. She glanced over to the cashier, noting the bar extending down the wall and the coffee machines behind it. “Er. I make good coffee.” She said, pointing to the machines. “I mean, I’m no Starbucks wizard, but I can tell the difference between good coffee and some sludge made from the last grounds. And I can cook a little.” She could do stovetop cooking well enough, it was baking that she couldn’t stand. “But wherever you’re short-handed, I can work.” She could even work behind the bar in a couple years, if she was around that long.