Johanna sat in her restaurant booth, trying to hold back the tears. The last few weeks had been like something from her worst nightmares.
First, her father, Nigel Thornton Jr., had cut off her credit card stating that she was costing him too much money. She'd begged and pleaded to no avail, leaving her budget curtailed to nil.
The second and worst thing, however, was her accident. During a football game, she and the rest of the cheer squad were doing their routine at halftime. Johanna had been flipped in the air, and landed terribly on her leg. Left in indescribable pain, her doctor had confirmed that she'd torn her Achilles tendon, and would likely never cheer again.
The aftermath was terrible. She'd been dropped from the cheer squad almost without a thought. Her so-called friends made token visits initially, but promptly stopped coming by after about a week. Her father couldn't even be bothered to visit her in the hospital, and her mother's only concern was that she was cut from cheer. She'd been left on her back for almost three weeks, staring at a ceiling, and almost no one came to visit her.
And so, here she sat, having spent $20 of her last forty on this meal, saving her last twenty for gas. Frankly, Johanna had no clue what she was going to do.
"And at least I can't complain about the portion sizes here, even if the food is pretty greasy," she thought, trying to look for a silver lining in all this. After eating nothing but hospital food for the last few weeks, this meal was frankly divine. Having already downed two plates, she was slogging through her third, firmly if unknowingly entrenched in stress eating.
"Johanna?"
Johanna looked up from her meal to stare into a familiar face with cocoa brown skin and wavy, black hair. Given the two traveled in rather different social circles, it took her a moment to place the girl's name.
"Jasmine?" The busty teen was pretty famous in their school for her athletic prowess, and Johanna couldn't help but be a little shocked to see her here in a waitress uniform.
Jasmine smiled. "I thought so. I haven't seen you since the accident. How have you been doing?"
Johanna tried to maintain her standard haughty air, but her fake smile broke down almost immediately. As her eyes welled up and her lip began to quiver, Jasmine's smile disappeared and she wrapped the young blonde in a hug. At her urging, the two girls made their way to the office in the back, and Johanna tearfully told Jasmine what had transpired in the time since that fateful day.
"... and the literal only good thing to happen to me is finding this place in walking distance. I didn't even know you could buy a meal this large so cheaply."
Jasmine smiled a little at the naivete of the rich girl. "Well, it is the Great Buffet, after all."
Silence.
"... you... do know what a buffet is, don't you?"
Johanna let out a sniff. "No."
After a brief aside in which the embarrassed Johanna was glad the two were alone in the office, she learned something new about the world of people not born to millions.
"So, I like, gotta ask; what's with the outfit?"
Jasmine looked down, a little confused at the question. "Well, I work here. Mom's been pulling down two jobs since Dad died, and I'm doing this to help out. Gives her some time off to attend night classes so she can get something better."
Johanna couldn't help but feel so out of place right now. Here was a world she could never have guessed even existed, and someone who could have been a member of the school elite with her and her friends had she wanted it, was living such a hard-scrabble life and seemed reasonably happy.
Johanna became aware of Jasmine frowning while looking at her. "Um, what?"
"Tell me, are you totally opposed to manual labor, or are you willing to work for a living?"
"Wait, what?"
"Listen, we've been short staffed for the last two weeks, and pulling doubles with soccer practice is killing me. If you want the job, I've got some pull with my Super and he could totally get you hired today. It'll get you some spending money for gas and clothes, and at least you won't be stuck in the house all the time. Now, it-"
Johanna didn't give her time to finish, pulling the shocked girl in for a big hug. "You'd do that for me!? Thank you, thank you so much!"
"Okay, okay, calm down, girl! Easy!" Jasmine pried herself loose from the surprisingly strong teen. "Let me finish. Like I was saying, the job doesn't pay as well as you think it does, but it does pay, and you get free food, which is definitely a perk. Some parts of it can be a little gross the first time you do it, but you get used to it. So, do you still want the job?"
"Yes, yes, yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
Johanna gave the first honest smile she'd had in almost a month. Things were finally looking up.
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