Quote:
Nyyrikki Synkka:

As I promised, here’s your work schedule. Your first day of training is this Websday. You’ll be training with Yerrin. Please do not be late. I’ve also attached my contact information, including my personal phone number, in case you need to get in touch with me.

Welcome to the team,
Mr. Vines


Rikki stared at the email on his eyephone from the comfort of his bed and had to delve deep into his sluggish memory to remember that today was, in fact, Websday. He peered at the date on the email with a small frown and wondered why the jack an email from two days ago hadn’t arrived until this morning at an unjackly 11:34am. Not cool.

The attached schedule and contact info was there as promised, and Rikki took a moment to add the information to his phone before finally rolling out of bed. The schedule said he started at 1:00 this afternoon, so he figured he had about an hour to get read and get his a** out of his dorm to make it on time. An hour was a short amount of time for a reaper with the energy level of Bartholomew in the morning. He rolled in and out of the shower and spent far less time on his hair than he would have liked, and then spent a good ten minutes deciding how he was going to deflect Danny for the day without tipping her off that he was doing something nice for her.

He decided on a quick text.

Quote:
last minute swim practice 2day well hang out later 2nite tho. if you see roch tell him I said hi.
love u screech


Swim practice would keep Danny away for the sheer amount of water that was involved. At least, he hoped so. If not, he’d at least planted the idea of her hanging out with Roch. Never let it be said that Rikki was not a master of deflecting his ghouldfriend. It should be an Olympic sport.

He slipped out of his dorm with a few last loving words to his minis and made it to Forever 666 with two minutes to spare. As he strode into the store and up to the counter, the petite little ghost there gave him a disinterested look and almost appeared as if she was going to turn away. He was almost positive this was who he was supposed to train with. Rikki caught her with his voice just before she dismissed him from her thoughts.

“Yerrin, right? Uh, I’m supposed to train today?”

Surprise lit her pale features and she floated closer. “You’re Rikki? I thought you’d be a ghoul.”

“I uh..?”

She gave him an appraising once over that was nothing like the welcoming glances he was sort of accustomed to. “Are you gay?”

He sputtered, glancing around the store to see who was near enough to possibly hear her question. A middle-aged mummy raised a delicate brow but didn’t comment. “I have a ghoulfriend!” He declared a little too loudly, eager to make sure no one misunderstood.

She looked unconvinced, but gestured him around the counter. “You should lose the hoodie when you work. It’ll look better.” He did as she said, slipping out of his hoodie and stuffing it out of the way behind the counter. She gave a seemingly approving (if not a little knowing) look at his v-neck and then pinned a little gold tag to his shirt that simply said “Rikki”. “Mr. Vines doesn’t want you on the register yet, so you can fold clothes and straighten up the store. It’s pretty self explanatory.” She launched into a long explanation anyways that left his head reeling, and then shooed him off to perform his duties.

All in all it wasn’t too difficult. His folding was a little slopping, and more than once he made a messy pile of clothes even worse instead of fixing it as he was supposed to, and was forced to redo the entire stack, but the tasks were nothing he couldn’t handle. What was worse were the ghouls from his classes that came in and noticed him. Working in a ghoul’s clothing store was not the most dignified job for a boil like him, and he was undoubtedly out of place. It wasn’t so bad when they would come talk to him, but more than once he caught a pair of group of ghouls in a corner pointing and giggling, and he could practically feel the blush crawl up his neck and burn his ears. What was so funny about a guy with a job? He was a mature adult grim reaper making money! They should wish they had a boilfriend this jacking mature.

He nearly ran headlong into Mr. Vines’s massive form towards the end of his shift and walked shamefaced to the back of the store as he was beckoned.

Once again he was folded into a tiny chair peering over a little desk at a man in a lacy skirt. He stared at his employer’s broad chest rather than his face, hoping against all hope he hadn’t done something wrong.

“So I spoke with Yerrin today.”

Rikki gulped. “Uh?”

“She said you’re doing really well. She’ll train you on the cash register tomorrow and by next week you should be done with your training, I think.”

Oh! That was good news! He grinned at Mr. Vines and agreed quickly, and then he was being herded out the door and on his way home with promises of paychecks and training.

Functioning adult, Nyyrikki Synkka.