Barbara sat down onto the easy chair with a whoosh of breath. "Oh, my feet!" she moaned. "Do they always hurt this much?"
Nita grinned wickedly at her from her spot on the floor, dark brown eyes flashing with mischief. "No, this was a Tuesday. You just wait 'til Saturday, new meat. You're going to be asking people to saw your legs off by the time the night's over."
Barbara flinched a little inside at the phrase 'new meat', but she had to admit, she felt like a steak thrown into a gator pit after her first night as a waitress. Getting a job to help out with college expenses had seemed like a good idea, and thinking about the stack of tip money in her jacket pocket, it still did. But she'd never dreamed it would be this exhausting. It always looked so easy when she was the one sitting at the table...
Still, the other girls had been very welcoming. She'd expected a ton of harassment, and to some extent, she'd gotten it. Nita wouldn't stop calling her 'new meat', and Alexis had made her feel even slower and more fumble-fingered than she was by taking half her section without missing a beat on her own tables. But Barbara had tried her best, listened carefully, and by the end of the night, the other waitresses had invited her back to the apartment that Kirsty and Donna shared for some drinks. Barbara had agreed readily, eager to get along with her new co-workers.
Kirsty walked in with a tray of shot glasses. She'd ditched her uniform in favor of the T-shirt she wore under it, and her short blonde hair was slightly messy from where she'd pulled it over her head. Still, though, Barbara thought, a hairstyle like that never gets too disorderly. Not like her own long blonde hair, which probably looked like birds were nesting in it by now. "Figures," Kirsty said sunnily as she brought the tray over to the group. "Five waitresses in one room, and who winds up getting the drinks?"
"It's a mark of respect," Donna said, emerging from her bedroom in a t-shirt and a pair of cut-off jeans, dragging a comb through her auburn hair. "We wouldn't make you do it if you weren't the best waitress in the room."
Alexis raised an eyebrow at that as Kirsty finished passing the drinks and took a seat on the couch. So did Barbara. She was already more than a little in awe of Alexis. The woman was only in her mid-thirties, but she'd probably been waitressing since she was Barbara's age, and it showed. She had the memory of an elephant and the speed of a cheetah, and seemed to be able to carry virtually unlimited numbers of trays without even chipping a nail.
But Alexis didn't say anything. Barbara suspected she didn't need to. From the way the other girls deferred to Alexis, both at work and here, it was pretty clear who the 'alpha female' was in this group.
Nita raised her glass. "To the new kid," she said. "May her blisters heal quick, and her tables tip well!" They all downed their shots, Barbara coughing just a little as she downed hers. "By the way, you know you're supposed to share your tips with the other waitresses, right?"
Everyone had a good laugh at that, even if Barbara joined in a second after everyone else. "So apart from a little alky-hol," she said, "what do you guys do for fun after the end of a shift?" She probably shouldn't ask; her first class wasn't until 11 AM, but they hadn't managed to get out of the restaurant until almost one o'clock. Still, one late night could be forgiven. She was a college student, after all. She was supposed to show up to class hung over once in a while, right?
"Well, there's always pot," Donna said matter-of-factly. Barbara tried to pretend like she, too, did illegal drugs as a matter of course. She suspected from the amused expression on Kirsty's face that she wasn't doing too well.
"Not tonight there's not," Nita said. "You guys cashed my stash on Sunday, and I worked a double yesterday and a double today. I've had time to get exactly dick."
"Late night movie?" Kirsty asked.
Donna shrugged. "Never the same without weed."
They looked at each other for a long moment. "We could play the Game," Alexis said, leaning back in her chair as she faced the others.
Donna moaned as her shoulders sagged in mock-exasperation. "Oh, not again, Lex! You always want to play the Game!"
Alexis smiled. "That's because I always win."
The other girls all looked at each other with varying degrees of trepidation. Barbara watched in confusion, noticing the slight nervousness on Donna's face, the glowing anticipation on Kirsty's pixie-ish features, and the way that Nita seemed to be steeling herself for a fight of some sort. But none of them protested further, and none of them seemed to be willing to explain what was going on. Finally, Barbara just decided to ask. "What's the Game?" she said.
"Well, that settles it," Alexis said. "We have to play the Game now, if only to show the new girl what it's like."
Donna sighed, but she went and sat down on the couch next to Kirsty. "Alright," she said. "But I'm not going first. I went first last time. Make Barbara go first. She's the new kid on the block."
"Oh, that wouldn't be fair," Alexis said. "Not if she doesn't know how to play." Alexis had a sort of grin of smug anticipation on her features, like she knew something they didn't know. Which in Barbara's case was absolutely true, but Alexis looked like she was putting something over on the whole group.
"I'll go first," Nita said. "I'm itching for a rematch. I would have gotten you last time, if I wasn't stoned off my ass."
"I don't understand," Barbara said. "Would one of you explain what the Game is?"
"It's a sort of staring contest," Kirsty said. "It's a lot of fun."
Donna looked over at her. "What's fun for you? You're terrible at it!"
