Disclaimer: Ditto...

Chapter 8

The next day, Hitomi showed up early to the grocery store. She wanted to make sure that she still had a job there - to put it bluntly. After profusely apologizing to the manager who allowed her one more chance, she waited near the time clock. She was seven minutes too early to clock in.

"Hey there," greeted Dryden, another bagger, being a little too friendly, with a disturbing wink.

"Hi," she replied shortly.

"So, uh..., when's your first break?" He raised his eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

"I dunno..." She did know. He creeped her out.

"I was just wondering if you, uh, maybe wanted to meet me somewhere. Say, perhaps, the refrigerator?"

He was mocking her? Was this some disgusting bagger's idea of a joke? Her face grew cold as she took a step back. Suddenly, her pocket began to vibrate. She took the cell phone out of her pocket. "Yes?" she asked, ignoring Dryden as he was instructed by a manager to start bagging again.

"Why didn't you answer my voice mails all morning?" It was Allen. He sounded concerned.

"I was working."

"But, you've been off work for almost two hours now. I thought that -"

"I'm fine. I have two jobs, you know. I'll call after work, but I have to clock in now. I'm going to turn the phone off. Bye."

"Wait!"

"Yes?"

"Be careful, okay?" There was more he wanted to say, but that's all she would listen to.

"I will." With that, she turned the phone off, put it in her pocket, and swiped in.

As she got her till, the office worker reminded her that tomorrow was "meat sale" with an annoying glimmer in her eye. Yes, the dreaded meat sale days (two, exactly) were tomorrow and the next day. In these less than blissful days, lots of meat - chicken, fish, beef, pork, including the gross pork loins, were on super super sale. The grocery store would be a mad house with people pushing others and grabbing meat. It was horrible. Hitomi had only heard rumors, but she was certainly not looking foward to it. To make matters worse, meat sales were themed - meaning, all workers were to wear luau clothing (whatever that was). Marlene, a veteran cashier who had weathered more than her fair share of luau days, had promised Hitomi that she'd bring an extra lei and straw hat for her when she mentioned that she didn't own luau clothing.

With a not so good start to her work day, thanks to that creepy Dryden, she counted her till and opened her lane. It was freaky: the baggers were being eerily nice to her - all of them, well, mostly. She always had a bagger, and occasionally when her bagger had to make an exchange in the back, she'd get another. Yes, it was alarming.

Finally, her first break came along. As she made her way to the break room, she noticed it was simply pouring outside. She was thankful that she wasn't a bagger on carts. In the break room, she was alone - thank goodness - so she turned on the news. But, to her dismay, she was not left alone for long.

Only a minute later, Dryden entered, a grin on his face. "Hey, sweetness. Who'd have thought that we'd have break at the same time?" He sat down next to her - right next to her, turning the TV off. "Lucky for you."

"Hm." She eyed him and scooted away. He was way too close for comfort.

Dryden, of course, only scooted closer. "Now don't be like that."

To Hitomi's relief, she heard the door open behind her. She stood to get away from the overly friendly bagger and saw Van. He raised an eyebrow, noticing the awkward postion the cashier seemed to be in. She wasn't sure whether to be relieved or not.

"Hey Van," Dryden greeted the newcomer. He stood and put his arm around the girl's shoulders. "You wanna join us in a trip to the 'fridge? I'm sure Hitomi here wouldn't mind one more, isn't that right?"

She looked confused and shrugged off his arm. "Wh-what are you talking about?!" She stepped away from him.

Van smirked. "No thanks. I think she'd be more trouble than she's worth."

The other bagger shrugged. "Have it your way. Hitomi and I had best get going, though. Don't want to get back too late, now do we?" He looked at the cashier.

She looked at Van. Why not kill two birds with one stone? "What does he think we did in the refrigerator?"

'Crap,' thought the bagger. "What do you mean 'we'? I wasn't there. You're the one always telling me to get lost, remember? Although," he smirked at the girl, "I heard that you gave those two guys you were with a good time. I may have to try my luck again someday."

Her eyes narrowed. In an almost hiss, she said, "Oh yeah, I'll show you a 'good time'," as she stormed up to him, grabbed his cap, and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her in one smooth motion.

Dryden looked at Van. "Man, you just lost me a good time!"

The gang leader stared at the other bagger. Without replying, he snatched Dryden's cap right off of his head and left the room.

The other bagger stood there for a moment before running after him yelling, "Hey! Give me my hat back!"

"See? I told you he wasn't wearing his hat today."

Dryden looked up as the manager that had been talking with Van walked toward him, a stern look on his face. The gang leader simply walked away with a smirk.

"Heh, look at you," laughed Dryden, an old smelly hat from the back room on his head.

"Shut your mouth," snarled Van as he pulled off the oversized yellow raincoat. He was soaked. It was not simply raining, it was pouring, and Van was doing his hour's worth of collecting carts. Carts in the rain were not fun. Especially when one had a few hours of work left. He watched as an older woman grumbled something under her breath as she passed him, pushing one of his soggy carts ahead of her. All he could make out was "wet" and "annoying kids".

"Too bad that hat of yours didn't help you any out there," sneered Dryden. That was, until Van handed him the dripping raincoat.

"You're turn," he replied with a smile as he made his way to the bathroom to try and dry off at least a little.

Hitomi noticed the scene and, if she hadn't have been in such a horrible mood, she would have laughed. That is, until her customer explained her intentions of using WIC on the already rung up items. With WIC, a government welfare program for infants and children, one had to have the items carefully checked to make sure they were acceptable and had to be rung up separately. This meant that poor Hitomi had to void (a slow, annoying process) all of the food and then check to see that that all of the items fit the descriptions. For example, only eight ounces or less of certain WIC approved cheese could be purchased. Then, they had to be under a certain amount of money each. The WIC cards had to be filled out individually, signed, dated, and rechecked. Also, the customer's WIC ID had to be checked. The process took forever, and the customers waiting had a tendency to get impatient. But, to make it worse, this customer, a young mother of three, asked to have a carton of Marlboro Ultra Light 100s. Hitomi hated selling cigarettes, especially to people who obviously didn't have the money for them. No one should smoke - it's gross, but come on - they use welfare when they could use the $30+ on food, not cigarettes. Can't people spend their cash on cereal and milk, not life-killing cigarettes? But, instead of speaking her mind, the cashier merely asked the bagger behind her to get the Marlboro Ultra Light 100s.

He came back with Marlboro Light 100s.

Hitomi said, "She asked for Ultra Lights," and sent the bagger back.

He came back - finally, and, just as Hitomi was going to ring up the cigarettes since she'd already checked the lady's drivers' license for her age, the electricity went out. Luckily, the registers were still working. She finished checking the lady out and turned to the next customer. The old man slowly pushed his cart forward and stopped in front of Hitomi.

"What happened to the lights?" he mumbled softly.

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure. They'll be back on soon."

"Well, why not? Don't you work here?"

Hitomi rolled her eyes, thankful for the darkness. "Yes, I do work here, but I am just a cashier."

"Oh, well, can't you find out? Someone has to know. I can't see, and I may hurt myself."

"Well, I'm sorry. We can have someone help you out to your car if that would help."

The old man made a funny noise before replying with, "No," and pushing his cart to the end of the lane. He grabbed the bags that had been packed and made his way to the front of the store.

Hitomi began to ring up the next customer. The lights came on, and as the person searched her purse for her credit card, Hitomi turned to start bagging. Her luck with baggers seemed to have diminished greatly post-break. She shrugged, and as she pulled the first bag off the stack she saw, to her great dismay, a bag from the last gentleman. In the dark, he must have missed it. She glanced toward the door. He was just putting his umbrella up to leave.

"I'll be right back, ma'am," she said to the customer as she grabbed the bag, turned off her light, and sprinted to the door. But, before she could make it far, she tripped over the cart the old man had left. She didn't fall, but she had stubbed her big toe on her right foot. She groaned and continued after the man. "Sir! Sir!" she called after the old man, but he didn't turn around. The sliding doors opened as she raced through them. It was pouring, and the old man was standing in the middle of the parking lot under his black umbrella. "Sir!" She took a deep breath and ran out into the rain. She was five feet from him. "Sir!"

He finally turned. "What?" He was surprised and annoyed.

"You left a bag, sir." She held it out. She felt the rain pelting her on the head. She wanted to run back to the store, but as she turned, the man spoke.

"Well, if you had gotten the lights back on, this wouldn't have been a problem. What kind of store are you people running back there? Well, I never..." He slowly turned, in his rickety way, and continued to his car.

Hitomi turned and sprinted back. She slid through a puddle. Unfortunately, her haste hadn't mattered. She was soaked through. Why did they have to wear white shirts under their smocks? Even so, the dripping smock was her savior, covering her thin, soaked white shirt. She may as well have not been wearing as shirt. Sighing, she returned to her lane. Fortunately, only the one lady remained - other customers had seen that her light was off and gone to another lane. Without turning her light on, she checked the lady out and then headed for the bathroom. Once there, she rung herself out. She used the paper towel to dry off her arms and face, but her clothes were still dripping. Her damp underwear stuck to her in a most unpleasing manner. Why her? She almost thought to herself, "Life can't get any worse," but she had learned better these past few days. Whenever she thought that, almost immediately, life got worse.

Finally, it was time for Hitomi to leave. She clocked out - a minute early at that. After taking a plastic bag and wrapping the cell phone up in it because she didn't want it to get ruined in the rain, she took a deep breath and headed for the doors. She had almost dried in the past five hours of work, but she had been cold the entire time. The only positive side was that she was going home where she could change into dry, warm clothes. She kept that as her focus as she headed out into the pouring rain and down the sidewalk. The strength of the rain was going to make this more of a forty minute trudge than a twenty minute brisk walk.

At the sound of a car horn, she jumped and looked up to see a rusty '86 Camry pull up next to her. The door quickly opened and there sat White Dragon still in his work attire.

"Hurry up and get in. I'm not supposed to park in the middle of the street, and I don't want any more run-ins with the cops," he yelled through the rain, "Unless of course you'd rather just walk. Your choice. So what'll it be, wench?" He smirked as he slammed the door shut, not wanting to get wet himself, and studied her through the window. She had ten seconds to decide before he took off.

She sighed. Her hair stuck to her face. She was cold. She wanted only to be done with this day. So, she trudged behind his car to the passenger's seat. Her shoes sloshed and her clothing dripped as she sat down next to him, slamming the door. "Thanks," she mumbled, not looking at him, but pulling her damp arms around her soaking body, trying to get warm. She wanted to cry as she buckled the loose seatbelt.

Dragon glanced at her as he started driving. He had a good snide comment waiting for her in case she had decided to accept his offer, but by the looks of it she would either punch him in the face ('That would make me crash, and I can't total another car.') or start bawling ('I couldn't stand to hear that noise the whole way back.'), so he wisely kept his mouth shut.

The two rode in silence the entire way back to Hitomi's apartment, only a five minute ride or so. As soon as they arrived, the gang leader parked and waited for his wet passenger to unbuckle and get out. He glanced up at the girl's home only to see a familiar blonde looking down at him through one of her windows, clearly shocked. Allen's eyes soon narrowed, and he glared down at the driver of the Camry. Dragon let out a low growl.

"Better hurry up," he said as Hitomi opened her door, eyes never leaving the blonde, "Lawyer-boy is waiting for you." 'That guy really ticks me off,' he thought to himself, 'thinking he's all high and mighty simply because his parents spoil him rotten.'

Hitomi glanced up at her window as she sloshed out of the car. Why now? She didn't want any more trouble - all she wanted was to get warm and dry and go to bed. Was that too much to ask? She groaned, slammed the door, and, without looking back, headed through the alley door of her apartment. After trudging up the stairs, she leaned against her door and sighed before opening it, needing to regain herself before seeing Lance. Slowly, she opened it; he was still standing by the window, keeping his eyes on the warehouse the Camry had pulled into. He seemed almost uncognicent of her entry. "Hi," she started meekly.

He wouldn't look at her. "You live here?" His eyes were downcast.

She didn't get defensive like one would think she may have and, really, had every reason to. She understood what he meant. "Yes, I do." She tried to sound cheerful for his conscience despite her utter tiredness. "It's really not that bad, you know."

He looked up at her, trying to put his pensive thoughts behind him. "Why didn't you call? Momaru was worried." 'I was worried," he thought to himself.

"Well, Momaru should know that I only just got off work. I was going to call when I got home." She stuck her hand into her pocket and pulled out the plastic bagged phone.

"I brought the recharger and some supper for you." He motioned to the table where there were two bags. "Oh, and Momaru wrote this for you." Allen handed Hitomi a tightly folded and taped note, letting his warm hand touch her frozen, damp fingers. At the touch, he grabbed her hands, "You're freezing. You need to warm up and get dry. I'm sorry; I didn't even think about your needs."

She pulled her hands away. "Allen, you've thought a lot about my needs and Momaru's needs. Thank you," she tried to sound as sincere as she felt. "But, I do need to figure this out myself."

"How?!" he nearly shouted, but he didn't stop there. "By going with a scumball gang leader?! By discarding your friends?! By working yourself to death?! By getting yourself thrown in jail again?! By living in this dump?! Do you really think you're working this out?!!" All the thoughts and pains in his head burst out. Hitomi was hurt. She pulled further away from Allen who was just starting to realize the impact and harsh reality of his words. "I'm sorry, Hitomi, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to say those things." He scurried around the table and grabbed Hitomi into a tight hug. At first, she squirmed to get out; she protested, but he squeezed harder and she was so tired. She gave up in melted into his hug. Tears formed in her eyes, but she couldn't let him see her cry.

"You should go." She pulled away from him as she loosened his grip. "I need to go to bed. I will call Momaru. Tell him, tell him that I love him." She opened the door for Allen who reluctantly headed out.

"Hitomi?"

"Yes?" There was only a crack in the door as she shut it.

"Be careful."

"I know, I know. Momaru's worried about me." She almost shut it, but his hand stopped her.

"No, I'm worried about you."

Having nothing to say, Hitomi shut the door.

"So lawyer-boy, you think you're so special just because you have rich parents that give you everything, do you? I think you need to be brought back to reality. Your attitude towards us 'peasants' is really annoying. You were just going to let me rot in prison for all you cared, even though I was only there because I saved your girl's life. Well, it's too bad for you they let me out as well because now I have to get you back. And I'm going to make sure to hit you at your weak spot, rich boy."

Dragon smirked as he pulled out his switchblade. This would be fun. Just a few cuts in her... or perhaps more. Before Allen had a chance to return, he quickly got to work. A low hiss filled the room, soon followed by a loud screech. His cruel smile widened. Finally, he stepped back to admire his handiwork.

"That's what you get for picking a fight with me, pretty boy."

to be continued...

A/N: Okay, so that chapter wasn't so great. Not bad, but just kinda there. And I apologize to any Dryden fans for turning him into a sick, psycho bagger! We just needed someone to fit that role and there aren't that many characters left... But what is Dragon up to now?? My goodness. And poor Hitomi. Ah well, at least I finally posted, ne? Anyway, I'm not really talkative right now so I'll leave it at that. Feel free to leave T4 and I some comments! ^_^