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By the time I find Doris again, a few more staff members have arrived, and all the lights in the kitchen are on. According to Doris, as she takes me on a tour around the facility, there’s a staff meeting on Sunday morning, which is why they’re non-negotiable, and the staff is briefed on the menus for the week.
Not that I need to worry about cooking anything.
Doris has already told me that isn’t one of my responsibilities. If I have a morning shift, I just have to prep whatever food—mainly vegetables—the chefs require, and then I will be stationed in the dining hall. If it’s an evening shift, instead of prepping any food, I have to wash dishes.
I’ve had zero experience working in a kitchen, but thankfully, one of the chefs gives me a quick lesson, and prepping the vegetables is mainly washing them, and then depending on how they’re cooked, I either hand them over to a sous chef who has insane knife skills, or I chop them into chunks for a soup or sauce.
I’m mostly left alone until the dining hall opens for breakfast, at which point Doris comes to collect me and stations me beside a woman called Lan Fen to show me the ropes. Although it’s a buffet style set up for breakfast and lunch, someone needs to make sure each tray, dish, and bowl never drops below twenty-five percent full. Then we grab the food and restock.
While it’s not rocket science, when the dining hall starts to get full, I do find myself rushing around as certain items seem to empty together. The trays of scrambled eggs disappear almost at the same time as the croissants.
“I can’t believe I’m waiting for bagels,” a girl behind me mutters, although I’m fairly certain she’s not trying to be discreet in complaining to her friend. “It’s bad enough I have to wait for them to be toasted, but to run out?”
Placing the last bagel in the bowl, I carefully slide the empty tray below the table, hiding it beneath the table skirt as Lan Fen showed me, and then turn to the girl with a smile. “I’m sorry about that. Was it a toasted bagel you wanted? Seeded or plain?”
The girl sneers. “Don’t you listen either? Cinnamon raisin.”
For breakfast, the expectation is that students serve themselves, but this girl is just glaring at me as though it’s my job. I glance over at Lan Fen, but I’ve seen enough times this morning alone where she just serves everyone like it’s her job.
It’s my first day, and I don’t want to cause any drama. Besides, it’s not like toasting a bagel is the same as cooking the evening meals. The dining hall has a tool to cut bagels evenly, and then you put the bread into the toaster. I’d never seen a toaster like this one before. It’s more like a mini conveyer belt instead of something that pops up when it’s done, but it does mean, when there’s several people waiting to toast something, there’s a much shorter wait.
The bagel comes out on the other side, so I take the tongs and place the two slices onto a plate, then onto a tray, before sliding it towards the girl.
“Enjoy,” I say with as much brightness as I can muster.
The dining hall serves butter with the toasted selection, but instead of individually wrapped portions, the butter is cut directly from a block and served on a small plate. I’d noticed they needed a new block as I waited for the bagel to toast and as I’m about to head into the kitchen to grab it for them, the girl grabs my shirt and drags me backward, turning me roughly to face her.
“What the fuck is this?” she asks loud enough to carry over the immediate crowd, and instantly draws people’s attention.
I glance down at the tray in her hands. “A toasted cinnamon raisin bagel.”
“Why would you serve me this?” she practically shrieks. “I’m allergic. Are you trying to kill me?!”
“That’s what you asked for.”
“Ms. Tori, what’s going on here?” Doris appears out of nowhere like she has superpowers.
“I asked for a poppyseed bagel, and she gave me this.” The girl thrusts the tray towards Doris.
“It’s true,” her friend says. “Pepper-Rose clearly said poppyseedandto make sure it wasn’t touching the cinnamon bagels because she was allergic.”
My lips part and my eyebrows draw down. Although my hands are clenched in fists by my side, I hold off on saying anything.Pepper-Roseabsolutely did not say anything remotely similar to that. I have no idea why her or her friend would bother lying about it.
“Well?” Doris asks, her attention on me.
Giving the growing crowd a quick scan, I know no one else is going to speak up for me either, so I suck in a deep breath and lower my head. “I’m sorry. I must have been mistaken. Let me make you a fresh one.”
With everyone watching me, Pepper-Rose gets a smug smile on her face as I get a fresh poppyseed bagel, use a different cutter, and then toast another bagel. When Pepper-Rose and her friend walk away, Doris waves Lan Fen over and then leads me into the back.
“If you’re wanting a job here, that means you’re not one of them,” she tells me. “This is their world and things work differently in it. Most of these students already have more money sitting in their bank accounts than an average family earns in a year. They’re always right, regardless of the situation. And in my position, I’m always going to have to side with them.”
She allows me to return to my tasks without anything more to add. No matter what, I need to get to the truth behind my brother’s conviction, and right now, that means I need this job.
I’m in the process of refreshing the sliced salmon when a familiar voice stops me.
“How’s it going?” Today, Penny’s hair is in a high ponytail with an enormous pink bow. She’s rocking the uniform like she’s in a Japanese anime.
“I am sure there are worse jobs out there.”
