The next day, Mel was informed that she was designated to guard the bathrooms of the 2nd floor. She was instructed to allow one student inside the bathroom one at a time since there had been incidents where teenagers had sneaked into the bathroom to engage in naughty activities.

Cindy had stated that there were students who had gone in the bathroom to experiment on their own accord, lesbians and bisexuals being some of them.

When Melanie had gotten upstairs to the second floor, the only experiment she had witnessed were two girls flinging pink shaving cream at each other. There was also a boy with long raven hair carrying a paper plate full of the pink shaving cream which was part of a science experiment gone awry.

Some of the pink shaving cream got dropped on the floor while the two grils were running around flinging the pink product. Fortunately, there was a woman that turned on the power hose to clean the floor by the name of Amanda. She was a thick, curly haired brunette with sunglasses who were a long-sleeved baby blue shirt, dark leggings and converse shoes. She had hauled the powerhose and used it to wash away the mess the four students left; the two girls, the raven-haired boy, and a dark chubby girl with a bun whi smeared pink cream on the boy's face.

The two girls ran down the stairs, the boy crossed to the bathroom to wash his face, and the dark chubby girl ran back to the classroom.

As the woman cleared the small trail of pink suds, she went back to return the power hose from where she found it, then another girl came upstairs, looking for Mel.

“They're looking for you downstairs.” The girl mention to which the new security descended from the stairs to find Jayla waiting for her.

“Did I do something wrong?” Mel asked confused.

“No, you're getting transferred.” Jayla stated.

“I wasn't informed about a transfer.” Mel replied while they both walked towards the parking lot where a car was waiting for her outside near the stand. The car belonged to a lieutenant surnamed Gonzalez.

Mel went to pick up her things, she grabbed her backpack which contained her lunch and Cindy asked for Mel's number and gave it to her while she typed the number and stored it among her contacts.

Mel got into the backseat of the car and the lieutant drove off. “Does my supervisor know about this?” Gonzalez nodded im response before he picked up the phone to call one of his friends and what we was doing.

Judging by the direction they were going Mel recognized that the route was similar to the one she took on the bus to reach the capital of St. John. They passed the city that was approximately 25 miles long, took a U turn at a construction site that was near a large church, a right turn that led to a colorful suburb, a left turn at a residence, then a left turn from a police station, weht straight ahead at the next 18 miles then made a right turn to reach a school called the Peruvian Republic. The school of Monserrat Peruvian Republic before the car entered the gates and parked the car for the new guard to be dropped off.

Once she stepped in to sign her attendance the lieutenant drove off as quickly as he came. Mel had left her backpack at a decorative bench, facing the security that sat on a desk.

“You're the new guard?” She asked.

“Yes, I just got transferred here on my second day on the job.” Mel admitted, to which the dark-skinned security guard gave this pitiful glance at the newbie. Mel looked like a deflated humanoid marshmellow with her pale complexion and beady eyes.

She didn't mind the change of ambience but wasn't fond of not knowing what to do. She was like a confused angelfish floundering aimlessly not knowing which place to go. Mel walked around the school to see where she was supposed to be guarding. It was evident that the school was teeming with activity with lined tables offering services and orientation related to health and awareness.
Each table had its own logo related to food, charity, blood donations, other institutions offered its own niche. There also seemed to be a fire truck as well, and a food truck stationed as the students bustled partaking in the event.

The school's infrastructure was different than the one where Mel graduated. At the center of the school, there was a wide open space for students to play basketball and run around the school was of two stories, neatly lined though the majority of the classrooms were on the second floor. The bathrooms were on the ground floor, more spacious and had more stalls compared to Colombian Republic.

She had sat down on the bench to eat her lunch, there was plain white rice, chicken breasts and ketchup. At least some of the students where polite and muttered their bon appetites when they had spotted her eating.

It was nearly 11:30 when she was done with her lunch break. A teacher came forward and advised her to watch the students. For several minutes Mel went to and fro to keep an eye on hundreds of students until she went to the bathroom to pee. Once inside the stall, the door was nearly 2 inches from her face and with little space to move around. Colombian Republic may have limited bathrooms but it had more room to breathe.

She closed the door and lowered her trousers and urinated while standing, there around 2 or 3 girls talking. One of them looked at the mirror to brush her hair while another one reached to open the door where Mel was occupying and with a small push, the door swung open and they caught the new security guard with her pants down.

The lock was either broken or invisible.

The girl closed the door while her peers sniggered, Mel wore a cammo fannypack wherever she went out so the only thing they were able to see were her hairy sasquatch legs.

Mel wiped her lady parts, discarded the used toilet paper on the trash can and pulled up her pants as she came out to wash her hands. Life had already stripped her of her dignity, there was nothing left for it to take.

She walked out of the bathroom and returned to the lobby before she was assigned to watch the front gate. Mel walked up to the front gate for a while before she was called to open the gate that was behind the school. Confused by the deceptive appearance of the gate locked by chains was easily loosened by a bespectacled woman, the same woman who called her to open the gate in order for the firetruck to leave.

The drivers of the firetruck took their sweet time to get on board, letting the vehicle exhale fossil fuel to contaminate the air that was slowly but gradually suffocating her. It took them over 10 minutes for them to drive out of the gate and leave before the guard and a man to close the gate. Mel's day was turning sour.

“Would like to eat a taco?” The teacher, the same lady who brought her to the back of the school, requested.

“No thanks.” Mel declined. She was still digesting her lunch and didn't want her day to become as rancid as the taco would become if it came into contact with her bowels.

Mel went back to the bench to check on her phone around 12:30 in the afternoon and a blonde woman, presumably the principal, had prompted in the most passive-aggressive manner to stop using the phone and lectured her to which Mel became inwardly irritated to the point that was nearly visible.

“Your job is to watch the gates by 12:30 to 1:30.” And to only open the gates to the teachers after they return from their lunch break and to keep the gates closed.

Once the principal left, Mel deliberately fished out her phone from her fanny pack in an act of defiance to work on an art request for a deviant who had a fetish of having his favorite female characters to have their faces covered in fruit.

That request turned into a two-part comic page of a girl who became a hammer wielding Jack-o-lantern chasing her love interest who had superspeed and ran away to avoid her hammer.

She took breaks from coloring the request to keep an eye on the gates. Mel only opened the gates for the 4 teachers who drove into the parking lot after they returned frome their lunch break during the whole hour she remained standing with no chair in sight, drinking in small intervals to stay hydrated.

The thirst for water increased and she went to the back of the school when it was finally 1:30pm. She refilled the bottle at the water fountain, the chunk of ice had the size of a potato and she shook the bottle of the water to adhere the cool temperature of the ice before she drank it. She sat at the vacant chairs for her aching feet to rest.

Mel had thought about how she was going to get home. She couldn't tell her mother, what was she going to say. Hey mom, I got transferred to another school and I'll return home by foot. Nope, knowing her mother, she would reprimand her about her job, that her life was stressful enough that she had to keep an eye out for the shady neighbors next door from robbing the house. That the van can't handle such a long trip, etc.

She walked to the desk where the guard, Myosoti, was working and explained the ordeal. Her first suggestion was calling the company, which Mel did. No response.

She also called her supervisor. Nothing, he only picked the phone by 12 in the afternoon.

The bastard.

Since she couldn't get a response from neither her supervisor nor Genesis, she texted her mom about going to River Stones after her shift to look around the store.

River Stones was only a 8-12 minutes away from Colombian Republic walking on foot and fortunately for her, River Stones had a train station. Mel looked at Oogle Map and checked for the nearest train station.

There was a train station at Sacred Heart, she could use the map to walk all the way to the train station on foot which was nearly a half-hour walk, take the train, pass the Hato Rey Segment which consisted of Sacred Heart itself, Hato Rey, Roosevelt, Domenech and Pineiro, all the way to the River Stones Segment which consisted of only University and River Stones.

Her shift ended by 3pm, since the students left the school an hour earlier and Mel had plenty of time to change her uniform to don a tye-dyed floral patterned dress that was inside her backpack. So she texted her mother a white lie.

Friday, October 13, 2023

Hey ma, when I end
my shift I'll be perusing
around the stores and
then return home on
foot. Ok?
1:43pm

With the uniform?
2:15 pm

No mom, is with the
dress I have in the bag.
2:15 pm

I have to go shopping
anyway to find milk and
other things.
Ok, do what you have to
do.
2:16 pm

Ok.
2:16 pm

Have your space.
2:16 pm

———

Mel picked up the backpack from the bench and entered the restroom to get changed and entered the stall that had a lock this time. She began unclapsing the fanny pack first, unbottoned the gray uniform all the way down, and removed the white bra and held it between her knees to pull out a long dress from the bag that was in the backpack.

The tye-dyed, tricolored dress had its own cups sewed in, a braided lace on both sides that can be tied around the nape and a white floral pattern design that cascaded down to her ankles. In other words, she looked like something a pansexual would wear on the beach.

Mel proceeded to take off her dark trousers and shoved her uniform inside the backpack, then picked up her cammo fanny pack from the linoleum tiled floor and looked at her reflection.

Her hair had a rebellious streak with thin tufts of her jutting out, thankfully she put on a blue cap to replace the black cap that had the company's logo on it.

Myosoti allowed Melanie to punch on the payroll, with the hour in which she was brought to the school and the hour of her departure.

From 10:30am - 3:00pm

She sat on the stairs, waiting for her shift to end, and killed the little time left adding the finishing touches on that art request.

Once the clock struck at 3 she walked out of the gates as another female security guard began her shift. Myosoti had suggested for Mel to wait for the bus to which she declined.

She had enough of the school, the waiting and the stalling altogether so she used the Oogle map to start walking and had making sure she was taking the right direction.

It took Mel around sixteen minutes to exceed her walking speed when her thighs were scraping against each other and had to partially spread her legs upon trekking with the sunlight hitting her peripheral vision and had to check on the through intervals for nearly a half hour until she arrived to the train station.

One swipe of the card to slide through the three elongated cylinders to step on the ascending electric stairs and paced to reach the train that was on standby and plopped herself on the seat from the long walk.

Oh thank God I made it in time.

It took 3 minutes for the train to take off.

Mel looked at her phone, 4:03 pm.

———

I'm at the shop.
3:40 pm

What?
3:41 pm

Nothing ma.
3:42 pm

Where'd you go, to
river stone?
3:54 pm

Yes.
3:56 pm

Want me to pick you
up or not?
4:03 pm

Yes.
4:03 pm

Coming
4:04 pm

———

Mel made it to River Stones two minutes later and once she was back on the surface, she bolted out of the train station to meet up with her mom and drinked the bottle of water on along the way there because walking on foot from Monserrat to the train station, and sprinting to the train station of River Stones to the streets of Joseph Diego was no easy feat.

She drained the bottle at this point and walking another mile made her lethargic. Moving forward for another four minutes until she reached a shoe store and entered to bask in the air conditioner while she looked for black sneakers. Mel was violating the dress code for wearing brown boots.

Her coworkers had pointed out that she could wear another uniform that was more comfortable which was a dark grey shirt that the company purveyed and that she could wear any black pants or leggings instead of the constricting trousers that the receptionist from Genesis gave.

Mel entered Humbert Vidal, a shoe store, to check if there were any black shoes of her size by lifting one of her boots off the floor and comparing the size of the soles to the footwear she had on to the black boots that she picked.
They were too small.

She picked a pair of sneakers and compared them to find of they were her size. None of the black boots or sneakers she picked fit, so she left Humbert Vidal to check if there were any at Gloria instead.

She looked around and did the same thing, none of the dark shoes at Gloria were of her size either. Immediately, she walked out of the store empty handed and went to check on her phone for any new messages.

Nothing.

Mel pressed an icon to send a voice message. “I'm at Gloria.” She waited for two and a half minutes until she saw her mom's minivan nearing the edge of the sidewalk when Melanie rushed in to open the side door and closed it. She dumped the backpack on the seat next to her and her mother began rambling about the latest gossip about one of the neighbors.

“Mom, I need to get some black boots for my uniform.” Mel prompted while her mother drove on their way home.