Chapter One.

"Tell me about a time where you went above and beyond the expectations of your current role for a customer."

Dear Gods. You knew this was coming. You've never been good at interviews. Much less group interviews. And now this manager with grey shaggy hair and a coffee cup is staring you down, waiting for you to answer. You quickly suck in an exasperated breath while taking one last glance at your fellow interviewees.

"Well, there was one time I had a customer that had none of their stuff backed up on their computer and she was crying. I started to get a little nervous because she was so upset, so I just asked her if it was okay for me to ask what was wrong." The man lifts his eyes from the steaming coffee for a moment, you take it as a silent urge to continue. "And she ended up telling me that her son had recently passed away in an accident and all of his photos were on that computer, that wouldn't turn on, and she was scared she had lost all of it. So I tried to get the computer to turn back on, but I couldn't. But I knew that I couldn't just give up on her without trying as much as I knew how." You paused to take in a quick breath before continuing. And you get nervous that you're rambling.

"Ah yes, Miss.." He looks down at the paper he's been taking notes one throughout the entire interview, "Belladonna. So how did you take this above and beyond? If a machine won't power on, there are very limited options."

At this point, you feel like you've actually died of embarrassment, and your soul is floating out and away from your body. Everyone in the circle is staring at you. One guy looks smug, knowing that you've choked so he's one step closer to getting hired.

"I took the hard drive out of the computer and I put it in the freezer in the break room refrigerator overnight."

The gentleman raises one eyebrow and sets down his mug, leaning in. You seemed to have gained his full attention. "Continue, please."

"Well, freezing the drive allows for additional time for the mechanical components to heat up when they begin spinning. Which allowed me to have the extra time to pull the data off of the failing hard drive and onto an external storage device. So I saved it. All the data."

"Interesting." He takes a few notes on his paper and meets your eyes once again. "And how did the situation resolve?"

"With the customer?"

"Yes. You seem to have resorted to rather unorthodox methods, some would say innovative perhaps."

"All the other repair technicians thought I was crazy for doing it. But there were no company rules against it. And I told the customer I was going to do as much as I knew how, and to the best of my ability. So I would do it all over again. Seeing the look on her face was worth all the effort I spent trying."

"Hmm. Very well." He picks up his pen and begins writing furiously in an empty box towards the bottom of the page with your name on top. "Thank you all for your time this afternoon. This concludes our interview. I wish you all the best of luck. But the next group of applicants is arriving so I must say farewell to you all. Glynda will reach out to you all in a few days time with our decisions."

You stand up and begin walking across the outdoor mall area where you met up for the interview and you see your roommate, Sun, quickly walking your way. You can tell from the speed of his walk and the swishing of his tail that he's nervous as well. He is interviewing later in the afternoon.

"Hey Blake, how'd it go?"

"I'm not really sure. I only got asked one question. And the manager guy, I think he said his name is Ozpin, he's very hard to read. Just sips on his coffee and writes things down on his interview packet the whole time. But the questions are pretty standard it seems. Most people got asked two or three questions, but he only asked me one." You shrug, not really sure how to take it. Could be that he liked what he heard in your answer, or that he didn't like it to the point where he didn't want to hear any more.

"Damn, well you've been a really good repair supervisor for like four years, so I'm sure you impressed him at least a little bit."

"We just need to impress him enough to make sure we can pay our rent." You try to help Sun shake off his anxiety by making him laugh.

"If that's not the Gods' honest truth. Well, I better get to it. Wish me luck!"

"Not that I need to. You've always known how to talk to anyone and everyone. But good luck anyways."

"Alright, I'll see you at home later tonight." As he brushes past you he reaches out and swats at one of your Faunus ears.

"Hey now, those are private property. No touching." You hear him laugh as he trots off towards the main building for his interview.

—

The next few days feel nerve wracking. You haven't heard anything but it's only been two days so far. Sun hasn't heard anything either, but said he felt he did well in the interview.

"At least we finally finished unpacking every single box. Only took us two and a half weeks."

You check to make sure the frame you just hung on the wall is straight and step back to admire it.

"Yeah, I know. I just wish we'd hear back from Scroll so that we can stop worrying."

"The anticipation is killing me too. You know what else is killing me?"

You cross your arms and look over at him, "What would that be?"

"Student loans."

"Why on Remnant did you even have to bring those awful things up?" You roll your eyes and let out a whiny and displeased sound. "It just reminds me of how I spent four years going to school for something that I didn't want to do forever."

"Oh come on. You never want to use that biology degree and make papa Belladonna proud?" He knows exactly where to hit you to make you bleed, metaphorically.

"Not really, no." You flop down onto one of the armchairs in the living room and look out into the sunroom through the sliding glass doors. "Anyways, we both know that you are the one that is obsessed with plants."

"I do love my plants." He looks at the various items in his miniature botanical garden in admiration.

"Must be one of those plant gays, because you definitely aren't a cooking gay. That's for sure." Before you can even begin laughing at your own joke you hear the pillow flying through the air.

"To be fair, it was only one time," the look on your face tells him to pick his next words carefully ".. maybe two that I was unsuccessful in the kitchen."

"Sun, you blew up my glass baking dish and it burnt a hole through my kitchen rug and the hardwood flooring. You're lucky it didn't take your eye out." By now you can't hold the laughter in. The lower half of your face is buried in your shirt sleeve to hide the volume of your laugh.

"Yeah, well you killed a Vacuoan cactus! I didn't even know those things could die."

"They sure do, if you forget to water it for five months. Boom, dead." Now Sun has joined you and is doubled over on the edge of the couch trying to catch his breath from laughing so hard.

The ringing of your scroll ceases the laughter as you glance at the screen. It's the Scroll store number. Your eyes meet in mild terror and maybe kind of excitement.

"Quick! Answer it!" He's wilding waving his arms as he sits up, wide eyed.

"Hello?" Your voice is shaky. Honestly, you may throw up a little.

"Hi, may I speak with Blake Belladonna, this is Glynda Goodwitch calling from Scroll."

"This is Blake."

"Oh, perfect. I was just calling because we have reviewed all the applications and interviews and we have decided that we would love to offer you a position here with us at Scroll as a repair technician."

She says a few other things, but your brain has stopped accepting information for the moment. All you can think about is finally being able to quit that absolute trash job you've managed to keep for the last four years. Freedom.

"We will be emailing you the orientation packet with all of your initial training information, as well as your hourly compensation amount and start date. Do you have any other questions for me, Miss Belladonna?"

"Other questions?" Do you? You have no idea. You're still shocked. You thought you bombed the interview. "No, I don't think so. Thank you again. I'll be looking forward to the email."

"Alright, we will be in touch soon, enjoy the rest of your evening."

"You as well." You hear her light hum in affirmation before the call disconnects.

You sit there in the chair with your hands folded in your lap for a minute, letting your mind wrap itself around what just happened. But something blonde and annoying is waving wildly in your face so you have to travel back down to reality.

"So? What did she say? You know I don't have supersonic hearing like you."

"I got it. I got the job. I start in two weeks. They're going to email me a packet of information about orientation and training."

"That's awesome! I'm so happy for you! At least one of us got it, so we can escape the shit show we currently work at. I mean I was hoping that both of us would-"

He gets cut off by his own scroll starting to ring. It's the same number. You can see the shake in his fingers as he swipes up to answer the call. You try not to invade his privacy in case the news isn't so great. But with your Faunus ears you can't always help but hear a little more than you would like sometimes. Thankfully, you hear Glynda start the same path of conversation with Sun as she used with you. From what you could make out, Sun got offered a repair technician role as well.

You want to give him a little space so you walk into the kitchen to make some tea. Peppermint of course, it's your favorite. Once you've heated the water and located the right bag of tea you plop it down into your mug and let it steep. The patter of footsteps on the hardwood flooring draw closer, letting you know that Sun is making his approach.

"Girl, we are free! No more selling cameras for me, and no more trashy repair conditions and people wondering why their 200 lien computer doesn't run as fast as an 800 lien one." He looks at the counter and sees your tea. "Peppermint, nice."

"You know it. Are you going to call your mom and dad to give them the good news. I'm sure they'd love to hear about it."

"I will. I'm still not used to having to talk to them separately. It's weird not having them together anymore. What about you? You gonna tell your parents? Or Adam?"

Your mood sinks slightly when you hear his name. Ugh, Adam. You've been dating for about a year. And he randomly decided he was going to join the Navy, so he left. Since then your feelings, if you could even call them that, have dwindled into apathy. Your calls sound like one sided conversations with a cardboard box. Or when he does speak, it's just to complain. It drives you insane. He's supposed to be coming home, and by home it will likely be somewhere in Vale. You didn't want to even think about it. You weren't really sure how you could be so tired of something or someone that was never even around.

"Yeah probably not. I'll send my mom a message and she will tell my dad. Then he will either brush it off, or message me about my wasted potential and poor career choices. And Adam, well.. I prefer to pretend that that's not around these days. Like the dust you brush under the rug when you're done sweeping."

"Well, eventually you're gonna have to lift up the rug. And your dad isn't that bad. He's just a hardcore science dude."

"That's one way to put it. And I'd honestly rather burn down the house than lift up the rug at this point. But I mean honestly, your parents don't ever say anything to you about not choosing to work in your field of study?"

"Blake, I majored in communications and hospitality. This job will provide me an outlet to communicate hospitably."

Now it's your turn to roll your eyes. Grabbing the mug of fully steeped tea and the poetry book from your work bag as you make your way to your bedroom.

"Whatever you say, monkey boy. I'm gonna read for a little bit then go to bed. Congrats to you and your new job, sir. I will see you in the morning."

"Same, Blakey, same."

—

The scroll on your bedside table pings with the notification sound, a new email message has been received.

Swiping up you instantly recognize the sender as Glynda. Eagerly you tap on the attachment at the bottom that contains all the paperwork you need for orientation, as well as your hourly compensation rate. Damn, it's nearly double what you've been making at your current job. But you guess Scroll can afford it. They are the most successful company in all of Remnant. You sign all the documents and return them immediately.

You can't wait to get started at this new job. You need something new. Something better than what you have at your current job. Maybe this can be some kind of fresh start for you and Sun. From what you've seen in the stores, the other employees at Scroll seem really cool and down to earth.

Hopefully it's actually as good as your dreams would like you to believe.