disclaimer: The characters are Marvel's, except for Jenny.
The First Test
by Dizi
My name is Jenny. You don't know me. Very few people do. I am not a naturally outgoing person.
Except at work. When I walk in there I just let go. I'm a waitress at Harry's Bar. It's actually a pool-hall and bar. Harry didn't want to hire me but I really needed a job and this was the only one available that I qualified for. Harry said I was too soft. He should have been right.
Harry's customers are a tough lot. It turns out that most of the regulars are bikers or mutants, some are both. Harry doesn't care as long as they can pay. Because of the mutant clientelle he goes through alot of waitresses. He thought I wouldn't like them either, I guess.
But I don't have a problem with mutants. Growing up my best friend was one. Sally was the sweetest person you could ever have known. She was a telepath. She wasn't very strong, but she probably would have been since she was six when she was first able to read my thoughts. It was a game for us. We didn't have to pass notes in school, she'd read my mind and send me her thoughts. She was careful. She didn't cheat and get the answers from the teacher during tests, she didn't try to get out of chores or make people do what she wanted them to. She knew that was wrong. Everyone assumed she must have though when they found out she was a mutant. So they killed her. She was thirteen.
When my parents found out I had known she was a mutant for seven years they seemed to think I was somehow contaminated. So they sent me to a private school - read reform school - and left me there. I didn't go home for summer vacation. I didn't get Christmas presents. I went from being the loved and only child of upper middle class household to the crazy relation you keep locked in the attic and never discuss. Thrown out with the trash for being a mutie lover at thirteen.
I am obviously not someone who has a problem with mutants.
But I didn't tell Harry my life's story, I just begged. He refused and I begged some more. I was desperate. Then a short scruffy looking guy comes in and Harry smiles. Okay, yeah, that made me nervous. So he says he'll give me two tests and if I pass I can stay as long as I like, but I was on trial basis only until then. I thought fine, at least I'd get to eat that night. Then he says the short dude is my first test.
My heart sank from the look on his face, but I was hungry, damn it. So I grabbed a pad and pencil and went to the corner table where the scruffy guy had gone. I put on my sweetest smile. The one that made people give me money when I panhandled.
"Can I get you anything?"
He grunted at me. Swear to God! He did.
"Excuse me?" I said. "Can I get you something to drink?" smiling big again.
He looked me up and down and did it again. What was I supposed to do? I told Harry he wouldn't tell me what he wanted and he shook his head at me. I thought I should give the guy some time, so got a rag and started wiping down tables. Then tried again.
"Have you decided what you want?" I asked politely.
He sat there and fumed at me but didn't tell me what he wanted. So I shrugged at him and leaned over the table to wipe it down too. Figured he didn't need to sit at a dirty table, right?
HE PINCHED MY BUTT! And man, did it hurt! Felt like metal tongs or something, I couldn't sit down comfortably for a week.
I didn't mean to do it, honest I didn't, but somone had left a tray on the chair right beside me. I mean, it was right there. I, uh, grabbed it and slammed it over his head, screaming "Don't you EVER do that again!"
Needless to say he was surprised. I am really not sure which of us was more shocked at that moment. I mean I broke a serving tray over his HEAD!
Then he really surprised me.
He starts laughing his head off. I'm just staring at him. Come on, get real here. I expected him to pull a knife or something and he's laughing? Besides, he didn't strike me as someone who laughed that much and to laugh at someone breaking a tray over his head?
When he finally gets himself under control, he opens his jacket and pulls out a pack of cigars, and tells me, "Get me a ashtray and a draft and keep 'um comin'."
Harry's blinking at me when I give him the order. By the time he has it's ready, he's got his regular expression on his face again and tells me it's only test one.
That's how I met the might Wolverine. Yeah, of the X-men! Can you believe it? I still can't. By the end of the night, during the busiest time of the night he stands up shout for the attention of everybody in the place and announces that the new girl - meaning me - has his protection.
So that's how a nineteen year old, sweet faced girl like me can work in one of the roughest bars in town and act however I like. Because I got protection. It makes me bold and daring. The thing is I like who I am when I walk in that bar. I like the girl who doesn't take crap off a guy just cause he pops wicked looking claws out of his hands and can cut me into little pieces whenever he likes.
I like her alot, and I'm really grateful to him for introducing me to her.
end ?
note:
Okay no one told me what they thought of Jenny from 'The Decision' but she's been bugging me to tell a story about her meeting the X-men in Harry's bar. If you like it I'll do more, so please tell me what you think.
Thank you for reading,
Dizi