7: Copper Rat

Chapter seven: Copper Rat

"Hello, thank you for calling Pizza Express. How may I help you today?" Amanda sang into the phone in as chipper a voice as she could muster after being on their feet for 6 hours. Fortunately, it was one of her regulars and he knew exactly what he wanted. She entered his order into the system, told him the delivery time, and waited for him to hang up. You never hung up first when on the phone with a customer; that was one of the main rules they drilled into her head during training. 

She sped back to the makeline and took a position on the veggie section. one large works pizza got one white cup of mushrooms, two green cups of green peppers, two green cups of onions, and two red cups of black olives. She constantly had to switch from looking at the orders on the screen and spreading the correct toppings evenly on the pizza that she was working on. It didn't take long before her hands started to feel as cold as ice. 

After what felt like years, the dinner rush was over and Amanda's manager told her to go home. 

She tried to take the train as infrequently as possible, but on Sundays, she would let herself spend a few credits so that she could rest her tired legs. Sunday was Pizza Express's busiest day of the week during repulsorboard racing season. 

Amanda had never seen the appeal of watching a bunch of people try to fly a board through all sorts of dangerous obstacles. Not that she didn't like riding repulsorboards herself, but where was the fun in just sitting down and watching other people have all the excitement.

 She walked through the train entrance and found a spot near the back. She took off her Pizza Express cap and pulled the elastic band out of her hair. She hated keeping her sunset orange hair pulled back. Her mother had always told her that hair like hers should be flaunted. Her mother, Amanda hadn't seen her in two months. After she received her first paycheck, Amanda packed up her things and moved into an apartment on W Chicago and Livernois Ave with some girl she had met online. She ususally had the place all to herself though, because her roommate often left the dome for more than two days at a time. 

The train pulled into her stop, and Amanda forced her aching legs to stand. She trudged forward out the train and down the road which led to her building. When she came upon it she noticed her apartment's light had been turned on.

"Looks like Bee's back," Mused Amanda.

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"Nope, Nope, I've seen that one like a million times, Nah, Noooope" Bee groaned. There just wasn't Anything she hadn't already binged that she wanted to watch. She turned her head at the sound of the door opening.

"Oh hey, Mandy! I was just looking for something to glue my eyes to for the next few hours. You wanna watch the new Fists of Trouble movie again?" Amanda stumbled over to her bed and fell down face first. Through her pillow, she mumbled "No thanks."

"Another Sunday dinner shift today, huh." Bee said knowingly "You know, My job is really exhausting too, but at least it pays a lot more than Pizza Express does." Amanda turned her head towards Bee.

"Of course it pays well, nobody would leave the dome for a job that didn't, but I still don't think that being a "copper rat" is worth it," Amanda retorted.

"Think what you want, but at the end of the day We're both exhausted, except I'm exhausted with a paycheck double the size of yours," Said Bee.

Amanda pondered this. Maybe working at Pizza Express didn't take her outside the safety of the dome, but that didn't mean she enjoyed it. Bee seemed quite content with her position locating and retrieving copper from out of the mines, but that could just be because she was, well, Bee. Then again, she had a point about the money. 

"Alright, fine. I'll sign up tomorrow."