Maisie looked like a freaking janitor. Oh, wait, she was. Feya wasn’t a massive fan of the oversized blue shirt and navy shorts, either, but said the costume wasn’t as bad as the hot pink Coronado Springs Custodial outfit. Therefore, Maisie felt a little better arriving forty minutes early at All-Star Sports for her first on-site training day.
Her schedule read that the shift was from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm, and her trainer’s name was Natacha, but that was it. Disney loved driving her into a corner, and Maisie had to deal with it as a CP, the lowest seniority. Just… why Custodial?
She adjusted the white straw hat on her head and stepped into Sports’s breakroom. The heck? Why were all the housekeepers there? Did they start at 8:30? It was 8:20 now.
Maisie unlocked one of the breakroom’s lockers and slipped her lunch bag into it. A lunch box was the one thing she forgot, but when she went to the small Target at Flamingo to pick one up, the only available lunch box was Elsa and Anna.
Maisie had difficulty finding a seat with all the housekeepers but managed to sneak by one and sit in the corner. She unzipped her knapsack and removed Chase Me from it. No, Maisie was not that desperate for love (her father joked about it all the time); she merely liked Mrs. Bailey’s characters. They made her want to write a story herself.
She stuck her nose in the book and attempted to block out the constant chitter-chatter of the housekeepers. Would she ever feel at home there? Maisie had already decided not to extend her program. The news would be tough on Feya, but she chose to tell her later.
As expected, the housekeepers left for their areas within ten minutes, and Maisie had a little peace to read. She skipped Chase Me’s first intimate scene because it made her all sorts of tingly. That was why virgins didn’t read Rom-Coms, but Maisie couldn’t help herself.
It wasn’t long until she heard, “Ahem!” on the book’s other side.
Maisie lowered it and looked up. Shit!
Andy stood before her, wearing another pair of dress pants and a shirt. He held a picker and seemed to hold back a laugh. “Tessa Bailey, huh?”
Oh, God, Maisie wanted to disappear into the void. Andy caught her at the worst possible time.
Noticing her embarrassment, he quickly changed the subject. “You’re a little early, don’t you think?”
“My shift starts at 9:00… sir!” Maisie stuttered, stuffing her book into her bag.
“Is that what your schedule says?”
“Yes… sir!” God, how much did Maisie blush?
Andy lifted a brow. “Huh, I wonder how that happened. The Trash shift doesn’t start until 10:00.”
The Trash shift? Okay, Maisie was quitting. She knocked Andy down yesterday; he walked in on her reading a Tessa Bailey book today, and now she was an hour early for the Trash shift. He definitely didn’t like her now. Might as well spare the pain of him sacking her, right?
“No need to be embarrassed,” Andy said. “How about you clock in at 9:00, and I’ll give you one more tour of the resort before Natacha arrives?”
Maisie had nothing better to do, so she followed Andy’s orders and clocked in at 9:00.
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He escorted her around the resort, pointing out things with his picker, and led her past the Surfboard Bay Pool between Buildings 1 and 6, the surfing section of Sports.
Afterward, he took her to Mt. Mickey on the resort’s backside, where the Center Court and Hoops Hotels were. The original Mickey Mouse stood on a stand at the heart of Mt. Mickey with an All-Star Resorts sign over his head.
Andy put his picker over his shoulder and explained, “This is my favorite part of the resort because it’s quiet. Well, at least until the cheerleaders come.”
The cheerleaders. The instructor mentioned them yesterday. Maisie narrowly avoided cheer season, but it was no surprise they stayed at Sports when they came for competitions at ESPN.
“Pargos cut through here, so be careful when you’re out and about,” Andy added, picking a chip bag out of a bush and throwing it away.
Pargo? What the heck was a pargo? Maisie had never heard that term before. She prepared to ask Andy, but his work phone buzzed in his back pocket.
He removed it and checked it. “Oh, it looks like there’s a Service Order for a Code V. Excuse me, Maisie. Can you find your way back to the breakroom?”
“I think so?” Maisie wasn’t confident. It was only her second day there.
Andy pointed at the path they came from with his whole hand. “Just follow this path and take a right. It’s at the end of the Food Court on the left. Look for the Cast Members Only sign.” He smiled friendily. “Good luck today.”
“Thanks.” Maisie needed luck to appreciate the job and stop embarrassing herself in front of her boss. However, as Feya said, it did look like All-Star Sports was pretty chill. Everyone she had talked to so far was charming. She didn’t know what a pargo was, but she would learn with time.
After a few wrong turns, an accidental stumble onto the football field, and some She’s a rookie looks from Guests, Maisie found the breakroom. She saw three more Custodial members sitting in it: a large, middle-aged man, a younger, shorter one, and a woman with dark skin, deep brown eyes, and short, black hair. That must’ve been Natacha.
“Oh, hello!” she said, waving at Maisie.
Maisie thought Feya’s Ukrainian accent was thick, but that woman’s was at a new hard-to-understand level. Was it an African accent? No, Natacha didn’t sound like an African name. It also looked like she was still learning English.
“You new girl?”
“I am,” Maisie replied.
“Good! Good! Breakout is about to start!” Natacha gestured her over. “Come! Come!”
Maisie nervously joined the group and checked Natacha’s nametag. Oh, it was a Haitian accent.
Two more Cast Members, the Am Custodial Coordinator and Leader, soon appeared around the corner. The Coordinator, a tall man wearing the same white hat as Maisie and a Coordinator pin, sat down, a paper and three black phones in his hand. The Leader, a woman who looked like a strict school principal, hovered over his shoulder and watched Maisie like a hawk.
Her eyes deviated from her when the Coordinator pointed at each Cast Member in the group. “Good morning, good morning, good morning, and”—his gaze landed on Maisie—“welcome. This is our new CP, guys, Maisie.”
“Hi, Maisie,” everyone spoke simultaneously.
“Hi,” she lowly responded, tilting her head.
“We have a great team here. There’s no need to be nervous,” added the Coordinator (Han was his name).
The Leader, Jadis, piped up. “That’s right. Natacha’s one of our best trainers. She’ll take care of you.” She glanced at her. “Right, Natacha?”
She nodded. “Yes, ma’am!”
Han cleared his throat and studied his paper. “All right, today we are at 50% occupancy. 250 Guests in and 250 out. Natacha, you’re training Maisie in Trash 2.”
Gah, was there something better than Trash? Maisie felt like the Ugly Duckling: out of place and not accepted into the family.
Jadis gripped the back of one of the chairs. “We may be at low occupancy, team, but still use the trailers. Let’s make a good impression for Maisie here.”
“Yes, ma’am,” they acknowledged, saluting.
Wait, Maisie had to learn to drive a trailer? Oh, heck no. That was going to go wrong very fast. She had never driven a trailer in her life.
“Natacha,” Han said, “we’ll give you Pargo 18 today. For the first half of the shift, show Maisie how everything works, and then give her a shot at the wheel after Lunch.”
Maisie’s shoulders slumped. Could she go home now? She felt stupid that she didn’t know what a pargo was.
“I heard from Andy there was a mix-up with her schedule, too,” continued Han, “so she’s going to leave at 5:30 instead of 6:30.”
Thank God. That was good news. Maisie needed more mix-ups, just no more incidents of Andy walking in on her reading Tessa Bailey.
“And that’s about it.” Han set his paper down. “Be safe out there, team.” He moved his hand to the table’s center, and everyone else, except Maisie, mimicked. “Who are we?”
They bounced their arms three times and tossed them back. “Custodial!”
There was no turning back now.