Time Line
6:00 a.m: Jack gets off bus (sees Elvis)
-Elvis in the restaurant
6:10 a.m: Jamal parks car and enters Casino
7:30- 8:00 am: Greg cooks breakfast for Silvia and Jamal
- Silvia thinks her performer is Elvis, but it’s actually Penny P
7 ish a.m: Jamal takes his breakfast and goes to meet Elroy
- Staff gets info that Anthony might be in danger
9:00 a.m: Jamal sees Jack gets paranoid; Jack pays no attention and finds Leonard
10:00 a.m: Demitri talks to Amaya
10:05 a.m: Angela says thank you to Greg for covering for him because he came late
11:00 a.m: ELVIS CONVENTION
- Penny gives drugs to Penny
11:45p.m: Elroy’s elevator scene, gets assaulted tells Jamal
- Elroy tells Jamal and tells Anthony
12:00p.m: Angela/Riya rants about Anthony
1:30p.m: Silvia hits the slots and meets Jack
Friday, April 24, 2009
Casino Character Connections
Elvis
Jenny--> Kevin (love connection)
Kevin→ Jenny, Jack, Greg
Dimitri→ Gina (Dimitri one sided love)
Gina → Greg (sees her brother), Dimitri, Amaya (front desk)
Greg → Silvia, Kevin
Jack→ Penny
Elroy
Clive→ Amaya (love connection), Jack (drinks), Marissa (friends)
Penny→ Jack (friends)
Silvia →Greg (cooks), Penny (mother)
Anthony
Jamal
Greg
Gina
Dimitri
Elroy
Amaya
Jenny--> Kevin (love connection)
Kevin→ Jenny, Jack, Greg
Dimitri→ Gina (Dimitri one sided love)
Gina → Greg (sees her brother), Dimitri, Amaya (front desk)
Greg → Silvia, Kevin
Jack→ Penny
Elroy
Clive→ Amaya (love connection), Jack (drinks), Marissa (friends)
Penny→ Jack (friends)
Silvia →Greg (cooks), Penny (mother)
Anthony
Jamal
Greg
Gina
Dimitri
Elroy
Amaya
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Period 1 Novel - Alice
The loud buzzing of my phone’s alarm, set to vibrate, shatters the blackness. For a moment I’m not sure where I am, sure it must be the middle of the night, as I’m in my room with all the curtains drawn, and then I see the merciless numbers glowing at me from my humming phone. 8:55 PM.
“Shit!” I leap up and promptly trip and fall on my face. The poncho I fell asleep in seems irrevocably twisted around my ankles. “Shit, shit, shit,” I mutter as I extricate myself. Still 8:55.
I barely remember to grab my purse on the way out the door, and I don’t even bother saying goodbye to my mother, who is comatose in front of some variant on Dateline. By 8:56 I’m behind the wheel and backing out of the driveway. I just miss the neighbor’s tricycle, which for some reason has ended up on the edge of our lawn. “I hate cul-de-sacs,” I inform the dashboard irritably, and drive out a little bit faster than I should. Or a lot faster.
But my unorthodox driving gets me to the Ruby Planet Diner at 8:58, which is plenty of time. 120 whole seconds to spare. I take 10 to glance in the rearview mirror, and wince. My hair looks like six birds have tried to take pieces of it for their nest. But there’s no time to fix it, so I open the door and swing my legs out, cursing my unfortunate napping habit the entire time. Though I’m not sure what I expected to happen while sitting in my room with the lights out and the curtains drawn.
At the sight of the Ruby Planet, I momentarily can’t bring my legs to move. Sometimes I wish I could smash that stupid garish red planet. Like a pumpkin. It kind of looks like a pumpkin. It’s not even real red. We’ve had too many comments on it than I really care to remember. “It gives the whole place a…spacial feel,” a very earnest blonde in her mid-twenties had told me once. We were supposed to treat the customers graciously, but I couldn’t even bring myself to force a smile at that one—I just gave her the menu.
And ended up cracking up over it in the kitchen with Frederick a few minutes later, but that didn’t matter.
Speaking of Frederick, he was going to make fun of me again, and I knew it, and I didn’t particularly care. Standing up and surveying my park job, I realize that, for one thing, I’m in a handicapped space, and for another, it’s the worst parking job I’ve ever seen, let alone done.
But it’s 8:59, and there’s no time to worry about that now. I run to the Ruby Planet, twisting my hair into a bun with one hand as I do so—or trying to. As I pull open the door the hairtie slips off my fingers and lands on the worn red carpet. I reach for it just as the door opens on me and almost clocks me on the side of the head.
I start to utter an expletive. Then I look up and see who nearly concussed me, and I change my mind. I want to say something far worse.
“Alice!” Michael Jenkins widens his eyes at me. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“I work here,” I say brusquely.
“Yeah, I forgot, would you believe it?” He leans against the door as though we have all the time in the world. “So, wait, do you go to school in the area?”
“I’m not in school this year,” I say curtly.
He looks surprised. “But weren’t you the one who got As in everything? Without studying? And every time I said I had to study you said—“
“And every time I look pointedly at the entrance behind you, which you are blocking, meaning I can’t get to my shift which I am now one minute late for, you ignore me.” I take the door from him and offer my best saccharine smile. “Have a lovely day.”
He looks vaguely offended, but finally takes the hint and leaves the foyer, stomping just a bit as he does so, or maybe I imagine it. I close the door behind me as roughly as I can and expel a long, frustrated sigh.
“Well, how is our little bundle of joy today?”
I blow my bangs out of my eyes. “Frederick, I’m not in the mood.”
“Better clock in quick,” he says, leaning against the counter. “You only have—“ He checks his watch. “Oh, negative two minutes. Plenty of time.”
“Don’t you have anything better to do than stand there and mock me? Like, I don’t know, maybe serve a customer?”
“I’m a senior waiter,” he says. “Star server. Employee of the month.”
I roll my eyes. “Senior waiter, my ass. We don’t have senior waiters. And for the life of me I can’t imagine how you got employee of the month. Though I might nominate you for annoying asshole of the month.”
“God, Alice. You really hurt me. You knife me.”
“Maybe the ‘employee who thinks he’s funny and really isn’t remotely’ of the month.”
“You’re now—“ He checks his watch. “Three and a half minutes late, Allie.”
“Do you want to die?” I ask conversationally, and head for the bathrooms.
“Where are you going?” he calls.
“I still have to get my fucking uniform on.” I indicate my T-shirt and jeans.
“Don’t use vulgarities in front of the customers.”
“There are no customers here,” I point out, and it’s true, the hall leading to the restrooms is empty.
“A technicality. You’re still on duty.” He pauses. “And have been for almost five minutes now.”
“Shut up.”
“Oh, and was that another ex-boy toy?” he asks as I open the door to the women’s room halfway.
I sigh. “Unfortunately.”
“God, you really did date the entire male population of Morristone High.”
“Shut up,” I say sharply. “And I was only with him for a month. He was so boring I wanted to shoot myself.”
“And you certainly looked bored stiff in the foyer just now.”
“Well, I just woke up from a nap.”
“No, I meant it. Even I could feel the disdain emanating from you, all the way inside. It was, like, oozing off your skin.”
“All right, Frederick, that’s enough. Go do work.”
“I should be telling you that,” he says, but leaves anyway.
I am ridiculously excited for the day that I can burn the polyester shirt I’m pulling over my head right now. Which will hopefully be at the end of this year. I’m not sure if we’re supposed to give the uniforms back, but honestly, it doesn’t really matter. I remember when I thought working at the Ruby Planet would be fun, red skirt and all. I had only been there once then. Also, I hadn’t realized at that point that my parents were planning to refuse to pay for any college.
I also didn’t realize that my ex-boyfriends would have an uncanny habit of turning up at the diner. All the time.
Which Frederick thinks is hilarious. A couple of the other people on waitstaff and one of the cooks are convinced that Frederick and I are in love. This is patently false, not least because he makes more of a career out of annoying me than anything else. After high school, I’m ready to be done with dating for a long time, and I want to focus on actually going somewhere with my life. I’m definitely not planning to get tied down to someone at the tedious job I’m only using as a jumping-off point anyway. I refuse to end up like my parents, still in the same town they’re born in, stuck in the same miserable loop.
I try to comb my hair, but it’s basically a lost cause, so I just pull it back as tightly as I can and leave the bathroom. It’s now 9:08, and now I just have to hope that my manager doesn’t—
“Alice!”
I wince and turn around. “David?”
“What time are you supposed to be here?”
“Nine?”
“And what time is it?”
“9:08?”
“Exactly. Now, do you want to explain to me why you’re coming out of the restroom instead of being ready to go when you got in the door?”
“Um…”
David is shorter than me, which sometimes makes it difficult to take him seriously. He shakes his head in disgust now. “Whatever. I’m honestly too tired to yell at you.”
“That’s funny, because the reason I’m late is that I fell—“
“I don’t want to hear about your narcolepsy right now. Go find some customers.” He waves his hand and disappears.
And of course Frederick is there again. “You’re lucky David is David.”
“Go drink hydrochloric acid,” I suggest good-naturedly, and walk off to show an older couple to a table.
“Shit!” I leap up and promptly trip and fall on my face. The poncho I fell asleep in seems irrevocably twisted around my ankles. “Shit, shit, shit,” I mutter as I extricate myself. Still 8:55.
I barely remember to grab my purse on the way out the door, and I don’t even bother saying goodbye to my mother, who is comatose in front of some variant on Dateline. By 8:56 I’m behind the wheel and backing out of the driveway. I just miss the neighbor’s tricycle, which for some reason has ended up on the edge of our lawn. “I hate cul-de-sacs,” I inform the dashboard irritably, and drive out a little bit faster than I should. Or a lot faster.
But my unorthodox driving gets me to the Ruby Planet Diner at 8:58, which is plenty of time. 120 whole seconds to spare. I take 10 to glance in the rearview mirror, and wince. My hair looks like six birds have tried to take pieces of it for their nest. But there’s no time to fix it, so I open the door and swing my legs out, cursing my unfortunate napping habit the entire time. Though I’m not sure what I expected to happen while sitting in my room with the lights out and the curtains drawn.
At the sight of the Ruby Planet, I momentarily can’t bring my legs to move. Sometimes I wish I could smash that stupid garish red planet. Like a pumpkin. It kind of looks like a pumpkin. It’s not even real red. We’ve had too many comments on it than I really care to remember. “It gives the whole place a…spacial feel,” a very earnest blonde in her mid-twenties had told me once. We were supposed to treat the customers graciously, but I couldn’t even bring myself to force a smile at that one—I just gave her the menu.
And ended up cracking up over it in the kitchen with Frederick a few minutes later, but that didn’t matter.
Speaking of Frederick, he was going to make fun of me again, and I knew it, and I didn’t particularly care. Standing up and surveying my park job, I realize that, for one thing, I’m in a handicapped space, and for another, it’s the worst parking job I’ve ever seen, let alone done.
But it’s 8:59, and there’s no time to worry about that now. I run to the Ruby Planet, twisting my hair into a bun with one hand as I do so—or trying to. As I pull open the door the hairtie slips off my fingers and lands on the worn red carpet. I reach for it just as the door opens on me and almost clocks me on the side of the head.
I start to utter an expletive. Then I look up and see who nearly concussed me, and I change my mind. I want to say something far worse.
“Alice!” Michael Jenkins widens his eyes at me. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“I work here,” I say brusquely.
“Yeah, I forgot, would you believe it?” He leans against the door as though we have all the time in the world. “So, wait, do you go to school in the area?”
“I’m not in school this year,” I say curtly.
He looks surprised. “But weren’t you the one who got As in everything? Without studying? And every time I said I had to study you said—“
“And every time I look pointedly at the entrance behind you, which you are blocking, meaning I can’t get to my shift which I am now one minute late for, you ignore me.” I take the door from him and offer my best saccharine smile. “Have a lovely day.”
He looks vaguely offended, but finally takes the hint and leaves the foyer, stomping just a bit as he does so, or maybe I imagine it. I close the door behind me as roughly as I can and expel a long, frustrated sigh.
“Well, how is our little bundle of joy today?”
I blow my bangs out of my eyes. “Frederick, I’m not in the mood.”
“Better clock in quick,” he says, leaning against the counter. “You only have—“ He checks his watch. “Oh, negative two minutes. Plenty of time.”
“Don’t you have anything better to do than stand there and mock me? Like, I don’t know, maybe serve a customer?”
“I’m a senior waiter,” he says. “Star server. Employee of the month.”
I roll my eyes. “Senior waiter, my ass. We don’t have senior waiters. And for the life of me I can’t imagine how you got employee of the month. Though I might nominate you for annoying asshole of the month.”
“God, Alice. You really hurt me. You knife me.”
“Maybe the ‘employee who thinks he’s funny and really isn’t remotely’ of the month.”
“You’re now—“ He checks his watch. “Three and a half minutes late, Allie.”
“Do you want to die?” I ask conversationally, and head for the bathrooms.
“Where are you going?” he calls.
“I still have to get my fucking uniform on.” I indicate my T-shirt and jeans.
“Don’t use vulgarities in front of the customers.”
“There are no customers here,” I point out, and it’s true, the hall leading to the restrooms is empty.
“A technicality. You’re still on duty.” He pauses. “And have been for almost five minutes now.”
“Shut up.”
“Oh, and was that another ex-boy toy?” he asks as I open the door to the women’s room halfway.
I sigh. “Unfortunately.”
“God, you really did date the entire male population of Morristone High.”
“Shut up,” I say sharply. “And I was only with him for a month. He was so boring I wanted to shoot myself.”
“And you certainly looked bored stiff in the foyer just now.”
“Well, I just woke up from a nap.”
“No, I meant it. Even I could feel the disdain emanating from you, all the way inside. It was, like, oozing off your skin.”
“All right, Frederick, that’s enough. Go do work.”
“I should be telling you that,” he says, but leaves anyway.
I am ridiculously excited for the day that I can burn the polyester shirt I’m pulling over my head right now. Which will hopefully be at the end of this year. I’m not sure if we’re supposed to give the uniforms back, but honestly, it doesn’t really matter. I remember when I thought working at the Ruby Planet would be fun, red skirt and all. I had only been there once then. Also, I hadn’t realized at that point that my parents were planning to refuse to pay for any college.
I also didn’t realize that my ex-boyfriends would have an uncanny habit of turning up at the diner. All the time.
Which Frederick thinks is hilarious. A couple of the other people on waitstaff and one of the cooks are convinced that Frederick and I are in love. This is patently false, not least because he makes more of a career out of annoying me than anything else. After high school, I’m ready to be done with dating for a long time, and I want to focus on actually going somewhere with my life. I’m definitely not planning to get tied down to someone at the tedious job I’m only using as a jumping-off point anyway. I refuse to end up like my parents, still in the same town they’re born in, stuck in the same miserable loop.
I try to comb my hair, but it’s basically a lost cause, so I just pull it back as tightly as I can and leave the bathroom. It’s now 9:08, and now I just have to hope that my manager doesn’t—
“Alice!”
I wince and turn around. “David?”
“What time are you supposed to be here?”
“Nine?”
“And what time is it?”
“9:08?”
“Exactly. Now, do you want to explain to me why you’re coming out of the restroom instead of being ready to go when you got in the door?”
“Um…”
David is shorter than me, which sometimes makes it difficult to take him seriously. He shakes his head in disgust now. “Whatever. I’m honestly too tired to yell at you.”
“That’s funny, because the reason I’m late is that I fell—“
“I don’t want to hear about your narcolepsy right now. Go find some customers.” He waves his hand and disappears.
And of course Frederick is there again. “You’re lucky David is David.”
“Go drink hydrochloric acid,” I suggest good-naturedly, and walk off to show an older couple to a table.
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