Laine Kort's Story

Wen carefully applied lipstick to a squirming Megan "Hold still!" He demanded. "I can't! I can't believe that we're going to go to May-" "Hey! Applying make-up to your face here! Don't squirm or your face will be a mess!" Megan stood up. "Fine," She stuffed a few more items into her over-filled suitcase. "Why are you so neat? I can't get half my stuff into my suitcase!" Wen snorted. "Because you're a mess?" Megan shrugged. "Good point," She sat on her clothes and pushed them deeper into the bag. "YES! I GOT EVERYTHING IN!" Megan celebrated. Wen snorted and clapped. "Great job," HE replied. "Now, we're off!" "WOO!" Megan cheered.

Johnny smiled at the flight attendant and thanked her as he exited the plane. He quickly woe around everyone and called a taxi. He couldn't believe he was actually going to be an employee at the Maybelle resort. THe waves were supposed to be pretty wicked there. He had only surfed in Australia and no where else. THis was going to be a great time to just take in some relaxing time. THe job seemed pretty cool, plus they had time to surf. It couldn't be that bad.

Megan tugged on Wen's shoulder. "This better NOT be it!" She cried, pointing at a tall glass building with cheesy seals balancing beach balls on their noses and pirate crossbones pasted everywhere. Wen shrugged as he got out of the taxi and walked in. Wen walked ahead of Megan towards the front desk. He heard a loud yelp. He look behind him.

Johnny stared down at the small brochure and walked forwards. "You have to be kidding me," He muttered. Suddenly, he tripped and fell into someone. Johnny looked up to see a girl that he had knocked over. He got back on his feet and offered a hand to the girl, who took it and stood up. "You alright love?" Johnny asked in his thick Aussie accent. She nodded and turned towards a man about their height standing at the front desk. "Excuse me, I'm one of the employees and I" "It took you long enough!" He growled. He pointed his finger at Wen. "You, housekeeping. You too," He pointed to Johnny. "Uh, you," He looked at the list that he was holding. "Dining hall! Now stay here and wait for the others!"

There just wasn't anything quite like going on a plane by yourself. People stared, they whispered. Teenagers alone on planes, with some story of where they might be headed. Laine Kort was headed, or rather had just landed at a small airport in Florida a mere 15 miled from Maybelle Resort. No, she wasn't spending a week there on vacation or staying with a relative for that matter. Laine was going to work at the resort for the summer. That's right folks. Her parents payed for a plane ticket and cab to pick her up. Which in the end probably cost about as much as she would end up making the whole summer. It was a great way for Laine to meet new people and see the world (Florida). Though she still wasn't sure why her parents didn't need her working at the farm this summer she agreed to go.

Pulling up to the Resort it wasn't exactly as she had espected. But it was good enough. The cab driver hastily pulled her luggage out. "Thank you" Laine answered puting her right hands to her chin the lowering, the simple sign for thank you. She paid him quickly and then she was left, alone in Maybelle Flordia "wonderful" Laine pulled her luggage to the front of the resort and looked around. Slightly confused where to go. She sighed wondering where to head to. Laine noticed some people a little ways away and she set out towards, maybe they knew where to go.

"uh, could you call me Wen? I don't like to be called Wendall," Wen muttered. Megan laughed. "I think I'm going to call you Wendall from now on!" She teased. Wen glared at her. "Aw, what's wrong WENDALL?" Wen glared at her. Another teenager around their age approached them and greeted herself. Megan smiled brightly. "HI! I'm Megan!" She smiled cheerfully. "I'm Wen," Wen introduced himself, and Johnny did the same. "One sec,"

Johnny walked away from the small crowd towards a girl that looked lost. He carefully approached her as she searched around. "You lost?" He asked in his thick accent, moving his hair back as he awaited her answer. Johnny gave her a quick look-over. She was probably younger then him, but only by a year or two. She was probably here for the job.

Pete sneered at Juliet. "If memory serves, I'm in charge you, all of you in fact. So I'd prefer that you didn't insult me," He hissed. Pete looked Jess over. "Front desk," He said, putting his clipboard on the marble top desk.

Juliet smiled at the newcomer, looking at her clipboard and identifying her as Jessabelle Lake, but she introduced herself as Jess. Pete barked another order and Juliet rolled her eyes. "If memory serves, I'm in charge you, all of you in fact. So I'd prefer that you didn't insult me," She shook her head at this statement and smiled (more like sneered) at him. "On the contrary, we work together. And I wasn't insulting you. I was pointing out your obvious flaw in social conduct." She gave him that sneer/smile again and looked to Jess. "As I told these three, or I guess two now," she said as she watched Johnny walk off to help out a girl, "My name is Juliet and I'm the manager here. My phone number is posted in the break room so don't hesitate to call if you have any questions or concerns, and I'll give everyone the complete shabang when we're all here, so just wait for now. Pete's right, you will be the front desk manager so basically that means smile all the time and help out as many customers as possible. You'll probably have the most contact with me since I'm sure there will be the few who say, "I want to see your manager!" and if that happens, don't worry, I won't hold it against you." She smiled and checked her list. "Looks like we're still missing...Ty Evans, and I'll bet you a day off that that over there is Laine Kort." She smiled and waited for Johnny and Laine to catch up so she could debrief Lane and then all they had to wait for was Ty.

As Laine began towards the group of people some one came up to her from that group. He seemed nice, his smile was nice. "You lost?" Laine watched his lips form these words. She didn't want to mix up someones words on her first day. Concentrating one the question she responded. "I need to check in....I'm working here this summer." Her own accent came out, after speech therapy her words became much easier to identify. They only came out shorter and just slightly disoriented. She couldn't sign though, she had bags in both of her hands and was struggling not to drop them. The guy, a little older than her seemed like he knew what she was doing. So she decided to follow him back to the group, or were ever he thought she could get checked in at.

Johnny led her to the group. "Here you go, another employee!" He announced in a teasing manner. Megan smiled. "What job does she have?" Pete looked at the clipboard as he shot a glare towards Juliet. Pete was the senior manager, and he didn't like when someone bossed him around. "Dining hall," He muttered. "yay! That means we're working together!" Megan smiled. "Good luck, you will be annoyed to death, and I should know," Wen grinned.

Juliet smiled at Laine, and then at everyone else. "Alright, well, looks like everyone is here except Ty and frankly I'm not going to wait for him. So, here we go. The schedule for your day goes as follows: You start work at 5:30, no later. You punch in on the bulletin that's located in the break room sometime before then as long as you are at your assigned location by 5:30. At 11:35 you will have a twenty five minute lunch break in which you can get the food provided for resort guests as long as you are at the end of the line and all resort guests have gotten one serving. I know, it's unfair, but it's the life of an employee. Think of it like we're in segregation days. If a resort guests asks you to give up your seat, which they very may do, under no circumstances will you play Rosa Parks. To make things easier, you might as well just eat in the break room. Work resumes at noon and finishes at 3. After you have cleaned your work area and followed the girl scout rule, you have off time the rest of the night. Dinner is at 6 and same rules apply as lunch. If you have any questions or concerns during any time of the day, there will be radios in each of your stations that you can call me on. If that fails, I'm sure you all have cell phones and like I said before, my number is posted in the break room. Or, of course, you can always find Pete." She said that last part quickly, working hard to not have any disdain enter into her voice. The guy was rude, and she knew they would much rather contact her than him any day. "Any questions?"

"I don't think so! Do you have any questions, Wendall?" Megan teased. Wen shot her a dirty look and crossed his arms. Johnny smiled as Pete snarled at the teenagers. "You get the rest of the day off. The bus will take to the staff house," He pointed outside to a small first student bus. "So go!" He added. Pete couldn't take anymore teenagers, the boss told him that Pete and Juliet had to work together, yet he was still in a higher position then her. "What about Ty?" Johnny asked. "I'll just have him driven over later," Pete shooed them off. "Now out!"

Johnny got on the bus first. "Ech, what is that smell?" He asked."That would be tuna fish. One of the tourists wouldn't stop eating tuna," A tall, thin hippie looking person with long, shoulder length blonde hair. He had a yellow and white Hawaiian shirt and baggy shorts. Johnny shrugged and sat down in one of the first seats. Wen followed him. "What is that- never mind, I don't want to know," Wen wiped his nose and winced. Megan shrugged. "It smells better then you, I can tell you that," Megan grinned evilly. Wen rolled his eyes and took a seat. After everyone loaded on, the bus drove off.

They arrived a shoddy, two floor wooden cabin. There was a small porch with old wicker chairs and a T.V. Johnny walked in and looked around. "This is... kind of creepy..." There was a bunch of cobwebs and coach roaches everywhere. "EW!" Megan cried out and stepped on a bug. "Sick!" "THis is not at all what I expected," Wen muttered. "Yeah, but you get used to it," The bus driver said, carrying their luggage in. "Bedrooms are upstairs. My name's Trey," He introduced himself. The group went up the broken stairs. Megan stepped on a rotten step and fell through. Johnny caught her by the arm. "Woah!" Megan lifted her leg out of the hole. They got to the bedrooms. "Girls in this room, boys in the other. Senior staff gets their own rooms, but you have to be at least 25, so you can't. NOw go do teenager stuff," HE waved them off.

Juliet, the one who was in charge started rattling off times about starting and times about breaks. She was telling everyone about when they could eat and where they could eat. Laine squinted trying to keep up. Luckily she had printed out the information sheet, so she knew when her day would begin and end. After that she asked if there where questions and then the group was off.
A small bus pulled up, right on time to take them to their rooms. Laine was the last person to board the bus and she silently shuffled down the row of seat. Finding one all to herself she scooted in and set her bags down, relieved her arms could have a break. There was a smell though that reeked threw out the bus. Tuna, gross. Laine's cousin had once visited them and brought tuna, she'd had it everyday for lunch until Laine had finally screamed at her. And a deaf persons scream is something very scary. Tuna made her want to throw up. Laine pushed the window open and stuck her face close to the open window of fresh air.

The trip was fairly short, and happily the group jumped of the bus with their things. Heading to the cabins that everyone would be staying in. They where directed where to go and Laine followed the other girls into their room. Okay so it wasn't what she had inspected in a resort room. But they were employees, on the bright side she'd stayed at a motel 6 worse then this. Laine shuffled along with her two bags to a near by bed. As she dropped her things on the bed a small cloud of dust rose from the sheets. "Great..." She muttered and looked back at the other girls.

Megan looked around. "Still better then sharing a room with Wen!" She declared. She took off her clothes to reveal a swimsuit that was a little worn. She spun around. "Do either of you want to go surfing? Might as well, this is the most free time we'll have," She added, tugging her swimsuit down lower so it covered what it needed to. "I really need to get another size up," She muttered under her breath, but in her mind, she knew her family could never afford another one. Rosa had gotten the swimsuit from a Goodwill and it was amazing to them, something slightly new and not ripped.

Wen set his stuff on one of the beds. "I think I'll take this one. You mind?" "No, not at all mate. I'm going to the beach," He grabbed his blue and black surf board. "Same here," Wen nodded. Megan stood in the doorway. "You sure? I've seen you surf, or at least try to, and it not pretty," She teased. Megan leaned beside a wooden board from her grandfather. "I'll meet you guys there, at least it's a private beach," Megan skipped off towards the beach.

Laine saw that Megan had taken her clothes off to reveal a more then worn swim suit. "Swimming? Sure I'll go!" She opened her suitcase pulled out her own swim suit. She slipped off into the bathroom wearing a bright pink and purplesuit It went well with her body and was one of her prized possessions she was given as a gift only last spring. She grabbed a towel out of the bathroom, just in case they didn't have any by the beach. Laine pulled her ear pieces out and tossed them onto the bed, wouldn't be needing those. She grinned at Megan. "Lets go!" Then glancing back at the two other girls. "So you wanta come?" She asked holding her towel in front of her stomach self consciously. Then Laine quickly slipped on her sandals.

Megan let out a loud cheer as she ran to the water. She laid down on her board and started to paddle. Then, when she caught a wave, she stood up and let out another loud cheer. Johnny and Wen came out. Johnny shielded his eyes from the sun as Megan paddled back to shore. "Hey!" SHe greeted with a large smile. "THe waves are awesome!" Megan added. "It sure looks like it! Surfing I shall go!" The three got back on their boards are started to surf. "WOO!" Megan laughed as water splashed in her face.

When morning came Laine's back hurt. Her alarm clock began to buzz the clicked on the radio. Nothing was playing though, just some morning talk show. Laine rolled over in her bed clicked the alarm clock off and pressed her palms over her eyes. It was 5 o'clock that morning so the sun was just beginning to wake up as well. Laine, who had taken a shower last night got up and began slipping her clothes on quiety. She wasn't going to wake anyone up. Even though the alarm clock probably already did the job.

She padded into the bathroom, washed her face and applied lotion. No make up though, that would take forever. She combed over the knots in her bushy hair and then raised her arms over her head and proceeded to form one long french braid. French braids actually take a while and so by the time that was done the blood had left her arms. With a sigh she walked back out of the bathroom and sat on her bed. She put on a small silver chain necklace and a leather and beaded bracelet. She also inserted her hearing aids into both ears. When she did that her ears felt opened up. Even though she couldn't here anything still it just clearer her head nicely.

Laine glanced over at Megan. They would be working together. Megan was so, excited, about everything. Hopefully she would be easy to work with. And hopefully she talked less. Laine had barely caught a word that girl had said.

Wen cautiously stepped into the girl's room. "Hey," He muttered. Wen shook Megan, who's eyes stayed closed. Wen pulled the covers back and removed a small white, sticky pad from her arm. He shook her again. Megan slowly woke up. "Ughhhhh," She muttered. She then sat up completely. Wen then walked out. Megan shrugged and shuffled through her suitcase. Her arms were sore from surfing, the waves were pretty wild the day before. Megan grabbed her uniform and wrinkled her nose. "I thought I'd never agree to wear a pirate outfit,"

"I thought I'd never agree to wear a pirate outfit," "I know right?" Laine stood up and walked to the door. "I'll see you down there Megan" She smiled slightly before closing the door behind her. Laine followed the path as far she she could until instead of dirt it became concrete. She wandered along the path some more. The lobby was in front of, her. It was big, clean and furnished. She opened the door and walked into fresh air conditioning, something she had lacked last night. The lobby had the same cabin feel that her room did. Only it was nicer and more clean. Laine wandered aimlessly threw the lobby. No one was at the front desk so she sighed and took a seat on a near by couch. She buried her head in a People magazine. It had been ages since she had read one. They didn't exactly drop them off in the middle of corn fields. Laine crossed her leg over the other. She was slightly early so it wouldn't hurt to wait a minute or two. Megan would come this way as well probably. I wonder where Juliet is hm.

"WEN!" Megan complained. Wen groaned. "I have your make-up, now shut up!" He dusted her cheeks with a light blush and added a little lip gloss. He gave her an amazing eye make-up, it was bright blue and purple with mascara. "Ta da! Johnny walked in. "Woah! Megan, nice make-up!" "Thanks!" The trio headed towards the bus.

"Hey trey!" Johnny smiled. "Still smells just as bad," Wen muttered. They arrived at the cafeteria and sat down. "We have to wait for our food," Wen muttered. "No fair," He added.