Bottle Caps, Pop Tabs, & Other Unmentionables

Magnolia needed a job.

At this point she was desperate. There was barely enough money for next months rent, let alone tuition for the next semester, or her car payments that came promptly every month. A box of Kraft Dinner, a can of tomato soup, and a box of crackers sat in the cupboard, not to mention the jar of maple syrup and a carton of milk in the fridge. She had been scrimping every day, trying to get by, trying to prove to herself that she could do this. Magnolia could live on her own, she could live in a different country, go to school, have her own place.

Magnolia realized she couldn’t do this two weeks ago when she couldn’t hand over the cheque for this months rent. She had never been late on anything, every assignment she handed in on time, her period was scheduled like clock work, the expensive phone bill was paid on time, but this month Magnolia just could not keep up.

Magnolia needed a job.

In the meantime, she’d wait for money to be transferred into her account and a package of hand selected goodies (as per her request) to be delivered, courtesy of her mother. For now though, it would be Kraft Dinner for tonight’s meal before she headed out for her evening lecture.

Just like everything else in Magnolia’s life seemed to be at the moment, she was late to class. Being greeted with a look from her professor as she snuck in to the back row of seats and quickly took out her notebook and pen as he continued on about the topic for the night, W.H. Auden. Just like every other class, notes were taken, passages were read, and a discussion was held between peers, within three hours later Magnolia found herself walking beside Charlotte, talking about a party she was going to that night. As much as Magnolia didn’t want to go, she was able to use her excuse for scrounging up newspapers and searching the classifieds; hoping there would be something she could do to get a little extra cash.

Her arms were filled with newspapers when she reached her apartment building, and after settling in with a highlighter, pen, and notebook; she began the job search.

Car salesman. Nope. Bartender. Not a fan of loud places, nor did she know how to mix drinks. Calculus tutor. Not a fan of math in general, so she’d definitely have to pass on that one. For every ad, Magnolia held a running commentary of how she’d perform on the job and none of them looked appealing in her head, nor could she perform half the tasks the job entailed.
At Maid Masters, we ensure consistent service by reliable cleaning professionals who are bonded, insured, and trained to clean any home. Do you think you have what it takes to be apart of our team? Send us your cover letter and resume, telling us why you want to work with the Maid Masters!

Cleaning. Magnolia knew how to clean and she could clean well. She was very confident in her cleaning skills so after writing up some bogus cover letter about how her life goal was to clean peoples houses for a living and how she thrived off of organization and being part of a team blah blah blah.

Now all she had left to do was wait and pray that she got this job, because her options had dwindled significantly after scouring the papers.

//\\

“Hi, this is Angelica from Maid Masters, we’d like to schedule an interview, if you’d be so kind as to call us back, that would be wonderful. Hope to speak soon.” Her fist shot into the air and with the other shovelled a spoonful of leftover Kraft Dinner into her mouth as she replayed the voicemail to make sure she had heard right.

Magnolia had definitely heard the message correctly because she was penned in for 9:00am Monday morning ready to express how much she loved cleaning.

//\\

“This is Maybelle,” Angelica introduced a girl standing in the doorway as she handed over a printed copy of the job offer to Magnolia “you will be her shadow for the next two days. She will be showing you the ropes, all about our products, how we clean, all that jazz! And depending on the house, you may be working together!”

Magnolia nodded and signed the offer, handing it back over and taking another glance towards Maybelle, wondering if she too put forth the same amount of enthusiasm as Angelica did while doing her job.

Everything was signed and Magnolia was handed two sets of scrubs with the Maid Masters logo and quickly headed back to her apartment to drop everything off and get to class.

“How did it go?” Charlotte asked once Magnolia was seated in beside her.
“Good, I’ve got my first shift tomorrow morning,” Magnolia whispered as their class began to settle down for the lecture on medieval writing.

//\\

“So just be prepared, not everyone actually cleans their house before we go in,” May warned as she unlocked the doors to their first stop of the day. “People seem to think we are a laundry service as well, unfortunately for them that’s not in our job description.”

Magnolia was a bit wary as she stepped into the house, May had been very forthcoming with details and her experiences in what she’s seen during her time working as a maid, and now Magnolia wasn’t as enthusiastic as when she woke up this morning and thought that money was actually going to be in her bank account. Now her only thoughts were ‘Was she going to be scarred for life?’

The house wasn’t in too bad condition, there were things left on the floor and on countertops but that was to be expected, even her place somewhat resembled this house.

“Everything is straight forward, Pledge for dusting, Windex for mirrors, Vim for sinks and toilet bowls…” May went on explaining each product and what it was used for, although they were products Magnolia knew very well. And once May was finished blabbering she began cleaning.

At some points Magnolia felt like she was meant for this job, it was fun getting to snoop through peoples things and creating a story for them, just based off of their pictures, what food was in their pantry’s, what kind of shows they wore, it was interesting and definitely helped to pass the time.

Magnolia and Maybelle were meant to be. Maybe it was because their names were so similar, or maybe it was because they were so close in age, with just a year gap in between, but whatever it was she knew, May was the one person she wanted to clean a house with.

The two were on their third and final last stop for the day, when they pulled up to a house that Magnolia could and probably would get lost in.

“Whoa,” Magnolia said under her breath and grabbed he supplies from the back seat, along with the can of Diet Coke she had bought when they had made a pit stop.
“I still don’t know why you call it ‘pop’ when it’s clearly called soda,” May argued.

It seemed that May hadn’t a clue as to what pop was when Magnolia had mentioned stopping for a drink along the way. No one called it soda back in Canada, and she sure wasn’t going to start called it that now.

After entering the foyer, Magnolia had to stop and take in her surroundings; the place was huge, with high ceilings, brick pillars and a fireplace, and hardwood floors that looked beautiful. There were certainly things that she would have changed about the place, but she scolded herself for criticizing when she didn’t live there; she just had to clean the place.

“This guy is never home, I swear,” May called from where she parked herself in the kitchen.
“How do you know?” Magnolia asked. Most people weren’t at home when they went to clean their house, as they took off because they just end up in the way, or they don’t want to admit to how dirty their house actually is, so they take off.
“Because the place is the exact same way I leave it every other time,” she replied and pulled out her cloth and Pledge.

May nodded her head, a sign that Magnolia should follow and so she trailed behind her as she walked into the study.

“That’s him,” she said pointing to a guy who looked to be a year or two older than the two girls. His arms were covered in black ink; he adorned a hockey jersey, helmet, and skates in most of his pictures that were hung in his study, and a big smile took center stage in most of the photos.

“Cute,” Magnolia shrugged and moved on to look at the small collection of hockey memorabilia that sat on the shelves.
“Cute? That’s it?” May practically squealed “he is more than ‘cute’, he is a smoking hot God. I would kill for a guy like that!”
“Whatever,” she laughed and threw the cloth she had dropped while looking at his photos in May’s face.

The house wasn’t in a drastic state where every single room needed the ultimate scrub down, it was more light work, and I could tell that May had been right; this guy was never home. She never understood why people owned such grand homes and barely lived in them, but that was none of her business.

“You know what I would like to do?” Magnolia started as she walked back into the kitchen and began packing away the cleaning supplies. “I want to sneak in here one night and have a movie marathon in this guy’s theater, have you seen that room? The screen is huge!”
“Wouldn’t that be nice,” May laughed.

Magnolia played with the empty can of Diet Coke, tugging on the pop tab, bending it every which way, waiting for the word that they were heading out.

“Can you hand me the bottle beside you?” May asked.

She left her spot, leaving the can and tab on the counter and walked over to hand May the bottle of cleaning solution so she could pack it away.
“Okay you can grab the bin and I’ll take the two buckets,” May said, handing over the bin full of the dirty cloths, gloves, and some extra bottles.

“Lock up!” May had yelled as Magnolia closed the door to the house as she tossed a set of keys her way.

Magnolia did as told and went over to the small car that was plastered with the Maid Masters logo and contact information and stored the bin in the backseat, before taking her place in the passenger seat alongside May.

Notes

So....chapter one is here and it's your pretty basic getting to know a main character chapter, but I hope you stick with me on this!! Thanks for reading!!

Chapter Outfit