Dog Days

[Minty Car]

*RATED PG-13 FOR STRONG LANGUAGE, OCCASIONAL SEXUAL REFERENCES, AND OTHER ADULT CONTENT*

 

Brady is just out of high school, remains an introverted man weakened by emotional abuse. He hopes that now that he has escaped the Hell of high school, that a more generous life will begin. He grows to learn the much bitter truths. Expect extreme drama and sadness as the story progresses after the first season.

[Minty Car]

Season 1

 

There I am. The guy sitting alone in his maroon Oldsmobile with his hands covering his face all stressed out. I was ready to get out of it already. Little did I know that this (whatever it is I don’t even know) hadn’t even fully begun yet. This is simply my view of it all...
 

Theme Song starts playing (Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes from their Album Elephant)

 

Episode 1: Stuck in a Daze

 

The time was 11 AM on July 1st. The first day that I was supposed to show up at my new job as a summer camp counselor was already not going smoothly. I left home at the time I was supposed to be there as I soon learned. I walked in, and there was my boss’ boss.  I already felt like a moron and it wasn’t even noon. “Hey Brady. Your kind of late, aren’t you?” she asked condescendingly. “Y-yeah I am by about a minute I think.” I stammered. She sure picked a good time to slam me down, now didn’t she? “Just talk to Meg, hopefully she’ll let it go. Otherwise that would be your first step to being fired!” She said ecstatically. Christ, this woman irked me, I just wanted her to leave. Forever. But being as high up as she is, I just would have to live with her I assumed. I then saw Meg, my actual boss. I was ready for her to lay it on me bad. I already knew she disliked me, so I was ready to get the axe right then and there. But, upon further thought, she looked really out of it in a way. Just so stressed, that I honestly don’t think she even realized that I was late. But things moved at such a fast pace that I didn’t have time right then to think about it right then.
 

I got shoveled right into it all, getting sent right outside with the kids. And that guy too. My partner was out there getting pummeled by all the little kids. It felt more like he was one of the kids then one of us as I watched him play. He then stumbled up to me. “Yo boy! Your late!” he more spurted out then anything. “Yeah I know Elias. Sorry about that.” Considering his job was basically assistant playmate, I still have no idea where he got the gall to say that to me the way he did. But again, didn’t have the time to think of it right then. I also saw Karen out there trying to impress on day one. She was actually my equal in that she was also a counselor, and in all honesty, she was a hell of a lot better then me. She was actually sociable with the kids but didn’t let them control her like Elias did. I probably would’ve done better if I hadn’t felt emasculated the moment I walked in the door in all honesty.
 

Then that little girl burst in. She looked to be about in second grade and had the energy of a middle schooler. “She’ll be a pain in the ass” I thought to myself. Mr. Best Friend went up to greet her as I suspected. “Hey, what’s your name?” He said in that ridiculously low toned fake voice of his. “None of your business, you stupid fuck baby face!” She yelled back. She then ran off. I’ll admit, having felt like a loser the whole morning, that was actually funny. But then the horrid thought occurred to me that she could be in my group, so I made one of the unpaid interns go get somebody to help contain this child. Who would it be other then Ms. Embarrassment of course? She basically glared me down, as though she was mad that I had made more work for her purposefully. After that the chaos resumed as before with me being as detached from it all as much as possible. After far too much of that, we all assembled in the school’s gym for formalities and where I figured out which little monsters I had. I had the oldest ones (5th-7th graders) or the worst ones. I really do think Meg hated me at this point, but I didn’t have a chance to argue off we went.
 

That’s when it hit me: I was completely unprepared. I was supposed to have a crafts activity and I had nothing. I pretty much freaked out at this point. Oh yeah and Mr. Playmate was out. Just me and 12 middle school aged kids pretty much doing nothing. So the children did an improvised craft that the intern led. I felt I was going to get fired anyhow, so I didn’t care if I got in trouble or not. All I did was observe the kids to see which ones would be troublemakers. There was one who talked in an annoying nasally faked voice, always over the intern. I had a feeling he’d be a pain in the ass for sure.
 

So, things finally calmed to where we could actually do work. And then, like a jinx, the little girl from before ran in. But that wasn’t all. No, she was nude. That’s right: There was a fucking nude girl running around the summer camp. Ms. Embarrassment was trailing her, but the little girl had already climbed on top of a dresser-like structure and began throwing all the supplies off. Instantly my mind harkened to having painstakingly set up all of those supplies only to see them fall by childish hands. Immediately all the kids fled the room - except one. He simply wouldn’t leave. So I had to stay with him as we figured out what to do next. With the nude girl right behind us. It was a long 20 minutes of snack is all I can say about it now.
 

The rest of the day went like that, just without the nude girl. The most relaxing time of the day was near the end of the day. I was mostly alone in the attached rooms that doubled for our craft and playroom. I hadn’t touched my phone all day, but I thought then was as good of a time as any to briefly check it. Karen suddenly appeared to lecture me on phone use like I was a newbie. It really pissed me off that she’d lecture me when we’re pretty much equals, but I sucked it up and said nothing. Admittedly, I kinda liked her. She was social and upbeat, and I really am attracted to people like that. Their far more interesting then boring old me. But I decided to push whatever I felt for her back. Work was primary to attractions, and I was still weak from... yeah, it’s not relevant.

 

Anyhow I somehow didn’t lose my job, and that’s led me to now, being stressed and depressed in the car. I’m unconfident in myself, I’m attracted to a co-worker, and the kids are assholes. But this is only the beginning of my story to tell.

*Fade to Black Screen*

 

 

[Minty Car]

Episode 2: The Long Way Up

Theme song starts playing (Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes from their album Elephant)

After moments of sitting dreadfully in my car parked in front of the curb to my house, I walked in attempting to be silent, but I was doomed from the start. My mother knew I was on my way home and was ready to hear about how goddamn wonderful my first day had been. I sat down on the outdoor patio at the chair opposite from her.

 

“So, how was it? On a scale of 1-10?” She asked. Her tone was dampened slightly by worry. My face after all gave away the whole truth. “About a three. Maybe a four. It was horrible day is what it all comes down to.” I said hurriedly. I just wanted to go to bed and forget about today. “Hey what’s that piece of paper there?” She asked, referring to the one sticking out of my back jean pocket. “It’s a hastily written resignation letter that I’m typing up tonight and handing in tonight.” She stood and grabbed the paper. It took me a moment to compute what was happening, but she ripped it up.

 

“To Hell you aren’t!” She sternly commanded. “You will go through your day with me and we’ll figure out where you went wrong!” And that’s our problem: It’s my fault. It’s never Ms. Embarrassment’s fault for catching me off guard or anything like that. It’s simply Brady’s fucking fault. End of story.

My thinking was interrupted by “I’m waiting to hear your story!” “I came about two minutes late and...” but I was interrupted again. “Goddammit, that’s what it was! When were you supposed to be there!?” Her angry screams were unbelievably piercing and it really messed up my thoughts. “Well, I didn’t clearly know, but I think 10:45...” I said in a nasally voice just like the kid from earlier. She was silent for too long and I was ready for the explosion to dismantle me. Instead, all I got was “what else did you do wrong?” Again with the goddamn accusations. “Well, I didn’t have a craft ready, so I was really unprepared. The intern did a lot of the work there and everywhere else too, but I was able to improvise in the other two sections of our day.”

 

Sorry, I should have explained the basic schedule after the announcements waste. Basically, it’s craft time, then lunch, then playroom in which my main job is to play and make sure no one’s dead, snack, and then gym where my job is again to lead and make sure no one dies. After that, all the grade groups meet up and do a group activity, which eventually devolves into playtime. So basically everything can be improvised except crafts.

 

After I explained this to my mom, she was again silent. Then she got up and got her car keys. “Get your ass in the car.” she said in a creepily disarming tone. She then took us to Michael’s and we spent 4 hours buying supplies for crafts for each theme week. After that I literally passed out into bed, thus ending day one.