The next day, Kyle was trying to decide what to do in the event that he would have to go to work. Fortunately, it was a short shift today, only four hours, from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM. So, at least he could spend a major part of the day with Lyra.

For the first part of the morning, he decided to show Lyra Netflix, which was a popular video platform that allowed unlimited movie streaming, provided the user paid a monthly subscription fee. Lyra thought that it was absolutely amazing.

"Wow, you can watch all these movies for just that price for one month!?" Lyra asked.

"Yep!" Kyle said. "And it's not just movies; you got a bunch of TV shows as well!"

"Oh, cool! You humans have invented everything!" Lyra said.

Kyle laughed a bit. "Yes, well..." he trailed off.

Kyle was startled at the sudden sound of music... which came from his phone. It always startled him because it barely ever rang. And because of this, he had a feeling of who was calling...

And it turned out, he was right. He was being called by the Kroger store that he was working at. His heart sank.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me... hold on, Lyra, I gotta take this.” He said just before briefly leaving the room and answering the phone. “...Hello?”

“Hey, is this Kyle?” Came the voice of Brad, one of his managers.

“Yes.” Kyle said.

“Okay.” Brad said. “So, I'm calling 'cause I was wondering if you could come in early today and make your short shift a full one?”

Kyle gritted his teeth in seething anger.

“Yeah, we really need you down here. We're a little short on staff scheduled for today.” Brad said.

So, why don't you actually SCHEDULE people a little better? Kyle thought.

He thought for a brief moment.

“...Alright. I'll do it.” Kyle answered, reluctantly.

“Good!” Brad said. “See you soon!”

“Alright, see ya.” Kyle said, just before hanging up the phone and flipping the bird at it.

No, fuck off! He thought. Fuck you, Brat! You've got some nerve to take away my only short shift I've gotten in a while!

Kyle had a habit of calling Brad by an insulting nickname of "Brat," though never to his face. Also, he found it to be quite difficult to say no to someone of superior status to him.

Lyra noticed his angry expression upon his re-entering of the room.

"Are you okay?" Lyra asked. "What's wrong?"

“I'm sorry, Lyra.” Kyle said. “My craphead manager's called me into work a little early today. I can't stay around for as long as I was hoping.”

“So... where should I stay if either of those two other humans come around?” Lyra asked.

Kyle looked around for a moment. “Under my bed, the closet, inside my dresser. Really, you can hide wherever you feel is safe.” he suggested.

He picked up his tablet off of his bedside table.

“You can play games on my tablet in the meantime!” Kyle said. “All you do is touch the screen, and it will know where you're touching!”

“Ooh...” Lyra said, touching the widgets and making different screens appear. “...this is really high-tech stuff!”

“Yeah, so I'm gonna head off to work, and you can just stay here and do what you want. Just don't get caught, for God—er, Celestia's sake!” Kyle said.

"Yeah, I know how important it is." Lyra said, just before shutting herself in the closet.

Kyle threw on his uniform, grabbed his wallet, phone, and car keys, and headed off to Kroger, leaving Lyra alone, but entertained enough by his Samsung GALAXY Tab A 10". She found the applications to be quite interesting, but her main focus was on the "games" folder.

Lyra really seemed to enjoy the games called Angry Birds, Flow, and Tetris. At first, she did not know what to do, but after reading the instructions, got the hang of it. The tip of her hoof was precise enough to use the tablet.

(XXXX)

Today, Kyle was to work as a checker. So, he had been asked to open up one of the checkstands, and check out any customers who would come up to him. The store was moderately busy today, but it looked like the staff was doing just fine. Why did Brad call him in today?

Must be because they love to exploit their workers... He assumed.

Suddenly, a man pushing a cart full of groceries approached Kyle. He had a stupid, dopey smile on his face.

“Hey, you look bored!” the man remarked. “I'll give you some work so that you stay employed!”

Yes, I'm bored... because I'm STILL HERE. You'd sure do well to not mock me! Kyle thought bitterly. And, if you want to give me work that I'm not bored by... why not give me something to draw or paint? AND I STAY EMPLOYEED BECAUSE I'M PART OF THE UNION! EVEN IF NO CUSTOMERS CAME IN, THEY WOULD PAY ME ANYWAYS AND NEVER FIRE ME!

Of course, he made no remark to the comment verbally. “Did you find everything you were looking for?” he asked.

“And then some!” the customer said happily.

Kyle cleared his throat. “Do you have a Kroger Card?” he asked.

“I sure do!” the man said, handing him the card.

Kyle took it, but instead of scanning it, slid it in the pinpad that the customer would use.

“Oh, you can do that now?” the customer asked.

“You've always been able to...” Kyle said, subtly so as to avoid coming off as rude. He always tried his best to stay out of trouble.

“Oh, I didn't know that! HA HA HA!” the man laughed.

Kyle gritted his teeth inside his closed mouth. Okay, this guy's REALLY pissing me off... but, you know what they say; it's better to be pissed off then to be pissed on.

The minor joke he made to himself did not help him to crack a smile at all.

Kyle spent the next five minutes ringing up the order, but there was no bagger helping him, and all of the items were piling up. It came as no surprise to him that the man was just standing there watching. After finishing, he returned his attention to the customer.

“Would you like a book of stamps or a bag of ice?” Kyle asked.

“Sorry, what was that?” the man asked.

It annoyed Kyle how many customers asked him to repeat himself; his voice was hoarse from talking all day, and it hurt his throat to speak loudly. So, he repeated the question.

“Ooh, ice! Give me a bag of ice!” the man said.

“Ten or twenty pounds?” Kyle asked.

“The regular size.” the man said.

This confused Kyle. “So... ten pounds?” he asked.

“Yes, sir! Ten pounds.” the man said.

“Okay...” Kyle said, scanning the barcode for a ten-pound bag of Reddy Ice. He then told the customer the total.

“So, do I chip or slide?” the customer asked.

“You'll need to use the chip reader.” Kyle instructed.

"Okey dokey!" the man said as he put his card inside the machine.

It took a moment for the card to read, but it did. Next came up the PIN input screen.

"How do I do credit?" the man asked.

"Is your card a Visa?" Kyle asked.

"Nope, it's MasterCard," the man said. "but I don't have a PIN, so how do I run it as credit?"

"Unfortunately, at this location, only Visa cards are allowed to be run as credit." Kyle stated. "It's a security measure."

"But I want to run it as credit!" the man said, now appearing to get angry.

Quickly, Kyle picked up the phone and hit the PA button. "Could I get a head clerk to register 13, please? Head clerk, register 13." he announced before hanging up.

After about a minute of listening to the irritated man call him all kinds of slurs, a head clerk, Rosa, came over to see what was up.

"What do you need, Kyle?" Rosa asked.

"Could you help me explain to this customer that MasterCard cannot be run as credit?" Kyle asked.

Rosa then went on to try and explain how it worked, but it was only egging the ignorant customer on further. Eventually, things escalated into an all-out argument.

"I'll take it from here." Rosa said. "You should just bag for now."

Kyle went off to bag people's groceries, which was not as bad, given that he did not have to scan everything and input numbers for produce items, as well as less interaction with the rude customers. But still, the job was not very appealing, to say the least. Especially when he had to put up with shit like that.

Later in the evening, he had to mop the floors, replace the paper towel- and toilet paper-rolls in the dispensers of the bathrooms, clean the bathrooms, collect garbage from the waste baskets, and so on. Eventually, he made it through his shift, alone with two fifteen-minute, on-the-clock breaks, and one half-hour, off-the-clock lunch during the day.

(XXXX)

Kyle had made it back to the house, heading into the basement through the basement door instead of taking the front door; he did not want Ed or Danny to disturb him. Kyle pulled off his uniform, took a warm shower, dried and dressed, and returned to his room, where he collapsed on his bed.

"Ah..." He said as he laid on his bed, opening his laptop. "Okay... so, continuing with this painting... I'll fill this area with the paint bucket tool, and..." he put emphasis on the following: "...Increase Tolerance."

Lyra had emerged from behind a bunch of jackets in the closet, the tablet on her back.

"Hey, Lyra." Kyle said. "How was today?"

Lyra sighed. "Okay, I guess... I was taking a nap just before you came in. But the day just wasn't as fun without you. I wish you didn't have to work."

"Yeah, me too..." Kyle said.

"Anyways... here's your tablink." Lyra said.

Kyle laughed. "It's a tablet."

"Heh... my bad." Lyra said.

Kyle took the tablet, and noticed some marks on the plastic screen protector.

“Well... looks like the screen protector on my tablet's been scratched up.” He said, looking over at Lyra with a slight smile, high eyebrows, and half-closed eyes. “Looks like it was done by a pony hoof...”

Lyra looked up at him with innocent eyes. “You're not mad at me, are you?” she asked.

Kyle chuckled. “Oh, of course not, you silly filly!” he said.

He rubbed Lyra's head, making her giggle.

"I can get the protector replaced with a tempered-glass one, which is resistant to scratching." Kyle said.

The two stayed up late into the night browsing through Netflix to find any shows or movies that were interesting...

Author's Note

Yeah, might start off a little weak, but I am positive that the chapters will have more substance as the story progresses.