After School

He didn't get any messages from his mother after that. He sent her a couple texts reminding her not to tell anyone, to just avoid conversations with others if she had to, but never got an actual reply. The last few hours held nothing major of note for John after his free period.

He didn't even give the sexist Ms. Stanfield, and her fucked up version of a sociology class, the time of day. Which he was rather proud of, he really didn't like Ms. Stanfield or her class.

Really, the best moment for John after that came during P.E. when he got another point of endurance for actually pushing himself to do some serious work in the gym. He managed to see Cassandra again there too, but she was being taught by another teacher and he never got close enough to their class to try and talk to her again.

With luck though, John felt like she could have wound up ready to talk to him the next day or something like that, if she felt brave enough for it.

It wasn't until John got to work that he found something distracting enough to keep the quest off of his mind for the rest of the day. It started off slow at first, John got to Gun's gym, his mana reserves low again from the extensive use of Fighter's Eyes and Dina came out to meet him.

Though, her greeting wasn't as kind as John had been hoping for. She didn't say hello. There was no passing 'Good day...'

The Russian body builder simply walked right up to John and dumped a small pile of clothes into his hands.

"Uniform," she growled out in simple explanation. "Change and clean. Supplies in closet," she grunted, and with a single point, directed him towards the cleaning closet.

It took a couple more minutes to fight the location of the changing room out of his new boss but, when he finally got it, John was quick to get in and out of there. He went into the furthest, most secluded corner of the locker room and changed by equipping his new outfit through the character screen. He was just on his way over to the cleaning closet out in the main room again when he heard someone speak up behind him.

"You're gonna need the key," another powerful Russian voice said. This one was much deeper than Dina's had been, and while the accent wasn't as heavy, it was most certainly more male.

When the owner of the voice walked around to the front of John, he was greeted to the sight of a chiseled, blond giant grinning down at him. His short, buzzed hair glistened under the fluorescent lights as all the muscles in his face twisted and tightened into an almost exaggerated smile and he looked down on John. A pair of brown, gentle eyes stared back at John as the giant grabbed something jingling from the back of his waistband and held it out for John. The light lettering of the 'Gun's Gym' logo was splayed out across his barrel-like chest as John took the keys.

"Trust me, I know. Dina should have given you them when she gave you your uniform." The giant shrugged in the Russian woman's direction. John followed his gaze and turned to watch as Dina, without remembering herself to pass on the keys to him, walked back into her office and closed the door behind her. A look of general annoyance flicked across her features before the door closed shut behind her and, through one of the two windows that the office had, John could see Dina start to angrily sift and fumble through the piles of paperwork that littered her desk.

"Try to forgive her for it, she just has a habit for letting people in here and allowing them to do whatever they want in the gym." There was a pause as they reached the cleaning closet on the opposite side of the room to Dina's office and John began fumbling with the keys. "I'm Michel Alexeev," the blond man said and held out a hand for John to shake while John introduced himself.

"John...Newman" he mumbled awkwardly.

"Quick little walk through for you. It would be easier for you scrub and mop everything down towards the end of your shift, everyone else does it. For the most part, and Dina lets everyone do it, just make sure to grab all the towels that anyone may have abandoned and left hanging somewhere. Toss them into the bin, you'll find that in the back of closet, and then Dina will take the towels to be washed later. She supplies those for customers who need them herself. If you see any trash on the ground during your shift, pick it up, throw it away, and then do whatever basically..." Michel opened his mouth to say something, but John cut him off this time.

"I heard when I got the job that it came with a free membership to the gym for as long as I was working here, is that true? Can I just use the equipment?" John slowly made his way into the back of the cleaning closet to where the towel bin was and slowly began to wheel the bin out of the locked room.

"Yeah. That's what most people who work here do with the spare time. Just make sure that the gym is remains fairly clean throughout your shift and you can use whatever." Michel's head tilted slightly as he finished talking and he glanced down to the towel bin John was dragging around. "Oh, you can move that over to sit between the doors of the locker room. Most people will see it there when they walk by and toss their towels in for you then."

"Thanks," John grunted and followed Michel back across the room, weaving his way through workout machines and various physical enthusiasts before the two of them stopped between the locker room's.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it..." Michel trailed off for a minute as he looked over to a group of people lifting weights. A simple glance in their direction gave John the idea that he was probably looking at a bunch of frat boys. "If you need any help, for the work or just someone to spot you, give me a holler, okay?"

John merely nodded in Michel's direction before the huge, blond man walked off to join the group of musclebound jocks, and from the looks of it, probably put them to shame while he was at it.

"Alright..." John mumbled.