After Erik went job hunting with Nikki, which resulted in a mixed bag of success, they found out that Nikki wasn't quite old enough in this state to work without a work permit. That work permit, though, required information that their mom couldn't give. Apparently, the laws in this state were aimed at protecting alpha and omega children from being exploited for work and had the highest minimum age in the country to allow working without special permission.
This was news to both of them, since they were both used to being able to work as early as 13 with just simple parent permission, depending on the job. A lot of places used to look the other way even if you were under 13, and you looked old enough. So, this left just him and their mom working now.
He had come away with three jobs after the hunt and worked one morning job, just before school at a coffee shop, and two jobs after school. The one in the afternoon was at a fast-food joint, and the one in the evening hours, was at the grocery store, doing whatever they needed him to do. He did everything from checking, to hauling carts and stocking shelves.
He had come to hate the grocery store gig, since it was the crappiest position of them all. Since he was the only one that was ever available to do anything, he was often called to do any onerous task his senior co-workers detested. One such job they apparently hated was being a checker/bagger for the old folk that still requested working with a human, when every other lane was a self-checkout of some kind.
Erik didn't mind the process of checking out people's groceries, nor did he mind bagging them for the elderly folk. What he did mind was his boss breathing down his neck to hurry up and get to the next person, leaving him unable to speak to the elderly that were just lonely and wanted to talk to someone. Then, worse still, was the evening slam when he just clocks in, and he immediately gets put on register duty to pick up the slack from the overfilled self-checkout lanes.
His manager couldn't be bothered to actually do anything other than stand behind him, breathing down his neck to make sure he met a damn quota of people served in a specific amount of time. He wasn't allowed to even say hello or have any kind of conversation other than to ask about payment and rewards for the store.
It was his third day working at the grocery store that he learned this the hard way. His manager was the stereotypical alpha asshole and since he made way more money than he did, that made him an entitled asshole that looked down on him. So, when the store was slammed with shoppers, who were stopping by after getting off work, he was again called to a register to pick up the slack from the overwhelmed self-checkouts.
With a line with no end in sight, Erik set to his task, working quickly, and efficiently, through the endless line of customers. He was feeling confident that he was doing well when his manager stopped hovering nearby and stepped away to do whatever the asshole did when he wasn't breathing down his neck.
That was until the rich girl from the park showed up in his line with a cart loaded with groceries. But they weren't any old groceries. He had a knack for calculating the budget of each shopper in his line just by looking at the groceries they held in their cart and as he scanned them, he confirmed his estimates. It kept the boredom of the task at bay when he could run numbers in his head.
So, when he eyeballed the rich girl's grocery cart, there was naught an off-brand or store brand item in the whole cart. In fact, there were quite a few gourmet brands and brands he'd only heard of from ads in her cart. She chatted with him, which made him nervous, so he glanced over his shoulder, silently thanking that his manager was still gone.
She teased him for some reason, and he felt his face and ears flush, which was an entirely new thing. He didn't blush, and he definitely didn't stutter when speaking, yet he was doing both as she chatted him up. He was having a hard time remembering her name, since he didn't think he would need to remember it when he had been invited to play the other day at the park. Furthermore, he thought that was the beginning and the end of their association. They lived in two entirely different worlds, after all.
Hers was one of luxury and fashion, judging by the expensive-looking leather jacket she was wearing. Her long strawberry red hair looked like a halo of fire that framed her pretty face, laid in waves over her shoulders. It emphasized her beauty like she was straight out of a magazine cover. In fact, even the jeans that hugged her every curve looked designer label as well as the expensive ankle boots she was sporting. He took in the sight of her as he loaded her cart to make room for the rest of the scanned items. Her low-cut shirt was also expensive and likely a designer brand, as it emphasized that she was in fact a woman with plenty of curves. Just thinking of her in that wet shirt, the other day, sent heat to his face as she continued to say something about her aunt not telling her something.
Just as she asked him what time he got off work, so that she could hang out with him, he felt the glare of his manager and the chill of fear down his spine that prevented him from answering her. He quickly resumed his task, and double timed, getting everything scanned, put in bags for her, and placed in her cart. The only thing he could say to her with his manager there was to tell her the total and ask for her payment. Just as he thought he was safe, and she was leaving his line, she turned back to him and flashed the prettiest and somehow genuine feeling smile he had ever received. She also thanked him for checking and bagging her groceries.
He would have smiled if it wasn't for his manager stepping up, as the girl left, to berate him for his lollygagging. He was given a verbal warning that he would see a reduced paycheck if this continued. It pissed him off that his manager only saw what he wanted to see. He had barely spoken to the girl and only then to confirm that he did work there and had stuck to work related speech after that. He had cleared her items in no more time than he took with others with equal amounts of items.
Just as Erik was checking the next person's items, he overheard his manager speak to one of the other managers and of all things to talk about, they were discussing the girl that had just left. They were speaking of her fine ass as well as what they referred to as her mommy milkers. If he could have gagged at their crude speech, he would have. These two managers were both alphas from their build, and all they saw was a piece of omega meat.
He didn't even know the girl was an omega until they confirmed it, as they spoke about her like she was just on this earth to please alphas like them and bear a couple of brats. He was even more furious as he continued to listen. If he didn't need this job, he would have thrown in the towel and spoke his mind about what he thought about assholes like them. He felt ashamed to be gendered as an alpha when other alphas acted like this. The two managers were assholes just like his father and still saw omegas as lesser people in the way they treated them like baby makers put on this earth just for their pleasure.
Once his shift was over, Erik wasted no time lingering to browse the discount shelves, like he would have normally. He needed to get out of this stifling environment or risk his job. It was late enough as it is, and it's not like he could afford a ride service to take him home. The only city bus that got anywhere close to his house stopped running hours ago for the route he needed. It was a long walk home on his tired feet. He had to be up before dawn to get to his next part-time job and start all over again tomorrow.
Thankfully, Nikki was able to watch their younger sisters, for now, so he could work seven days a week between his three jobs. Although with his mom set to start work soon, there would need to be someone to watch the youngest two siblings during the day and that was going to fall to Kylee and Nikki alternating days taking off from school to watch them instead of him. If they weren't so reliant on the extra income he was pulling in, he could take days off and watch them instead of Kylee so that she didn't have to deal with any truancy records.