“Community service?” Chastity Bennett blanched. “You’re making me do community service over break, without even asking me? That is so unfair!”
“Is getting paid something like five hundred bucks unfair?” her Dad said.
She conceded the point but not verbally. “Still, you should have asked me first before you went ahead and signed me up for this. I mean, seriously! I’m a junior in high school, almost seventeen. I can make some decisions for myself, you know.”
“We know, but we’ve been quietly hinting that you get a part time job or something so you can learn some responsibility. You haven’t, so now we’re forcing the issue. Either you do this willingly or we take your car away.”
That blow went straight home, and Chastity wisely shut up about it… to her parents. Some of her closest friends heard all about it at length later, though.
Sunday evening came, and a car came to pick Jack up. He’d packed clothes for a week; his trusty iPod loaded with his favorite music, a case of CDs in case they didn’t let him wear headphones on the job, but were kind enough to supply a CD player. He’d also packed a good pair of boots that could double as work boots if needed. He bade his parents farewell and got into the car, where the driver introduced herself as Mary Peterson and he heard a little more about where he would be staying. It was, apparently, an old school converted to the purpose of housing high school-age kids during the week of work. He asked a few more questions, received the pertinent answers, and then lapsed into silence for the remainder of the drive. It was, surprisingly enough, over an hour long over clear roads slicing through snowy land and townscapes. He learned why he’d been picked up in a car instead of a bus or van; there wouldn’t be a whole lot of other kids on deck due to a lot of people not being available on break. He shrugged at that; if it weren’t for the money he’d probably have attempted to be ‘unavailable’ as well. When they arrived at the building, Jack noticed that had the distinctive ‘school’ appearance by the construction; it was old, though, and he wasn’t surprised that it was no longer an educational institution. Mary led him inside and gave him a brief tour of the place; all the important locations, that sort of thing. And then she led him to a room where he could wait for a bit while waiting for the project leader to come by and give him the full briefing on what he’d be doing for the week. He didn’t have to wait long, and another woman, looking about fifty compared to Mary’s mid to late thirties, maybe even early forties, and had the appearance of a hospital nurse. Jack ignored that for the moment and turned his attention to her politely.
“Well John, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” the woman said. “My name is Jean and I’ll be the project leader for the week. I must say I’m glad to see that you’re here, it’s very difficult to get volunteer students over a holiday break.” Jack smiled and nodded. Jean smiled as well, and then continued. “Now, have you been told what you’ll be doing over the week?”
“No; all I know is that I’ll be doing some sort of community service,” he answered.
“Oh… I see.” Jean paused. “They didn’t tell you that this is actually a product testing project?”
Jack shook his head. “No, I was told it was a community service gig. The brochure said the same thing.”
“Oh dear. They must have reshuffled some assets and forgotten to tell the volunteers.” Jean thought for a moment. “However, there is still going to be payment at the end of the week; are you still interested?”
“Sure, why not?” Jack answered. “What sort of products will I be testing?”
“Not a wide variety,” Jean said. “Actually, it should be fairly easy. All you do is use the product, and then tell us what you think about it. And, given the unusual circumstances by which you came to be in this particular project, I’m sure they’ll double your pay at the end of the week for being a good sport.”
Jack brightened. “I’ll take that, easily.”
Jean smiled as well. “Very good. Now, just sign this form here and I’ll take you to the testing area.”
“Sure,” Jack said and, after signing on the dotted line, he hefted his backpack and small duffle bag, stood and following Jean out of the room and down a long hallway. She turned and walked through a doorway and Jack politely followed. He looked around the room in confusion. “Is this the testing area?”
“Yes it is,” Jean said.
“And these are the products I’ll be testing?” Jack said.