WHO: Henry and Regina Mills WHEN: today WHERE: Once Upon a Pie! WHAT: a job interview :D WARNINGS: ridiculousness
To his credit, Henry did show up five minutes early for his scheduled interview. That had to be a point in his favor considering everything else was pretty much in shambles for him. Instead of a tie he’d bought a cool new Superman t-shirt, which he was at least wearing underneath a snazzy red jacket. But he’d chosen jeans instead of slacks and sneakers that had definitely seen better days to complete his whole outfit. He thought he looked pretty damn cool, which was not quite the professional look that his mother was going for. But he also had plans to go out after the interview was finished. And who wanted to waste time changing out of a suit in weather that was already sweltering?
Not him!
He tapped his fingers on the counter, wondering how long this would take. Five minutes? Maybe ten. Hopefully not more than fifteen or he might have to make the later movie time, which would suck. He slunk down in the chair again and pulled out his phone to play one of the games he had on it as he waited for his mom to be ready.
Regina had a fond spot for family, it was her weakness and she knew and embraced it. There wasn’t a thing she wouldn’t do for her loved ones and they all knew it. And Henry, the little shit, knew it and exploited it to his advantage whenever he could. If it wasn’t so annoying to the parental side of her, she would be proud of his cunningness. If he was from the wizarding world, she was convinced he would be a Slytherin.
He won points that day for showing up early. But as she peeked out from behind the back room curtains to watch him, the outfit and cellphone usage pinged him for some of those points.
Eventually, she decided it was time to start the interview and she stepped out from behind the curtains, clearing her throat to get his attention. “Mr. Mills? If you’re ready for you interview, you can follow me.” Her lips twitched in her efforts to keep from smiling.
“I’m ready,” he mumbled out more than said, still glued to his phone as he walked toward the back room. So he might have taken a few seconds longer with each of his strides, dragging out the time it really should have taken for him to reach the room. He was nearly done with the current mission, just a few more seconds, and there. At least he stuffed his phone into his pocket once he reached the door. That had to count for something.
He grinned brightly at his mom, well aware that he probably wasn’t off to the best start. Walking into the office he slunk down onto the chair, thinking better of his posture after a moment and sat up straight. Though he still reached across to the desk to fiddle with some of the items on it.
Letting Henry take the lead into the office, she followed slowly behind, his pace slower than what she would have liked. A small frown had found its way onto her face by the time she sat down at her desk, though she had to struggle to remain unaffected by his bright smile.
“Did you bring a resume for me?” She asked hopefully, silently tapping his hand to get him to stop fiddling with her desk trinkets. If he had been anyone else, she would have thanked him for his time and shown him the door. Thank God for nepotism.
“I did!” Not that there was much on it considering his lack of employment for the last few years, but he had at least taken the time to make one. He stood up so he could pull it out of his back pocket, unfold it and then smooth it against his pants leg to try and get out the wrinkles that had set into it.
Sitting back down he handed over the piece of paper, still smiling, and pretty damn proud of himself for the effort.
Was she being Punked? Was early 2000s Ashton Kutcher going to pop out of a corner any minute to admit that Henry wasn't as terrible at interviewing as he was making himself out to be?
She hoped so.
But luck wasn't on her side as she gingerly accepted the resume and gave him a slightly forced smile for his efforts. “Okay…” she said, drawing out the word as she scrambled to find her next words. “Tell me why you want to work for me.”
“Because you’re my mom.” He shrugged, actually shrugged, because what kind of question was that even? It was like a family business. Of course he was going to work for her. Though ice cream seemed like a way better benefit in the hot summer than pie did. Maybe he should have thought this through a little bit better.
“And like...we should support one another as a family.” Yeah, there. That should work. It sounded good and responsible to him. How could that be the wrong answer?
Regina reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose, trying to figure out where she had gone wrong. This was, somehow, Emma's fault. She didn't know how, but the blonde was definitely to blame.
“Alright…” she sighed, trying to get the interview back on track to a more professional grove. “Tell me why I should hire you and not someone who wants to work here for more than the fact that a personal relationship exists between us? Because, honestly Henry, it sounds like you think this just some job that will be given to you because I'm your mom. It doesn't actually sound like you want to work here otherwise.”
This was not going at all how he envisioned. “I mean I just want to make some money over the summer so it’s like here or the ice cream place.” Which place he got really didn’t matter much to him. It was pretty much the same thing since he was just going to be running the cash register. Though he’d also gotten ten thousand dollars from the portal gift drop so he didn’t really need the money either. “You’re the one who said I needed practice!”
“You do, because this is an absolutely dreadful interview,” Regina said, nose wrinkling as she reached over to ruffle Henry’s hair. “You need a lot more practice before you ever go out into the real world for a real job,” she explained, holding out her hand, as if she waiting for Henry to hand something over. “Your cell phone,” she said, pointedly, “Needs to be on either silent or vibrate as soon as you step into the building. If you’re not paying attention to your surroundings and people around you, it doesn’t give off a good impression. And I definitely told you to dress to impress. You look like you’re ready to go out to a movie.”
He slunk down into the chair. “I am ready to go out for a movie,” he grumbled, crossing his arms as he looked across at her. After a second, and with a definite huff, he handed over his phone, before slinking back down. “Maybe I can just invest my money and not have a summer job. I’ve got enough now to not worry about going to the movies and stuff.” It seemed way easier than getting dressed up and doing this kind of thing again.
“I'm sorry, what was that you just said? You want to have a strong work ethic so that you never have to worry about money in the future?” Regina asked sarcastically. She was definitely not letting him take the easy way out.
“I wanna have a strong worth ethic so I never have to worry about money in the future,” he finally repeated dutifully. “Does this mean there’s a dresscode for being a cashier?” Considering there was apparently one for interviews it wouldn’t surprise him. “And that I get to be a cashier?”
“There’s a dresscode for everything, but nice slacks and a button up will work for this position,” Regina said, putting his phone in her desk drawer and then standing up. “Come on, I’ll walk you through your expected duties as a cashier and then you’ll have to talk to your dad about when your first shift will be. He’s going to be your direct manager.”
While the idea of a dresscode was pretty off-putting and made him grateful that his school didn’t have a uniform, Henry perked up a little at the last part. His dad was in charge of him. Perfect. It was a lot easier to get around Neal than it was either of his moms. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all. “Sounds good to me.”
“Alright, now first things first, clocking in procedures…” And so began his introduction to the working world. There was a good chance he wasn’t going to make it to his movie on time.