Jessica Moore (lovesaves) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-11-01 23:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | jessica moore, maria deluca |
Who: Jessica Moore and Maria DeLuca
What: First meeting
When: End of August/Beginning of September
Where: Maria's bar
Rating/Warnings: None really
Status: Complete when posted
Jess didn’t hit the bars often, even the ones that didn’t have age restrictions although her fake ID hadn’t been detected yet. Including in a cop bar where she really hadn’t thought it would. But it had. She’d stopped herself after a couple drinks though, not wanting to get too drunk in a place that she knew she was likely to run into someone who knew her dad at some point. Tonight though she had needed out of the sorority house - one of the other counselors was staying with her group while she went out, deciding that she needed a break from the girls she taught all day and then watched over at night during the cheerleading camp. She needed to be around other adults and not think about cheerleading for a couple of hours. Someone had mentioned an all ages bar to her a few days before that had live music each night and while they were pretty stringent with their carding process it was still a fun place to go and dance and just get out for a while. So she’d headed there, enjoying the music while she sipped at her coke and dancing with a few people who asked her before retreating back to the bar for another drink and to sit down for a while.
***
The band that was playing was a relatively new dance-rock band that had never played at her bar before, but Maria found that she liked their sound. The crowd in the bar was bigger than it normally was, people seemed to be enjoying the music, and drink sales were up which mean that both she and the band would be taking home more money than she had expected for the night. They were polite too, and Maria would be sure to bring them back.
It was pretty busy, almost too busy for Maria to keep up, but she didn’t mind getting run off her feet. It just meant that her bar was successful. Finally, there was a lull in the drink orders, and Maria was able to take a bit of a breather.
“I saw you dancing earlier,” she said to the blond girl, as she loaded the bar dishwasher that was in front of her. “What do you think? Good band?”
***
Jess hadn’t been paying attention to the bartender other than to make sure that she got the right drink, and that nobody took advantage of a momentary distraction to add something to it. She was solo that night since her friends were either working with the kids or still out of town with their families and didn’t want to take the chance. She wasn’t looking for that kind of fun after all.
“They’re pretty good. I hadn’t heard of them before tonight but I definitely am going to follow them on social media and see about checking out some more of their shows. They’re songs have good beats to dance to.” And if she could find them on spotify or something maybe the team could work a routine to one or two for the new season. Damn it. She wasn’t supposed to be thinking about cheerleading tonight.
***
“I’m pretty sure this is one of their first gigs,” Maria said. Most bands, once they got established, rented out the bar and made their money from ticket sales, but it was cheaper up front for newer bands to pick a night to play and make money off a small portion of the drink sale instead. It was hard to get any real money from ticket sales if no one knew your name.
“You look familiar,” Maria said after a moment. “Have you been here before?” She kind of hoped not. She was usually pretty good at remembering her clientele.
***
“So I’m getting in on being a fan at the beginning? I don’t think I’ve ever been able to say that before.” Jess said, a little grin on her face.
“No. I go to UCI and some of the other people on the cheer squad mentioned this place had good music to dance. I had a night off so I thought I’d come check it out. See if they were right.”
***
“Lucky you,” Maria said, smiling. “Being one of the first is a badge of honour, you know.” It was one that Maria knew well enough, especially working in this business for as long as she had. Of course, she’d gone to a lot of live shows when she was younger too; that was one of the major reasons she had opened the Wild Pony in the first place.
“And were they?” she asked.
***
"Completely right. This is exactly where I needed to come and just have fun. I might have to come back before classes start. The night before just to make sure I'm not too stressed for the first day." That would be when they would start dealing with freshmen who wanted to join. Both the squad and her sorority. And as a returning member she'd have to be approachable. Accessible to anyone with questions.
***
Maria laughed. Going out, drinking and partying before the first day of classes was something she had done plenty of in high school, but it definitely hadn’t left her reading and raring to go the next day. “I hope you will,” she said, because hey, there were worse mistakes to make. “What are you taking?”
***
“I’m still trying to figure that out. Although I’m leaning towards something that will help me with law enforcement if I do decide to follow my Dad’s footsteps and become a cop. He and mom and my biodad might actually kill me if I do that though. Got to weigh the risks there. I figure I have another year before I have to decide. Get the rest of my gen eds out of the way.” Jess said with a shrug.
***
“I thought all cop dads wanted their kids to grow up follow in their footsteps,” Maria said with a bit of a wry smile. She didn’t especially care for cops, she didn’t care much for authority of any kind, but she wasn’t about to say that to someone who was thinking of being one. Especially not if that person was a paying customer.
***
“They keep talking about how they sent me to college to have a better future for myself.” Jess said with a half eye roll. She didn’t think that her parents had done so bad for themselves. Any of them. Mom and Dad owned their house and had some money set aside for retirement. Daddy owned his truck rather than leasing it from the company he drove for. And only her mom had gone to college.
***
Maria smiled a little, vaguely amused at how annoyed Jess seemed about that sort of thing. She thought it was sweet that her parents wanted that, even if Jess didn’t seem to. “Well, I’m sure that whatever you decide, they’ll still be proud of you. Besides, I hear college degrees can help cops get promotions quicker.” She didn’t know how true that was, but she was sure that she had heard one of the cops who’d come by the bar complaining that trying to climb up the ladder without one was a pain in the ass.
***
"I think it depends on what you get a degree in how much it helps but...one can't hurt right?" Jess asked her. "But you know that's a couple years away still."
***
“Definitely not,” Maria answered. She’d never gone to post-secondary herself. It had never been in the cards for her, and she never had liked planning in the future too far. But she knew enough to know that it could open doors. “Until then, you may as well just enjoy the experience.”