Queen Bees.

So I wasn't going to talk about this but I had some time to think it through.

There's this girl at my work called Kyra, she is just so very very self entitled and therefore everyone hates her. I've tried being nice to her and we'll do okay for a while and then she'll give me attitude again and then we're back to square one.
My nerves are not taking all these damn teenagers very well lately. Anyway point. She's burnt all her bridges in our bar.


So in his quest to turn the casino from a pseudo brothel into an actual one, the new CEO decided that hospitality should be filled with nubile young eighteen year olds fresh out of high school. There's seriously not an overweight one among them. You'd be hard pressed to find a pimple if you lined them up against a wall. I'm supposing that in the future he'll draw up a new menu- fresh coffee- optional with sugar and blow jobs. [Where are the guys in this? Oh, we're not hiring them anymore. They don't look good in skirts. Good call.]

Among those, we have a new girl called Wifey. At first she seemed nice and amiable. And then her colours showed. She was tres bitchy. And none of this vitriol was directed at me, it was directed at Kyra.

She would pull faces at her back. Talk about how cheap she is. And just bitch about her constantly. Just a never ending barrage of insults when she left the room. This was to the point where it wasn't funny and I didn't want to talk about Kyra anymore, I wanted to talk about anything but. Politics. Hawaii. Rat Balls. Can we talk about anything else?? But I didn't stop her and I just nodded or mumbled something unhelpful. Thinking about possibly taking a shower in some aura cleaning crystals from just standing there soaking all of this up.

At some point, I asked Wifey exhaustedly "Why do you hate her so much? What did she ever do to you?"

She shrugged. "Nothing. She's a bitch."

"Oh."

OK, so she's young and thinks that nothing is a legit reason for bullying behaviour. Gotcha. Oh my God. Larry Mullins? I beg you. Please stop hiring people straight out of high school. If that's too much for you- consider declawing them first.

Anyway I mentioned to Ms Smith my concerns. If I don't solve the problem- am I part of the problem? Am I a bully?? and if I am- how the heck did I get here? I was bullied in high school. That was no fun time and I would never want to be part of something, anything even remotely like that.

In my fantasies, I am a perfectly morally upright person and would have told Wifey to shut the fuck up. Crusader for the underdog. Diplomatic yet flexible. Alas it's real life and I am not as ethical as I like to think I am. Sigh. I'm trying to be a good person.

And so I wrestled with my guilt a bit and I put it aside. Til Monday.

And this is when the tables turned and I knew the vitriol was now aimed squarely at my bystander-y head.

Chrissy came in and when she's in a mood, she will literally come in and call you a spastic, a whore, the c-word. Pick a nasty name. I was in no mood on Monday to be called anything so when she came in and said "What are you fucking doing, you spastic?" [in which I am supposed to reply "None of your business, you stupid ho"]I could only just roll my eyes and keep wiping the benchtop.

Well that didn't go down very well.

Needless to say, Chrissy and I were short with each other and then Wifey got involved.

Now when Chrissy and I have been short with each other in the past. We both just kind of got over it after a little while. But there was none of that, that day.

And then Wifey stopped talking to me and I knew what was going on.

Since Kyra wasn't there, I had taken the much wanted role of staff target practice. There were the freezeouts and the faces when they thought I wasn't looking.

And I thought "Jesus Christ. How is it that I'm twenty six- eight years out of high school and somehow I'm still there???"

It really was the world's longest shift. I missed Campbell. I missed Lighto. and RedBull and everyone who didn't make me feel like I had a bullseye attached to my head. Heck, I even missed Lucifer.

When it was all over, I remembered that I had left my keys upstairs. Shitshitshitshitshitshitfuckfuckfuck. I went back to get them and as I came upstairs, a silence descended. Yeah, I know. I've never had one of those before- I wonder if I should feel important about it.

I bypassed the stone faces of Chrissy and Wifey and as I walked back out again, Gelato gave me a 'I'm very sorry but I know that you know that they were talking about you and I have to listen to it otherwise they'll take me and use me as tomato sauce and I've only just started here so I can't really afford to offend anyone...'smile. Or I guess I could just be projecting.

Here it is: That really really was a long shift.And I was in no way fond of it. But I guess I'm not as mad about it as say I would be when I was seventeen or nineteen? If I was very pissed off about it- you would've heard about it on Monday night as opposed to four days later. And I've had some time to mull on it.

I deserve some of this cake because I didn't tell Wifey to shut the fuck up when I had the chance to and so thus let her it think it's ok to go around mauling everyone behind their backs. On the other hand, if I had told her to close her yapper [I'm running out of expressions] I think that it would've hastened my way up to the head of the line, but regardless I would still be in that queue!

So I guess that in one form or another, it was coming.

I realise that is how some people make friends- they have no proper social skills and so they form allegiances against other people to create stronger bonds [I don't know if this is worded right- anthropology is not my strongest suit] It's all very Queen Bees and Wannabes. I don't hate Wifey, in all honesty I feel really sorry for her if thats the way she chooses to make friends in this bar. Actually I feel worse for her if that's the way she makes friends, period.

You can't see me shrugging but I'm shrugging. Next roster I'm working mostly with Campbell and Wifey. I don't think she can pull this kind of shit when Campbell is around, well she can try. I'd like to see her try. I'm curious to see what she'll do when there is no-one around to play bitches with her.

Watching this space I guess. Going back to packing.