Step Closer by Scott Cawthon

Author:Scott Cawthon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Today Kasey felt unusually hungry when she walked to work. She ignored the fall leaves that swirled near her and left her glasses in her jacket pocket. She willed herself not to think about Ballora but to think about food instead. Usually she took her one free meal per shift at lunch, but today she thought she might order breakfast instead. The Royal Breakfast Special, she decided. Three buttermilk pancakes, two eggs to order, bacon, and home fries. She was running early this morning, so she would have time to eat before the first customers trickled in.

When she walked into the restaurant, Jimmy and Brenda were sitting together in a booth, like they were waiting for her. They did not look happy.

“Kasey, I’m glad you got here early this morning,” Jimmy said, gesturing for her to sit down across from them. “We need to talk.”

In Kasey’s experience, when somebody said we need to talk, the words that came after weren’t going to be good. Nobody ever said, “We need to talk. So how about a raise and this plate of warm cookies?”

With a sinking feeling, Kasey sat down in the booth.

Jimmy folded his hands in front of him. “Brenda has told me that, since you started working here, she’s been getting a lot less money in tips. Do you know anything about that?”

The hunger in Kasey’s stomach was replaced by fear. “How am I supposed to know what Brenda makes in tips?” she asked.

“Well,” Jimmy said, “customers leave their tips on the table, and sometimes the money’s still on the table when you bus it, so—”

“I know you’ve been stealing my tips off the table!” Brenda interrupted. Her face was red with rage. “Not all the money, but enough so you think I won’t notice. But I do notice! I know my regular customers. I know what they order, and I know how much they tip.”

Kasey remembered the first rule of the Thieves’ Den: If suspected or caught, deny, deny, deny. “Look, Brenda, I know you didn’t like me from the moment I walked in the door. And it’s okay. You don’t have to like me. But that doesn’t mean you have the right to accuse me of things I don’t know anything about.”

“See?” Brenda elbowed Jimmy. “Shifty, like I said. Aren’t you gonna fire her?”

Jimmy closed his eyes and massaged his temples like he had the world’s worst headache.

He was quiet so long that Kasey finally broke the silence and said, “Am I being fired, Jimmy?”

Jimmy opened his eyes. “You’re not being fired. You’re being watched. If there’s anything to what Brenda says, cut it out, or you will be fired. Now get back to work.”

“Yessir.”

“ ‘Cut it out?’ ” Brenda said. “That’s it?”

“Like I said, I’m watching her,” Jimmy said, then looked at the door. “Here comes the early-morning crowd. You’d better get to work, too.”

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