Live Justice, Live Keaton (…err Emily)

Emily Bauman, staff reporter

Now normally, Keaton writes about his usually unfortunate and overcomplicated life at Justice here for his weekly component. This week, however, Keaton was too busy owning the stage as Lafou in the school’s play of “Beauty and the Beast”. Justice is a tight-knit family (we all made it to the play at some point or another) and we all made sure that for Keaton’s sake he wouldn’t have to work any shifts so his mind could remain on the play.  I picked up some extra shifts at work, so this week its Live Justice, Live Emily.

Monday shifts always go to Reagan, Tuesday to me, Wednesday to Holly, and Thursday to Keaton. On my normal shifts, Tuesdays are pretty laid back days, we don’t do a whole lot and I always have time to do any homework I need to do. Thursdays are a totally different story.

When I first walked into the store the back counter was covered. I couldn’t have seen the white counters under the glitter and rainbow-covered clothes that were piled up for markdowns. I’d totally forgot, Thursdays are when merchandise usually get placed into clearance and apparently this was going to be a big one.

Our manager Jessie tells me that we have been tasked with moving all the clearance jewelry to a different fixture because the abundance of necklaces, bracelets, and earring were not going to fit where they were currently supposed to go.

The second I touch a necklace it gets tangled into the one behind it,  and then the one behind that and so on. Before I knew it every single necked somehow managed to create an undetachable knot that I thought was going to be the end of my mental stability, but Jessie being the retail superhero that she is, swooped in and relieved me from the frustrating task.

I then focused on figuring how to place all the different styles onto one fixture into a logical pattern. The knot seemed difficult, and this was a puzzle I wasn’t ready for.

The mall closes at nine, I got there at five, I finished the clearance fixture at 9:30. I don’t think I’ve ever used that much brain power in one sitting at work ever before. I arranged and rearranged the bracelets and earrings for what seemed like millions of times finally getting to a place where everything fit… well except for that one necklace that got pushed behind, but we aren’t going to talk about that.

The shift went by fast because I was so consumed by the daunting task, but when Jessie and I left the store I informed her, I would never, ever, work a Thursday shift like that again, even if it was for Keaton. My brain just can’t take it.