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preface
The Boom Boom Room operated on strict premises. It had to. It had no known security and only one bouncer, Jordan. However, Jordan was quite large, and people knew better than to disagree with him. In the rare cases where people bypassed Jordan to enter the club, Sam stepped in.
Sam's expendable job was, during these rare cases, crucial: the handing out of mints. Jordan held the only masculine job of the Boom Boom Room. Once guests were allowed in, they immediately were met by Sam. The idea that an employer would give someone the job of something as silly as handing out mints was in itself so comical, guests automatically felt at ease. Now, they could enjoy the club as it was meant to be enjoyed. So, actually, it was an amazingly sly technique.
When unwanted visitors shoved their way into the club, Jordan passed the message to Sam with a well-practiced fake sneeze. Sam, who stood mere feet beyond the door and was always within earshot of Jordan, would then quickly reach into his pocket and offer a special mint to the intruder, rather than one from the usual basket. The average intruder was slow; he would accept the mint as though it came from the normal basket and think nothing of it. Indeed, Sam's hand worked so fast that it often looked as though the mint did come from the normal basket. However, within five minutes of swallowing said mint, the visitor would begin feeling sharp pains in the stomach, pains similar to having a burning, eruptive liquid shoved into one’s stomach by a knife. When the pains were enough to make the beholder want to throw up, the visitor would rush to the infirmary, eager for the fastest available relief.
When the Boom Boom Room had started about a year ago, Samia had been the nurse. Before applying for the position, she had earned enough college credits to become an MD, but had turned down the chance in hopes of finding a different major. Soon out of work, Samia quickly regretted the choice to turn away from medics when she had been close enough to touch her degree. Once work began at The Boom Boom Room and Samia found she was the only one in the medical office, she promoted herself to MD and had the sign on the door appropriately altered.
It was thanks to Samia that intruders of the BBR could be punished so easily; she'd invented the bad mint. Actually, the entire incident had been an accident: While working in her medical lab about three weeks before the opening of the BBR, she'd decided to attempt a new flavor of icing, vanilla-mint. Little did she know that the new vanilla she'd recently bought had been mixed up by the health-food store-owner. She'd actually purchased a new FDA non-approved drug, vanillalanine. Vanillalanine had no flavor, so her new icing had tasted like mint, but resulted in an upset stomach. Though the experiment had permanently ruined her liking of icing, it had been exactly what the Boom Boom Room was looking for. When she mentioned that she'd invented such a product at the job interview, they'd asked if she could reproduce the drug in mint-form. They went on to describe the specific form of the mint: that it should be round and small, preferably a greenish color, and not contain too much cholesterol. Having replied yes, Samia was offered the job on the spot, unbeknownst to her that there had been no other applicants.
The Boom Boom Room was a square building. The nightclub had an entrance, a main dance floor, a bar, and a back hallway with an infirmary on one end and a storage room on the other. Every once in a while, a guest on the brink of vomiting would wander into the back hall and come to Samia complaining of sharp, constant pains in the stomach. She automatically understood that said person had come into the club without permission. Therefore, she'd tell them she'd be with them in a moment, go back in her office and watch TV for a few hours, then come out and offer the antidote. If the patient was still there, a 1 in 26 chance, she'd give them the pill. The one pathetic fellow who'd actually stuck around had taken it and left without thanking her. Still, times like these made Samia smile. After all, she never saw the same face twice.
Colin, who owned the BBR and was thus the manager, had been unsure about using such a mint once Samia had explained her ingredients. A non-approved FDA drug? What exactly had caused the FDA to say vanillalanine shouldn't be used and how would the BBR be reprimanded if authorities found out they'd given it knowingly to select guests? Quick on her feet, Samia had confidently assured Colin that anyone who did go to a hospital with worse symptoms would not mention where he got the mint because that would prove he'd illegally entered the club. That had shut Colin up for the time being, which was approximately a year ago. He still popped in, though, from time to time, to check of any outside reports of ill happenings due to mints. One such time occurred about a week before the story begins.
Colin had knocked on the door to Samia's office and entered, leaving the door wide open, much to Samia's annoyance. As an MD, she was used to closed doors and private meetings. However, she believed asking her employer to close the door would be rude so instead she'd offered him a chair and got up to do the task herself.
Colin had shaken his head and remained standing. At this, Samia had realized what a futile gesture offering him a chair had been; Colin's meetings were always short, quick, and to the point. In fact, there was only ever one point. So, pausing halfway to the door, she'd turned to face him and answered him before he'd even voiced the question. "No, for the tenth time, Colin, I've heard no reports from any hospitals of patients complaining due to a mint. Or from any doctors," she'd added hurriedly as she saw him preparing to speak.
He'd still looked disbelieving, so Samia had told him, in a gentler voice, "You may want to remember, Colin, that I took that drug too, in the icing. The worst thing that happened to me was that I threw up."
Colin had looked startled at that piece of information, probably because Samia had coincidentally "forgotten" to mention this minor side affect at every other meeting. Colin even opened his mouth to say something, but at that exact moment, Pam walked by the still-open door with her good friend Kayla, causing Colin to momentarily forget anything he'd been about to say. Samia had watched with an amused look on her face as Colin counted slowly to five, then walked out of the room , undoubtedly to follow Pam, whom he'd suddenly developed feelings for after finding out she was engaged. As Samia thought back to this moment of a week ago, she stifled a laugh, not because of Colin's comical behavior, but because, during their entire session, he hadn't managed to say a word.
Colin wasn't the only one to become entranced by the sight of Pam these days. Pam had a flirtatious manner that the devious Kayla (A.K.A. Jordan's wife) encouraged her to put to use as they made their nightly rounds through the club, even though she was engaged. This had resulted in many men realizing what an irrevocable pity it was that she was engaged and what a catch she truly was. Kayla had done an envious job in convincing her that she would not be able to do this once married, and even Pam eventually had to admit she was having fun.
Of course, the one person not having fun with Pam's flirtatious behavior was her fiancé, Adam. Adam, unlike most others, had realized early on what a wonderful person Pam was: beautiful, funny, enjoyable to hang out with. This was why, after only a year of steady dating, he'd popped the question. Pam had not given him an answer right away (or a while away), and had ended up making him wait ten months for a reply. Adam hadn't minded though and Pam had made it seem like she was merely thinking things through - very thoroughly.
Adam, however, knew of the other reason she had waited so long. Pam had wanted to see if the BBR would be successful since, indeed, Adam owned the land it was on. That land was Adam's most important, as well as first and only, investment, and Pam had seen that if the BBR failed, she'd be in a relationship with a bankrupt man, and they'd probably end up breaking things off anyway. So, by waiting to accept Adam's proposal, Pam had overstepped what could've evolved into a fatal hole in their relationship. This is why, after careful consideration, Adam decided that he didn't mind Pam's new behavior quite so much.
Kayla, on the other hand, didn't have such a trusting husband. She and Jordan had been high school sweethearts and they'd eloped just a month after graduation. However, like all young marriages, the excitement had died out quickly. Unlike most young couples, however, Kayla and Jordan did not blame their marriage failures on their parents, friends, high school, living area, the word "hullabaloo", Harry Potter, Chinese food, manmade lakes, Lindsay Lohan, or, even more surprisingly, teen actress/singers in general. No, Kayla and Jordan chose to blame their marital problems on something quite different: NC.
NC, despite what you're thinking, does not stand for North Carolina, northern California, no calls, or Noah Connor (or perhaps that one does). NC was actually a fad that swept through the under-twenty generation. It stood for No College and stated that not going to college after high school was the new going to college after high school. So, the year these characters graduated, they looked for jobs instead of an education. Most proved unsuccessful, prompting them, like Kayla and Jordan, to do slightly uncharacteristic things.
Their sudden marriage did bring about a few positive results, though, if not on the couple themselves. Jacob, who acted as their holy minister after an eleven-minute crash course on the internet, began a slow business in said profession. Curtis discovered he was handy with a knife when he provided the two courses for their reception. Thus, he became a butcher. And Christian photographed the happy ceremony, chosen because he owned the most expensive camera the couple could find. However, of all the jobs everyone attempted, only Christian, voted Class Clown in eighth grade, created a prosperous business.
The reason most people failed to get jobs is because someone somewhere some time ago decided three is better than two. Let me explain: a college diploma has three signatures on it while a high school diploma has only two. Said loser looking for his way to go down in history said, "Three is bigger than two. Three is better than two!" And still no one knows his name.
Adam, who could always be depended on to do things himself, bought a piece of promising land. Colin made a down payment and constructed the Boom Boom Room there. He first recruited his best friend Sam to work there, without even a job in mind for him. The opposite was true of Jordan, who was invited strictly to be a bouncer. With Jordan came Kayla and with Kayla, Pam, who at the time still owed Adam an answer. Kayla and Pam became unofficial greeters, walking around the club every night and making sure guests were satisfied. Jacob, Curtis, and Christian all came aboard through Jordan and Kayla.
Samia, the only one to actually come through a job interview, read about the opening in a newspaper blurb. Currently in need of a job, she'd been pleased just to know an inexperienced nurse was needed somewhere. It had been another pleasant surprise to find the BBR headed by people she knew from high school. And finally, through Samia came the last recruit, the one who was needed at the club least but was equally important in its success.
Sonya decided to test out her passion after high school: writing and reporting. However, she too found that newspaper editors preferred three signatures over two. Frustrated after her fourth failed job interview, she one day sat sketching absentmindedly when she realized her drawing wasn't half bad. She began posting her drawings on the internet and it wasn't long before an online newspaper offered her a job drawing political cartoons. Entertaining at first, she soon found keeping up with politics tiring. That's why Sonya was so happy to get a call from her good friend Samia one day about eight months after graduation. Samia had seen her cartoons online and was offering her a job advertising for a club whose name was something like Thud Thud or Clank Clank. Sonya, just happy to be rid of politics, accepted immediately.
Finally, at last, the Boom Boom Room was complete.
Now the action can begin.
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