Sometimes You Gotta Run Away

It was two am, and the rain was pelting down. It was, in fact, a dark and stormy night, though the sodden figure on the side of the I-5 wouldn't have cared one way or the other about the cliche. There was little traffic going by, mostly big rigs that roared past with lordly disdain for the soaked hitch-hiker. One had passed a few moments ago, but there was no tell-tale glow of light behind the crest of the road to indicate yet another approaching car, and so the figure dropped a listless thumb and resumed plodding along the highway.

She didn't know where she was going, nor did she care. At the moment, all Penny was interested in was getting a ride, and hopefully dry, or at least a meal somewhere along the road. Still, in one way it was worth it. She was not going back to the Cosmic Cafe ever again, and Robert the Asshole could go fuck himself. The young horse-girl's breath steamed in the cool, damp night air, but her mind was elsewhere, going over the events which had brought her to this point.

The Cosmic Cafe had seemed like an ideal job at first, while she finished school and tried to get her foot in the door in Hollywood. But little alarm bells had gone off in the back of her mind when she first met the manager, Robert. He was a short, scruffy hyena 'morph - well, pretty much all hyenas were scruffy, really, but he was scruffy even by their standards. He'd promised her a good basic rate, above minimum wage, actually; training, though she was pretty sure she could figure out being a barista on her own; uniform - well, apron with the cafe's logo, really - provided, and overtime if things were really busy. She wasn't sure if that was a leer or just the way his muzzle set naturally, but she'd felt as though she needed a shower after.

The reality had proved to be otherwise. While meeting new customers and greeting the regulars was one of things she did enjoy, especially the occasions when a casting director or modelling agent came in, the rest of the job sucked, big time. Her co-workers weren't too bad, but she felt nervous around Fred and George, two redheaded lions who had a mischievous sense of humour. They weren't brothers, though they could have been, and certainly acted like it, and as if she were their little sister. Still, the fact they were predators kept her on edge, though it certainly made other aspects of work easier. At least when they were around Robert was merely a creepy presence in the back. He managed to impose himself in other ways, though.

First, it had turned out that 'uniform provided' meant Robert billed her weekly for uniform rental. Next, it appeared that because she was new, she was given broken shifts, not straight shifts. This meant that as she didn't work a straight eight hours on any given day, she was a part-time employee and though she got the wage she'd been promised, she didn't get benefits. No health insurance, no vacation credit, nothing. It also meant - because Robert was very careful to walk the thin edge of the law on this - that working 2 four-hour shifts per day as he usually required her to do did not earn her overtime. Lastly, when Fred and George weren't around, he made suggestive remarks, or upbraided her for faults, real and imagined. When she pointed out to him, her third week there, that he had promised training but hadn't yet delivered, he scowled and went back into his office. The next day she found out her shifts for the next week had been cancelled, and she was booked to attend a 3-day food services course. "You won't be getting any shift time during those days, so I can't pay you," he'd said, then leered, "unless you wanna... make it worth my while."

Affronted but needing the job, Penny had bit her lip. Fortunately, her bills were paid, but it meant she'd have to put off some photo sessions she'd been hoping to book. There was worse to come, though. When she arrived at the school, she found that while she had indeed been booked, her tuition for the course hadn't been paid. Apparently, Robert didn't consider paying for training necessary; booking her off shifts in order to take the training was a sufficiently magnanimous act on his part. She was lucky; she had just enough saved to be able to pay the tuition for the course. When she returned to the cafe three days later, the proud possessor (and she was proud

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