[Hyde POV]
I opened my eyes slightly. The two girls were sleeping on each side of my arm, with their head nuzzling on my chest.
Their naked skin rubbed against me underneath the blanket as they were still asleep.
I enjoyed the sight with a grin, and a few minutes later, I realized something.
The sun was up.
"Wait. What time is it?" I was shocked. The internet system has a panel that could tell me the clock, and I saw it was 7.30.
I have to go to work at 10.
"Damn it!" I jolted awake, and caused the two girls to groan and woke up from their deep sleep.
"Steven, what are you doing? Come back to bed~" Nicole said groggily.
I wore my underpants and said, "I have to be at work in a couple of hours. I need to go home and clean up."
Bonnie groaned, eyes half closed, "Are we going to see you again?"
"What about tonight? After I finished work?" I asked with a smile.
Nicole widened her eyes in shock. "Wait, you want to go out again?"
"What's wrong with that?" I asked, confused.
Nicole sat up, which allowed me direct eye access to her busty chest, and said, "Well, usually guys would stop calling once they got what they wanted."
"That's true." Bonnie agreed with her.
I chuckled and said, "I'm not most guys. Besides, where else would I find two open minded, slutty hot girls I could have fun with in this small town?"
Both of them giggled in embarrassment. "I'll pick you up– Wait, what are you doing today?
"Huh? Um, maybe going to check out some part time jobs." Bonnie replied.
Nicole said, "We have rent to pay, or…" She got off the bed and wrapped her hands around my neck, "...if someone wants to be our sponsor, we will be sure to show our deepest gratitude to him."
"I want to, but I'm also broke." I told her with a chuckle. Nicole rolled her eyes and said, "It's fine. I'm just joking anyway."
"Yeah, you're younger than us." Bonnie said as she covered herself slightly with a blanket and walked next to me. "We can't do that to you." She then joked, "We're going to try to find an old rich man for that."
I grabbed her buttocks and pulled her in close to me. We locked eyes together.
"I'll be the rich man. Although, I don't really have the money, so I'll have to be creative about it."
"Why did you ask about our schedule?" Nicole interjected.
I kissed Bonnie and turned to Nicole. After giving both of them deep, sloppy kisses, I said, "I have some jobs, if you're interested."
"How much is the pay?" Bonnie asked, eyes full of determination.
"It's 30 bucks a day–"
"Deal!" Bonnie agreed instantly.
"Wait, don't you want to know what type of job–"
Nicole interjected, "Not really. 30 bucks a day is like triple what we made in our part time jobs. So, yeah, we're going to take it."
"Alright. Why don't you get ready? I'll drive you back to your apartment and show you what you need to do."
We swung by Victoria's apartment after a short trip to the hotel buffet and early checkout.
The girls didn't feel like going home since they would've to face Linda there. From what they did to me last night, I was 100% sure they both hated their roommate.
"I'll stop by at lunch with some food and clothes." I told the two as they began their work at Victoria's apartment.
Since Fez rejected my cleaning job offer, I had to hire some cleaners anyway.
Both of the girls were really surprised when they saw the complete cleaning kit I gave them.
There were printed instructions for everything.
– How to operate the compact 2025-style steam cleaner,
– How to dissolve old cigarette tar without scratching paint,
– How to kill mold in the bathtub safely,
– How to lift years-old grime out of vinyl flooring and wooden flooring.
Then the equipment.
– Industrial mops, flat mops with microfiber heads, and telescoping scrub brushes,
– Grout tools, corner-detail scrubbers, squeegees,
– Spray bottles already labeled with what solution goes inside,
– Buckets, 20 gloves, heavy-duty trash bags, 20 microfiber clothes,
– Plus a full PPE setup—respirators, safety goggles, and disposable coverall suits that made their eyes go wide.
It took me 350 dollars for everything.
"Are you running a professional cleaning job?" Nicole asked in shock.
Bonnie added as she wore the gloves. "I tried to clean my uncle's apartment after he did. My hand cracked and peeled for a week after all the chemicals."
"Well, that's what the PPE's for." I told them with a smile. "Make sure to wear the respirator properly… or if you want to get high from the fumes, you can decide what you want." I teased.
I left them there to get back to the Formans as I need to change into my suits. When I got into the car, the system notification suddenly popped out.
[10 minutes before the next episode started]
"Wait. 10 minutes? The reminder kept getting shorter and shorter."
I pressed on the gas pedal. When I got home, I immediately snuck into the basement and changed my clothes into a suit.
As I went to the kitchen, the scene was already on going.
As he was sitting and holding a newspaper, Red said, "Everybody knows that today is my last day at work. The last day that the plant is open. So… I just want to tell you all that everything is going to be great."
He added with a comforting smile, "So… Great."
"Daddy, that is such good news. Can I have $20?" Laurie said, which made Red sighed in exasperation.
"You get in the basement." Kitty scolded her.
"Good morning class." I greeted with a husky voice.
Red saw me and scolded, "Steven. Did you not come back again last night? That's the second time. This place isn't a hotel for you to check in and out whenever you want."
I didn't react and sat in the middle of the family. Kitty and Eric on my left, Red and Laurie on my right.
"I was drunk. So I checked into a motel." I said, which made Red grumbled again, looking really disappointed.
[-5 favorability]
"Steven." Kitty called out firmly.
" I figured it would be better than me drunk driving." I said, making excuses.
Mrs Forman was taken aback, and she suddenly sided with me, "I guess that was the responsible thing to do."
"That's not the point. He went out with a girl, got drunk, and checked into a hotel." Red grumbled.
Laurie and Eric laughed.
Red asked, "That's a really irresponsible thing to do. You're a high schooler, not an adult –"
I turned to Red with a soft smile and interjected, "She never showed."
Kitty, Eric and Red all were taken aback. Laurie laughed and mocked, "Did you get drunk because you got stood up? You loser."
"Honey! Steven's not a loser." Mrs Forman defended me quickly.
Red chuckled, his mood lifted slightly. "Well, it seems like you had an uneventful night. So I'm going to let this go. This is the last time, alright?"
"Alright sir." I agreed with him and ate my pancakes.
Eric mocked with a sing-song voice, "You got stood up, you got stood up."
"Shut up Eric." Mrs Forman scolded him.
The scene ended, and the normal breakfast could resume now.
Red reached into my pocket and gave me a stack of fives. "Here, the money you made from yesterday."
It was the money from the 93 resumes I sold.
"I already took my cut and gave Eric his cut." Red added.
Eric said, "I have split mine with Donna."
Laurie's eyes were almost salivating at the cash. "That's a lot of money." She said,
"Cool. Thanks Red." I counted and it was 280 dollars. I turned to Kitty and handed her the money. "Here Mrs Forman."
However, as I was turning, the scene started again. It seemed like it cut out the part where Red gave me the money, and only included the part where I gave Mrs Forman the money.
"Oh Steven. I can't accept this. This is your hard earned money." She tried to push it away from me.
"Steven. Put that away." Red scolded me. "I'm not that broke yet to accept your money."
He looked really offended by it.
I turned to him and said seriously, "It's not giving. It's safekeeping."
"Safekeeping? Oh, I can do that." Kitty accepted it easily.
Red grimaced and said, "Didn't I open you a bank account?"
"That won't stop me. And I need someone to manage it," I added with a deep, dark vibe . "Otherwise, I'll just keep funneling it into the endless void inside me that formed from working nine-to-five and selling my soul to corporate America."
"What?" Kitty was confused.
Red agreed with me, "Yeah…"
Eric grimaced and asked, "What did you do with your money for you to feel that way?"
"I went to the dentist for the first time in 17 years." I muttered, which made him laugh.
[+10 favorability]
I celebrated inwardly as my sudden dark meta commentary I took from The Amazing World of Gumball works.
I didn't know if I could join the scenes, or did I remember anything from the episode. The synopsis said Kelso would get a new van, but he wasn't around, so it would be happening when I was gone.
The synopsis said, 'Red gets drunk at a bar on the last day of work and when Eric, Fez and Hyde go to pick him up, he gets them drunk as well; Kelso gets a van and has sex.'
I wonder why the sex part was mentioned there. Kelso and Jackie have had sex before. And like, all the time.
When I arrived at Bargain Bob, I was thoroughly surprised when I saw a long line of customers waiting for the door to open.
"Hey! Don't cut the line!" Someone shouted at me.
"I work here." I shouted back. I asked a couple people close by why they came so early. They were afraid that the bulbs would run out, and a few of them wanted to see the model for the fliers.
Midge did come as she was so excited about her modelling job. Bob would work the counter with her today while I tried to get the people to buy the appliances.
From the minute the door opened, the store was filled with people looking around.
"I want 10 of the new energy saving bulbs." One man asked the counter urgently.
Bob said, "Alright."
I said loudly to Bob from afar while dealing with a man interested in buying a clearance fridge, "Ask where they come from to check the effect of the flyers!"
"Oh! Right!" Bob widened his eyes. "Where did you–"
"Kenosha." The man replied hurriedly. "I drove 2 hours to get it."
"Nice." I smiled in excitement.
I sold 2 clearance refrigerators in just 20 minutes. They were at 100 dollars, so my commission was only 10 bucks, but the clearance sale was a good thing to clear out dead stocks.
In two hours, I sold 3 TVs, a washing machine, 5 toasters, and 1 more fridge. It was a good day for a sales job.
Bob suddenly came to me with a worried face.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Hyde. Can your hookup deliver more bulbs today? Cause we're almost out of stock."
"We've sold out almost 2000 bulbs?" I asked with a slight shock.
Bob nodded nervously and said, "There's hundreds of people outside. If they learn about it, they will all go away."
I nodded in understanding and said seriously. "Bob, I did something that might make you a bit mad."
"What did you do?" He was shocked.
"Well, I ordered 3000 more of those bulbs… on loan." I said with a smirk. "I've kept it in a storage unit nearby. If you want them, I can just go and pick them up."
"NICE HYDE!" Bob slapped my back so hard, I almost fell forward. "I didn't know you could loan it." He laughed.
"Only because the guy trusts me." I said. "But the loan price will have some interest. He wants to make some money too."
"How much?" Bob asked seriously.
"1.55 per bulb."
"So that will be…"
"4650." I helped him.
"Alright." Bob agreed instantly. "I'll just make the price 3.10 now because of the heavy demand." He grinned sleazily.
I chuckled and went to pick up the bulbs. I drove the truck lazily around town, and returned to the store with the 3000 bulbs on the back.
I bought it from the system store, so I didn't really need to go to the storage unit. I just wanted to get out of work for a bit since there's too many people there.
Bob gave me the 4650 in cash, plus 300 more for my cut. That's almost 5 grand.
He sold over 15,000 dollars worth of bulbs today, so he was really happy.
And almost all of the stocks in the place were gone. The store was almost empty by noon.
Bob has a warehouse he used to store the stocks, so he brought new units to fill up the spots quickly.
When they were stocking up, I went to check on Victoria's apartment and brought the girls some lunches. But when I went there, they were gone.
Victoria was there though.
"Hyde! They have finished cleaning." Victoria told me happily. "I can move in tonight."
"Oh," I muttered flatly. "Where are they now?" I asked.
"I drove them back home. They brought all of the supplies with them and asked me to tell you about it."
I didn't mind it. If they took it with them, or stole it, it would cost me only 70 bucks anyway. I have to pay them 60 bucks so it would just be a 10 dollar loss.
Although, I was pretty sure they weren't stealing it. They just wanted to use it to clean their own apartment.
…
After lunch, Jackie and Donna came to the store to visit me.
"Look!" Jackie said, twirling her hair around while I was handling a customer.
"At what?" I asked, annoyed.
"My hair. Don't you see how luscious it is today?" She grinned in excitement.
Donna crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. She scolded Jackie as she stood beside her, "I told you to not bother him. He's working really hard, don't you see that?"
Suddenly, the camera was on me. I was handling a customer and finishing a deal, and the camera caught that.
"The Packers right?" I laughed with the customer. "I can't believe he thought the Bear would win the next one."
"He's insane, that's why." The customer said. "So, am I buying this one or this one?" He asked as he pointed at two similar toasters.
"This one is great, I used this one. Although it might act up sometimes and burn my toast. This one has a great reference so far from all of our returning customers. It is a bit more expensive though."
"It's fine. I'll do that one." He picked the more expensive toaster.
I grinned and said, "Nice choice. I'll wrap it up for you nicely. Maybe give you a Bear cup while I'm at it."
He burst into laughter and walked away. "Stop it. I can't laugh anymore." he said chokingly.
Then, my smiling face turned into a flat one. I rubbed my cheek slightly, to show I was sore from all the smiling.
[+5 favorability]
The audience didn't see the initial conversation, but they recognized I have good people skills.
"Have you seen Micheal's new van?" Jackie suddenly said.
"Kelso got a van and I missed that?" I said, slightly complaining.
Donna laughed and said, "Yeah. I'm surprised the bucket of bolts can even move."
I lowered my tie slightly, showing signs of FOMO. (Fear of Missing Out)
"I need to get out of here. I can't stay here anymore." I muttered.
Suddenly, Bob approached me. "Steven, here's your check for last week. Boy I got to tell you, I've seen a lot of salesmen, I've never seen someone make that much money in a week."
I didn't check the checks, and joked with Bob sleazily, "Well, I've never seen you make this much money in a week."
Bob laughed and said, "Don't I know it? Oh! A new customer! Hyde! Wrap up quickly. Donna. Don't bother my number 1 salesmen!"
Bob left hurriedly as Donna rolled her eyes and retorted, "I wasn't bothering him. Jackie did– He's gone now." She sighed as she knew her dad wasn't hearing her anymore.
Jackie squealed, and Donna was curious. "Hyde. Let me see." Donna asked as she gestured to the check.
I gave it to her, and she widened her eyes as she read it. 60 hours of work plus commissions for 6 days came to a total of 250 dollars.
For a highschooler who earned around 150 a week if they worked part time, that was a lot of money.
"Hyde! You're rich!" Donna was excited. "Maybe you can afford the concert ticket for KISS!"
"Hyde, next week when you go to school, everyone will know about it since I'm going to tell everyone. So you can expect to be very popular." Jackie giggled.
I sighed and said, "If I go back to school."
"What? Hyde, what do you mean by that?" Donna asked, confused.
"I think of dropping out," I muttered flatly.
"But, you need to go to school. At least, get a high school diploma." Donna was flabbergasted at my decision and tried to convince me to stay in school.
Jackie admonished her best friend. "Donna, his chances are limited. I actually supported him in dropping out early. Getting into the workplace earlier will give him a head start compared to the others."
"See. Jackie gets it." I said, then questioned myself, "I agree with Jackie now? What's wrong with me?"
"Hyde. You can't drop out. Didn't we say we're going to graduate together?" Donna asked.
"That's before my mom abandoned me." I muttered. "And I don't want to be a burden to the Formans. If I save some money, I can move into my own apartment."
"Oh that's great Steven." Jackie clapped and agreed with me. "You're getting independent. That's much more mature than Micheal."
Donna was frazzled and she wanted to refute me, but she couldn't. So she brought Jackie away hurriedly.
The scene ended, and the camera wasn't on me anymore.
I went back to the store. I sold 4000 dollars in sales today. That was an additional 200 dollars to the commission check.
Bob closed the store at 5 instead of 10 at night since he was almost out of the bulbs and the others stocks.
"What are we going to do? There's another day in the clearance campaign tomorrow." Charlie asked with nervousness.
The customers were banging on the front door, mumbling about the new bulbs.
"Hyde. We need three thousand more of those." Bob said nervously.
Since we gave free bulbs with purchases over 30 dollars, the bulb stocks were diminishing quite rapidly. Bob has 50 of them left.
"I can ask him, but I'm not sure if he can make it. He's in Minnesota right now." I pretended to be thinking about it.
"A dollar 70. Tell him I can buy it at that price." Bob said firmly.
I smirked and said, "I'll make sure to do that. I think he can come back here tonight."
Bob gave me the keys to unload the bulbs when it came, and gave me the money for it.
In total, I received 10,350 dollars from Bob.
I spent 1800 for the bulbs.
So I made a profit of 8550 dollars.
In 1977 terms, I was filthy rich.
I could buy a house– a small, dilapidated one that needed a lot of work. The median house price in the town was around 25 thousand to 40 thousand after all.