“Would you like cream or sugar with that?” I asked the customer, standing on the other side of the counter.

“No thank you. Just plain please,” She responded politely. I turned away from her and started to make her order. I hummed along to the radio as it played my favorite song over the loudspeakers in the room. The coffee machine beeped and I took the pot out. As I was pouring the coffee into the cup I heard the door open and the bell ring. Four older boys walked in and I immediately recognized one of them. Quickly, I ducked my head behind the counter in order not to be seen, but it was too late. One of them had glimpsed me and pointed me out to the one that I didn’t want to be seen by. 

“Abigail Williams! I thought that you worked here!” Jacob Nelson, a tall, skinny, brown-haired boy in his twenties, stated loudly. I stood up and smiled at him.

“Hello, Jacob,” I said and turned back to pouring coffee.

“That’s all you have to say to me? After all we’ve been through together?”Jacob frowned at her. “That makes me sad.”

I rolled my eyes and didn’t respond.

“Hey, I’m talking to you!” Jacob exclaimed loudly and walked up to the counter, cutting all the other customers in line.

“Jacob, as you can see I have other customers to tend to, so if you could please go to the back of the line and wait your turn that would be great. Thanks.”

I looked him straight in the eyes and glared. He smiled at me but his eyes were full of anger and hatred.

“Of course I can. I was just messing with you.”

With the evil look still in his eyes, he turned around and started walking away. He stopped suddenly and turned back around to face me.

“What now?” I sighed.

“Actually, I was going to wait in line for you to get your life together and for you to get a real career, but I can’t because that’s never going to happen,” Jacob laughed and high-fived his friends, before walking out of the door. A memory flashed into my brain from when we were together.

“See? This is all your fault! This is also why you are never going to get anywhere in life! You can’t even do the dishes right! How will you do anything else?” Jacob screamed at me, pointing to a broken plate on the ground. I sat in the corner of the room, a fresh bruise forming on my cheek, sobbing. He glared at me with a look of pure disgust and hatred. 

“Please stop Jacob,” I begged, tears pouring down the sides of my face. He walked over to me and grasped my face tightly in his hand.

“You are so pathetic,” Jacob whispered and threw me against the wall. I cried out as he strode away. “And worthless. You’re never going to do anything meaningful with your life.”

A feeling of deep sadness echoed inside my body. ‘He’s right you know.’ My mind said to me, ‘You’re never going to get out of this dump of a job. You’ll be stuck here forever, making coffee and getting yelled at by grumpy people.’ Tears welled up in my eyes as I reached across the counter and gave the coffee to the lady standing there.

“Here you go, ma’am,” I sniffled. She stared at me and quickly grabbed her coffee. She turned and briskly walked out of the store. “Next!” I called, wiping tears from my eyes. The next customer, a short, portly man with a very quickly receding hairline, waddled up to the counter and started his order before I could even ask him what he wanted.

“I’ll have three 4 piece Chicken Mcnuggets, a large fry, three Quarter Pounders with pickles and can you have two of those with no cheese? Thanks. Can I also have a strawberry milkshake and a Sprite? Oh! I forgot to ask for a 6 piece Chicken Mcnuggets Happy Meal. Can I have one of those?” The man said all at once. He had been talking so quickly that I hadn’t gotten all of his order into the register.

“Sir, I didn’t get all of that. Could you please repeat your order?” I asked, starting to feel stressed. Tears started to stream down my face at this point, making me feel even more embarrassed and sad.

“Were you not listening to me?” He said angrily. “That is very rude, young lady! You should have been listening, therefore I will not be repeating my order.”

“Sir, I won’t be able to get everything that you asked for because you were talking too fast and I couldn’t understand everything that you said. Can you please repeat your order?”

“That sounds like a ‘you problem’,” He said and turned around. I started to breathe quicker and quicker. ‘Why can’t you do anything right?’ My mind screamed at me as I turned away from the register and started to get his order together, ‘He gave you an order and you couldn’t even remember it? You are so useless. It’s no wonder you’re never getting out of here.’

“Three 4 piece Chicken Mcnuggets, a large fry, and three Quarter Pounders with pickles,” I whispered to myself, reading the order on the register through the tears in my eyes. “Did he want two Quarter Pounders with cheese or two without?” Fearing his response, I turned back to the man.

“Sir! I just have one question. Did you want two quarter pounds with or without cheese?” I asked. The man turned around and looked at me. 

“I’ve decided I actually don’t want the Quarter Pounders. Could I have two Big Macs instead? And can I also have a coffee with four sugars, three milks, and one cream instead of the Sprite? You better have gotten that down this time.”

“Yes, I did sir,” I said and went back to making his order. While making his orders I took deep breaths to try and calm down and quiet my mind but it was no use. My mind yelled harsh words that cut into my self-esteem like a jagged knife, making me cry harder and harder. Before I went back to him with everything he had ordered, I closed my eyes, took a nice long breath, and wiped as many tears from my eyes as I could. 

“Here you go, sir. Have a great day,” I said with the kindest voice I could muster. The man didn’t reply. He just took his food and left. I sniffled and wiped the tears that were coming down my face away. I hadn’t even been at work for an hour and so far the day was not looking good.

Five hours and many annoying customers later, I was in the home stretch. I had a little less than an hour left of work and there had been no customers for the past thirty minutes. This day had been super stressful and I used this time to calm myself down and relax a little bit. I was planning on closing up a little early if no more customers came, and going to Sophia’s house for a late dinner and maybe a movie. I checked my watch. ‘If no more customers come for the next twenty minutes,’ I thought to myself, ‘Then I’ll close up shop.’ I started to clean up any messes I had made during the day so I could leave as quickly as possible. Time seemed to pass by slowly for the last ten minutes but eventually, there was one minute left. 

“Ok time to go!” I exclaimed cheerfully to the empty restaurant. As I was walking to the door to close up shop, I saw a car enter the parking lot and travel straight to the drive-thru. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I groaned and put back on my headset.

“Welcome to McDonalds! How may I help you?” I said in a happy tone.

“Yes hello. Can I have ice water and a 4 piece Chicken Mcnugget?” A sharp female voice shot through the headset.

“Is that all for today?” I asked.

“I also want a medium fry,” The voice demanded. 

“Okay, I have ice water, a 4 piece Chicken Mcnugget, and a medium fry. Is that all?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, that will be six dollars and seven cents at the next window,” I turned off the headset and got to work on the order. I grabbed a pack of chicken nuggets and went to the window. Sitting in her car on the other side was a thin lady with silver, grey shoulder-length hair. She had long bony arms and thin fingers that were grasping her steering wheel tightly. 

“Hello, ma’am. Here are your chicken nuggets. The rest of your order will be right out,” I said politely, handing her the chicken nuggets. I turned around to go grab the rest of her order.

“Where is the rest of my food? Where is my water?” She shot back.

“I just said that they are coming. I’m going to grab them right now,” I answered, turning back around. 

“This was a very simple order. Why couldn’t you have brought it all out to me at once?” She snapped.

“I don’t have three hands to hold everything with and I didn’t want to drop any of your food," I said.

“Don’t you know I have places to be? People to meet? I am a very important person and this is just slowing me down,” She remarked.

“Ma’am, you arguing with me is slowing you down. I’m going to get your food now,” I said and went to grab her food. When I came back, she was glaring at me.

“You are a very disrespectful young lady. Don’t you know you should respect your elders?” She snapped in a very snarky tone.

“Here is your food ma’am,” I said ignoring her comment. “That’ll be six dollars and seven cents please.” As I reached out the window to give her the food and to get the money, her hand shot up quickly with the bills in it and knocked the french fries and the water out of my hands and into her car. 

“Look what you’ve done!” The lady shrieked. “This was a new dress and you got all of this french fry grease and salt all over it. What is wrong with you?!” 

“I am so sorry! Let me get some napkins to help clean up. And I’ll grab another order of fries while I’m at it,” I exclaimed.

“No, I think you’ve done quite enough, “The lady fumed, “I am going to call your boss right now and tell him that you need to be fired for unacceptable behavior!”

“Ma’am, please. I haven’t done anything wrong. It was an accident,” I pleaded.

“You have no proof that you didn’t do it on purpose, you worthless woman.”

I stepped back. “What did you just call me?” 

“You heard me. You are a worthless woman!” She paused for a second before continuing to speak. “You can’t even do a simple fast-food order right! How will you do anything else?”

These words echoed in my brain, reminiscent of what Jacob told me a while ago. Anger rippled through my body. She pressed the numbers on the keypad and got ready to press the call button.

“Ma’am please I am begging you. Don’t call my boss. I didn’t do anything wrong,” I begged, starting to get irritated with her. She just glared at me harder. 

“You can’t tell me what I can or cannot do! You ruined my clothes and threw hot french fries on me!”

As she was saying this, the anger built up in my body started to feel different. It wasn’t like any anger I had felt before. It was strong and powerful and it felt like there was something inside me trying to get out.

“Ma’am please stop talking,” I said trying to calm myself down. 

“Go get me another order! And you know what? I demand a refund! I want all this stuff for free after how you have been treating me!” The lady continued to screech at me.

“Ma’am please stop talking!” I started to feel the anger swirling around inside my body, like a raging tornado getting stronger and stronger, destroying everything in its path. I closed my eyes and tried to block the lady out and focus on just calming down. I covered my ears to cover the sound of the lady yelling at me, but it didn't help. The feeling inside me bubbled up to the top and it was then that I knew it was the point of no return.

“I’m calling your boss! And you need to get me my food! I also-,” 

“Shut up!” I screamed and threw my hands down. I felt the anger inside me come blasting out. And it literally did. The ground and walls all around me shook violently as strange blasts of purple light came shooting from my fingertips. The lady gasped as her car shook and slid away from the window, seemingly pushed by the purple light.

After a couple of seconds, the purple light faded away and the shaking stopped. From her car window, the lady stared out, wide-eyed. I stood there, shocked at what had just happened. 

“What just happened?” The lady asked, stepping out of her car. I shook my head in disbelief. 

“I-I have no idea. It seems like it was an earthquake or something,” I stammered out. I looked around the restaurant at the mess that had befallen the interior in surprise. Cracks ran up the walls and some of the tiles on the ground were split. Snacks and drinks were askew all over the place. A ketchup pump laid on the floor, broken open, and spilling the sauce inside all over the ground. 

“This is weird,” The lady said, coming over to the window, “While I am going to look into this later...” She paused. “I have places to be, so can you finally get something right and go get my order?” I stared at her for a second, still stunned at what had just happened. She snapped her fingers in my face.

“Hello? Are you listening to me?” She barked at me. I turned around and went to grab her order, staring off into the distance and trying to make sense of what I had just witnessed. I grabbed her water and the food she ordered and went back to the window. 

“Here you go, ma’am,” I said blankly. She took her food angrily and stared at me, with a look of disgust, for a moment before heading back into her car. 

“I am never coming back to this McDonalds,” She muttered under her breath. She opened her car door, placed the food in her passenger seat, and took off driving. For the next two minutes, I stood in the drive-thru window, staring into blank space, confused and still shocked at the events that had just occurred. I shook my head and turned around to face the mess that was all around me. I sighed and got to work. I grabbed a mop and went over to the puddle of ketchup. I pressed the mop into the bucket of water and started cleaning it up. While I was cleaning, I started to think about the strange purple light that had swirled around me and had seemed to cause the mayhem. ‘It couldn’t have come from me, could it?’ I thought to myself, going over the scene. I had felt so angry at the lady before a strange new feeling had arisen inside of me. The anger boiled to the top and then, bam! The strange blast had appeared. I set down the mop and stretched my hand out, pointing it at a nearby table. I closed my eyes and focused on what I had been exactly feeling at that time. The strange feeling started to appear in my stomach and I focused my mind more intensely on the emotions and thoughts that I had been having. Echoes of what the lady and what Jacob had said to me in the past fluttered through my mind as I concentrated harder on reliving the moment. All of a sudden, I felt all the strong emotions release from my body as the purple light shot from my hand and swirled around the table, lifting it off the ground. I laughed and dropped my hand to my side. The table dropped to the ground at the same time that my hand reached my side. I stared at my hands in disbelief. ‘I actually have magic!’ I thought to myself. An idea popped into my head and I perked up. I quickly finished cleaning up the messes that were made and left the building, locking up when I walked out the door. I got into my car and drove away. When I arrived at my destination, I got out of the car and walked up to the small, brown house, fuming. I knocked, aggressively, on the door. After waiting for a couple of seconds, a familiar face appeared in front of me. 

“Abby?” Jacob asked with a look of confusion on his face, “What are you doing here?”

I didn’t answer. I closed my eyes and thought about all the pain and hurt that he had caused me.

“Abby! What the hell do you want?” he asked again, annoyance rippling through his voice. I blocked out his words and focused on the immense sadness that he had brought to my life. My eyes clenched shut. When I opened them, I thrust my hand out at him, blasts of purple light coming from my fingertips. The light swirled around him and lifted him off the ground. 

“Holy shit!” He screamed, squirming around.

I lifted my hand upwards and he was lifted higher off the ground. He stared at me with a look of pure fear. Instead of feeling remorse, I felt glee and joy in seeing him suffering. I let out a laugh and lifted him higher. When he had been dangling there for a second, I once again thrust my hand forward, sending him flying backwards into his house. He screamed and collided with a wall, falling silent. I glared at his motionless body and turned away. A feeling of confidence filled my body as I got into my car. With these newfound powers, I could do anything! I could confront my boss about getting a raise, I could stand up for myself against bullies like Jacob, and most importantly I could get out of the hellhole of a job that I had! I turned the key and started the car. Street lights passed by my windows as I drove home and I smiled, happiness and confidence soaring through my body. For once in my life, my future didn’t look so dim. It was shining bright and there was nothing that could stop me.