Chapter Text
Betsy Swain sat at her sewing machine at Underworld. She focused on her work, shutting out the banter going on around her. At sixteen years old, she had just finished her GCSE’s. She was now waiting for the results, although she feared she wouldn’t have passed many of her exams. Life had been crazy. Stressful. Just getting up in the morning and dragging herself to school had felt like the most impossible task. Life was still stressful now. She had been looking forward to a summer of fun with her mates. She’d even been working on her Mum to let her go on a little holiday with them. Nowhere fancy. Just a caravan or a cabin somewhere that they could let their hair down and have fun.
“Alright, Nepo Baby?”
Betsy glared at Bobby Crawford, as he walked past her. He worked in the admin department and was only a few years older than her. She wasn’t keen.
“Would you all stop calling me that?” she snapped.
She glanced around the room at her colleagues. There was Sean Tully, the campest man she had ever met. Izzy Armstrong, who Betsy secretly thought was amazing, not giving into her disability and ploughing ahead full steam. Fiz Dobbs, with her wild, red hair and motherly attitude. Then there were the loudmouths, Beth Sutherland, Kelly Crabtree and Janice Battersby. Beth was married to the guy who worked in packing. Kirk. Nice but dim.
Wiki was Betsy’s favourite person on the shop floor. She was Polish, very clever and very astute. She was also the only one who didn’t call her Nepo Baby. Even the two Deputy Managers, Sarah Platt and Michelle Connor seemed to agree with the staff. She was starting to regret agreeing to a summer job at the factory with her Mum. But the work would create a fantastic portfolio for when she started college in September. And honestly, she had nothing else to do but sit and think about everything that had gone wrong in her life.
“I mean, it is kind of true,” Sean said. “You didn’t have to apply for this job. It was just given to you.”
“It’s a part time summer job,” Betsy snapped. “I’ve not won a role on The fucking Apprentice!”
“Ooh, get you,” Janice remarked. “Piping up!”
“I just want to get my work down. Honestly, you’re all boring me to tears.”
She looked at Wiki, who was frowning.
“Except you,” she said. “You and Fiz are nice to me.”
“Ooh, points from the Nepo Baby!” Beth commented. “Maybe you two are in line for a promotion.”
“Betsy?” Sarah said, leaving the boss’s office and approaching the teenager. “Your Mum. Sorry, the boss wants to see you.”
Betsy sighed and stood up, amid comments from the team. She stomped into the office and closed the door.
“What? They’re already giving me a hard enough time as it is!”
Lisa Swain looked up from her desk.
“Sorry,” she said. “I just wanted to check in and see how you’re doing. Maybe we could order some lunch in?”
“Having lunch with the boss isn’t really going to help,” Betsy said.
“If they’re giving you hassle, I can say something, you know,” Lisa offered.
“No!” Betsy said quickly. “Don’t speak to them. Please. You’ll only make things worse.”
Next time... Lisa's world is thrown into turmoil...