NHL Creative Writing Prompt

So I searched the various sections and this one seems to be the best fit as it is a general discussion for things related to hockey. I had to write a creative story for my class, let me know what you guys think.

In the future you must now pay a company for the privilege to work. You do what you must because work is now mandatory, but at least you get some level of choice for your job, and what’s more you hear some jobs are actually quite fun and rewarding.

Friends of yours try to talk you into joining their companies: A one time $40 fee to work for the Helldivers Consortium, or perhaps $50 for the Baldur’s Gate Corporation. Your friends all tell you the benefits are outstanding, and that each day they find something new to enjoy. Sure - no job is without issues, but for example only a few days after the water cooler broke at Helldivers HQ, it was fixed. After a week of only having one microwave for the office at Baldur's Gate now there are five brand new ones that are even better! The CEO’s of both companies always walk the office halls to give their employees updates on new and exciting projects, and most of the time things they promise are delivered shortly afterwards. This all comes at no additional cost and keeps the workers happy and fulfilled.

But, as a hockey fan for many years, you chose to join the 24th NHL Factory. It’s a pretty steep entry fee of $70 (which requires a yearly renewal to remain a preferred employee to keep yearly working rights), but with a higher fee you’re sure the added cost will reward you handsomely with additional benefits. You pay the fee and eagerly await your first day on the Job.

Day one hits and you arrive at the parking lot. Quickly you notice that there aren’t many other cars, but you just must be early, and being early is what good employees do! A group of ten including yourself are ready for new hire onboarding and proceed to the factory doors. After watching the typical introduction video, you notice that there are only nine of you left. A seasoned employee walking by mentions the now-missing new hire must have had AT&T for his internet service; other more senior employees in the hallway all start laughing. You don’t quite understand, but since you don’t have AT&T you breathe a sigh of relief. Part of you feels bad for the four others assigned to the same shift that now are down a man. Deep down you’re also curious if the missing person will get their $70 fee back, but that’s not your concern, you came to work.

After some quick introductions you are assigned to the new hires team. The instructor tells you to go down the hall and get acquainted, and since you have some previous hockey experience and passion, you are in charge of decorating the team’s cubicles as well as your own. Once you walk a bit further down you get to your cubicle; it’s entirely black.

Black walls, carpet, furniture, calendar, black everything. In an awkward twist you look down and notice your own clothes are now all black as well. Picking your head back up you notice everyone else’s cubicle on the team is also black along with their clothes. You mention this to a supervisor who tells you they’re well aware of the issue and don’t understand it either. Being experienced and feeling a bit of pity for you, he lets you in on a secret that you can try leaving the factory, going back home, and then drive back to work which sometimes fixes it. Not wanting to do that, you decide to make the best of it and spend the first hour of your shift reorganizing your team’s desk to make it your own while corporate security looks for the missing AT&T employee, hoping that he might turn up.

You change clothes to something more color appropriate, set up photos on the desk, place decorations and are honestly pretty excited to start the next part of your onboarding now that your team has their own flair. A supervisor swings by and tells you that to get ready for training you need to navigate through a few menu forms on your computer first, but that there’s only four of five of them and they only take one click each. You progress through the forms, which really only did require one click each, but took a good 30 seconds to process each one – they must really be scrutinizing your work, attention to detail is paramount! After finishing a popup on your screen asks if you want to buy a Robot costume. You start to laugh, this must be first day hazing, that was a funny gag, robots have nothing to do with hockey! Closing out of the advertisement the prompt then tells you to proceed down the hall to the WoC conference room.

Things are looking really good as there are three other people waiting in line to get inside the room when you arrive, must be busy! When you get in line, the others inform you entry is only granted after ten people line up, which could take a long time; strange but okay, not too much longer to go! After about 16 more minutes a few additional employees show up and the doors open, it’s starting to get real and the excitement is building. In front of you is a table with name tags and positions. As you begin to look over the list of name tags, curious who the others in the room with you might be you are suddenly surprised as the name tags start rolling all over the place, making it very difficult to even find your own. The tags are darting from one side of the table to the other, even disappearing at times. It’s okay you tell yourself, after all hand eye coordination is key for this job and they are simply sharpening your skills before your shift starts, smart!

Training begins and you notice someone assigned to your team is missing. Assured he did not have AT&T internet, the instructor tells you once training begins you cannot reenter the room, so either the entire team has to leave and get marked as a no show, or you can continue on without him. Before you can really weigh the decision, one of the other new hires, falls after lightly brushing shoulders with you – he begins to convulse violently on the floor with one arm outstretched holding his company issued stick. The senior instructors all laugh, telling the crowd he’ll be okay once you get to the first water break which might not be for 20 minutes. Putting that upsetting scene out of your mind and completely forgetting about the missing teammate, you start learning about new goals the company has set, such as changing the way employees throw hockey style hits and individual recognition programs.

A corporate executive gives a brief statement that these changes were made because the masses asked for them, but does not provide any names or examples when another trainee asks out of curiosity who made those requests, or data to support that claim. Between glimpses of the convulsing employee on the floor, and worry for the missing trainee you maintain your focus as they tell you hitting has been improved and load a demonstration video. It displays an employee, who looks like a world class athlete, line up a simple mannequin in his sights, accelerate toward it at a good pace, and at the last moment lunge wide by approximately 15 feet, missing the target entirely. The trainer quickly mentions he must have loaded the wrong video because that was the video for demonstrating "Skill Issues". The correct video is selected, loaded, and this time it shows a 4’8” individual who steps on a scale which displays “75 lbs”. This time the target mannequin is gigantic and has cast-iron supports which appear to be bolted into the ground – “There's no way that thing is going to budge!”, someone in the crowd remarks. The video plays and the individual starts to move toward the target as before. Moments before impact they duck and go into a fetal position, forming an odd ball-shape of sorts. To everyone’s surprise the mannequin goes flying 6 feet into the air. The rest of the employees all cheer at seeing this, clearly pumped up. You even hear one of the executives say “That’s hockey!” while pumping his first. It’s a bit strange and certainly not realistic but you tell yourself it’s probably just for dramatization purposes and let it slide.

Next up is the new employee recognition program. They tell you that this year if an employee has scored a goal, they really wanted to honor that individual. A bit strange as the idea behind the NHL factory has always been to celebrate as a team, but let’s see what they do now. Again, they show you a video, this time of an employee putting in an empty net goal, making the score 10-1. Immediately, a camera man runs up to the goal-scorer and puts a camera 5 inches from his face. Military grade spotlights are turned on and placed at all angles, all other sources of illumination are dimmed or turned off. The sound of fireworks roar, and the dashers illuminate a gigantic helicopter clipart. You can barely see his other linemates in the background through the dim light, but you notice they are all just standing still with a 1000-yard stare. For just a split second… you almost think you caught a glimpse of a Gorilla wearing hockey equipment in the background but chuckle to yourself as you think, “This is hockey not the Zoo!”

After exiting the WoC Conference room you walk down a different hallway and see a few strange costumes in glass cases; Skeletons, Wolves, even the Robot from the advertisement before! A person from the sales division quickly tells you they can be yours for $10 each. Confused on what this has to do with hockey you tell them no thank you. He counters by asking you if you want to upgrade your battle pass, and that "Everyone asked and we listened!". Feeling sorry for the salesman you ask about the battle pass where he shows you skates with dragons on them, sticks with Christmas lights, and other things you might expect to see at Dollar General. Still, you ask him if buying the battle pass guarantees getting all the costumes. He chuckles and tells you he’s running a business, not a charity. You politely decline the offer.

The day has gone quickly, it’s time for lunch! At the cafeteria you get in line and start thinking about what you want to order. You grab a lunch tray and get in line. Suddenly and without warning another employee grabs you and demands to fight. Alarmed, you desperately yell that you have no desire to fight, you just want lunch. Others in the cafeteria crowd tell you once a fight has started it cannot be stopped and that next time if you don’t want to fight, don’t stand so close to the lunch lady. After being grabbed for about three minutes the fight ends. A lunch aide escorts you to a special table in the corner where you need to stay for at least five minutes, but possibly up to twenty. Eventually the timer counts down and you are free to return to the line. This time when you get back in line you are extremely cautious to keep your distance from everyone including the lunch lady. As the line moves along it comes to you and you excitedly place your order and begin to hand over some cash. For some reason instead of giving the lunch lady your money, you uncontrollably turn around and use both your hands to shove a different person to the ground as violently as possible.

At this point Human Resources is furious at your fighting and random acts of aggression. They pull you aside and tell you that your teamplay has been downgraded to an F, and kick you out of the cafeteria, leaving your food behind. Furthermore, as they escort you out, they tell you that your overall company review has been negatively affected and that others on your shift will now have to work with someone named Jimmy Cap who has an IQ of 15 and legally shouldn’t be allowed to work so you better hope OSHA doesn't show up. If your team does not meet quota, they will also all be marked down thanks to you.

Holding back tears and with a termination slip in your hand you slowly walk back to your cubicle to gather your belongings.

The cubicle is all black.