Zippy: The Chop Shop

"Hey Jim, can you take a look at this?" Julie said, prompting the unkempt, tired young man to stir back into consciousness. It had been a long two years since he dropped out of college, but the stress was worse now, seeing all of his friends finally preparing to graduate. He should be graduating with them. Instead, he was stuck here, in this second-rate electronic repair shop. 'More like a chop shop,' he always said. Half of the equipment that was brought through here was mangled beyond use. The other half was obscure junk that had been EoL for over a decade.
Julie, despite working the front desk, wasn't stuck here like Jim was; she was one of those people ready to graduate. Once she did, she would likely be long gone. He imagined Julie had likely aced every class she ever took. He didn't have a reason for it, but she always gave that impression of effortless success. Like things simply worked out for her.
"What're we looking at?" Jim asked, rubbing his sleepy eyes. He was something of a basic average man, if a bit ungroomed. His hair was an uncombed untamed and potentially unwashed tangle of brown-blonde.
"I have no idea," Julie said, sweeping some of her midnight black hair out of her eyes with one hand and lifting up something resembling a remote with a busted PDA screen grafted onto it with the other. She was only working at the shop to help pay her way through college; she wasn't really gifted in electronic mechanics like Jim was. If she were particularly interested in the trade, she'd be jealous. She was jealous, in a way, she reminded herself. Jim seemed to have a path ahead of him. He had a gift for repair and wouldn't struggle to find work related to it. He could easily make a living here at the shop, tinkering his life away. Meanwhile, she had no idea what she wanted to do for a living. She excelled academically, but her major was too generalized, she was too torn between career paths, and so far she had yet to develop any real marketable skills. "Some kind of remote? There's no labelling to indicate what it's for."
"Lemme see," Jim muttered, slowly swiping the thing from his coworker's hand. Within seconds of poking and prodding, it came to life. That's more than I achieved, Julie thought to herself. "The gui says Aspect Exchange Menu. What the heck does that mean? Have you used it?"
He peered across the desk at the customer. Ashley was a typical party girl at the local college, and it showed. She had fake blonde hair, heavy makeup, and a skimpy top with a somewhat slutty printed slogan that showed off both her ample cleavage and her trim midriff. There was a ring in her belly button. From the waist down, it was more of the same. She had a tight sequined mini skirt wrapped around her narrow hips that was straining to contain her raging erection, and that managed to display most of her shaved masculine legs. Her large feet were sporting a professional pedicure in her strappy wedge sandals. Typical party school sorority sister material. She had zero plans for the future, she showed the bare minimum amount of effort in her courses, and she simply didn't care. And yet, somehow, she was graduating too. That placed her above Jim in his mind. How could she succeed where he had failed? A year ago, it would have burned him up, but by now he had accepted it. He was a loser. "Sorta," she said while chewing chewing gum. "I found it in the campus mall and pressed some buttons, but it didn't do anything. Then it broke. Kendra said maybe it's worth some money?"
Jim shrugged and returned his attention to the device. Maybe it was worth money. Probably not, given the fact it had wires sticking out of its sides, but he couldn't say for certain considering he didn't even know what it was. There was a section labelled "awareness" that was greyed out. He tapped it, and oddly enough, it populated his own name. His eyes widened in response. Did he need more coffee or was that real?
"Did it do something?" Julie asked. She hated being out of the loop. She hated not understanding. Maybe that's why she hated this job; there was always something she didn't quite get.
"Here, take a look," said Jim as he passed the device to her.
"... It's your name."
"I didn't type it in."
"Blutooth? Is it connecting to your phone or something?" Julie didn't actually know if blutooth could do that, but it was her best guess. Jim only shrugged in response, which she took to mean her theory was at least plausible. Julie pressed a button.
ding