Two cafes who've competed for years and a single high schooler in need of money. Shinso had always dreamed of going to UA and he made it. Unfortunately, being a student wasn't enough to pay the bills his family had left him. Maybe getting a job at t...
Sunday is here and along with it my first day of work. Yesterday I had agreed to come in today, but a time was never stated. So, I decided to just be there when it opens which is later than normal since it's Sunday. On Sunday it opens at 10 am, while on weekdays it opens earlier, so people can get coffee and breakfast before work.
I got there around 15 to and was greeted by someone I didn't recognize unlocking the door. The lights were already on inside, so somebody else was already here as well. The person unlocking the door heard my footsteps and turned around before getting it open.
"You Shinso?" Now that he was facing me, I could recognize him. He was the third chibi face on the sign and the only Halo I haven't talked to. I nodded to his question.
"Cool. Can you give this to Bad? He's in the kitchen." He hands me a bag that I didn't even realize he had and continues to open the door. In the bag was just a big container of baking powder, probably ran out while making something. Once he gets the door open, he points in the direction of the kitchen and runs off toward an unlabelled door. I do as he says and head through the kitchen door.
"Hey Bad, I was told to give this to you." There were three people in the kitchen Bad, his son, and another teenager. He looked relieved and ran over to grab the bag.
"Thank you, Shinso." He rushed back to the counter before saying anything else. "Sap, get him an apron, then make sure we're ready to open." His son gave a quick response than ran over to where some red aprons were hanging. "Karl, could you get two muffin tins ready." The other teenager quickly grabbed two pans and some cupcake liners. Bad was currently adding dry ingredients into a stand mixer. Sap handed me an apron and went out the door.
"Shinso, could you get me a small bowl. They're in the cabinet to the left of Karl." Getting over there I immediately noticed how Karl had two cabinets directly to his left one at the height of his head and another under the counter. Fortunately, he noticed my struggle and used his foot to point towards the bottom one. He didn't stop working for a second and continued to separate some cupcake liners. I opened up the cabinet and grabbed one of the smaller bowls. I placed it next to the mixer, as Bad was walking back with two eggs in hand.
Pretty soon Bad poured the batter he was making into the tins Karl had prepared. Once the muffins went into the oven the hecticness of the kitchen almost completely disappeared. "Karl can you go see if anyone else is here yet." The boy slightly wiped down his apron, then headed out the kitchen door. Bad finally took a breath after non-stop running around the kitchen since I got here.
Karl was taking a while to get back, so Bad used the time to explain some things to me. There were two other doors in the kitchen. One was to the staff room. In the staff room there was a door out the counter and another to an employee only bathroom. The other door in the kitchen was to a small storage room full of ingredients. The storage room had a door leading to a small office. The office had a door out to the eating area, which was the unlabelled door that the third Halo had walked through earlier.
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The layout of Halo Muffins because I find seeing it makes it easier to understand. The red rectangles are doors. The large one at the bottom is the entrance leading out to the main street. The leftmost door in the staff room leads out into an ally with a dumpster.
Karl eventually returned to answer Bad's question. At that point Bad had already finished his explanation and was watching the oven.
"Dream is in the staff room ready for the delivery to the Yoshidas-" I didn't even know they did deliveries. "-and Quackity just walked in." Bad nodded and Karl started to walk out.
"Karl,-" The boy hummed in response. "-can you ask Dream to get the delivery boxes." Karl nodded, then changed direction towards the staff room door and disappeared once again.
Karl didn't return, but a blonde teenager passed through the kitchen to the storage room. That teen was most-likely Dream because he left the storage room with two boxes and handed them to Bad. The blonde stayed in the kitchen for another five minutes, as Bad took the muffins out of the oven and neatly packed them away. Once Bad finished, Dream took the boxes and walked back through the staff door.
"First we should work out your schedule, then I can show you where some things are in the kitchen." He started walking towards the staff room, so I followed. The room was quite a bit bigger than I thought it'd be. Near the door there are more red aprons hanging, but these ones are different, as they all have specialized names on them. They all had their own cartoony character next to the name that matched the logo and most if not all were decorated with a variety of patches and pins. We went over to a table with a log for who was working the week. Above the table was a group photo of the employees.
"This book is where people write which days they're available to work." Bad explained. "The weeks on here start on Monday and end on Sunday." He flipped to the next page. The top of the page said April Week 2. It ranges from tomorrow, the 8th to next Sunday, the 14th. Each day is split into time slots and is about half full with names. There are some names I recognize immediately, like the Karl Jacobs <3 written for Tuesday right when the cafe opens. Others I don't know who they are, such as the Foolish W. scheduled tomorrow during school hours. Bad's name isn't written, presumably because he's here all day.
"You can work on that while I go start some cookies." With that he left to the kitchen, leaving me with the list. I decided not to go in Monday, but to go in the morning before school on Tuesday. I wrote my name in for another early morning and one day after school. I didn't write anything for the weekend, feeling it was best to just take whatever's left when I come in on Tuesday. Once I finished, I placed the pen down and headed back into the kitchen.
The next few hours I spent in the kitchen with Bad. He showed me where everything was located around the kitchen. Together we would work together on making things that we were running low on at the counter along with specialized orders from customers. Others would walk in every now and then and they'd joke like old friends. It was actually pretty fun. I can only hope Niki's Bakery is like this.
New Characters
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The characters who make it onto the new character list are only the ones who interact with Shinso or continuously appear throughout the part.
