PoV: You Work at a Diner (One Piece × Reader)

Chapter 1

You wake up to the sound of your phone alarm on a Monday morning. You groan as you roll out of bed and check the time on your phone: 6:45 a.m.

You should've turned off that alarm, now that you're out of school. High school graduation was last week, and today starts your first day of summer.

Might as well get up, you think to yourself as you sit up and rub your forehead, still tired from staying up last night, gaming or whatever. You start browsing through your phone as you start getting ready for your day.

Once you make it downstairs to the kitchen, you decide to turn on the little TV there, just for giggles. The channel was already turned to the news station, as your dad tended to watch the local news while eating breakfast.

"Today's Breaking News: 3 people were shot and killed in a recent drive-by that occurred at around 4:15 a.m. Police have not yet caught the perpetrators, but are investigating as we speak. Witnesses state that..."

Grim as it was, this was pretty normal in your little, suburban town. You listen for the description of the suspects and victims as you heat up some leftovers from the dinner you had last night. This may not be the safest town, but it's definitely the cheapest, and with both your parents working long hours at their low-paying jobs, it at least provided a roof over your heads.

It was tiring, though, and the town isn't really the appropriate place for you to start your career. You remember the posters in your room of your dream college: which you got a full-ride scholarship to! Your parents were proud and you were proud, and by the end of the summer, you will be many miles away from this crime-infested town and move onto its campus, where you will start college in the fall.

The news station ranted on and on about the situation in your area, so you decide to change the channel as you sit down and eat your food. You manage to find the cartoon channel, where your favorite show was playing, when you hear footsteps coming down the stairs.

"Y/N? What are you doing?"
You turn around bug-eyed as you see your tired mom looking at you, confused. You forgot that you used to leave for school before your parents got up for work. But with your mom being a light sleeper, she must've woken up to the sound of the TV and of you preparing breakfast.

"Oh, hey mom..." you smile weakly, laughing nervously.
"Honey, why are you up so early?" Your mom yawns and rubs her eyes, "you can sleep in, you know.."
"I know that," you sneer, picking up your phone, "but it turns out that your daughter forgot to turn off her alarm when school ended, so here I am."
You lean back in your chair and sigh, "Plus, I'm might have to keep this habit up, since I plan to start work in a week or so..."
"Is that so?" Your mom sits down in a chair next to you and lightly pinches your cheek, managing a smile, "Such an independent young woman, already!"
"Oww, stop it, Mom..." you giggle, obviously not in any pain. She chuckles as she brings you into a big, warm hug. Even if you were looking forward to moving out, the hugs from your mom would be something you would definitely miss the most.

You suddenly remember something as you stop hugging your mother, "Speaking of which, I need to call my friends so we can look for jobs together."
Your mom suddenly laughs nervously, "Sweetie, no offense...your friends seem nice and all, but...are you sure they will be willing to work?"

You take no offense to it, because you were actually thinking the same thing. Your two college friends, Luffy and Usopp, didn't seem to be the type to want to work. In fact, Luffy was a snob who wanted to live life his way, and he seemed to be the last person to want to work, let alone for someone else. But you knew these two well. They may seem lazy, but Usopp was always tinkering around in his garage with some new invention whenever you went to visit. And Luffy- well, he's not doing anything right now- but he is currently planning a huge road trip in which he's going to gather a bunch of friends and travel to see the world, and that didn't make him lazy in your eyes.

Plus, money is a powerful motivating factor, and so is being able to eat.

"I'm sure with enough convincing they will be willing to go job searching with me," you grin at your concerned mother.
"If you say so," your mom sighs, getting up to grab some milk, "but remember that it's exam week at the college. I don't think you should distract them..."

Oh right, you forgot that your friends still had to take those. You open your phone and send both of them quick messages, wishing them good luck on their exams.

Later in the day, you walk to the cafeteria on the campus of the community college your friends attended. You guys agreed to meet and have dinner there, as a way to de-stress from the morning of intense testing.
You get your food and walk to the dining area. As you look around the room, you spot a frantically waving hand, which is attached to a very excited young boy with black hair and a scar under his eye. Next to him sat a darker-skinned boy with long, curly hair and a noticeably long nose.

You approach the two and greet them happily, "Hey, you two! How's the exams coming along?"
"Oh, it's terrible!" Usopp sighs, almost dramatically, "I'm afraid I have the worried-about-exam-results disease!"
"It's not too bad," Luffy interjects, picking his nose, "the tests are pretty easy, I was able to finish them before anyone else."
"Luffy, I'm not sure that's a good thing..." Usopp looks at his friend worriedly, "It's not supposed to be a race, it's to test you on the information you learned in the classes!"
"Really?? Why would they do that?" Luffy tilts his head, genuinely confused. You silently giggle as Usopp brings his hand up to his forehead and shakes his head.

You grin, "Sounds hard! Hopefully I'll be able to do good when I do exams in college!"
Usopp brightens up, "Don't worry, you'll do great! You're smart already, so I'm sure it'll be a breeze for you!"
"Yeah, Y/N, you're smart!" Luffy grinned, "you got a full scholarship to your favorite college, no?"
"It's not my favorite college, Luffy, but it's the one I've always wanted to go to..." You sit there, thinking about it, until your mind brings you back to the thing you wanted to mention to the two.

"Oh, that reminds me. You guys plan to work after you finish school?"
"No, of course not!" Luffy pouts, "it's summertime! It's when you're supposed to relax and have fun!"
Usopp scratches his neck, "No, I haven't really thought of it..."
"Well, I am! And what more fun way to spend the summer than to be working together and earning money!" You smile to yourself as Usopp's eyes widened at that word.
"'Earning money', you say?" He smiles again, "that doesn't sound half-bad."
"What good is money to me? It's not worth working!" Luffy frowns.
You smirk, almost deviously, "With money, you can buy almost anything you want, including meat."
Luffy's eyes seem to pop out at what you said, "MEAT!? Well count me in!"
You and Usopp laugh at your friend's love for food, especially some meat.

"It's settled, then! You guys can worry about your exams, for now, I'll be searching job listings and sharing them with you guys. Once you guys get out of school, we can start interviewing."
"Okay, that sounds good!" Usopp gives you a thumbs up while Luffy nods.

The three of you enjoy the rest of your time together. Once you three parted ways, you start to make your way home when you see a flashy notice pinned on the corkboard near the entrance of the cafeteria.

Now Hiring at Gold Roger's Diner? You've seen the building around. It used to belong to man who built the place from the ground up, and it was very profitable to him, or so you've heard from the long-time residents of the small town. It was during a time where the town was actually a decent place to live in, with no worry of shootings, murders, or burglary ever occuring...
You hesitantly take the notice off the board and put it in your pocket. You've eaten at the diner a few times before, either your mom or Luffy had insisted to eat there, and the food was kind of good. It didn't seem like too bad of a place to work at, not to mention the minimum wage listed on the notice was too good to turn down.

You decide to look for other jobs, though, in case the boys didn't want to take the offer. You sigh as you start walking home, hoping it doesn't get too dark before you make it to your house.