Today was Paintbrush's first day in their new job working in a cafe.
They woke up fairly early, about 5 am or so. Time to start the morning routine. They walked to the bathroom with a towel to shower for a few minutes, then dressed into their work clothes. They remembered that Knife told them they open at 9 am so they groaned to themself for waking up too early.
They then walked to the kitchen to cook breakfast, just a simple eggs and bacon (just in case they burnt the kitchen again), and started eating. After that, they brushed their teeth and packed their bag.
At around 8 am, they loaded themself and their bag into their car and started to drive to the cafe. It was at least a 10-minute drive to get there.
The door opened with a 'ding!' and Paintbrush was greeted by Paper, who looked happy to see them.
"I didn't expect you to come at all! We usually have our new employees quit just as soon as they're hired!" Paper said, his tone somewhat melancholy.
Paintbrush understood his sadness, this place WAS pretty empty and it must be hard to pay the employees (only Knife) their wages.
Paper lead them to the counter and showed them the menu and how the cash register works. "For your first day here, you'll be in charge of this register and if you did a great job, we'll promote you to the latte artist as well!"
They nodded. Welp. Time to start the bread-winning. "Understood, sir."
"Just call me Paper. I don't mind! Now, I'll leave you to it!" He then walks to the office, probably OJ's.
~~~
After about 25 minutes of opening, the door went 'ding!' again and there were two girls, one with white hair and one with blackish-gray hair. The two were gossiping to each other, a bit too loudly. The white-haired girl ran over to the counter, eyeing Paintbrush up and down.
"You. Weren't you that one customer that was suddenly taken into the kitchen yesterday?" The girl asked.
"Uhm.. yes. That would be me." They muttered. Paintbrush wasn't one for conversations but being the person behind the cash register, they really had no choice.
"So, newbie. Where's the white-haired boy? Unless you know your boss, hm?" Their boss? Does she mean OJ?
"Do you mean OJ? I don't really-"
"Yeah, yeah. Him. Get him for me. Oh, and give us both a coffee with half milk, 2 wafers, 2 pinches of sugar and make the water lukewarm enough for me to drink already."
First order of the day and they already hate this job. They wrote whatever the annoying customer asked for and handed it to Knife, who rolled his eyes and got to work. They then contemplated on calling their boss but reluctantly went in the office anyway.
They knocked on the door before they heard a male voice calling out to them. "Come in!"
They peeked through the door and saw a middle-aged man with orange hair, probably Oj, and Paper beside him.
"Yes? Err... Paintbrush, right?" He recalled. "What brings you here?"
"Some white-haired girl is looking for you."
That made Oj sit up straight and led to Paintbrush flinching.
"Don't.. don't tell her I'm here. PLEASE." Oj begged them with a nervous expression.
They didn't question it further, they might get fired again..
So then they trudged back to the counter. "He's out for today. Paper is taking his place." They lied through their teeth.
The girl scoffed but accepted it. "Ugh, here he goes avoiding me again.. right, Pepper?"
"That'll be-"
The other girl nodded but her expression after didn't match. Both girls paid then sat down on a table and went back to gossiping to each other.
The doorbell rang again and a petite girl with bright yellow hair came in. She skipped to the counter and looked around.
"Yo there! Where's Paper Boy?" She asked. Great. Another annoying customer, huh?
"Paper left me in charge. Would you like to order something?" They stared at her with a deadpan expression.
"Huh. No thanks! But can I flirt with the new employee?" She gave them a cheeky grin. Paintbrush kind of blushed and then gritted their teeth.
"No, you cannot. Now, what would you like to order?" They gave her a forced grin back.
"Do ya have them iced frappes? If not, then I'd like a hot choco with the err.. white soft thingy. Marshmallows!"
They looked through the menu, they didn't see a single frappe. So they just wrote down her order and gave it to Knife. "That'll be $8.47."
"Oooh! Cheap!" The customer then paid and walked to a table.
The two girls' orders were done so they grabbed a tray and placed the coffee on top. They then walked to their table and carefully placed the coffee in front of both of them. They heard a bit of the gossip but it was stopped abruptly as soon as they noticed they were there.
"Err.. here's your coffee, ma'am...s. Half milk,2 wafers, 2 pinches of sugar, and lukewarm temperature just like you asked." They walked back to the counter to serve the other order to the girl who literally tried to flirt with them off the bat.
They picked up the hot chocolate and walked over to her. "Here's your hot chocolate-"
"Can you also add wafers, please?" The girl gave them another cheeky grin, her eyes twinkling with mischief. "I saw the girlies' orders and saw the wafers! So can I have some too, please?
Paintbrush's eyes twitched slightly at the audacity of this customer. "E..excuse me?"
"Just 3 wafers. Please?" Paintbrush was just flabbergasted. They knew they were gonna hate this customer so much. But they just walked back to the counter and grabbed 3 wafers. They resisted the urge to spit in the cup and placed the wafers in the drink.
They walked back to the girl and handed her the drink. "Here's your wafers. That'll be an extra dollar, please."
"Huh." She then pulled out a dollar and handed it to them. They started to walk away before the customer called out to them. "Yo, barista! What's your name?"
They turned around and shot the customer a glare. "It's Paintbrush, why?" They answered reluctantly.
She smiled widely at them for responding to her. "I'm Lightbulb!" Lightbulb, huh? Atleast they knew who to hate. "So, Paintbrush, why a barista?"
"I guess it's just.." They began. "I guess I like to do latte art." They were clearly lying, they just hoped she wouldn't notice.
"Oooooh. Alrighty! You do you, tall fella! I might come here more often. The barista is kinda hot." Lightbulb smirked and took a sip of her drink.
Paintbrush rolled their eyes and walked back to the counter.
~~~
The day went on normally with a few annoying customers here and there. Horrible orders, and a bit of refunds, but Paintbrush could tell they did pretty well for their first day.
At 4 pm, Paper came back to the counter and approached Paintbrush. "Hey there, newbie! You can go home now. I'll take over for the rest of the shift."
They bowed and started to pack up their things. "I'll be going now. See you tomorrow."
They walked to their car and drove back home. The streets were almost empty and that's the way Paintbrush liked it.
They finally got home and changed to more comfortable clothes. They grabbed leftovers from their fridge and just ate. Then they brushed their teeth and flopped onto their bed.
Home sweet home.
-----
sooo painty's first day
imma go now
sayonara
- kweku/cleaykk
YOU ARE READING
Something is brewing between us and it's not coffee. | I.I AU
Fanfiction❏ HUMANIZED LIGHTBRUSH Have you ever been fired and hired on the same day? Probably not. But Paintbrush has. After getting forcefully resigned from their old job, they stumble across a lonely cafe. Wanting coffee but being too lazy to walk to an act...
