"Seconds, Please" A Second Squad AU

[Chapter 2] Planning & Driving

"Alright, give me your ideas."

"Laundry room."

"No."

"You said give you our ideas!"

Diesel groans, eventually writing down Alex's idea on the paper he had set out.

"Oh! Maybe we should add a window between the baking room and the restaurant!" Ani suggests, "After all, the walls are thin, so if the customers can hear us yelling, why not see us?"

With a hum and nod of "why not," Diesel jots down Ani's idea as well.

"Are we gonna be soundproofing the walls?" Brandon asks, eyebrows raised, "I think we should at least make the walls thicker, I wouldn't want any of our customers to butt in on our conversations." His voice lowers to a mumble, his eyes darting to the walls coated in brown paint.

Diesel agrees with a nod of his head before he writes it down on the next bullet point.

"We totally need something that would attract the customers." Henry pipes in, "Me flipping a cardboard sign with light blue paint all day doesn't work."

"That's a shocker." Brandon remarks, sneering. Diesel rolls his eyes before writing down the helpful suggestion.

"What would attract the customers?" He asks, clicking the pen.

"Something that doesn't include Henry." Brandon cuts in, immediately being elbowed by the man he had mentioned. Ani and Alex giggle while Diesel heaves a deep sigh.

"Bright lights could do the trick!" Alex suggests.

"But our theme doesn't scream bright." Ani says, "It's supposed to be a place to chill, you know?" Alex shrugs, thinking about Ani's criticism before muttering in agreeance.

"Well, if we can't have bright lights, why not just a bunch of signs that aren't made of cardboard?" Alex suggests again. Everyone seemed to be in agreement as Diesel wrote that down as well.

"New tables and chairs are a must."

"New wallpaper!!"

"New waiter outfits."

"Alright!" Diesel announces, putting everyone to silence. "We have plenty of ideas now, I think we'll be good for now."

"Do we even need renovating?" Ani asks.

"The three star ratings need to change somehow." Diesel shrugs, "And I don't think the cracking ceiling tiles are contributing much." He slides the paper to the center of the table to let everyone take a look at the ideas. There's mutters and hums, but other than that there were no objections nor additions to the plans. With a clap of his hands, everyone is brought back to silence once more.

"Glad we're all in agreement!" Exclaims Diesel, swiping up the paper from Henry and Alex's eyes.

"Hey Diesel?" Kwite spoke up, his arms folded over his chest. "This plan is great and all, hell i'd love new outfits but.. Where do we get this stuff?"

"Simple!" Diesel says, though it wasn't simple. "We're gonna drive to Ikea!" Upon that response, everyone began to feebly mutter and wince. But once again, no one seemed to object. "What? Ikea is great, there's tons of stuff there!"

"Yeah but-" Henry cuts in, awkwardly scratching the back of his head, "it's too far." He whines, at that everyone else in the room agreed.

"Not to mention the fact that today is still a work day!" Alex speaks up.

"Also the renovating might take a while!" Ani adds.

"And-"

"ALRIGHT!" Diesel shouts, already getting the point they're trying to cross. "Okay, maybe some of you are right. But we still need to fix up this place, there's cobwebs on the floors and ceilings, the tiles of the ceiling are beginning to fall off, and the tables and booths are old! If we keep working like this, we'll be out of business in no time and I doubt we'd get hired for other jobs." Diesel slams the paper down on the table once more for emphasis, sliding it to the others. There's a beat of silence as they lowered their heads toward the paper. Mutters begin to rise again but Diesel gestures to silence them.

"If you have any more ideas, tell me now."

"We could use some more workers." Henry mentions, "Running on 6 workers with a soon-renovated-place doesn't sound the brightest idea. More customers and less employees? Bad mix."

"Yeah," Diesel sighs, "would anyone here happen to know anybody that would need a job?" At that, Alex's expression brightens, his back straightening and grin visibly wide.

"Oh! My friend Aksel is actually in need of a job right now!" He exclaims, practically bouncing in place, "I bet he would love to work here!"

Diesel hums, "He doesn't have a bad record or anything?" He reassures. Alex shakes his head.

"Nope!"

"Alright good."

"But that's only one worker." Brandon says, eyebrows raised. "I'm pretty sure we're gonna be needing more than 7 workers to handle the place."

Kwite shrugs, "Put up a for hiring sign."

"Like that's gonna do shit."

"Like that's gonna do shit." Kwite mocks in a deeper voice with exaggerated movements of his arms and chest, before Brandon could do as much as snap back at the shorter worker Diesel signals the both of them to shut up again. Which, surprisingly enough, worked.

"That's not a bad idea." Henry agrees, "If we put up the sign after renovations, I'm sure it would attract a few people." He shrugs.

Diesel nods and picks up the paper once more, stuffing it into his pocket. "Well!" He claps his hands and rubs them together, "Now that we got everything settled with.. TO THE VAN!" He screams, turning his heel and pointing his hand to the door.

"TO THE VAN!" The others scream back, following Diesel through the wide door leading to the front of the bakery. To no one's surprise, it was empty, however at the old booth there was three quarters and a dollar laying on the wooden table. Before the others could rush past the counter, a gasp is heard.

"Wait!" Ani cries, pulling everyone to a halt. "Who's gonna be watching the bakery?"

"Uh-" Diesel looks over at Kwite and Henry, who don't seem to be paying any attention at all. "Kwite, Henry. Can we trust you to watch the bakery while we're gone?"

"No." They both answer simultaneously.

"Good."

"What? Hey we-" Diesel and the others, excluding Kwite and Henry, push past the counter as the the waiter and cook left behind only watched them leave, Kwite swearing various insults towards Diesel in particular as they left through the glass doors.

"What the fuck." Kwite complained, his seething muffled down as Henry stuffs his hands into his jean pockets and shrugs, there wasn't much of a point in trying to calm the anonymous cook down as his one of few personality traits included anger.

"Eh, don't be too angry." Henry tells him, "Look on the bright side, we only get like 6 to 7 customers a day and you guys already baked wayyy more than 7 cupcakes." Kwite grumbles anyway, though his eyes are hidden behind thick sunglasses Henry can tell he's probably rolling his eyes at him.

Meanwhile, everyone else had scrambled inside of the relatively blue van. Diesel and Brandon had settled in the front seat (Diesel being the driver of course) while Ani and Quackity settled in the back.

Everyone puts on their seatbelts as the van backs out of its parking spot and smoothly pulls onto the road. Brandon reaches for the radio and turns it on, and the vehicle is filled with mainstream music.

Fifteen minutes on the road, a gasp is suddenly heard like before and Alex is peering around the driver's seat with an uneasy expression.

"Do we even have enough money for all of it?"

Ani, Brandon, and Diesel all froze up at the question.

"Shit."