Work Text:
It was a Monday morning.
The alarm rang and rang, before being turned off by Peppino, as he slowly got up and started off his day begrudgingly, walking out of his bedroom and into his small kitchen and grabbing a piece of toast with jam spreaded across it, eating it as he quickly left his apartment.
He hopped on his beaten up Vespa, riding it towards his current Job, the morning sunrise waking him fully up,
It was a very beautiful sunrise but he didn't have the time to admire it.
He had to go to work.
Admittedly he didn't like his job, management wasn't great,
His schedule isn't how he would like it, constantly making him work the morning shift, but it did pay well for most job entries.
And he had to pay for his restaurant somehow.
After driving for a couple of minutes he arrived at his job,
parking his Vespa behind the building.
Noticing a new vehicle among familiar cars and bikes, within the parking lot.
It was a motorcycle with a rather unique look, it had a pink, white and blue theming. the front of it having a round face with clown makeup…
“What?”
He said out loud to himself.
Who would design their bike like this?
It didn’t look like any motorcycle he had seen before.
Did someone get a new vehicle?
He quickly turned around and walked inside the restaurant, closing the back door behind him. He noticed among the familiar breakroom was one new thing.
A new hire, she had brown poofy hair that went down to her back. She looked excited as the manager of the place was explaining what to do. From what he heard, she was going to be a server.
A bit surprising that he had a new co-worker.
Hopefully this will mean the work will be lessened. He thought, walking over to his locker and unlocking it.
He put on his company apron, clocking as he walked over to the kitchen to start his work.
…
He was spreading the dough, chipping away at the order. It was a pretty big order, asking for a lot of stuff from the menu.
Sprinkle the cheese, add the herbs, and.. finished! He looked at the completed order, a sense of relief washing over him.
He rang the bell, signaling that an order was done. He took the order ticket, putting it under the order. As he waited for the server to pick it up.
And he waited, and waited and waited. his anxiety rising as the minutes pass by.
Eventually his anxiety was slowly boiling over him. He looked outside the kitchen, looking for the server that was going to pick it up.
He suddenly hears some noise coming from an empty cabinet. He was concerned and confused. Was that a rat? Or something else?
He quietly walked over to the cabinet, slowly opening it to see what was inside. His hands were shaking as he opened it..
Only to see the new hire inside the cabinet.
“YAAAAAWWOOOH!”
He screamed in fear, waking up the new hire. Thank God she was just asleep instead of being dead. They both stared at each other for a second before the new hire got out of the cabinet.
“Ah! Sorry! Sorry!” She sounded apologetic as she remained quiet while handing the order.
It took him a second to process what just happened, he was debating on whether or not to tell his manager. A bit angry at the new hire for giving him a heart attack.
He simply returned back to work, thinking about what to do as he worked. He simply decided not to, too much work for someone new to the place. he hoped this would be the last.
…
Finally it was his break. He could finally decompress a bit.
He lazily walked over to an empty table. Sitting down and taking out his lunch.
A simple Peanut and jelly sandwich.
Today was slow and manageable but he was a bit angry due to the lack of help despite the new hire. Seriously, why was she napping on the job? He pondered. Taking a bite out of his sandwich.
His thoughts were wandering off to running his own business. running his pizzeria, taking orders, making pizzas, delivering to customers, working the closing shift-
“Hi? You’re Peppino, right?” suddenly a young woman’s voice rang out to him, snapping him out of his daydreaming trance. It was the new hire. What did she want from him?
He swallowed his food before speaking “uh.. yes that's me.“
The New hire looked a bit relieved. “Oh good, my name is Bee!“ Bee then pulled out the other chair from the empty table, sitting down. “I just wanted to thank you for not telling our boss that I was napping.”
“you shouldn’t be napping on the job anyway.” Peppino spoke sternly. She shrugged it off, changing the subject. “Uhm.. just wanted to hand you something, as a thank you so here.” She pulled out a small card, handing it to Peppino.
On the card was a thumbs up with IOU beside it. It looked a bit worn out, and easily tearable.
“Thank you..?” He was a bit confused, taking another bite from his sandwich as he pocketed the IOU card.
There was an awkward silence for a second Before Bee spoke again. "So what brought you to work here?" He swallowed his food before speaking. "It was the pay, what about you?”
“O-oh! I was.. fired from my past job, so I was searching for a new one.” she spoke a bit anxiously, a bit understandable considering the subject.
“Huh..” he wasn't really surprised, thinking for a moment “Hey. Is the clown vehicle in the back yours?” “the clown vehicle?” Bee thought for a second. “oh yeah, that’s mine.”
Peppino thought out his question. “I'm wondering how you got it to look so round and clownish.”
“Oh I know a mechanic who likes doing clown stuff, to the stuff he works on.”
Bee continued “the motorcycle was actually his first thing!”
…
They talked and talked while Peppino on his break before the clock on the wall told both of them to go back to work.
“Well, it was nice meeting you Peppino, I will see you later!” Bee said before returning to serve tables and Peppino returned back to making food.
He was thinking as he was chopping some vegetables, that..
Maybe this Job won’t be so bad after all..