Turtle & Canary, Wednesday

[wiredweird]

It was Jughead's first day at his new job. And so far, it was going moderately well. Sure, he couldn't really keep up with everything Apu was telling him (like the bit about being sorry about not getting a display up for National Pancake Day), but he also didn't feel like he was on the verge of a panic attack, so that was good.

Right now, he was mostly trying to familiarize himself with the cash register. While maybe muttering basic customer service phrases under his breath. Maybe. You couldn't prove anything!

Today's Squishy Flavors
Pancake
Chocolate Milkshake
Red

Today's Jello Flavor
Bacon

[ooc: Open and OCD free!]

Comments

[somethingwithturquoise]

While the onsen had helped Summer feel a little bit better with her hangover, it wasn't exactly the perfect cure-all, and she was still feeling a little rough by the time she made it into the shop, much later than she had originally planned, but she still wanted to see how Jughead was doing and not just leave him blowing in the wind on his first day.

So she came in clutching a very large coffee, wearing sunglasses because the light hurt her brain, and managed a smile that was significantly lower in wattage than it would have normally been.

"Hey," she said as she made a light show out of looking around, voice quiet because if everyone talked in whispers today that would be super cool, "alright. Everything's still standing, that's good."

Have a thumbs-up that only looked half-hearted, Jughead. Honest, the thought was definitely there but the spirit was so, so unwilling.

[wiredweird]

Jughead had been muttering something close to 'have a nice day' to himself when she came in, but stopped immediately when she did.

Then sort of cocked his head at her, just a little.

"What happened to you?"

Sure, it wasn't very employee-like of him to ask that, at least in that tone. But then again, this was Summer, who he still primarily thought of as that girl who used to throw all those parties he didn't go to at the dorms. It was hard to go from that to 'this is your employer now'.

Though the parties might've helped explain the hungover look, now that he thought of it.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Hey, you could take the girl out of the parties, but you couldn't take the parties out of the girl.

Or something like that. Honestly, showing up to train your brand new employee while hungover probably wouldn't help dispel any of that reputation, but Summer would mostly just be thrilled that that was her reputation.

She lifted a finger like she was going to launch into an explanation, then she seemed to change her mind.

Instead, she went philosophical with it: "How could something so amazing also be so, so evil?"

And she was applying this to both Kitty and the terrible tiny bad decisions in a shot glass that she foisted upon unsuspecting party girls.

But she waved that away dismissively. "Never mind. Everything's going okay so far, though?"

[wiredweird]

Yeah, Jughead wasn't going to prod further into whatever the amazing-slash-evil thing was.

"Yeah," he said, even if the way he adjusted his ever-present beanie was kind of an obvious act of self-conciousness. That was just how he was. Out, with people. "Seems straight-forward enough. I'm getting the hang of the cash register, too, more or less."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Cool," said Summer. "Coooool. Yeah, there's really not much to it. Looks like you lucked out on having a pretty normal day, too. Apu got you all set up on the paperwork?"

Please, please tell her Apu got him all set up on the paperwork.

[wiredweird]

"I think so?"

His full name had been involved in it enough times that he hoped it was all the necessary paperwork, anyway. He also hoped Summer wasn't going to be too interested in it, because he didn't want to talk about the 'Forsythe Pendleton' bit - it had been enough when Apu had asked whether he'd ever considered going by 'FP'.

He also did not want to discuss the fact that he had a number at the end of his name.

So when he nodded, he tried to act a little more certain. "Yeah. Seemed to cover all the bases."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Okay, good," Summer's shoulders sagged a little in relief. "If for whatever reason that's something wrong with it, we'll deal with it next week."

So, yeah, kind of hard to avoid the full name with girl signing your checks, but at least Summer would definitely understand the nickname a little better. And would think twice about the next time she complained about her own name, too.

But not now. None of that stuff now. None of...anything right now.

"For now, though, hey, we can get you some practical training on that register; I'm going to be right back, I need to get some stuff."

She disappeared into the aisles and returned a few moments later with a case of Gatorade, a bottle of aspirin, Alka-Seltzer....and a handful of decorative throw pillows in in shades of green and orange.

"Let's see what you've got, Jughead."

A truly challenging first test, indeed.