Everything about them annoyed her. She got annoyed when they came up with complicated orders, making her already brand new job far harder than it needed to be. She got annoyed when they came up, listed things off too fast, and then sighed dramatically when she asked them to repeat it. She got annoyed when they asked for the usual – despite full well knowing they hadn't ever seen her before.
But nothing – nothing – annoyed her like this.
"Hello and welcome to Jaune's," Weiss greeted, forcing a smile onto her face once more. She had her notepad before her, pen ready. "What can I help you with today?" The elderly aged man brought a hand to his chin. "Hmm…"
Weiss waited.
"Hmm…"
The pen dug a little deeper.
He turned to his wife, who looked equally ancient. "What do you think, dearie?"
"I don't know," the elderly woman replied. "I'll need to get my glasses out to read the menu."
Weiss could have snapped right then and there. She could see the headlines now. Prominent heiress massacres café full of innocent people – indecisive customers to blame. It was just too much. It was unbelievably annoying. Why would you even come to the counter if you didn't know what you wanted? Why would you not be wearing your glasses if you needed them? How could you possibly reach the age of eighty-something and not know what your preferred drink was!?
Her eyebrow continued to twitch as the elderly couple discussed their options with an incredible lack of haste. Behind them, a queue had already begun to form. The people in it didn't look exactly pleased, and had decided to glare at her for it. She'd had a feeling they'd somehow find a reason to blame her.
The customer was an idiot.
/-/
Ruby struggled to keep the stacked cups and plates on her tray, an act that wouldn't have normally been all that difficult were it not for someone backing their seat up as they made to leave, catching the back of her legs. She yelped as she tripped, and would have fallen if not for Blake quickly appearing out of nowhere and righting her.
"Thanks," Ruby gasped. "I thought I was a goner."
"It wouldn't be a problem if people didn't keep getting in the way…" Blake said, a little too loudly and a little too obvious to be anything but intentional. She glared at someone nearby, but Ruby quickly grabbed her attention.
"K-Keep smiling," she whispered, recalling Jaune's previous advice. "We're doing this to help him, remember? You need to smile."
Blake sighed, but forced a wide smile onto her face regardless – as was their job. It honestly looked a little creepy, but maybe that was only because she knew Blake personally, and thus recognised the toothy smile to be about as genuine as Port's stories.
It wasn't so bad herself, since she was normally a happy kind of person, but even she was finding it hard to keep it up for several hours in a row. She wanted to sit down. No, she wanted to frown – that was what she really wanted. A chance to frown, growl, and basically work her facial muscles which were right now locked in some kind of goofy rictus.
"Excuse me," someone called.
Ruby rushed over. "Yes, how can I help?"
"Can we get another round of drinks?"
"Sure." She quickly put down the tray balancing it on the edge of the table, and making sure to keep it there with her hip. She dragged a notepad out of her apron pocket and opened it. "What would you like?" "Just what we had the last time, dear."
"Aaand what was that…?"
The Huntsmen, for he must have been with an outfit as bright as his, rolled his eyes and looked to his companion as if asking for patience. Ruby wanted to pout and point out she wasn't psychic, but knew better. Just keep smiling – that was what Jaune had said, and he was smiling even now, talking to some customers as he directed Weiss in making some particularly complicated drink.
"Mine was a coffee, Mistral blend with two sweeteners – not sugar – and some milk. My companion would like a latte, but please don't make it too hot." He looked to his maybe girlfriend and asked, "Do you want to get a cake between us?" "That's not a bad idea," the girl replied. She looked to Ruby and smiled. "What would you suggest?"
"Me?" Ruby asked, suddenly on the back foot. It was bad enough her social anxiety still had her stammering every now and then, but now to be asked for cake advice? Well, it wasn't the worst thing. At least she knew about them. "I'd suggest the chocolate cake with cream."
"I don't like chocolate, I'm afraid." The girl said.
"Oh, okay." Ruby laughed awkwardly. "Then how about the carrot cake?"
"I'm not really a fan," the man answered.
T-Then why are you asking me for my advice!? Ruby let out a low keen, aware of other customers also trying to catch her attention. "M-Maybe a platter?" "How about a vanilla slice?" the girl asked, ignoring Ruby altogether.
"Perfect." The man leaned across and cupped her chin. "I knew there was a reason I loved you."
The notepad in her hands was almost snapped in half as Ruby tried to look anywhere but at what was maybe taking place in front of her. "I-I'll be right back with your orders," she yelped when they started to lean closer to one another. It was only once she was away that she let out a relieved sigh.
Ugh… why is this so hard?
"Hello, waitress?"
"Coming!" she said, rushing over.
"Ruby," Weiss called. "There's an order to be delivered." "C-Coming," Ruby repeated, crying a little inside.
There was only one of her!
/-/
Yang was a little more focused than her teammates, mostly because she'd had some part-time jobs in the past. Patch was nowhere near as busy as Vale, however, and when the lunch rush hit, it hit like a freight train. People didn't so much as stream in as they were vomited off the busy streets.
"I'll be right there, sir," Yang called, sliding through a gap that felt too thin for her. "Excuse me. Sorry. I'll – ah!" She glared in the direction of the hand she'd felt touch her rear, but no one was there, or at least no one was turned in her direction. She had a feeling, though. There was a table of four guys – about her age, or maybe a year or two younger. They'd come in an hour ago and proceeded to slowly mull their way through their coffees for an impressive sixty minutes or more. For the most part, they contented themselves staring at her, Blake and even Ruby and Weiss whenever they walked by.
Jaune had told them they mostly got Huntsman and Huntresses into the diner, and that had been true for the most part, but it sounded like news of their working here had gotten out, and they'd started to attract a different kind of clientele hormonal boys. Huntresses were always fighting fit, for obvious reasons, and that tended to reflect on their looks and figure. To the average guy, they might as well have been super models.
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