BHTB Mission 7, Katie and Brian page 3

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So, with much enthusiasm and not much training, Katie and Brian set to work. At first it seemed easy. With only a few customers coming in at a time, the two could take their time on each order and relax. Brian would prepare the drinks, blending the berries, adding the cream, and pouring. He would also handle the food Hops wasn’t preparing, which was mostly berries and sauce on bread. He would then pass the orders off to Katie, who would hurry over to the tables and deliver it. And everything was going smooth as could be. Well, until dinner time. Thats when things got... interesting.

“This is easy!” Katie called to her buggy companion as she returned with an empty tray. “We’re gonna get money for such easy work? It was never like this in Alomomola, Tao Village is great!”

“Mhmm!” Brian replied, as he took the tray. “Easy, easy money.”

“Well now there aren’t even any new customers! Hah, we’ll be getting paid to do nothing!” Katie said, clambering up onto one of the bar stools.

“Yeah, and now all we gotta do is hang out here for the next hour or so, until closing time, and mushroom guy will pay us! And maybe we’ll get a leaf thingy too,” Brian replied. “Oh look, here comes our next customer for, like, an hour”

“Wait, there are more pokemon behind him... hmmm. Uh oh...” Katie said, her eyes going wide.

Within a matter of minutes, the entire cafe was completely packed, with every chair taken and a line of pokemon out the door. Katie and Brian were right in the thick of it.

“Hold on, hold on!” Katie shouted, scurrying around on her short mienfoo legs. “Just, wait right there, your stuff will be out soon. Sir, there is no need to pull my tail! Briiiaaan! We need drinks over here, what are you doing back there??!”

“I’m trying!” The heracross responded, scuttling back and forth, taking orders from the increasingly irritable crowd and making them.

“Hey, I didn’t order the Pinap colada!” one pokemon said.

“Sorry, sorry!” Katie said, picking up the drink and taking it to the right customer.

“And my sandwich doesn’t even have berries! It is literally just two slices of bread.” called another.

Katie looked over at Brian, who just shrugged and went back to making drinks.

“Look, I’m sorry, but we’re super busy. I’ll get you a new one.” Katie replied.

She carried the bread over and told Brian, “Here. Put some berries or something on this.”

“What kind? He asked

“Don’t know, don’t care. Something colorful and good looking, that customer is pretty mad...” Katie responded.

“Uhhh, thanks. There,” He said, plopping down some Spelon berries “take that back over.”

Brian went back to feverishly making drinks, as Katie carried the “freshly” made sandwich back.

“Here you are, lady,” Katie said, putting the sandwich down in front of her.

“Mmm, much better,” the patron replied, taking a huge bite.

“Good!” Katie said, turning away.

“AHHHHH!! Hot hot hot!!

Katie whipped around to see the pokemon practically breathing flames, her face bright red. She immediately stood up and began flapping her arms at her face in a desperate attempt to cool herself down.

“Help! Help! Hot!” She screeched, gesturing wildly at Katie.

“Uhhh, Brian, water!!!” She yelled, running over to him.

Frantically, the heracross looked for some water, but couldn’t find any nearby. Panicking, he picked up one of the Cherri smoothies he had been making and flung it towards the pokemon. It hit her square in the face.

The cafe erupted into laughter, and another customer threw his drink, slurring “Who’d drink thiszz rot, anyways?!”. Then another customer threw their drink. And another. And soon, the cafe had turned into a full fledged food fight, with drinks and sandwiches flying every which way. Many of the drink and sandwiches were directed at Katie and Brian. Katie stumbled about, dodging drinks and slipping on the mess on the ground, trying to get out of the frenzy.

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What started as a playful food fight soon turned violent. The customers were now mainly attacking Katie and Brian, splattering them with food and even beginning to throw furniture as the two Merchants ducked behind the bar, slamming the gate shut behind them. Hops was nowhere to be found.

“Brian what’s going on?? They’re so MAD! I know we messed up some orders, but come on, they weren’t that bad!” A glass decanter smashed overhead, showering the floor with glass.

At that moment, Hops came out from the back room.

“What in the name of... Never in all my... Are... are these customers all DRUNK?!” he thundered, shoving his way through the yelling Pokemon and the mess to reach Katie and Brian. “What have you been serving them? I’ve never seen such a nasty crowd in all my days!”

“I was givin’ em smoothies and drinks, like you said! Berries, sauces, cream... Ya know! The stuff you said was under the counter!!” Brian yelled, waving his claws.

“Under the... That’s not where I keep the cream! The cream is in the cabinet! What have you been giving them?? Show me which bottles were you using, quickly!”

“These pale yellow ones, here, with the weird shape on the label...”

“Y... you’ve been putting fermented Custap berry juice in their drinks! That’s expensive, too!!” the Shuckle squeaked as a bar stool came flying over the counter. “Do something, fix this, you’re a big strong bug! And you, aren’t Mienfoo supposed to be martial artists??”

“I can’t martial arts!” Katie shouted, grabbing a bottle and throwing it back over the counter before ducking again. “I’m bad at that stuff! I’m only good at like, one move!”

Brian, who had been sitting quietly, suddenly interrupted “WAIT! Remember which move you’re good at though? Remember what we used to do back in Alomomola Bay to get rid of thugs? The stinky thing??”

“THE STINKBUG! Yeah I remember that! Lets do it!” Katie exclaimed

“The Stinkbug...?? Wait, what are you doing? This better not mess up my cafe-” Hops was pushed out of the way by Katie and Brian as they leapt over the bar.

Katie threw her arms up in the air immediately, letting loose a hazy white spray from her paws. The pokemon nearest to her began backing away, clutching their faces. Though their eyes were beginning to water from the awful smelling salt, the angry crowd wasn’t dispersing just yet.

“Okay, my turn! MIMIC!” Brian shouted, throwing his arms up as well and doubling the foul white cloud. He opened his wings and buzzed about the cafe, evenly distributing the cloud amongst the crowd.
The patrons began to rush toward the exit, with Pokemon dropping their drinks and stumbling away. After a few moments, only two or three Pokemon remained, passed out from either the strong alcohol or excessive Smellingsalt exposure.

Hops crawled over the bar, wiping his eyes and sniffling heavily. He perched on a barstool and glared at Katie and Brian.

“Well.. well... We still better be getting paid... Brian, when we open our cafe, its gonna be much better than this. Then MISSY will do the serving, you can do drinks, and I can make food, like I’m s’posed to...” Katie said sulkily.

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Several hours later, Katie and Brian finally finished airing out the Spinda Cafe. Brian’s wings ached from constantly buzzing about, pushing the fumes outside. Katie had several splinters from cleaning up glass and broken furniture. Hops was waiting for them at one of the few undamaged tables.

“So.” He said unsmilingly. “So. That was a lot of food spilled and wasted. Not to mention the damaged chairs and broken glasses. And the wasted Custap alcohol. Unfortunately, a few of those customers will not be coming back... Luckily, they had already paid for what they threw, and the alcohol did a better job entertaining them than what you two were doing. Believe it or not, I think that might have cheered up many ‘mons with missing teammates,” His face broke out into a partial smile. “So, you two did an acceptable job, all things considered. But still, you are banned from the premises until further notice. Or at least until you can pay me back for all the broken items. And that horrible smell...”

And so Brian and Katie returned home, a small bag of money in their possession from Shroomsworth, and a much clearer view of what running a cafe was like. They were also even further in debt, which seemed to be a recurring theme lately.

“Next time, we ain’t gonna mess up! Now that we know what running a REAL cafe is like!” Katie said fiercely. “Yeah!! Now we got it!”

END
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