Here is chapter 3, which marks the return of my inconsistent scheduling! Not gonna make any promises of the next chapter except for my usual promise of "This story won't be forgotten."

Hope everyone has/had a nice Christmas or whichever Holiday you celebrate!

Two days ago, I stood in front of a computer, listening to people in their cars order varying amount of fast food as I punched in the orders, a woman made them, and a younger girl bagged them as I took the money and waved them goodbye as I continued. The only thing on my mind was the one day off before another day of work before two more free days.

Then, she appeared.

I now stood outside of the fast food restaurant, placing my clothing on top of the car's roof as I locked the car. I had gotten there early, like I said I was and still saw the owner's car, meaning she had gotten my message. I grabbed my clothing, bringing a spare pair of pants and a shirt as Riven followed me into the building, staring around.

It was 3:30 P.M. The lunch rush was over and the next time it would surely pick up was around 5, when everyone would be going home; when I clocked in. I made it a point to be a punctual and reliable employee, not like I usually had much to do otherwise. I had a maximum amount of hours that was usually divided among 4 days, so the sooner I got them done, the more relaxing I can do when it mattered.

"C'mon, I have to talk to my boss," I said, motioning for Riven to follow.

"This isn't where we came yesterday, right?" Riven asked, staring at the building. I shook my head.

"No, there's lots of places like that. This is one of the popular ones," I said, not sure how to explain it without using the word 'chain'.

Riven nodding as we entered the place. A few people sat around, eating and talking, one person was on their computer since the restaurant offered free Wi-Fi. I set my stuff on one of the small, round, elevated tables for two as Riven sat down. I walked over to the desolate front counter and waited until the morning manager noticed me.

"Can you get Carla?" I asked. She nodded and walked towards the back of the store.

I stood around for a bit before a more formal looking woman came towards me. She didn't wear a traditional red or gray manager shirt but instead wore whatever she more or less felt like. It was her store; despite her nametag just saying 'Manager'. She stood across from me, holding a clipboard.

"Hello Riley, what happened?" She asked, in Spanish. Most people spoke Spanish here. My being bilingual and patient were the standalone reasons I was assigned to be the drive-thru window cashier, despite my clear protests against it.

"I- I need a favor," I said, meekly in the same Language. She peeked behind me.

"Who's that, your girlfriend?" She asked, she playfully hit me. "Why didn't you tell me? She's pretty."

"Not my girlfriend. She's a friend that's staying with me, her name is Riven. It was really sudden but I was wondering if… you know," I said, looking away slightly. "We could hire her."

"Does she have any experience? Maybe, we still are looking for two or so people but this is very sudden," Carla said, crossing her arms.

"Look, I just want her to be alright. I'll pay her from what I get," I said, looking back at her. She was staring out the window at the passing cars that had just gotten their food. "I'll train her and everything."

"What did you have in mind?" The woman asked, nodding. She had quite a bit of trust in me by now.

"Front counter. Have Lauren bag for me instead. I can ask her to help if needed," I said, having thought it out.

"That could work except… Tony is the manager tonight, he's probably going to bag or grill. If it was any other manager, she'd have someone with her in the front counter," Carla said. I cringed a bit. Tony was among the more… difficult among the managers.

"He always wants to teach everyone everything anyway," I said, sighing. "Give it a try? I just don't want to leave her all alone for hours whenever I'm at work."

"We can give it a try. I know you wouldn't recommend someone that won't work hard," Carla said, nodding slowly. "I'll speak to Tony about it, tell him a new person is starting. I'll check my car for an extra apron and shirt, she has work pants and shoes, right?"

"Yeah, I brought extra stuff," I said, smiling. "Thanks, it means alot."

"Get changed and get ready to show her a few things, use the back computer to show her the menu and options, alright?" She said, speaking about the first window computer that was solely used for taking money. I nodded, walking over to the Exile, who turned to me.

"How did it go?" She asked, shifting in her seat. I had explained the situation and she had agreed to it. She mentioned again how she would rather not be a burden to me so I left out the 'pay would come from my check' thing. She wouldn't be eligible to legally work but maybe something could be worked out later.

"She said alright. I'm going to show you a few things before we have to actually start and she is going to give you a uniform," I said, sitting across from her. She nodded with a small smile. "Told you they love me here."

"Sounds like you're pretty trusted… she had no questions?" Riven asked, looking curiously at me.

"She asked a bit but I told her to please do a bit of a trail," I said. "She also mentioned I wouldn't just recommend a bad worker."

"That'd be pretty silly," Riven said, laughing a bit. "So what exactly will I be doing?"

"Basically you talk to people and put what foods they want on the computer, they pay you, and you give them back how much it says to," I said, sitting back. "Then you clean this area when you have free time… When we leave you have to close the area… I'll help you with that."

"Alright…," Riven said, as the owner walked over to our table, holding a woman's shirt and an apron, with a name tag clipped on it. It actually read Riven, I was expecting her to misspell it.

"Hello, my name is Carla. Has Riley told you what you will be doing?" The woman said, setting the clothing down. Riven nodded, meekly.

"Yes, thank you for giving me a chance, I will do my best," Riven said, formally.

"If you need anything, ask him or any others to help you. He's one of my best workers," The woman said, looking over at me. I looked away.

"I'll start showing her the stuff in the back computer then," I said, standing up. The owner nodded, as she walked away. A few people entered the store as I turned towards Riven. I handed her a thin white shirt, the pants, and shoes, hoping they would fit. "Let's go get changed."

As we both headed towards the bathrooms, I opened the door to the men's as I felt the door not close behind me.

"N-No. You go in that one."

I had to say: I was a fan of Riven's Bunny skin but something about seeing her in a Wendy's uniform was strangely cute. Maybe the fact that she seemed as normal as I was despite the fact she could make ADC's almost disintegrate. She followed me as we headed back outside and placed her clothing in the trunk.

"You ready?" I asked, turning back towards the woman. She nodded slowly, as another car drove past the window.

"I suppose," She said, as we walked back inside the building.

I lead the woman through the building and towards the back computer. As we walked, I noticed most of my coworkers looking over at us as we walked. It was common, as new employees were usually not announced until the day of when they showed up in uniform. I stood in front of the computer, as Riven stood closely near me, looking at the screen.

"Since you're in the front, most people can just point at what they want if you're confused… combos are the numbered meals, everything is on the side here. I think another girl will be on the computer next to you so she can help you. Then a total will come up, they'll hand you the money, you put how much they gave and then give back the change," I said, tapping the buttons as I spoke. Riven stared at me blankly.

"Those orange cards?" Riven asked. She was referring to my debit card; she had seen it earlier and the night before, if she even did.

"Uhhh… they're not all orange. Its either that or paper money," I said, taking out my wallet. I rarely carried cash so what I pulled out was a few singles. "Its like these. The number on the corner is how much they're worth. The cards are linked to a person's bank account to make things easier. I rarely have any on me."

"So I put in what people say and then do the math?" Riven asked.

"Not even. The computer does it for you to make things quicker. The main thing is to be quick," I said, looking at the woman. She was leaning forward and looking up at me. I noticed she was tall, nearly my height. Compared to my of the women here, she was a giant.

Despite Riven not seeming to know which bathroom was for which gender or what paper money was, everything seemed to go very smoothly. It had been fairly busy so I hadn't much time to check on the Exile. Whenever I managed to pass by her, there were no people in the dining room so she was wiping the tables like I had shown her.

Time had flown by, it was nearing the end of my shift. Even though I left at 11, my replacement came in at 10 while I finished stocking up and bagged for them while the manager counted my cashier drawer to make sure I was good. The drive-thru had significantly slowed down as my replacement, Jessica, came towards me as I placed salad dressings inside the small fridge.

"Yo, Nick not working today?" I asked, as Jessica usually never closed. She shook her head as I handed her the headset.

"He switched with me since I needed tomorrow off," She said, as the manager, Tony, walked over to the computer and signed me out. He held a 'clean drawer' , containing only 100 dollars, as I grabbed my own register and followed him. I looked over at Riven, who was kneeling down and placing sauces into the holder.

I stood outside of the office, having nearly stocked all I needed to and no cars were coming as of yet. The manager counted the money, making organized piles of hundreds and putting the numbers on a calculator as a second reference.

"So, what did you think of her?" I asked, crossing my arms slightly. He raised his head to look out the office window at the kneeling woman.

"Not bad, not sure how you got that," He said, chuckling. I glared at him. "She's alright. Kinda slow, she never answered any of my questions. What is she, an alien?"

"I'm going to go show her how to close," I said, ignoring his last statements. No one was good enough for him, at first, at least. He nodded, as he continued to punch the numbers into the calculator.

I immediately headed towards the back corner of the store and filled the yellow mop bucket with some water and some kind of special floor cleaner. I grabbed the black floor brush, blue mop, and squeegee as I pushed the bucket around the corner. As I neared the dining room, I heard the door open.

Riven stood up, knowing that the door opening meant a customer. A person in a blue and white shirt came in, followed by another… and another…. and another. I cringed as I quickly moved towards the second register in the front counter.

"Get ready, Riven," I said, valiantly.

"For what?" She asked, facing her own register.

"Something more terrifying than walking down the river when there's a Teemo on the opposing team...," I said, jokingly.

It was now almost 10:15 pm as the door were finally locked and the entire travelling soccer team left, all holding different sized white and red bags. Riven let out a breath as she walked next to me.

"D-Does that always happen?" She asked, a bit nervously. I shook my head.

"Not too often… but when it does, it's always when we're about to leave. It's a universal law. We're lucky everything was to go… otherwise we'd have to wait before starting to clean," I said, finally pushing the bucket into the dining area.

I rarely did this but had done it a few times in the past so the process was burned into my brain by now. Dip the mop into the solution, cover the floor in it, scrub the floor the brush, then squeegee everything into the drains. After that, clean the bathrooms and tables, which were already clean but never clean enough for whoever was in charge. I showed Riven what to do and she mimicked me after I did; she did everything perfectly every time.

I stared at her as I walked to the small closet to get the bathroom cleaners. Strands of white hair were pushed behind her ear; it was almost impossible to not sweat. She looked up at me as I walked over to her.

"What? Am I doing something wrong?" She asked, stopping herself. I shook my head.

"No, you're perfect… I- I mean, you know. Nothing's wrong," I said, thinking I sounded like an idiot. She nodded.

"Are we done after this?" She asked, I nodded.

"Yep, till tomorrow."

As we sat inside the running car, the cool A/C was a wave of relief on our warm faces. I tossed the visor into the backseat. I looked over at Riven.

"So, what did you think?" I asked.

"Is everyone like that one guy? He kept asking me weird things and everything I did was wrong," Riven asked, causing me to chuckle while I began to drive.

The chuckled stopped very quickly.

"Oh right. Both my parents will be there when we get to the apartment," I said, sighing quietly.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it," Riven said, staring forward.

"I'm not leaving you alone, Riven. If they're stubborn, I will be too," I said, seriously.

"Do you dislike your parents?" Riven asked me. I shook my head. She continued. "You'd disobey them for a stranger?"

"You're not a stranger… you're my friend now, right?" I said, looking at her slightly.

"I'm just a tool for summoners. You consider us friends? Why?" Riven asked.

"I never thought of you as a tool. I-," I began. Riven cut me off.

"Maybe you don't. Others do. It doesn't matter now, does it? I'm not the person I was in my world right now. I'm just a weak person," Riven said, a bit angrily.

"I told you I'd help you get back. Just- I need some time. I don't know how to get you back yet," I said, slowing down as I parked in my usual spot.

"I know. I'm not trying to be ungrateful. I trust you, Riley," Riven said, with a small smile.

I nodded with my own smile, as I exited the car and began to head towards the passenger side. Why was I willing to disobey my parents for her?

The wind began to pick up as I hurried the woman. Rain would surely follow.