Dining Area - 9:30am
Astrid was reading through the menu when Heather walked over with the tonic water she had ordered. "Here's your drink, Chef Hofferson..." she said, as Astrid grinned and took it, saying "ah, thank you. So, you're Heather, right?"
"Yeah, I'm the waitress..."
"Right. It's just... ha ha... we were stopped from having a proper introduction back there..." Astrid chuckled. "So, uh, it's just you and Tuff out in the open, right?"
"Yeah, that's right. Well, in terms of service, pretty much just me."
"And how long have you worked here?"
"About a year and a half."
"Good tips?"
"I don't make tips." Heather said, prompting Astrid's face to suddenly drop in shock. "Come again?"
"Yeah, I make hourly..."
"Gods... seriously?!" Astrid asked, as Heather nodded with a grin still forced on her face. "Heather, I think you must be the only server in this entire Archipelago who doesn't make tips... where do the tips even go?"
"Um... the owner..." Heather said, prompting Astrid to glare at Tuffnut as he was working on the computer at the counter. Astrid sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as she said "um, well... you know what, Heather... when you go, can you just send Tuffnut over here, please?"
"Yeah, sure thing..." Heather nodded as she walked away from the table. Astrid noticed her leaning in to whisper something to Tuffnut before she walked back into the kitchen. About a minute later, Tuffnut walked over to the table, saying "yeah, what is it?"
"Tuff... I know about the problem with staff... but I just found out a pretty fucking major problem... Heather doesn't make tips... you take them..."
"Yeah, I know..."
"Tuff, you can't take servers' tips! It's disgraceful..."
"Well, I think you'll find that, when you guys were talking, I took at least three orders. So I do more work than her and I think I deser..."
"You're the fucking owner! You know what? Fuck it, we'll fix this later..."
"Have you decided what you want to eat yet?"
"Yeah, tell you what... I'll have..." Astrid glanced at the menu. "...The Icelandic Cod Pizza... a Blue Nadder burger... it's not actually got Nadder in it, right?"
"Uh, no. It's just called that because of the colour..."
"Right, okay... I'll have that medium-rare, and the Rainbow-Coloured-Chicken wings at the same time... and, for the spaghetti, the pasta's homemade, right?"
"Yeah, but we're out of spaghetti this week..."
"Right. I'll just have the ravioli, then..." Astrid said as she passed the menu to Tuffnut and he walked away. She sighed as she looked at the camera, saying "well, I'm starting to think the story's becoming a little more clear..."
RUFFNUT: I believe, that once Chef Hofferson tastes my food, as a chef... she'll be able to tell that this is what the Gods want me to do...
Dining Area - 10:43am
Astrid was wringing her hands together as she leaned back on the chair, before her ear caught the conversation Tuffnut and Heather were having at the counter. She was pointing at the computer that he was standing at, sounding annoyed as she said "they wanted the three-cheese pizza. It's that one, there... there!"
"Okay, jeez..." he groaned as he typed in the order. When Heather went to get more dishes, Astrid said "uh, Tuff, hey. Over here..."
Tuffnut walked over to her, as she said "does Heather use the POS system?"
"Uh, no... no, I'm the only one who uses it. She doesn't know how to work it, so... I'll teach her, though. I will..."
"Hey, uh, Heather!" Astrid called as the former walked over. "Have you used a POS system before?"
"Uh, yeah, I have. Every job I've worked before this, I have."
"Right. And how many jobs is that?"
"A lot."
"Right, a lot. See, Tuff, I think she knows how to use one, huh?" Astrid groaned. "Alright, look guys. I've been waiting here for about... say, 75 minutes. So... how long til the food's ready?"
"Your pizza's gonna be ready any minute." Heather said, before tensing with one eye shut as she heard Ruffnut yell "HEATHER!"
"Coming!" she called back as she quickly went into the kitchen. Tuffnut went over to the counter as Heather brought the large, Icelandic Cod Pizza to Astrid's table.
"Enjoy your meal... hopefully." Heather said as she walked away, prompting a mild chuckle from Astrid as she turned to the camera and said "well... she's optimistic, huh... ha ha... now, let's see if this was worth the wait."
In The Kitchen - 10:49am
Heather went back into the kitchen where Cami was cutting the pieces for another customer's salad. She groaned audibly in relief, prompting Cami to turn to face her.
"Does she like it?" she asked, as Heather said "I don't know yet... she spent the last hour waiting, so she's probably not gonna go easy on it..."
Dining Area - 10:50am
"So, here's something weird..." Astrid said to the camera as she cut out a piece of the sloppy, soggy pizza and held it up. "I was waiting for over an hour for this, and... the dough is undercooked... know what? Scratch that... it's not undercooked, it's raw... and it's like, actually raw, too... just look at it..."
She reluctantly took a bite, taking at least a minute to force herself to swallow it, gagging audibly as she did so. "Oh, Gods, that was awful..."
10:57am
Astrid lifted the plate up and passed it to Heather, who was struggling to hold in laughter at the sight of the barely-eaten pizza. As Heather walked away, Astrid went slightly wide-eyed as she noticed her dump the pizza in the garbage can just before entering the kitchen. She was still frozen with shock when Heather came back straight after, holding the plates with the Blue Nadder Burger and the Rainbow-Coloured-Chicken Wings.
"Here you go..." she said awkwardly as she lay them down on the table. Astrid nodded, saying "thanks, but uh... Heather, I couldn't help but notice that you just trashed the pizza... you apparently didn't think it necessary to tell Ruff about it?"
"Yeah, Tuffnut prefers that I not do that..."
"Why?"
"Well, um... let's just say Ruff isn't exactly good with criticism..."
"Yeah, but Heather, this is serious. I think Ruff should really know."
"As much as I wanna agree, Chef Hofferson, this is really something to discuss with the owner..." Heather sighed, before saying "anyway, hopefully, you'll enjoy this..."
11:05am
"So, this fell apart just by me taking the first bite." Astrid said to the camera as she pointed to the half-eaten burger. She slowly peeled the top half of the bun off, saying "the bun's soggy, and the burger itself isn't exactly what I call medium-rare. In fact, it's more like freshly killed..."
She then pointed to the chicken wings, patting them with her knuckle as it made a KNOCK! KNOCK! sound, saying "these are surprisingly overcooked. Rock hard. And to be honest, I'm not sure why they felt the need to call them... rainbow-coloured... because I'm pretty sure rainbow-coloured-chicken wings look and taste exactly the same as regular-coloured-chicken wings..."
She then sighed, putting a hand to her lowly-rumbling tummy as she said "ugh... so, I've been here for over an hour-and-a-half and everything I've had to try so far has been terrible outside of this tonic water... Gods, I'm starving..."
11:15am
Tuffnut walked over to the table where Astrid was eating the ravioli, gulping slightly at the sight of her scowling face. Clearly, she wasn't a fan of the taste.
"So, um... how are you enjoying the food?" he asked. Astrid pulled out one of the chewy, surprisingly firm raviolis as she said "um, Tuff... these raviolis are surprisingly tough... frozen?"
"Well, they're actually store-bought, so th..."
"Store-bought?!" Astrid suddenly snapped, Tuffnut standing back a bit as he said "um... yeah, is that a problem?"
"Tuff, if you told me these things were store-bought, I wouldn't have ordered them!" Astrid groaned. "Ugh, whatever..."
11:30am
Astrid was standing at the counter, facing Ruffnut and Tuffnut who were both standing on the other side of it. Ruffnut gulped, saying "you look disappointed..."
"I am disappointed, Ruff." Astrid sighed. "I gotta say, I was a little less-than-impressed with that food..."
Ruffnut was already visibly beginning to hyperventilate at the mention of this, before calming slightly as Astrid said "but... it should be a relatively easy fix... now, I'm going home, and I'm gonna come back to see what you guys are like at night service..."
"Uh... okay." Tuffnut said, Astrid nodding as she turned away from them and walked towards the door. Heather, who was standing next to the doorway, awkwardly said "oh... let me get that for you..." as she held it open for Astrid.
"Thanks, I've got it." Astrid said, before stopping mid-way through the door as she said "oh yeah... almost forgot..."
The twins both went wide-eyed as Astrid reached into her pocket and pulled out a 10 Dollar bill, holding it out in full view of everyone as she passed it to Heather. "That's for you, Heather..." she said with a smile to the slightly dumbfounded waitress. "And you only..."
Ruffnut had fists clenched and her mouth was closed as she burned with fury, watching Astrid leave the restaurant.
After a break, Chef Hofferson gets a gander at what the night service is like in Ruffnut's Baking Company...
