Kitchen - 19:30pm

"Alright... that's 7:30 now..." Hiccup flatted his sleeve back down after looking at his watch, looking to see Astrid, Heather, Eret and Cami standing in the kitchen wearing their jackets and with their utensils all at the ready. "So, you guys all ready for this?"

"What do you think?" Astrid snarked with a grin on her face and an eyebrow raised. Hiccup smiled back, before saying "right. I'll start taking the orders, then..." as he ran up the stairs.

Dining Area - 19:45pm

"Hi, and welcome to Windsh... um... Ruffnut's Baking Company..." Dagur gulped awkwardly as he nearly made that mistake, Mala grinning as she heard it while she said "can we get you gentlemen anything this evening?"

"Yeah, sure..." Snotlout said, nodding at Fishlegs as he added "we're gonna try a, um... a large pizza. Half-pepperoni, half-mushroom..."

"Great. I'll put it on the list..." Dagur filled in the order and brought it to the lift, sliding it through the small letterbox that sent it down a chute to the kitchen.

Kitchen

A small bell made a DING! sound as the order landed at the bottom of the chute, Cami picking it up as she said "alright, we got a large pizza, half-pep half-MR for Table 12..."

"Got it!" Eret called back as he immediately started making it.

Dining Room - 20:11pm

DING!

"Alright, so the little bell is gonna ring when the food shows up, and you open the chute like this..." Hiccup explained to Tuffnut as he opened the chute and took out the large pizza, bringing it over to Table 12 and saying "enjoy your meal..." as he put it on the table.

"Holy shit, that was quick!" Snotlout and Fishlegs spoke in-sync, Hiccup grinning as he looked at the twins, who were both scowling bitterly in response.

21:07pm

Dagur and Mala were going efficiently from table to table, taking orders and putting them down the chute with little effort. The twins were standing in front of the dumbwaiter, sulking silently as everyone else was buzzing and celebrating.

"Hey, uh, Dagur... we got these dirty plates from Table 4 here..." Hiccup passed them over to Dagur as he nodded. "Just take them to the dumbwaiter, will you..."

"Pft... which one?" Dagur scoffed as he glanced at the twins.

HICCUP: So, this place has been open for an hour and 40 minutes, so that's already 20 minutes longer than it was last night. I think that axing the live entertainment and adding the dumbwaiter service has really made things a lot more convenient...

"Hiccup... Hiccup! Son, over here!" Hiccup waited until he had taken the order from Table 5 to see Valka waving to him from Table 7.

"Oh, hi, Mom... what's up?"

"Well, I think your service is doing very well tonight..." Valka said, only for Hiccup to notice that her table was empty. "Mom, I thought... did no one take your order?"

"Oh no, they did... it's just... not gotten to me yet... I'm sure it'll be any moment now..."

"Right. I'll just go check for you..."

ASTRID: Down in the kitchen, Eret, Heather and Cami are going great guns as always, but yet again, the twins at front of house are screwing all of us.

Kitchen - 21:17pm

"Hey, Hiccup!" Cami shouted to him as he came into the kitchen. Astrid looked up from what she was doing and said "something wrong?"

"Uh... I don't think so..." Hiccup was casual and calm, adding "my mom was just wondering when hers was gonna be ready..."

"What'd she order?" Heather asked.

"Well, she's on Table Sev... uh... hey Astrid, there's food still in the lift here..." Hiccup had frozen next to Eret in front of the dumbwaiter to see what was still there.

"What?!"

"Yeah, there's about four dishes in here that haven't been served yet..." Eret said as he opened the lift to reveal the dishes, confirming Hiccup's words.

"Ugh... alright, what table number is that one?" she asked, pointing to the tray on the bottom of the lift.

"Uh... oh man... it says Table 7..." Hiccup held up the number that was attached to the tray, but Astrid had already sulked off with her palm to her face. "That was 30 minutes ago..." she snarled through gritted teeth as she glanced to her left to see Tuffnut waiting in the door.

"So... Table 7? Right?"

"Yes! It's Table 7!" Astrid snapped. "All this food is still in the fucking lift! It's been going up and down all night like your sister's fucking panties did to buy this place! So why don't you do your job and FUCKING SERVE IT ALREADY!

As she yelled, Tuffnut had already retreated back into the dining room and his sister had come in instead. Astrid was even more enraged as she went back to the main kitchen area where Cami and Heather were. Ruffnut sighed, saying "okay, I'll deal with that. Can I te..."

"GOOD! Deal with something then!"

"Can I tell you about the other problem?"

"What's the other problem?!"

"We've got a burnt steak on Table 9..."

"How can it be burnt?!" Astrid snapped, with Eret, Heather, Cami and even Hiccup being equally angry at Ruffnut's words. Ruffnut put both her hands up and said "I'll just go get it..."

Astrid scoffed as she turned around and went back to cooking, as Ruffnut continued with "also, Table 11 is missing sausages. Not sure if that's anything to do with this but the point is that they're mi..."

"Oh, fuck off, will you?!" Astrid suddenly snapped. "Do something useful and get the fuck outta my sight! We'll handle this shit!"

Ruffnut sat there scowling for a good five seconds at this remark, before Astrid took another look at her and shouted "where's the fucking steak then?! Come on, let's go! MOVE!"

As Ruffnut left the kitchen and went into the dining room, Astrid was breathing louder than she had the whole night, aggressively stirring and dicing the different dishes as she said "I've never seen such a fucked-up service in my entire fucking life!"

She exhaled, seemingly calming down, only for her scowl to return with Ruffnut as she brought in Table 9's steak dish. "Okay, so... this was asked for well-done... and I don't think that it is..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait!" Astrid snapped as Ruffnut laid the dish on the table. "What do you mean you don't think it is? What does the customer think?"

"Oh, I didn't serve it yet, but I th..."

"Fuck me!" Heather and Cami both said under their breath, though the sheer synchronisation made it loud enough for everyone to hear. Astrid was fuming as her face turned bright red, and she said "rule number one in a fucking restaurant: the fucking customer is always fucking right! Not the cunt owner or her dipshit brother! The customer! Always! So why don't you serve it to them first and wait for their opinion before you start wasting our time and theirs!"

Ruffnut shrugged ignorantly, before Astrid grabbed the steak knife off the tray and started cutting into the meat. "And let me just tell you something else, okay... in terms of being... well-fucking-done... look..."

She held up a small piece that she had cut off. "We braised it... what is that, Ruffnut?"

"It's well done...?"

"Yeah, it's well-done, so serve the dish and STOP GIVING ME BULLSHIT!" Astrid's voice broke slightly as she threw the piece back onto the plate, nearly cracking the plate as a piece of salad was catapulted off of it by the impact. Ruffnut pointed to another piece of the steak, saying "well, what about this, Astrid?"

"That is well done!" Astrid shrieked back, holding up this piece as she said "it's well-done! Look! It's well-done, we braised it!"

Ruffnut then pointed to the inside of another piece and said "well that looks pink to me..."

"That's gristle, you fucking idiot!" Astrid snapped, showing it to Heather and saying "what is that?!"

"Gristle..." Heather said in a deadpan tone without even looking at the plate. Ruffnut slowly picked the plate back up as Astrid said "just serve the fucking food, you stupid bitch!"

"Alright... I'm going..." Ruffnut snarked as she walked out of the kitchen. "Oh my Gods..." Cami snarled under her breath as they all got back to doing their work. Astrid was in an even worse mood than before, looking where Ruffnut had gone before muttering "what a fucking bimbo..."

Coming up... the continued criticism from her peers once again goes too far for Ruffnut...