Finally, there's an actual chapter! I of course have to respond to the review Ronnie left first.
VeronicaWeasley - Reviewing is the most important thing one can do around here. In this chapter you get a bit of both of them working at a restaurant, but mostly JoJo in this chapter.
Watch out for kitchen words, because they're coming your way!
Some days really weren't Smalls'. They could, and should have been, but for one reason or another nothing could go right.
This was one of those days.
Her foster family's house was cold enough for Smalls to label it Antarctica when she woke up. The fridge stored no cherry yogurt, so all she had for breakfast was a measly sandwich. On her way to Dinner is a Doozy, the chain on her bike popped off, causing her to have to lock it to a lamp post and wait for a bus. This stupid bus decided to be late. It had apparently been okay for the chain on her bike to hop out of place, but this chain of unfortunate events showed no sign of slipping off.
Because she was twenty minutes late to their pre-dinner-serving meeting, she got no say about which group she would be in. A four hour sentence to the chef group was placed on her. This would have been fine if her boyfriend was there, but no; she was quick to notice that there was no Sniper in the kitchen. He was a waiter today. The world was against Smalls every time the Dinner Doozy was open at midday instead of in the evening.
Smalls took as long as she could in the changing room, mostly procrastinating putting on the kitchen pants. They were unbelievably uncomfortable. She had gotten the smallest available size, but they still swept the floor and annoyed her ankles, and if she didn't use a belt or alike, they would fall.
One can only come up with so many things to do instead of changing in a changing room, so Smalls was finally forced to put on the contraption of uncomfortableness that the school called pants. She whipped her hair into a ponytail on her way to the kitchen, making sure to prolong her steps as much as possible. What did it matter if Mr. Wiesel would ask what took her time?
"Youse betta' move away from the window if it's full!" was a glorious phrase for Smalls to enter the kitchen with.
Unfortunately it was swallowed right up by the many loud noises of the kitchen.
"Hey Buttons!" Smalls stopped Buttons by grabbing his shirt sleeve, causing him a weird movement of almost dropping his plastic food pan while suddenly being pulled back.
"Who's in window one?"
"Henry, JoJo, Romeo... and Albert," Buttons counted up.
"Have ya placed me?"
"You's in desserts."
Smalls muttered a quick "fuck" betting go of Buttons and making her way through the maze of shelves and to the first window to the waiter's corridor.
"One a' youse betta' switch ta desserts!" she announced again. This time she was actually heard.
"Why do we gotta listen to you?" said Albert, who was in the middle of stacking things that were definitely supposed to be cold into the Salamander Broiler.
"'Cause I's neva' been in desserts, an' I prefer ta keep it that way."
That was totally the whole reason. Nothing else weighed in on that preference. Especially not ther fact that the waiter group usually hung out by window one when they had nothing they needed to do. It totally didn't matter to Smalls that Sniper would very likely hang out around there a lot.
"Fine," JoJo gave in. "Al? Couldja switch?"
It was obvious to everyone, even Albert himself, that JoJo only wanted the boy and his chaos to get away from their preciously organized plating station.
"I ain't goin' ta desserts!"
"Ro?"
"Why do one of us gotta switch if we don't wanna work in desserts?" he asked defensively.
"Yeah, I say we send Smalls ta desserts!" Albert said, beginning to cheer "Smalls to desserts!" over and over.
JoJo sighed, boosting Smalls' determination with their signs of giving in.
"Alright... maybe we could be five people here, or Romeo could go there- STOP PUTTING THE SALAD IN THE SALAMANDER!"
Smalls couldn't keep herself from laughing along with Albert as JoJo began quickly moving things out of the heat.
"These stay on the freezer plate!"
Smalls took the opportunity as JoJo began lecturing the highly entertained Albert. She pulled Romeo to the side.
"A dollar if ya switch," she spat in her hand.
Romeo glanced at the floor in a moment's consideration. Then he did the same thing as Smalls.
"Deal."
They shook hands as Smalls made a mental note to bring a dollar the next day. She stepped aside to let Romeo pass her and go to desserts. To remain sanitary, she wiped her hand on her pants.
"Who's doin' the platin'?" she abruptly interrupted JoJo's telling off Albert by asking this utterly important question. Whoever did the plating happened to have to stand at the window counter, and did not have to run around like confused and stressed chickens.
"We was gonna have me and Albert do it, but I dunno if I want that anymore," JoJo said, eyeing the plastic food pans on the freezer plate.
"Perfect. Al, you're kicked."
"Wh-" Albert left the word incomplete to gape at JoJo instead.
As if he wasn't even standing there, Smalls took Albert's place between the freezer plate and the Salamander on the wall.
"So when does it open?" Smalls asked as she began inspecting JoJo's layout of the pans on the plate.
"Half an hour, so's we got time to do the last preparations," Henry answered from behind her.
"Fantastic," Smalls drummed a quick beat on the counter with her hands. "What's there to do?"
"Seitz wrote a list on the board," JoJo waved their hand at the door to the à la carte fridge, on which a small whiteboard hung.
"It's really nice that I can see on da list what's done an' what ain't," Smalls said, playing with sarcasm.
She could practically see JoJo snort and roll their eyes high before they started going through the list.
"Buttons an' Mush are doin' the Bernaise, Race and Al's goin' to cut julienne, me an Hen are blanchin' asparagus an'... ya could chop onions, Smalls."
"Fine," Smalls said, but her eyes gave a whole other answer. "I'm takin' this board."
She adamantly placed herself by a cutting board placed right under the window.
"Hey, that's my cutting board!" Albert yelled at her.
"Too bad, I need it now," Smalls nonchalantly responded, grabbing a knife off the rack on the wall.
"But- but there's places all ova'!" Albert whined.
"Yeah, an' how's about you take one?" JoJo said.
"'Cause I had a place before she took it."
"Jus' take the one right there!"
"Yeah, then you'll still get ta be wit me by da window, Albie!" Smalls teased. She didn't look back, but Albert's death glare practically burned holes in her shirt.
"Bunsen put the onions in the à la carte fridge," Henry piped up to inform Smalls.
"Thanks Hen!"
On the way to the refridgerator, Smalls had to pull her pants up three times. The stupid belt had to be broken or something. But at least the onions stood right next to the door, so finding them was no trouble. One onion gave like one cup when chopped up, so three should do. She was on her way back to her cutting board when suddenly there was something in the waiter's passage that made her run the last fifteen steps.
She carelessly dumped the onions beside the board.
"Snipes!"
The boy polishing the pint glasses looked up as quickly as if he'd heard a gunshot. A fraction of a second later, he was smiling.
"Smalls!"
"So that's why ya wanted ta stand there..."
"Shuddup Al," Sniper told the ginger. He turned back to his girlfriend, leaning on her counter.
"Ya can't be late like this is ya wan' us ta be in the same group," he said, grinning.
"Shuddup, everythin' just went bad."
With a smirk on her lips, she watched in amused awe as Sniper grabbed and turned on the heating lamp and shone it in his face.
"This is how you get a tan as a chef," he said in an informative voice.
"Gimme one then," Smalls leaned forward as Sniper angled the lamp at her face.
"Which window're ya in?"
"Two. You?"
"Fuck."
Again: this wasn't Smalls' day.
It is important tradition in Newsies AUs that Smalls hates whatever she is forced to wear.
Also, for anyone who was confused earlier, a Salamander Broiler is a device used to keep food warm, and to give some foods a nice surface. It is very often used at à la carte restaurants.
Review if you're a noice person, and I'll see you next time, whenever that may be!