"Are you ready for your quiz?" Thalia asked. She was sitting across from Percy and sipping on her coffee. Percy gave her a distracted nod as he watched the manager of the store talking to an irate customer. He had yet to approach Annabeth and ask her exactly where the ring went, but Thalia promised to bring it up when she hung out with Annabeth on Friday. That left him with plenty of time to fear and ponder. Tomorrow was Friday though, so he just had to hold out.

"Yo, Kelp Head. Quiz. Ready?" Thalia asked again impatiently. Percy finally looked up at her and nodded. "For every name you mess up, I'll throw a crumb at you."

"You wouldn't dare waste a crumb," Percy countered slyly. Thalia was about to argue, but in the end, she just nodded her head in agreement. Percy smiled triumphantly and looked around. They were sitting at Nectar and Ambrosia and just relaxing. Their shift hadn't been terrible, but Percy was happy to be off.

"Alright. I'll start with an easy one," Thalia said. She set her phone on the table and started a timer. Percy glanced up at her again, this time he was clearly annoyed. "You have to be fast. Store manager?"

"Lupa," Percy answered. "Is that her real name, or are you guys pulling a prank on me?"

"Yes. The other assistant store manager?"

"Yes to what?"

"You're already running behind, and this is the easy part."

"Fine. Reyna."

"HR?"

"Octavian."

"The two managers for the front end?"

"Hazel during the day and Gwendolyn at night."

"Just don't call her Gwendolyn. She will kill you. What about our clothing manager?"

"Silena."

"Beauty?"

"Also Silena. Are you trying to drag out the questions to make my time worse?"

"Don't worry about it. Electronics?"

"Leila."

"Maintenance?"

"My man Beckendorf."

"Our man. Just don't tell Silena. Who is your favorite asset protector?"

"My favorite cousin, obviously: Nico."

The timer stopped, and Thalia looked at Percy for a long uncomfortable moment. Percy matched her stare with one of his own. The deafening silence between them was complemented with background noise, courtesy of Grover ringing up customers and some annoyed patron in the distance trying to argue with Annabeth.

Thalia's finger stabbed into the phone, starting the timer again, "Who is your favorite morning asset protector?"

"I don't really have a favorite one in the morning."

"Hmm."

"Hmm indeed."

"Who runs the cafe and trained you how to open it this morning?"

"Dakota."

"Who is opening the cafe tomorrow?"

"...Dakota?"

Thalia's finger stopped the time once again, and a grin came to her face.

"Shit."

14 Hours Later. Dawn Of The Final Day (Of Percy's Work Week)

Percy stared at the counter in front of him. The booklet of instructions in front of him was supposed to tell him how to prepare for the morning. Percy ran through a mental list.

Prepare coffee. Make sandwiches. Pull the pizzas out of the freezer and into the fridge. Start the sauce and prepare the dough for the breadsticks. Bake a few pizzas and set them out. Prepare the popcorn. Start the pretzels. Stock up on the cups for the soda machine and change out any expired soda. Serve any customers who came by.

It would be fine. Totally and utterly fine. Percy had the book in front of him to help him.

Except for one little detail.

The book was unreadable. It wasn't because the book was in another language, no. It was in English and had been handwritten by Dakota. There were pictures and graphs everywhere with bright pink and yellow highlighter colors. Who drew with a highlighter?

Reading was difficult enough for Percy. His dyslexia caused words to jump off of a page and dance around. It was made more difficult by the fact that Dakota did not put any spaces in between his words. He just ran into it all together sometimes blending letters into one another. Percy attempted to decipher the book for about five minutes before he gave up and closed the book.

How exactly did Percy end up in this situation? It was expected that the assistant store managers would learn how to run the cafe in case the registers were too backed up and the front end manager was busy when it was time for the cafe worker to go on break. That didn't explain how Percy was the one who ended up opening the cafe.

Hazel would be too busy running the front to cover the cafe. Frank had the day off. Any cashiers who knew the cafe weren't coming in until a few hours after the store opened. Gwendolyn couldn't come back in for another hour without breaking a labor law. And Reyna had already told Percy she would be late getting to work, so it fell to Percy to open and run the cafe.

And he had no clue what he was doing.

Percy closed the book and tried to remember what Dakota had told him, but the man moved and talked so fast. He barely paused for breath in between sentences, yet he managed to look red-eyed and exhausted all the time. Percy wasn't one to judge, but he felt like Dakota was high on either caffeine or something else whenever he showed up to work.

Percy walked towards the back and opened the freezer. He pulled out the rolling cart of dough and wheeled it into the fridge. He closed the doors and stared at them. What now?

Footsteps behind Percy caused him to turn. He watched as someone wearing a hoodie walked towards the sandwich ingredients he had set out. They grabbed two biscuits and started to stack bacon on one of them. Percy was so surprised that he opened his mouth to speak and then just stared slack-jawed.

The hooded figure put the sandwich on the roller grill. Percy slowly spoke, "Um. Excuse me. You can't do that."

The hooded figure turned to look at him. They pulled their hood off, and Percy debated jumping into the freezer. He was late on his first day and didn't think he could top that. But oh no. Now Percy had just told the store manager what she could and couldn't do.

"Apologies, Perseus. I forgot that Dakota was off today," Lupa admitted. She was a middle-aged woman with red hair, random strands of grey encroaching on the sea of candy red. Her eyes were silver, but they seemed to have dimmed from age. "Dakota always has a sandwich waiting for me, but when he doesn't, I just make it."

"Oh," Percy said, unsure of how to respond. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. Lupa smiled at him.

"Do you mind checking me out?" Lupa asked. Percy nodded and rushed towards the register. Lupa walked around the other side as Percy started up the register. Each second that it took for the screen to turn on and then allow him to log in felt like it was taking a minute off of his life. Then, he clicked the first button, and the screen froze.

"Perseus, are you okay?" Lupa questioned.

"Yeah, totally. It's just slow," Percy said quickly. Lupa smiled at him again.

"There's no need to be nervous," Lupa assured him. "I understand how it feels to still be adjusting. I should have checked on you after your first day. I haven't been paying much attention as I should have."

Percy stared at Lupa. The last thing he expected was for the store manager to admit any kind of fault. At his old store, the store manager rarely came around, but when he did, he blamed everyone else for anything that didn't go right.

If the power went out, it was Johnson's fault. If a customer had any kind of complaint, it was Johnson's fault. If the world ended, it was Johnson's fault. And Percy was Johnson all because the store manager couldn't remember that Percy's last name was actually Jackson. Maybe, the store manager just hated him.

"How are you settling in?" Lupa asked him.

"Pretty well. I think," Percy answered. "Everyone is welcoming, and Reyna's being very helpful. I'm just trying to remember it all."

"Where is Reyna?" Lupa questioned.

"She told me she would be late today," Percy replied after a moment. He didn't want to tell on Reyna, but at the same time, he couldn't just lie. A frown came to Lupa's face.

"Did she say why?" Lupa pressed on. Percy shook his head. "Has she been okay?"

"I think," Percy began. He shifted awkwardly.

"Right. You don't know her that well," Lupa said. She looked down and shook her head. "I'm sorry."

"It's cool. I know how hard it is to keep track of everyone," Percy sympathized. As the register finally turned on, he stared at all of the options. His face must have shown his confusion, and Lupa stepped around the register and gave him a small tutorial on how to run the machine.

Instead of having barcodes to scan or a code to type in, the register was a touchscreen that had plenty of options. Trying to find the one for sandwiches was hard enough, and then, he had to find the one for a bacon sandwich. In the time that it took Percy to realize no such button existed, Lupa had grabbed her sandwich and wrapped it up. She then showed him how to add a custom sandwich by adding the ingredients individually.

After Percy scanned her discount and she paid, he just stared at the screen. Percy was so screwed. He tried to hide his panic, but Lupa seemed to notice that something was wrong, "Do you need help?"

"I can handle it," Percy began.

"That's good. The rest of the team will be up for sandwiches in five minutes," Lupa said. Percy felt his heart drop, and he closed his eyes for a few moments. Maybe, they would just make their own sandwiches as Lupa did. He was just glad the store wasn't open yet for customers. A chuckle caused him to open his eyes.

"Perseus, I do not expect you to be able to do everything by yourself," Lupa began. "I want you to feel comfortable asking me for any kind of help that you may need. Work or personal. I already made the mistake of allowing Reyna to shoulder the weight of the entire store for months after Jason left, and I hate how much she pushed herself. When the district manager found out, he tore me a new one, and I deserved it."

"I am not going to make that mistake again," Lupa promised. "Do you need help?"

"I have no clue what I'm doing," Percy admitted. "Dakota showed me everything and explained it, but he's just..."

"Dakota?" Lupa finished.

"Dakota," Percy agreed. Lupa smiled.

"Start on what you remember, and after I eat my lunch, I will help you," Lupa said. "And, I was just joking about everyone coming for lunch. We do take the sandwiches that aren't sold and put them in the break room."

"Thanks," Percy said.

"Anytime, Perseus," Lupa dismissed.

"And call me Percy please," Percy replied. Lupa nodded and smiled at him. She walked towards a table and sat down. Percy took a deep breath and focused on setting up the sandwiches.

The next hour passed in a blur. Lupa showed him how to prep all of the items for lunch, and she helped him make the sandwiches that would be used for breakfast. By the time Hazel arrived to open the store at a quarter to eight, Percy felt ready. He waved at Hazel as she stopped by.

"Are you still enjoying it?" Hazel asked.

"Of course," Percy answered, and he fixed his hat. A frown came to his face as he saw someone trudging in. A grin broke out on his face as he saw who it was. "Nico!"

"No," Nico groaned as he seemed to shrink into his aviator jacket. A huge grin came to Hazels' face as she turned.

"Nico, I got you coffee and breakfast," Hazel called. She held up a fast food bag and cup of coffee. Nico groaned again, but this sounded like some kind of garbled sentence. Hazel looked at Percy. "He's like this every time he has to close and then open."

"Can't Thalia just work seven days in a row?" Nico muttered. He walked towards Hazel and grabbed the bag and cup. "Is Reyna here yet?"

"She's going to be late today," Percy answered. He leaned on the counter. "Is everything okay with her?"

Nico huffed again and grabbed his phone. He sent a text and then rubbed his eyes. After a few moments, Nico spoke, "She's just at a doctor's appointment. Think I can sneak in a nap?"

"Lupa will catch you," Hazel warned.

"Lupa loves me," Nico snorted. He focused on Hazel. "You're still coming over for dinner tomorrow, right? Dad has this whole thing planned for when he's back in town."

"Of course. How has dad been doing?" Hazel queried.

"Wait," Percy interrupted. He knew that Nico had an odd relationship with his father, and Percy had never met the man despite the fact that it was his uncle. He just knew it was a rich man who owned a lot of funeral homes. That wasn't the weird thing though. Hazel was using the word dad as well. Why?

"Oh. Hazel is my half-sister," Nico clarified.

"Half?" Percy repeated, and he almost fell forward. The counter caught him. "You never told me you had a half-sister! That means she's my half-cousin."

Nico made a noise and then shrugged. Hazel smiled slightly and spoke, "We didn't learn until a month ago. Dad just kind of appeared at my doorstep, introduced himself as my long-lost father, and then told me that my coworker was also my half-brother."

"Oh, Hazel, this is Percy. He's a half-cousin and almost as annoying as your other half-cousin Thalia," Nico sarcastically explained.

"It's nice to meet you," Hazel turned with a smile and she held her hand out.

"You as well," Percy replied with a handshake and then a bow. Nico rolled his eyes and walked towards the back.

"I need to get the front ready, but Nico never told me you were his cousin," Hazel said. "If I had known..."

"It's all cool," Percy promised. "Nico doesn't reveal stuff like that. I should get to my break before we start."

"Let me know if you need help," Hazel said. Percy nodded and stepped around the counter. He grabbed the sandwich he had already made for himself and paid for. Percy sat at the table and ate quietly. His mind was running through all of the information that he had heard. Working the cafe was something he didn't want to do again, and the day had just started. Percy just wished the rest of the day passed by quickly.