Percy was just about to turn off his engine when someone knocked on his window. He jumped and turned his head. Thalia motioned for him to roll down the window. After letting his heart settle, Percy complied.

"Hey, you're in Reyna's spot. Move," Thalia ordered. Percy stared at her. "I'm serious. Scram."

"I don't see a name on it," Percy began. Were they given parking spaces? Did he have one? Would he be hazed and have to park far away?

"There's not a name there, but Reyna always parks here. So move," Thalia ordered. Percy knew better than to argue. He rolled up the window and then pulled out of the parking space. After giving Thalia time to move, even though he debated running her over for a moment, he parked in the space right next to his original one. Thalia gave him a thumbs up.

Percy rolled his eyes and turned off his engine. He got out and grabbed his backpack. As he made sure that he had everything, he saw another car pull up next to him. Percy glanced up and then quickly looked down.

"Morning Reyna!" Thalia called, and she waved. Percy heard a car door open and close.

"Morning Thalia," Reyna said. "Percy."

"Hey," Percy said after a moment. He looked up at Reyna. As their eyes met, they both looked away. Percy closed his car door and slung his backpack across his shoulder. He started to walk inside, and Thalia followed right behind him.

"Do you remember the code?" Thalia asked as they made it to the front door. Percy nodded and grabbed his keys. He unlocked the front door and stepped inside. He did a half-jog half-power walk towards the service counter and the alarm. After putting in the code, he relaxed.

Really, it was Percy's nightmare to not put in the code quickly enough and for the cops to be called. It would be the literal worst. He turned and glanced out at the main floor but didn't see Reyna. He just needed to go between eight and ten hours without talking to her.

It wasn't that Percy didn't want to talk to Reyna, but he just felt awkward. She clearly felt the same. Percy walked towards the back and to his office. He made his way inside and found that the light was already on. He glanced over and saw that Reyna was setting down a cup of coffee and a sealed bag on his desk. As she turned to leave, they made eye contact.

"I got you coffee," Reyna said awkwardly. She shifted uncomfortably. "And some muffins. Thalia said you love the blueberry ones."

"You didn't have to," Percy said. He felt his face heating up and wished that Thalia would go to his office. It would save him from this awkward conversation as Thalia would probably jump on his back and knock him to the ground, hopefully causing him to hit his head on the counter and making him forget all of this.

"I just... Thanks," Reyna muttered. She looked more uncomfortable than Percy did. "And, I am sorry about Friday."

"Reyna, you don't have to apologize," Percy said. "It's not something that you can control."

Reyna nodded and seemed to swallow painfully. Percy wanted to say something to make her feel better, but he wasn't sure what to say. He also had a ton of questions. Like was she getting the surgery? Was she in pain all the time? Did those flashbacks happen often? Did she know that Thalia had this huge crush on her?

"Thank you for the coffee and the sweets. My mother would kill me if she knew I didn't have breakfast yet," Percy joked. The hint of a smile came to Reyna's face. Percy knew that he wasn't the best at getting people to talk about themselves and open up. He especially wasn't that great at getting them to feel better by just talking about their feelings and offering up advice. He knew what he was good at though. "I also have to apologize."

"About what?" Reyna asked. Percy could see her guard coming back up as her face dropped back into her neutral expression, a light frown that made it look like she was going to murder someone.

"I was at a bar with my old coworkers, and one of them threatened to send the Kabachi man our way," Percy explained. Reyna raised an eyebrow.

"The Kabachi man?" Reyna questioned.

"It's this crazy old guy that buys the Kabachi drink," Percy began.

"That dude is weird," Thalia commented as she stepped into the office. She leaned on Percy's shoulder and studied Reyna. "Oh hey, sweets. You gonna share, right Percy?"

"Leave Percy's bag alone. I got you some," Reyna informed. Thalia smiled widely. "And get to work, Grace. We don't need you distracting Percy."

Thalia gasped in mock shock. Reyna smirked and walked out of the office. Thalia pushed herself off of Percy, winked at him, and then hurried either towards Reyna or to her own office. Percy walked towards his desk and sat down.

Percy opened the bag and stared down at the muffins. They were his absolute favorite. He practically devoured the first muffin. Time was taken to down the second one as he opened his laptop and checked over the work emails.

Each department sent out emails detailing everything they did for the day and what had to be done for the rest of the week. There was also an email from Reyna detailing everyone who had called off for the day or just didn't show up. As Percy was going through his emails, he found something that caused him to tilt his head.

Percy looked up and saw someone walking by. He called out, "Hey, Hazel!"

"Morning Percy!" Hazel called as she walked by.

"I have a question," Percy said as he stood and walked out of his office. Hazel stopped and looked at him. "I was looking at our emails. That was a typo about the shorts, right? Only those who push carts can wear shorts?"

"Oh no," Hazel answered. She smiled at him. "When June hits, we're all allowed to wear shorts. They just have to go down to your knees and be either blue jeans shorts or khaki ones. Octavian has an order form where you can get a few for free."

Percy stared at Hazel. Wearing shorts at his old store had been absolutely unheard of. You have to be pushing carts for your entire shift to even consider being allowed to wear anything other than pants. Wearing shorts, especially since they were management, couldn't be right.

"Why?" Percy asked after a moment. "Doesn't that look unprofessional?"

"It depends on how you look at it," Hazel replied. "Lupa likes to wear shorts when she is here during summer, and she wants us to be able to do anything she does. It really helps when the front has to run orders outside for people picking up."

"That's really cool," Percy said. He rubbed the back of his neck and still felt like he was being pranked. "How was your weekend?"

"It was good," Hazel answered. "How was yours?"

"Pretty good. I think it's the first weekend I've had off in a year,"Percy replied.

"Oh, Percy. I'm so sorry," Hazel said. "Your store was always really busy on the weekends too, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. I always got to push carts then," Percy said.

"It's why he's so muscular," Silena commented as she walked by. She stopped to give Percy a teasing once over. Percy smirked. "He's almost as fast as Frank."

"That sounds like a challenge," Percy quipped. He straightened up. "I don't think I want to show Frank up though."

Silena laughed and walked towards her office. Hazel started to walk and waved, "I'll see you later, Percy."

"Actually, Hazel, Percy's going to be with you today," Reyna interrupted as she appeared around the corner holding a large pile of papers. "We also have orientations today, so anyone who comes in can just wait at the cafe. Percy, I'm going to have you follow each department for a day just to give you some experience with it. Thalia said you did a lot of this before at your old store, but I know the systems are different."

"Sounds good," Percy said. Reyna nodded and walked past them.

"Just give me a few minutes to get ready," Haze said. "I'll meet you by Thalia's door."

"Sounds good," Percy repeated. He turned and walked back towards his office. Percy scooped up his water bottle and stuffed half of the third muffin into his mouth. He made his way towards Thalia's office and leaned on the wall. His phone vibrated, and he quickly looked at it. A smile came to his face as he saw that Annabeth had texted him. His heart dropped as he read the message.

Sorry. Can't make it today. Store emergency.

A frown came to his face. He would never admit it out loud, but he was really looking forward to Annabeth stopping by. It didn't help that the store emergency probably wasn't an emergency at all.

It wasn't like Annabeth was lying to him. It was that she was the one being lied to. The store manager of Annabeth's store was a cranky old man who would never do his job. The word emergency could range from the store being on fire to him not wanting to walk less than a hundred feet to talk to an angry customer.

Will be there Wednesday. See you then.

You know it

Percy barely had enough time to slip his phone into his pocket when the door opened. Thalia peeked out as Percy took a huge bite of his muffin. While chewing, he spoke, "Do I know you?"

"Do you?" Thalia wondered. Percy smirked. "When you see Hazel, can you send her my way? I think we're going to have some scammers come in. Clarisse just texted me about it."

"Hold on," Percy halted, swallowing the rest of the muffin in his mouth before raising both of his hands. "You text Clarisse?"

"We have a group chat with all of the other asset protectors in the area. If a scheme fails in one store, they'll probably come to another," Thalia said with a shrug. "Now hurry up and tell Hazel. I don't pay you to just stand around."

"You don't pay me at all," Percy countered.

"If you think about it, I do. I could just let everyone steal whatever they wanted and scam the store. The store would bleed money, and they would only be able to keep one assistant manager. And. It. Would. Not. Be. You," Thalia threatened. She emphasized each word with a finger jabbed playfully into Percy's chest before trying to grab his muffin.

Percy backed away and stuffed the rest of it into his mouth. Thalia glared at him and stepped into her office. A smile came to Percy's face as he leaned back on the wall. He heard footsteps and watched Frank walk by.

"Morning Frank," Percy greeted.

"Oh hey, Percy. How are you doing?" Frank asked. He had a backpack slung across his shoulder.

"Ate a muffin. So, I'm doing great," Percy answered. "What about you?"

"I'm good. Just have a big test today that I need to study for," Frank answered. "This is the hardest test I'm going to have for the rest of my college time, so I need to ace it."

"You'll do great, Frank. You're a genius," Hazel complimented as she walked up towards them.

"Thanks," Frank said, and a small blush came to his face.

"Hazel!" Thalia called as she opened her door and pushed herself out into the hallway, nearly bowling over the cashier that was walking in. "Sorry! And Hazel, Percy was supposed to tell you that I needed to talk to you, but he's useless."

"Hazel, Thalia needs to talk to you when you have a moment," Percy said. Hazel smiled, and Thalia rolled her eyes.

"What's going on?" Hazel questioned. Thalia motioned for her to step into her office. Hazel did, and as Percy went to follow, the door shut in his face. It nearly hit his nose. Thalia opened the door a moment later and stuck her tongue out. Percy stepped into the office.

"I already sent a message to Lupa and Reyna about this, but your cashiers are going to be the first and only line of defense against a new scam," Thalia said. Hazel looked at her and nodded. "Percy, you remember the registers at our old store? How we had to click the number for what they were paying with. Number one was for cash and number two was for card."

"Don't remind me," Percy waved off. He hated the times that he would be cashier, and it was mostly because of the register itself. After everything was scanned, they had to click total and hope that the old registers didn't freeze because someone put their card in too soon. When someone did put their card in, Percy would press the number two to let the register know they were paying with a card. And God forbid the card would decline. If it did and the customer would pay with cash, Percy had to wait a full minute for the register to fix itself and allow him to hit the number one for cash.

That single minute was always the longest of his life. Each second that passed felt like a year, and the customer just stared at Percy like it was his fault. Like Percy saw them walk up and cackled to himself thinking he would ruin this one specific person's day.

"The registers here are just like that, but they don't suck," Thalia said. "If someone pays with a card, I don't have to let the register know. It just knows what to do."

Hazel cleared her throat. Thalia looked at her and nodded, "Right, sorry. Anyway, there's a new scam going around. It's a stupid one, too. The cash card scam."

"Cash card?" Hazel repeated. She looked at Thalia and tilted her head in confusion. "What's that?"

"I'm glad you asked," Thalia began dramatically. "See, some genius figured out how our registers work. I guess whatever company makes our registers are popular in the area, as all the stores in the state run the same format. These geniuses came up with a plan to insert a dummy card that won't read like a regular card. It will just leave the card reader blank. When it doesn't do anything, they give a big speech about how it's a cash card."

"They want the cashier to press one for cash, and the register will open itself for the cashier to put cash inside. The customer will say the card paid for it and be on their merry way," Thalia finished.

"But you only use the cash button when they pay with cash. It doesn't work with a card," Hazel pointed out. The look of confusion was still etched on her face.

"Ding ding, we have a winner! That's exactly the scam. They make the register think cash was paid but tell the cashier that the card paid for it. They then walk away with their free items, and the till will show for negative the next day," Thalia explained.

"Wouldn't the cashier realize that they're being lied to?" Percy questioned. "Everyone knows that when you press for card, they paid with a card. And the cash button for cash."

"It seems like they normally target newer cashiers or those who seem like they can be fooled easily. One store lost a grand. Another store lost ten grand throughout the day. You two need to tell every cashier who comes in today about it. If someone tries to pay with this cash card, I want you on it, Hazel. Tell them we don't accept that kind of card."

"I'll warn everyone," Hazel promised. Percy nodded his agreement.

"Good. Reyna will lose it if we get hit by this. And, I think Lupa will feed us to her wolves," Thalia said. She motioned for them to leave and focused on her computer.

"Wolves?" Percy questioned.

"What about electronics and the cafe? Did you tell them?" Hazel asked, unfazed by the question. Thalia froze. Then, she slowly stood and turned towards them.

"That is why you are my favorite," Thalia commented. She slipped past the two of them and hurried out to the floor.

"Come on," Hazel said. She led Percy out of the office and across the hall to a door that had a number lock on it. Hazel looked at him. "The code is the store number backward."

Hazel typed it in and opened the door. Percy followed behind. They were in a small room that had boxes of paperwork lining the walls. Hazel moved to the next door and put her key into it. She turned it and typed another number into this door. Hazel opened it, and Percy followed her into another room.

Percy looked around the room that he was in. There was a safe to his side that looked like it was sealed shut. A desk was behind him that had some kind of money counter on it. There was also a large rolling cart of some sort in the middle of the room. It had a smaller shelf on top that looked like it could be pulled out and a large door on the bottom that looked like it swung open.

"We take out the money every night," Hazel began. "We'll cover that whenever you close with Gwen. What I do is place the extra coins that we might need throughout the day into the bottom drawer here, along with extra money for the registers. That will go in a locked shelf under the registers for the customer service desk. Then, I'll grab the bags for all of the registers and put them on top as well. I'll show you how I do the registers at our customer service and then let you do the rest of the lanes."

"Sounds good," Percy said his given catchphrase of the day again. He slowly moved the cart forward and found that it wanted to move left or right on its own. Hazel looked at him and smiled.

"It's going to take some practice. They designed it that way so no one can just push and run away with it. If someone tries, they'll take thirty pounds to the gut," Hazel explained. Percy nodded and did his best to pay attention to Hazel. He wouldn't lie and say he wasn't nervous.

Just being a cashier had always stressed him out at his old store. Having to run the entire thing was going to stress him out, but he would just calm down and pay attention to Hazel. She would teach him everything that he needed to know, and if he had any questions, she would answer them. Percy took a deep breath. He just had to pay attention, and the day would go by well.