A/N: Thanks for the reviews as always and I'm going to try and answer any questions you guys posted.
Thanks to Verteller (yes, I know those exist and they're very easy but even they become exhaustive at one point and I don't know if I want to open up a thesaurus every time I want to write), Bunearybunny (okay, Ares was kind of a gamble from my side), procrastinatingmushroomfangirl, DreamToBeADemigod (hope you didn't scare your dog too much), Sage Nicholson (I can try that but then i have to write the characters drinking first), Guest (a pertemis friendship chapter? I mean I wouldn't ship the two of them, but as a friendship chapter, just maybe. But I haven't even put any gods in here as of yet except for Ares and Artemis is kind of busy so it might be really OOC for her to visit Percy, but maybe it could be a random encounter), master, Thrawn13 (yeah, I know of course you guys must be assuming it but at the same time it's necessary to write it to drive the point home I think at least), MrAppocolypse (sadly I wrote this chapter before I read your review, I mean, I read it before but then forgot about it, so uh, yeah but that was actually a good idea), 64Felicity, Annabeth and Percy Jackson, flamedragon12, Guest (yeah, you see, I also think that if Ares was completely in character he would've walked away and left Percy with nothing, but the problem is that I sort of made a deal with myself that I would let the RNG dictate the outcome for this entire story arc just to see how it would turn out and part of the limit for this story was that the RNG is set to 2-20 so I couldn't have Percy walk out of the challenge which would've been logical or have Ares give him nothing), and a-halfblood-with-attitude.
Now, the next person who decided to go up was Leo.
And the thing is, the moment that he saw the table he was given he knew that he was gonna have a hard time.
For one, this table was crowded. There were a total of eight people sitting there- three woman and five men, which was way more than what Percy and Jason had gotten. Furthermore, they all had a weird look about them… and Leo immediately assumed that they were huge jerks especially given how the other staff seemed to steer clear of them and look at Leo sympathetically he was beginning to think this was true.
Oh, well, Leo thought. Nothing to it but to do it.
The first thing he noticed was that one of them was sleeping in his chair, and secondly that there was a women who was munching on a packet of chips. Leo knew that he wouldn't remember their names, but decided to ask anyway out of politeness.
He had been right. Just a few seconds and he already didn't know who was who.
"Leo, remind her that there's no outside food allowed," Percy said.
"Um, excuse me miss, but there's no outside food allowed," Leo said.
The woman kept munching on the chips and from what it looked like she had heard Leo but didn't bother putting the food away.
All three of the others were laughing.
"Wow, Leo, it's like you have no authority at all," Percy said.
"Yeah, but then again, Leo asking someone to obey the rules is kind of, well, you know, odd," Frank said. "I mean, I know if Leo came up to me and told me to obey the rules, I'd just ignore him too."
"Hey Leo, say it again," Jason said.
"Uh, excuse me again, but I think I just said that there's no outside food allowed," Leo said. "I'm going to need you to put that away…"
"Are you our waiter?" one of them asked.
"Uh, yes," Leo said.
The woman still hadn't stopped in case you were wondering.
"Leo, say it again," Frank said.
At this point Leo was getting embarrassed at having said it so many times and so he cleared his throat and said, "I'm sorry, but no outside food or drinks are allowed."
The woman didn't stop, but another woman with dark blue highlights piped up, "Uh, well, my friend here was just a little hungry and needed something to keep her mind off of things, if you don't mind."
"Okay I guess," Leo said, not wanting to press the matter further. "So, I will be your server for tonight, my name is Leo."
Immediately, all of them began talking at once.
The woman who was munching on her chips began saying, "I'll have a taco, a plate of fries, a bowl of ice cream, and a salad. And make it quick please."
The woman with blue highlights whispered something to the man sitting next to her- maybe they were a couple? "I'll just have some fries and my friend here would like a strawberry smoothie."
The tallest man there asked, "Can I get my bill separate from the others? I only want to pay for my share of the food."
"Uh, wait, wait," Leo said as he reached for a notepad. He hadn't thought that he'd actually have to use it.
"You know, this is looking like one of those challenges where we don't even have to do anything," Percy said. "Like, Leo'll just mess this up by himself."
"Oh Percy," Frank said. "When have we ever encountered a situation that we couldn't make worse?"
Leo hastily scribbled everything down. He looked at the guy who had been sleeping and he was still dozing off.
"I wouldn't bother him if I were you. He can get really cranky when he wakes up."
"Leo, go and find like a feather or something and rub it under that guy's nose," Jason said.
"Uh, well, I think it's a bit of a shame if he came all the way here and didn't even bother to order anything," Leo said. "I'll go fetch something to try and wake him up."
Leo couldn't find a feather, of course, but he found a feather duster in about five minutes and then used it to try and wake the guy up.
No response. None at all. The guy kept on snoring away.
"Now that is a deep sleeper," Frank said.
"Yeah, it sort of reminds me of one of the roommates I had once who was a really heavy sleeper," Percy said. "He fell asleep at a party once and then we drew on his face."
Oh well, at least he wasn't annoying Leo like the others.
"It's been five minutes! Where's the food?" the woman who was now finished with her chips hollered.
"My friend would like to know if your smoothies have raisins in them, he doesn't like raisins," the woman with the blue highlights said.
"By the way, how long are the noodles in the spaghetti? Because if they're too short then they remind me of worms and I don't like that," another man asked who had been looking at Leo with a stern expression.
"Uh, I'll be with your order quickly, sorry for the delay," Leo said. "The smoothies do not have raisins in them." Leo sincerely hoped that what he was saying was true. "And the noodles are long enough, I think, that they will not remind anyone of worms."
Leo then huddled back towards the kitchen and with there being so many people, he was called on to get an order almost every other minute. And boy was it exhausting, especially with him having no experience with this sort of thing and accidentally spilling stuff.
"Whoops! Sorry!" Leo apologized for the third time as he dropped a bit of the smoothie onto the table and tried as fast as possible to clean it up.
The guy who for some reason wasn't talking at all took the smoothie and didn't look directly at Leo for some reason.
"Is he really that socially awkward?" Percy wondered.
"Or does he not like waiters?" Jason added.
"No, no," Frank said. "He clearly just doesn't want to talk to Leo. Let's be honest here, Leo is very off-putting and people do usually tend to try and avoid him. This really isn't anything different from what normally happens to Leo I guess."
"Uh, my friend would like an order of fries," the woman with the blue highlights said to Leo. "And I'd like a strawberry smoothie too."
"Okay," Leo said.
"And another order for me," the woman who had been snacking on the chips earlier said. "Come to think of it, just get one more of everything that I just ordered. And the spaghetti looks nice, so get me one of those too."
The guy who didn't talk much spat out his smoothie and then nudged the woman with blue highlights and pointed towards his smoothie.
"Uh, my friend would like to point out that he asked for a smoothie without raisins in it, and this one has raisins," the woman with blue highlights said as she noticed the raisins in the smoothie.
'Then why doesn't your friend just say that himself?' Leo wanted to scream but kept confined to his head.
"Then why doesn't your friend just say that himself?" Percy shouted and shook the screen.
"Yeah, and Leo, you're being a terrible waiter when someone specifically told you not to put raisins in it… what if he was allergic or something?" Jason asked. "Did you ever stop to consider that? No, you only think about yourself."
"Alright, it must have been a mistake," Leo said. "There are a lot of strawberry smoothies being ordered around here and your order might've gotten mixed up."
"You can put raisins in my smoothie though. Come to think of it, put double the number of raisins in my smoothie."
"Does the cake have nuts in it? I don't like nuts."
"That sounds good, get me a piece of cake too."
"Excuse me, I just want to make sure that my stuff is being billed differently from the others."
"Make that two orders of fries, actually."
"My friend would like another refill for his soda."
"Do you think we should maybe wake him up by now?"
"Okay, alright," Leo said, trying to keep track of what everyone was saying. Of course, he was supposed to write it down, but being dyslexic he had never been good at that. As such, he doubted whether or not even Frank could read what he had written.
Come to think of it, not even Leo could read what he had written properly. It all looked like a bunch of squiggles even to him.
"Hey, before going, just start talking to the food," Frank said. "Like, have conversations with a fry or something."
As it can be imagined, the customers stared at Leo oddly as he bent over to the smoothie with raisins to take it away but then began whispering, "Don't worry if he didn't want you- we all know you're a wonderful smoothie and one day you'll find the person just right for you."
Leo then went over to a plate of fries and said, "Hope you have a nice Fri-day."
"That joke..." Percy got out between hysterical chuckles. "...was so bad...like really so bad..."
Leo then left to go relay their orders.
"Hey Leo," Percy said. "When you're going behind them, I want you to make funny faces behind their backs."
"Wait… what counts as a 'funny face?'" Leo asked.
"Do you remember that time when Percy bit into that apple and found out it wasn't an apple but was plastic? Make faces like he did," Jason said.
"Why do we have to bring that up all the time?" Percy asked.
And so Leo began making weird faces behind their backs. Thankfully none of them turned around to look at him, but another waiter did see Leo and stared at him oddly wondering what he was doing.
"You know Leo, if you were actually working here you'd probably be fired by now," Frank said. "And that's given that we haven't really even asked you to do that much."
The next ten minutes were a whirlwind of activity for Leo as he went and forgot most of the orders and/or mixed them up as he brought them to the table. And the thing was that these guys were never satisfied.
"Excuse me! I wanted my cake without nuts in it, and this one has nuts in it!"
"Again Leo, what about allergies?" Percy asked. "You know, you could really harm someone like that."
"Um, my fries and shake haven't arrived yet!"
"You know, I think these spaghetti noodles are a bit too long actually, but no problem. Oh, what she's having looks good- get me one of those."
"My friend would like a slice of chocolate cake, and I'd have some butterscotch please."
"Right, right," Leo said through gritted teeth. His notepad looked like someone had just painted all over it with black ink.
"Wow, Leo looks pretty close to breaking," Percy said.
"Yeah," Jason said. "He looks like a guy who's just about to scream 'I quit' and leave."
"Oh, I've always wanted to see someone do that, y'know, have a full meltdown in public," Frank said. "Hey Leo, why don't you quit?"
"We can't ask him to do that," Percy said. "C'mon Frank, you're the one who made up these rules, we can't ask him to go ahead and literally quit the challenge."
"Oh right," Frank said.
As Leo walked away he noticed that the guy who had the woman with blue highlights tell all his orders whisper something to her, which meant that he could talk, he just wasn't talking to Leo for some reason.
Leo's performance was deteriorating exponentially with time. He was now dropping and/or spilling stuff more often than not.
And the thing was that these people just weren't leaving. And they wouldn't stop demanding things every two minutes.
"Can I have another round of everything I just ordered again?"
"My friend wants to know what are your options in wine? This list seems a bit limited, is that all there really is?"
"I'd like some mashed potatoes, but can you just make it so that they're not too smooth, because like then they'd look like ice cream and I don't like looking at ice cream because I'm lactose intolerant."
"Yeah, that sounds good, get some ice cream for me too."
"My friend also wants to know whether or not you serve pecan pie. Come to think of it, I'd like some too."
And this went on forever and ever in an agonizing circle.
Leo sighed. This was just like summer school.
Until finally, at long last, everything appeared to finally be done.
"So, about the bill… and I'd like mine separate please!"
And it was then that Leo brought the bill over, but somehow, when he placed it on the table a bit too loud, the guy who had still been snoozing woke up at the sound.
That's right, the guy who up till now had slept through everything suddenly woke up at the sound of Leo slamming the bill too loudly.
"You guys haven't started ordering without me, right?" he asked wearily as he took everything in.
"Of course not," all of them chimed in.
"Yeah, that would be just rude," the woman with the blue highlights said and quickly shoved the bill out of sight and winked at Leo,
"Get me a shake and some pasta."
"My friend would like something light, you know, so make that two sets of fries."
"Please do make sure to keep my bill separate from the others- I only want to pay my share."
"Strawberry smoothie. Extra raisins please."
"Wow," Frank said. "And poor Leo thought that it was all over."
"I think his sneakers caught on fire for like a second there," Percy said.
All of it was over this next time and Leo managed to get $14 as tip.
Now the last one up was Frank. And for his part of the challenge, for some reason they had changed the restaurant. Frank had no clue why that was, and all the others told him was that it was necessary for his new role.
That could not mean anything good.
Frank's table had a lone middle-aged man sitting near it.
"Hello, Ill be your server for today," Frank said.
Nothing weird happened which was something quite weird for everything that had gone up till here.
"Tell him that there's a new experiment you're doing," Jason said.
"There's a new experiment we're doing here, would you like to hear about it?" Frank asked.
"Tell him that this restaurant trains animals as waiters," Percy said.
And it was then that Frank finally realized why they had changed venue to a restaurant that was zoo-themed. And he knew what was going to happen. "This restaurant is trying to train animals as waiters as part of the gimmick," Frank said.
"One of which is a panda," Leo said. "Ask him if he's okay with a panda bringing him his food."
"One of which is a panda," Frank said. "You okay if maybe the panda brings you your food."
"Aren't they threatened and isnt' that illegal?" the guy asked.
"Yes," Frank said.
"It's actually an animatronic," Jason said.
"It's actually just an animatronic," Frank said.
"Well, I don't see why not then," the guy said.
And what followed, was, of course, Frank going behind doors and turning into a panda and walking out with a tray balanced precariously in his hands.
"Wow, that is actually adorable," Jason said. "You know, we could make this an actual idea. I bet people would pay loads of money for something like this."
The guy seemed surprised at how real-looking the panda was.
That was all that Frank had to do really, and he got a tip of $11.
A/N: Jason and Frank got the lowest tips, and both get a negative point each. Cumulative scores are Leo in the lead with only one negative point, Percy and Frank with two negative points, and trailing behind is Jason with three negative points.
So, thanks for reading everyone. And if anyone thought there were similarities between those eight people and another certain group of seven people at a diner fanfic, well, maybe I borrowed a little bit.
Anyway, about the 'they laughed' debate I took in all your views and I think I'll limit it a little but still want to project it from time to time.