Abigail Halicker and the Terrible, No Good, Obvious Plot Twist
Abby had a tendency to fall asleep in strange places, often when it suited her. This was one of those times, Abby realized, as she woke up face first on a table, partially covered by a blanket and just missing her laptop keyboard. Her phone alarm had been sounding off luckily so Abby didn't end up waking late or worse, miss work.
Rubbing her eyes and checking the time once again Abby made her way to the bathroom and showered. She wasn't particularly bothered by the fact that she sometimes ended up sleeping in odd or uncomfortable places anymore but drew the line at being out late at night without company or if she was already exceedingly tired for fear of falling asleep on the bus or the metro, one never knows what can happen if you do that.
Instead of walking to work that morning Abby caved and hailed a taxi, usually avoiding doing so because of traffic and because taxi prices could be a bit much if you used them too often. It also goes without saying that Gotham criminals seemed to fixate on taxi's when causing trouble, heaven knows why.
At Donnie's restaurant Abby was greeted by a rare sight, Donnie had unlocked the staff doors early. She went inside and joined Dora and two others, Jan and Simon as they slipped on aprons and grabbed menus, ready to serve customers. Donnie smiled shakily at his employees as they started to ready the café for the customers.
"Ahem, everyone, today at 12:45 exactly I want the following employees at the staff entrance; Rebecca, Kyle, Dora and Abby!" Donnie said, getting louder as he spoke. The employees in question all exchanged looks, wondering what this was about. Donnie laughed nervously and flipped the sign to open before retreating into the back. Abby grabbed a few straws next to Dora, about to say something about the announcement when the doorbell jingled.
"Ah, later I guess…" Abby said quickly before walking over to the first customer of the day, the jogger from the previous morning.
"What can I get you…? Just a cup of hot tea and— a bowl of… Cream of Wheat, alrighty then, it'll be right out!" The sound of orders being taken and the smell from the kitchen soon drifted throughout the café and Abby quickly fell into a routine, forgetting about Donnie's announcement until around 11:40 when Dora sidled up to her during a break in the customers.
"So, what do you think this morning's announcement is about? I'm a bit worried to be honest; I hope we're not being fired or something!" Dora said lowly. Abby snorted quietly and smiled at her friend before responding.
"I doubt that, it's probably something weird and menial, like unloading supplies. You know how the guy is. Look on the bright side, maybe we're getting a promotion…" Abby trailed off there and shrugged at Dora, her friend still looking suspicious of the whole thing. Abby tried not to let it bother her, Donnie could be pretty weird sometimes.
Dora harrumphed and walked off to bring an order to someone. A minute later Rebecca approached Abby with a frown.
"That was an oddly specific announcement… Do you think it's something bad?" She mused, obviously worried. Abby shrugged as she had earlier, still of the opinion that it wasn't anything significant.
"I don't think so, maybe it'll be something good, like a pay raise, but knowing Donnie it's gotta be pretty simple." At that Rebecca nodded slightly but still looked nervous. With that she went into the back, she was one of the cooks (And a pretty good one at that).
Rebecca was an odd person but Abby, like with Donnie, didn't look too much into it, she was nice enough but usually pretty quiet so you didn't hear her speak much. She also walked with a limp and while faring well in small spaces she used her cane on long treks.
As 12:45 rolled around Abby, Dora, Kyle and Rebecca were waiting at the side door patiently for Donnie. He walked in and stood on the opposite wall of the hallway they were packed into, appearing to have nothing to say. The four in front of him awaited some type of announcement, bad news or good news, but it never came and the five people endured a rather awkward silent staring match until Kyle interrupted it.
"So… Uh, how are things going with you guys? I know my days been pretty, uh, alright." He said in sarcastic tone. Rebecca pursed her lips and Dora rolled her eyes as Abby began to open her mouth.
"O-Oho, I'm just going to open the door and um, we have a visitor coming—"Donnie interceded very suddenly, as if he had just woken up to a bad fright. Then he opened the staff door and stepped out, craning his head to the side, presumably to check for the visitor.
His four employees all wore similar expressions of confusion at their bosses actions but waited quietly. After a few more (Awkward) minutes a black car pulled up, fancy but old and Donnie stepped back in. Then the back door opened and out came someone who none of them expected, The Penguin.
"Ah, Donnie— I see my new employees are ready and waiting!"
I really, really wanted to do this. I couldn't resist, I have no shame... Ok, maybe some! Also thinly veiled canon character here, so thinly veiled I should probably come out and say it but I won't. If you know, well you know but if you don't, worry not because I didn't even know this character existed myself until recently(ish).
Okay, I don't even know if the character counts as thinly veiled here, either way, enjoy! ^^/ Yes I used that, whatcha gonna do? As always, ideas, constructive criticisms, mistakes and just reviews in general are pretty welcome!