The pack was, once again, annoyed. Stiles was forcing them into yet another pack bonding night. OK, so maybe annoyed was a bit strong. They weren't annoyed as much as exhausted. It had been a long week of training with Derek. He was trying to turn Scott into a more confident fighter. Along with trying to make Isaac actually think before diving head first into a fight, which was really hypocritical in Stiles mind, not that he would ever say so. Derek also was trying to make Erica and Boyd better fighters, and just trying to help Jackson control his shifting better. So after all week of this, the last thing they wanted to do was spend more time together.
They were just leaving their usual restaurant, a little place a couple towns over, when Lydia and Allison decided that they wanted dessert. They went to the bakery across the street Rolling in Dough, which was owned by Derek. They all loved going there because besides the fact that Derek was a freaking boss, Stiles words not theirs, at baking, they loved to annoy their alpha when he couldn't do anything like throw them into walls.
Walking into the bakery, they noticed it was a lot busier than usual. Stiles' friend Jess was Derek's only employee, which honestly Stiles thought was really stupid but stopped saying so after being thrown into a wall… again. Jess looked stressed which was completely understandable when Stiles actually took in the situation. She was being harassed by a bitchy looking girl at the register while trying to simultaneously fill coffee orders. Stiles, automatically seeing the problem went behind the counter, grabbed the spare apron and took over taking orders for Jess who seriously looked like she was about to wolf out at the girl complaining about the slow service.
The rest of the pack just stared at him while Jess just gave a sigh of relief and a thankful look and went back to filling the orders. Stiles just glared at the girl, and his glare was getting much better—it was a side effect when you hang out with werewolves all the time. "Would you shut up? Gods, you are more annoying than that stupid Microsoft paperclip!" Stiles snapped at her. "Either order or go away." She just scoffed and flipped her hair, but Stiles, who had in recent weeks become actual friends with Lydia Martin was completely unaffected by this and continued to stare at her.
"You can't treat a customer that way," she snapped at him, "I'm going to tell your boss."
"Now I would say you go do that, but you see, I don't work here so I can say whatever I want," Stiles just smiled innocently at her outraged expression. With another fling of her hair she turned and stomped out of the bakery. "Bye! Have a nice day!" Stiles called sarcastically after her. The rest of the pack just stood there laughing. "So, are you guys going to help or just stand there?" Stiles asked them.
An hour later, the bakery was finally empty, the last person having just left a few minutes ago when the bell above the door went off again. Groaning, Jess and Stiles looked up and both smiled when they saw Penny walk in. Jess, who had been there most of the day and literally looked dead on her feet, started to get up before Stiles got up instead saying "Don't worry about, sit down, I'll go help Penny."
"You're the best," Jess told him.
"I know," Stiles just said, causing Lydia to smack the back of his head as he walked away to help Penny.
"He really knows what he's doing, how many times has he helped out around here?" Erica asked from her spot next to Boyd.
"Oh, he helps out a lot, whenever the place gets too busy, he's the first person I call. I used to call Penny but she would always talk to the customers and the lines would get really backed up." Jess answered sleepily.
"Why doesn't Derek just hire more help?" Scott asked.
"Because he is a stubborn sourwolf who thinks he doesn't need help, you should have seen how long it took him to actually hire Jess," Stiles answered raising his voice so Derek could hear though everyone but Jess and Penny knew he could. Stiles came over with Penny who had her arm around his shoulders. "Guys, this is Penny. She's Jess' friend. Penny, this is Scott, the girl next to him is Allison, next to her is Lydia, then douchebag oops, I mean Jackson, then there's Isaac, Erica and Boyd," Stiles introduced smirking at Jackson's scowl.
"So the adorable puppy-looking blond guy is the one who lives with Derek, right?" Penny asked Stiles and Jess pointing over at Isaac, who blushed. Stiles started chuckling and nodded. "Ooh! I really like your dress! And your shoes!" Penny said really excitedly to Allison and Lydia. All of the pack just stared at her.
"Don't mind her, she just really loves to give complements," Jess told the group. Jess then got a weird look on her face, brought up her arm real fast and sneezed. Unfortunately, she didn't get her arm up fast enough.
"Eww! Gross! You got snot on my face!" Stiles squawked at her whipping his face with a napkin.
Jess just got this mischievous look her face and Stiles internally groaned knowing what was coming next. "I'm sorry! It snot you, it's me!" Jess said to him, Stiles groaned for real this time while everyone else started laughing. Penny gave her a high five.
"I swear, you have a pun obsession," Stiles responded rolling his eyes.
"That's snot my problem" Jess said innocently with a smile on her face. "Anyway, back to the problem at hand, I really need help here," she says to Stiles.
Stiles just sighed like this was an ongoing argument. "Jess, you know I love to help out here, but I just have so much going on that I don't really have time for a job right now."
"You are so busy. It's unnatural," Jess whines.
"Trust me, I'm not the unnatural one," Stiles mutters quietly, but all the wolves heard him and Scott, who was closest kicked his chair causing Stiles to topple out of it. Everyone laughed while Stiles just glared at Scott. "But anyway, I can try and help you convince Derek." He told Jess.
"Convince Derek of what?" Derek asked coming out of the kitchen with fresh cookies, even though he already knew the answer.
"Convince you to hire someone else to help Jess. She's not Wonder Woman you know," Stiles told him.
"I don't like Wonder Woman, can I be Bat Girl instead?" Jess asked.
"Hey, that's my job," Erica said, glancing up at Jess.
"Fine, how about a werewolf then? I've always thought Jacob was the only good character in Twilight anyway."
This caused everyone but Jess and Penny to bust out laughing, even Derek couldn't resist a chuckle. "What? What did she say?" Penny asked the group really confused.
"Nothing," Stiles said still laughing, "Anyway, those cookies better be for us, you know I do not work for free," he said to Derek.
"Yeah yeah, they are for you guys as a thanks for helping out," Derek grumbled. "And anyway, I've already hired help, she is starting next week."
"Good!" Stiles and Jess yelled at the same time with cookie crumbs falling out of their mouths.
"So who did you hire?" Jess asked him.
"You'll just have to find out next week," Derek smirks. "You can leave after you wipe off the counter. I'll finish up here," he said walking back to the kitchen.
"Oh, don't be such a sourwolf," Stiles yelled at the back of his head.
Sooo… I've written another one… I'm not sure why… So this one is dedicated to the lovely LadyArinn! Oh, and I know I have never said this because I keep forgetting but I do not own anything except for the idea of Derek owning a bakery… And I'm not even sure if I own that… I don't really even own the characters I add… So until next time!