Leah Attias isn't sure if she's excited about the new employee or not.

He constantly fidgets with the hem of his dark apron and the corner of his black tee shirt, unwilling to look up at the gathered workers until Sara nudges him.

When he looks up, his dark eyes sweep over the employees, who stand gathered a few minutes before the store opens. There's blue-haired Michelle, who scrolls through her Instagram feed as Amir shakily berates her under his breath. Violet and Veronica, the almost disconcertingly similar pair of twins, begins the preparation for the opening hours on an early Saturday morning.

"Hey!" Her sharp voice cuts through the commotion. Michelle coyly slips her phone into her back pocket and presses her lips together in a guilty smile, as Amir smugly crosses his arms. The twins pause and look up from cleaning the countertop an extra time. "Thank you all for coming to meet Sam, the newest member of our staff. Sam will be working on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, which works out great because the other part-timers work from Monday to Wednesday. At the top of the world, the pinnacle above the chaos, is Vidya.

It's eerie how well her job matched up to her schedule. But knowing Vidya, it could have been her new tactic of making everyone as efficient as humanly possible.

Though that doesn't matter. Leah is, and always would be, the perfect part-time employee - none other would even come close to matching her talent in the field. She knows it. She has every skill needed - kindness, a strict sense of competition, and -

"Leah." Leah's mind is jerked out of her dreams thrust into reality. "Honestly, it isn't like you to daydream like that," says Vidya dryly. "You aren't setting the best example here."

"S-sorry." She takes a gulp of the crisp morning air. "What do you need me to do?"

"In short, tell Sam where everything is."

"And help him learn how to use the equipment?" says Leah hopefully. She smiles to herself on how good she must have sounded.

"Actually, Sam has more experience than you working with food," Vidya states this matter-of-factly as Michelle guffaws to herself.

"Yo, Leah just got pwned." She bounds up to Sam, holding out her hand excitedly as Amir rubs his temples and pulls her far away from the vaguely disconcerted boy.

"Sorry, she just gets... really excited." Amir holds out his hand. "I'm Amir, by the way, and the blue-haired one is called-"

"Michelle, if you didn't know," says Michelle in a deeper, cooler tone, imitating Amir's soothing voice.

"And I'm Michelle, a hyperactive blue Smurf with a peanut for a-" starts Amir, before being cut off by Vidya.

"That's enough, the both of you." Michelle crosses her arms while Amir straightens his back, eyes wide.

"Yes, ma'am," says Amir, jumping back from the demonic aura radiating from her. Her eyebrows arch at the two as she pressed her crimson lips into a line. Her two hands are positioned at her hips, balled into two fists. Her ring, with a dark stone, mounted into the center, gleams in the morning sun, its wicked edges shining radiantly.

"Good." She smirks. "Get ready for opening."