#hs wild

Eras steeled himself as Sky pushed the key into the lock and then twisted the sign to display OPEN. His first day at his new job just officially began. You can do this, he reminded himself. A smoothie shop couldn’t possibly be more difficult than an active war zone. Surely.

“Show time,” one of the other employees said. It was the teenager with pink hair— Legend, he remembered. He flipped the switch to turn the drive thru on then pressed a button on his headset to connect it. Beside them, Herb finished setting up the last of the smoothie equipment, head bouncing to the beat of the music playing through their headphones. They tapped on the order display screen in front of them and it flashed to life.

Sky joined Eras behind the counter and sat on one of the stools in front of the register screen. Eras rested his cane against the counter, low enough that it wouldn’t be seen by the customers, and settled on the other stool.

“You don’t have to worry about hiding your cane,” Sky said kindly. Eras glanced at him nervously, ears pinning back against his head.

Sky smiled softly. “I mean, I’m not going to make you show everyone who comes in, obviously. But I want to be sure you know this is a very disability friendly workplace. I’m disabled, and so are most of the people I hire.”

“Oh,” Eras said. His chest filled with warmth at Sky’s words, pushing out some of his insecurity. He was still learning to navigate his disabilities, so he wasn’t yet confident enough to share them with the world.

“No pressure,” Sky said. His ears wiggled slightly as he spoke.

Eras racked his mind for a proper response. Once again, he was saved by a ringing; this time, it was the bell above the door. The sound was enough to let the employees know someone was entering, but not too sharp of a noise.

Eras straightened his back, nerves alight in his chest, and glanced at Sky. Sky’s posture was relaxed, one leg casually resting over the other and his elbow on the arm of the stool. Beneath the end of the leg of Sky’s pants, Eras could see brightly colored, long socks with cartoon birds on them. He smiled, and turned to face the first customer.

“Hi, welcome to Gold Medallion! What can I get for you?” Sky asked.

The process really was simple. Sky put the orders into the computer and took the payments, then Herb and Legend made the smoothies. There was one drive thru order that Legend took while Eras was watching, but he didn’t focus too much on that. He wouldn’t be trained on drive thru for a few weeks.

“You think you’re ready to try on your own?” Sky asked.

Eras took a deep breath. “Yes.”

Sky beamed. “Great! I’ll watch the first few while you get the hang of it, so don’t worry if you forget something.”

“Okay,” Eras said. There was no one else in line, so Eras rehearsed the words in his head with the background noise of smoothies being blended.

Hello, welcome to Gold Medallion. What can I get for you?

Of course. Do you want to add anything to that?

Can I get a name for the order?

Your total is… Are you paying with cash or card?

The door bell rang. Eras watched as a man in a cowboy hat walked through the door and made his way to the counter.

“Hello, welcome to Gold Medallion. What can I get for you?” Eras asked.

“Can I get one mangonada and one grassamel, please?” The man asked. He had an accent Eras couldn’t place. His voice was smooth— Eras had to hold back a smile at the unintentional pun.

“Of course. Do you want to add anything to those?”

“Nope, just as they come,” the man said with a smile.

Eras tried to smile back, but he was pretty sure it didn’t work. He was too focused on pressing the correct buttons on his screen.

“Can I get a name for the order?”