Chapter Text
I arrive at the bitter cold town just before sundown, rushing through the streets, pulling up with my beat up Honda Grom bike to the dully lit building known as Benny's. Parking my bike I run to the front door after checking the time on my phone. "Shit, I’m already five minutes late to see the old man for the keys.." I take off my helmet and likely jog up to the front doors, pushing them through. I am welcomed to the warm scent of coffee.
"About time you show up," laughs off the old man who's name never stuck in my mind, "I was worried you actually took up my warning about the town, see I can't scare you off that easily however... so (y/n)... are you sure you wanna take over, I mean it won't kill me to stay another year and look for another buyer of this place if you really want." Now it's my turn to laugh and he leads us to a booth to finalize our transaction. I take a seat on the other side of the table booth, and place down my pink helmet.
"No sure, I'm sure I can deal with whatever this town thinks it can throw at me, I promise, I know you and the miss should finally get to do that lovely retirement plan you were both talkin' about since we met." The waitress comes up with a lazy smile and hands us both a cup of warm coffee.
I turn my head to her,"Thank you miss..." I turn back to the old man "Now do we have a deal or not old-man?" I give him a lazy smile and hold out my right hand. He gives off another laugh. "Deal, just because you're crazy enough to agree, and I need to finally have my retirement with my wife, I’m not getting any older." After we shook hands he took out the contract and deed to the building and business and I took out my checkbook,"300K right old-man?" He lets off one more laugh, "Thought it was going to be 200K for this old shitter, but if you think that's fair who am I to complain?" I filled the check out and we both signed the contract, he ran to the back to make us both an extra copy in his, well now my, office.
As he heads back over to our shared booth with now lukewarm coffee, he sits down and sets down a few things on the table in front of me, the contract, original and my own copy, the deed, the keys, and then a book. I look up at him for an explanation. "I told you there are weird happenings always going on here in South Park, this is a tidbit of the information I've gathered about some of the more... rambunctious group of kids... this should help you, and explain some of the things you might need to expect in the next coming while. Thank you for this, really, and if you change this old shitter of a restaurant into something that isn't a Benny's, I don't mind kid, just good luck." He offered his hand one last time and I shook it one more time.
"Great workin with you, now go enjoy your life out of this crazy town, make sure the missus gets her fair share of warm weather and love from ya while you both enjoy the rest of time, ya hear me old man?" With one final laugh he nods, and heads out to his old truck, starts it up, stares at the restaurant one last time, and heads out to finally enjoy the rest of his long life he's lived, finally free from South Park. I look around at the tables and a few staff, and nod to myself, knowing, soon I'll get this place in top order. Grabbing what was placed in front of me, I add the five keys to my already insane key chain and stuff it back in my pocket, and place the deeds and contracts in the inside zipper of my black winter coat, choosing to hold the book in my left hand as I go to meet the-my staff. I tucked the pink bike helmet under my left arm and grab the two semi filled coffee mugs and brought them to the back counter.
"Why are you bringing these back, doll, you know that's not your job right?" a warm but graveled voice greats my ears from the other side of the counter.
"Well kid, I’m (y/n) (l/n), the new owner of this place, so I ought to help out a bit right..." I hold my right arm out for a handshake to the dishwasher behind the counter.
"Trent. Trent Boyett." He lightly takes my hand and gives a small but firm hand shake, quickly dropping my hand and grabbing the two mugs to continue his duties.
"Well Trent, hope I am a good boss, now if you ever got any kinds of issues, let me know, yeah?" He doesn't look up but nods, giving me the time to be able to look him over. He had a black tank top under his white apron, tattoos covering a majority of the space of his arms, even some peaking on his chest and collar bones, he had short shaggy blond hair, and seemed to always have a stoic face.
"You aren't gonna fire me right..?" He lightly grumbles out, still focused on his task at hand, not realizing I had been staring him down for a few minutes as I took his appearance.
"Are you gonna cause me any problems?" He shakes his head in the negative. "Then I think we're fine Boyett." He nods and finishes up his dishes and begins to hand dry them.
"I won't blame you if you do fire me, you know, I got a criminal record and I'm not gonna be nice to ya." The clink of another stacked plate fills the silence after his statement.
"Don't worry kid, I am aware." I can see him freeze up,"The old man that sold me this place told me who was workin’ for him, I know what I need to, no details, but he said you did your job and kicked the weirdos to the curb if needed, so you sound good to keep the job for me, yeah?" He lightly relaxed and dried off another dish. I turn around and talk to the waitress and introduce myself properly, as well as going in the back to talk to the cook. After finishing off the introductions to the night crew, I wander to the back office, and see the barren office with nothing really left but the safe, a slightly broken desk, and a table with a copy machine in the corner and I groan to myself. "Old-man really gave me little to work with." I mutter to no one in particular. Well, work has to start somewhere.
The next week blurred in my mind, I began the renewing of the office, painting the office with (f/c) and black accents, replacing everything but the working copy machine, even giving the flooring a remodel as parts of it were in need of a replacement, the staff were good, some looking to stay and other people leaving as their only reason to work there was due to their loyalty to the old owner. For now, I needed a new waitress for the night shift which is the shift I have been taking at the moment as I look to start posting in the newspaper to get a new hire, and the other staff are waiting to leave once I have someone to replace them as they were kind enough to offer to fully train someone before they left. I've been reading through the book the old owner had left me in his stead. From alien invasions, to super-heros, even to when one of the local teachers promised to fuck every immigrant to death. Honestly some of this was hilarious. But I took it as a truth, because I knew the old man well enough over the past year to convince him to let me take over and let him properly retire.
Trent Boyett was grateful I hadn't fired him, partly thinking it was due to him being one of the few people who were still willing to work, but I knew the old man thought the kid needed this and was a good person at heart, even with his insane brute strength. He easily showed me that after moving the 150 pound safe without breaking a sweat. He's pretty sweet too, even if he doesn't realize it yet, I gave him a thank you after it and all he did was give me a goofy smile and nod then to rush away to continue his job.
Throughout the last few days I've been wandering around town during the midday, picking up random things to fill my office from furniture to decor. On my second full day in South Park I wandered into this local coffee shop. Tweek's coffee, which was some pretty good coffee, though the poor cashier looked like he was losing his mind during the lunch rush with a line out the door and no one to help him. I had stepped behind the counter and took orders and yelled out them all so he could focus on actually making them quick enough instead of spreading himself too thin. After the rush ended he just collapsed on the floor and stuttered out a thank you. I made myself a cup and as I left I gave him my name but left before I was able to hear him as I knew I had a lot of things to buy, not just for my office.
The following day I ran into a group of high schoolers, a group of five boys all playing football by Storks pond, and one of them miss- threw the ball and accidentally aimed it at my head. I had caught it with one hand and ricocheted it back, hitting the poor kid in the orange parka in the stomach. I yelled out a sorry and quickly rushed off to get back from my walk to continue the work I was trying to ignore doing on the walk.
I finished off the rest of the week with the office space being complete, and the kitchen beginning to get some equipment replacement as well as seeing what improvements I could do to the menu while sticking to the dorky diner feel this town has known.
Though only a week has passed, the journey ahead of me has only just begun, and soon I'll close a deal on a house so I won't be stuck sleeping on the floor of the office. The new steps of life around me have only just truly begun.