“Alright everybody! Listen up!”
The group was huddled up in Cherry’s dorm room, listening to her every word. Cherry had called the group in for an emergency meeting. It was of the utmost importance.
“The 5 of us are all in immense danger.” she warned. “If we do not want to face our demise, we must act fast. We need...”
They all listened in suspense.
“..to get a job.”
Everyone gasped.
“A job?!”
“Yes, a job. We will be KICKED OUT OF THESE DORMS if we do not acquire one.”
“I thought your mom was paying for all of our rent.”
“Well, my sisters snitched on me. Remember the mall?”
“Ahh, yeah, I remember.”
“Exactly. Starting on March 1st, we will need to pay our own rent.” Cherry explained. “Today is the 20th. We have 9 days to get employed & get paid. The job hunt starts NOW.”
Cherry clapped their hands. As soon as she did so, everybody in the room immediately whipped out their phones, searching for places that were hiring in Cincinnati.
“That deli place on campus is hiring!”
“Ooh, you should apply!”
“I should!”
“If you get hired, be sure to give us discounts on the sushi, ok?”
Juniper was having quite a bit of trouble finding a place that he would be interested in. A lot of jobs in the area barely paid minimum wage, which wasn’t incredibly ideal when trying to raise $175 in 9 days.
As xae perused the job listings, there was one that caught xaer eye. It was a janitorial job, at a puppet store. Not just any puppet store, because Juniper recognized the name. It was Alph’s Amazing Animatronics.
Disregarding the obvious, the job actually seemed quite enticing. It paid well, & based on the description it appeared easy enough to do! However.. Juniper wasn’t so sure how well the others would take to working at the puppet shop.
“Yo, Juni! Found anything yet?”
“AH- Uh- Yes, actually! I have!”
“Oh, sweet! What is it?”
“I.. uh.. have to go there right now so I can’t tell you but I’ll tell you later when I get hired bye!!!” Juniper spoke, a little too fast & a little too nervously. Zhe quickly rushed out of the dorm room, to the surprise of everyone else.
“Wow, they’re in a hurry.”
“Must be a good job if she’s applying that fast.”
-
“Fate said what?”
“I know, it’s horrible... & right after Sun comes back, too.”
Sun & Mr. Moon sat in Time’s room. Time had called the two of them in there for a brief meeting, about something Fate had foresaw.
“I thought it would be best to inform you two as soon as possible, since you two were... the most affected by Juno’s actions.”
“Why would he be coming back, though? Why now?”
“..Fate didn’t say. Whether she knows why or not, that’s a different story, but.. she told me Juno wanted to destroy the Sands of Time.”
“Destroy the Sands of Time?! Does Juno know what damage she’ll cause?!”
“It does not matter if he knows or not. What matters is that we have to stop him before he does it... but how?”
Time sighed, sitting in xyr throne. Sun & Mr. Moon glanced at each other, knowing exactly how to stop Juno.
"We.. think we’ve got an idea, Time.”
-
Ding!
Juniper stepped into the puppet store. It looked relatively about the same as the last time, except there were more customers than before. Ze guessed that Sotry’s whole “president of the world” schtick gathered some interest in the shop.
With a spring in its step, Juniper walked up to the counter.
“Hi! I’d like to-”
Juniper got a good look at the person manning the register.
It was Sotry.
“Oh..! Um! Hey... Sotry!”
“..Juniper.”
“What.. brings you here?”
“I.. work here now.”
“Oh! Interesting!” Juniper grinned nervously, knowing fae were about to apply to a job where fae would have to be coworkers with the puppet who tried to kill faem.
“Anyways.. ah... do you have any-”
Ding!
A new person just entered the puppet store. Juniper & Sotry both turned around to see who it was.
“Hello, hello!”
The person who had entered the puppet store could barely be considered a person, in full honestly. It was around 4 feet tall, green, & had bright yellow eyes. It also wore a long toga-esque piece of fabric, which is unrelated to its creature-ness, but important to know.
“Welcome to Alph’s Amazing Animatronics.” Sotry said. “How may I help you today?”
“I was wondering if anyone here knew any prophesied heroes!”
Juniper froze.
“Ha..! Uh! Nope! No prophesied heroes here at all!” xix chuckled.
“Gee, really? That’s a shame!” the creature looked dejected, staring right at Juniper’s necklace. “I was really hoping for some prophesied heroes to help me out with something!”
The words “help me out with something” echoed in Juniper’s mind. Whatever problem this thing might be having, Juniper & aer friends might be able to help. Not to mention, this person’s inhuman look made Juniper think it was a Celestial.
Juniper glanced around for a moment. Was voi really about to turn down helping out a Celestial?
“I’ll be back in a minute, Sotry!”
-
“How’s the job hunt going for you so far, ‘Lani?”
“I just sent an application to the Walmart with the ballpit.”
“Ooh, exciting! I applied to Dollar General!”
Cherry, Nora, Leslie, & Kalani were still in Cherry’s dorm room, applying for jobs online.
“Why Dollar General? That’s oddly specific.”
“Well.. I just thought it’d be fun!”
“What’s so fun about Dollar General?”
“For starters, they have.. eggs!”
“..I see.”
“Well,” Cherry stretched her arms. “Let’s hope we all get calls back from the places we applied to.”
“Yeah. & speaking of applications, where did Juni run off to in such a hurry?”
“I wonder. We’ll have to ask later.”
“Or we could just text him?”
“Huh. I guess we could do that.”
Kalani takes out his phone & shoots a text over to Juniper, asking where ey went.
“That should do it!” she grinned. “Now, we wait.”
-
“You said your name was.. Juno?”
“Yup! That’s me, the one & only!”
Juniper & Juno stood in an alleyway next to the puppet shop. The name “Juno” sounded familiar to Juniper, but phey couldn’t quite place it. It’d probably come around to her eventually, but for now she decided to see what Juno needed help with.
“Alright.. & you said you needed help with something?”
“That is correct!” Juno grinned. “You see, I’m a Celestial, but I’ve somehow found myself on Earth! It’s been sooo long since I’ve seen all of the others, I bet they’re just missing me right now!”
“Man, I’m sure they are. I assume you want us to get you back to the Castle?”
“Precisely! We’d all appreciate it!”
Getting Juno back to the Castle seemed like an easy task for the group. Juniper was sure everyone else would be willing to help out! Before Juniper could agree to anything, though, xaer phone buzzed.
“Oh- Hold on, Juno.”
Taking out their phone, Juniper looked at the text they had just received. It was from Kalani, asking where ze went.
“Ooh! What’s that?” Juno asked, trying to get a peek at Juniper’s screen.
“Oh, this? It’s my phone.” he responded, typing up a response to Kalani. “It lets me talk to my friends even if we’re not next to each other.”
“A phone! Interesting!”
Sending the text, Juniper put faer phone back in faer pocket. Xe looked back at Juno, who was staring intently at xem. Juniper could tell she wanted to ask if they’d help her get back to the Castle of Celestials.
“There’s a few things I’ve gotta do today, but you can hang out with me until we get you back to the Castle.”
A grin grew on Juno’s face, his eyes quite literally lighting up.
“Oh, thank you!” Juno spun around in joy. “Thank you so so so soooo much!”
“It's the least we could do,” Juniper chuckled. “Hope you're able to be patient ‘til tomorrow, though!”