Alana's Bohemia || Ducktales 2017 OC

1. A life changing flyer!

After months of being practically a dessert, that Sunday the Lightfeather Cafe had the biggest number of clients Alana has ever seen since she started working there. And it had to be exactly a week after Luoana got here... She thought, almost feeling bad for her quetzal friend while she desperately tried to take care of all the orders at the bar stand. She did her best to help her, after all the merlin had been working there for almost two years already, but being a waitress on such a busy day didn't give her much space to do so.

"You LIIIIED to me, Al!" her friend groaned once the clients left, hours after the actual closing hour.

"I did what now?" she smirked while giving some menus to one of her coworkers, knowing what she meant but pretending to be too busy to care.

"Oh, it'll be fun, Lu." with a lower voice and a constant rolling eyes, she continued while cleaning the counter. "There's barely any clients, Lu. We'll get to work together, Lu. You'll enjoy it, LU" practically screaming, she turned around after hearing her coworkers chuckling.

"Come on, Luoana," one of them said. "It's not that bad"

"Mhm, just wait until next week"

"What happens next week?" she asked, unsure, while Alana shook her head vigorously in hopes of her coworkers to stop talking.

"Birthday party, family of 10 plus guests"

"Basically, like... 35 people?" Alana sighed, giving herself a soft facepalm.

"WHAT?! WE CAN BARELY TAKE CARE OF 15! HOW ARE 35 PEOPLE EVEN GOING TO FIT IN HERE?!" she screamed in panic, facing her friend.

Everyone kept cleaning while laughing over Luoana's reaction. Before getting that job she was used to being behind a desk, either at office or at home, customer service wasn't her thing and she wasn't planning to make it her thing either. Doing the cash cut while everyone left for the locker room, she found a piece of paper close by.

"Al! Al! Come see this!" she smiled, her friend rolled her eyes with a smirk and, without letting down the tray with dirty dishes, she got closer to the bar stand.

"I know cafeteria trash might sound interesting but-" she started teasing but got interrupted by getting that piece of paper pushed against her face.

"No! Look!" she backed it away, allowing her friend to read it.

"Duckburg's Visual Media Contest, an event where any kind of visual media (animation, documentary, etc.) would be accepted and projected during the opening of Duckburg's new theater." Even though she knew what was coming next, she raised an eyebrow. "Is throwing trash at restaurants the way they advertise things now?"

"What?" she sighed. "NO! THIS IS A CHANCE!"

"Sure is" she smirked and turned around.

"So you're just gonna ignore this?"

"Shouldn't we be cleaning?"

"Come on, don't tell me you're not at least a bit excited?"

"I sure am." The quetzal smiled widely "I'm quite excited to finish and... hmph" she laid down the dishes. "Go home, take a bath and eat something good..." She let the dishwasher work and went to the locker room with a pouty bird behind her.

"Seriously, Al... How- No, why have you been surviving this for TWO YEARS?" she groaned once again, opening her locker as dramatically as she could.

"A year and 7 months actually..." her friend smirked, sitting down at the bench and waving goodbye to the last coworkers leaving. As usual, the duo were the last to leave.

"Really?" she sighed, staring at her, after a chuckle she did the same.

"Yes, it's not even that long..." Luoana rolled her eyes. "Listen, I know it's not the best job but-"

"It's not even YOUR job!" defeated, Alana got back to changing her clothes. "Al, why do you keep doing this? Why do you keep avoiding it? You should and could be doing what you love for a living, why do you keep getting these small and annoying jobs?"

"You sound just like my family... Well, at least for the 'small jobs' part" she sighed, getting everything inside her locker and taking her bag. With her friend behind her, both finally walked outside the cafe. "You do know doing what I love for a living can turn against me, right?" her voice finally showed the tiredness she felt as she turned everything off.

"But you've never even tried it!" Luoana carried on as they started walking. "I know things didn't work out in St. Canard but it's been years! This contest could change that! Plus a lot of people are going to see what you do!" walking in front of her, Alana kept doing her best to ignore her friend and close the cafe properly. "We've been living in Duckburg for almost 5 years and you don't even know the city, despite our hard work we keep living on that 'barely two rooms' apartment on one of the ugliest parts of the suburbs despite being on the limit, next to the financial district and you haven't touched your camera-"

"Listen" she finally faced her. "I know this ain't the best, that we practically live with the shower in the kitchen and that you're full of energy and hopes and dreams." Despite her efforts to be patient and kind, the tone of her voice sounded almost desperate. "But I'm not! I'm not anymore, I just do what it takes to survive, so both of us survive. I'm doing exactly what my family expects, even if it's not the job they want me to get." She grabbed her friend by the arms. "We're still here and I will keep us that way, ok?"

"Alana-" what started as a motivational teasing, suddenly turned into some sort of argument that made the quetzal extremely worried.

"If you don't want to, then don't. I'll do it for both of us, ok?" She let her go and continued walking. "Just let me do it my way."

After a defeated sigh, the rest of the day went by silent. Luoana knew her friend needed space and Alana was self aware of how depressed and defeated her voice sounded. However, after being roommates for so long, both knew everything would be back to normal by morning. Even so, Luoana hung the flyer on the fridge, with hope of her friend making up her mind if she constantly saw that paper.