Jenna Brewster never imagined that her part-time barista gig at The Percolator would turn into the most bizarre semester of her college career. Then again, she never expected to stumble upon a bag of coffee beans that could alter reality one latte at a time.

It all started on a typically chaotic Monday morning. The line at The Percolator, the most popular coffee shop on Willowbrook University’s sprawling campus, snaked out the door. Sleep-deprived students clutched their phones, mumbling about impending deadlines and unfinished assignments.

Jenna, a junior majoring in chemistry with a minor in “how to survive on four hours of sleep,” tied her apron with practiced efficiency. Her manager, a portly man named Frank with a permanent coffee stain on his shirt, shuffled over.

“Jenna, we’re out of our usual beans. Use this bag from the storage room,” Frank grunted, shoving a burlap sack into her arms. “Some local roaster left it as a sample.”

Jenna raised an eyebrow at the unmarked bag but shrugged. Coffee was coffee, right? Oh, how wrong she was.

As the first batch brewed, an oddly enticing aroma filled the air. It smelled like a mixture of warm sunshine, old books, and that inexplicable scent of satisfaction after acing an exam. Jenna felt more alert just inhaling it.

The first customer, a frazzled English major named Tim, ordered a large Americano. “I’ve got a paper due in an hour that I haven’t started,” he moaned, ruffling his already disheveled hair.

Jenna handed him the steaming cup, and Tim took a generous swig. His eyes widened, and for a moment, Jenna feared she’d burned him. But then, Tim’s posture straightened, his eyes gleamed, and he pulled out his laptop right there at the counter.

“I’ve got it!” he exclaimed, fingers flying across the keyboard. “The perfect thesis on the existential dread in Kafka’s ‘The Metamorphosis’ as a metaphor for college student burnout!”

Jenna blinked in surprise as Tim feverishly typed, oblivious to the world around him. She gently guided him to a corner table, where he continued his sudden burst of inspiration.

Chalking it up to a caffeine-induced miracle, Jenna returned to the counter. But as the morning progressed, she noticed more odd occurrences.

Sarah, a notoriously tone-deaf music major, ordered a cappuccino before her dreaded vocal exam. After a few sips, she began humming. The melody was so beautiful that nearby students removed their earphones to listen. Sarah’s eyes widened in shock at the sounds coming from her own mouth.

Then came Max, the campus basketball star known more for his athletic prowess than his academic achievements. He ordered a Mocha Frappuccino, complaining about his upcoming calculus test. Halfway through his drink, Max gasped and grabbed a napkin, scribbling complex equations with his straw.

“It all makes sense now!” he shouted, startling nearby customers. “The elegant simplicity of differential equations… it’s like poetry in numerical form!”

Jenna watched in amazement as Max solved problem after problem, his face alight with mathematical ecstasy.

As the day went on, more miracles unfolded. A shy theater student delivered a impromptu Shakespearean soliloquy that brought tears to the eyes of everyone in the shop. A stressed-out pre-med student suddenly diagnosed a fellow customer’s obscure ailment just by looking at him (fortunately, it was nothing a little rest and hydration couldn’t cure).

Jenna’s scientific mind was racing. There had to be a logical explanation for all this. She snuck a sample of the mysterious beans into her bag, determined to run some tests in the chemistry lab later.

But for now, she had a front-row seat to the strangest show on campus. She felt like a superhero barista, dispensing liquid courage and inspiration with every cup. It was exhilarating and terrifying all at once.

As the afternoon lulled, Jenna’s best friend and roommate, Zoe, sauntered in. Zoe was an art major with a penchant for procrastination and a portfolio due by the end of the week.

“Jenna, my savior, my caffeine dealer,” Zoe dramatically draped herself over the counter. “Give me something that’ll inspire me to create a masterpiece in the next 48 hours.”

With a mischievous glint in her eye, Jenna prepared a lavish latte with an extra shot of the magical espresso. “This one’s on the house,” she said, sliding the cup to Zoe. “Consider it fuel for your artistic fire.”

Zoe took a sip and froze. Her eyes glazed over, and for a moment, Jenna feared she’d broken her best friend. But then, Zoe grabbed a pile of napkins and began sketching furiously. The doodles were incredible, each napkin a miniature masterpiece.

“I can see it, Jenna!” Zoe exclaimed, her hand moving at superhuman speed. “Every painting, every sculpture… I can see my entire portfolio!”

Jenna grinned, enjoying her friend’s excitement. But as Zoe’s sketches became more elaborate, incorporating impossible geometric shapes and colors that shouldn’t exist, Jenna’s smile faltered. What exactly was in this coffee?

As closing time approached, Jenna shooed out the last of the lingering students, many of whom were still riding the waves of their coffee-induced breakthroughs. She started cleaning up, her mind whirling with the day’s events.

That’s when she noticed Frank, her manager, helping himself to a cup of the magical brew.

“No, wait—” Jenna started, but it was too late. Frank took a long, slow sip.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, Frank’s usually furrowed brow smoothed out. A serene smile spread across his face. And then, to Jenna’s horror and amazement, Frank began to float.

Not figuratively. Literally float.

“Whoa,” Frank said calmly, as if levitation was a perfectly normal side effect of his evening coffee. “This is new.”

Jenna gaped as her manager bobbed gently near the ceiling, looking for all the world like a caffeinated balloon.

“Frank?” she squeaked. “How do you feel?”

“Light,” he replied, doing a slow somersault. “Very, very light. And strangely unconcerned about quarterly reports.”

It took Jenna nearly an hour to coax Frank back to the ground. By the time his feet touched the floor, the magical coffee’s effects had worn off, and he had no memory of his aerial adventure.

As Jenna walked back to her dorm that night, her bag heavy with a secret stash of the mysterious beans, she felt a mix of excitement and trepidation. She had so many questions: Where did these beans come from? Why did they affect everyone differently? And most importantly, what would happen if the world found out about The Percolator’s peculiar perk?

One thing was certain: her job had just become a lot more interesting.

Jenna smiled to herself, already looking forward to tomorrow’s shift. After all, who knew what could happen when you add a dash of magic to the daily grind?

---

The next morning, Jenna arrived at The Percolator earlier than usual, her mind buzzing with anticipation. The events of yesterday still felt like a crazy dream, but the stash of magical beans hidden in her backpack was very real.

As she set up for the day, she couldn’t help but wonder about the ethical implications of serving this coffee. Was it right to give people these surprising boosts without their knowledge? But then again, wasn’t that what all caffeinated beverages did, just on a smaller scale?

Her philosophical musings were interrupted by the arrival of her first customer—Professor Abernathy from the Physics department. Known for his brilliant mind and equally brilliant ability to put students to sleep during lectures, Abernathy ordered his usual: a large black coffee, no frills.

Jenna hesitated for a split second before preparing his drink with the magical beans. For science, she told herself.

Professor Abernathy took a sip and blinked rapidly. Then, to Jenna’s astonishment, he began to speak. Not in his usual monotone, but in rhyme.

“Oh, how the quarks and leptons dance, In quantum realms, they take their stance. The universe’s grand design, In verses now, I shall define!”

The professor continued his impromptu physics rap, drawing a crowd of amused and bewildered students. For the first time in recorded history, people were voluntarily gathering to hear Professor Abernathy speak.

As the morning rush began in earnest, Jenna found herself playing a bizarre game of caffeine roulette. Each customer presented a new opportunity, a new experiment.

There was Emma, the insomniac computer science major, who took one sip of her Hazelnut Latte and instantly fell into a peaceful sleep at one of the tables. Her laptop, however, continued to type out perfect code all on its own.

Then came the university’s star quarterback, Jake, who had been scratching his head over the play book all season. After downing an espresso, he started diagramming plays on napkins that would have made NFL coaches weep with joy.

“It’s so simple,” he kept saying. “The field is just a big chess board, and we’re all just variables in a complex algorithm of motion and probability!”

But Jenna’s favorite transformation was yet to come.

Around midday, the door chimed, and in walked Tara, a dance major known for her two left feet. She had an important audition coming up but looked like she was heading to her own funeral.

“Give me something to perk me up, Jenna,” Tara sighed. “At this point, I’d need a miracle to nail this audition.”

Jenna bit her lip, considering. This was toeing the line of her self-imposed ethical boundaries. But seeing the defeat in Tara’s eyes, she decided to take a chance.

She prepared a Caramel Macchiato, adding an extra shot of the magical espresso. “Here,” she said, handing it to Tara. “This one’s special. Drink it all before your audition.”

Tara nodded gratefully and left, sipping her drink. Jenna wished she could see what would happen but consoled herself with the knowledge that she’d hear about it soon enough—news traveled fast on campus.

As the day went on, the magical coffee continued to work its charm. A group of environmental science students came up with a brilliant solution for campus-wide composting over their Cold Brews. The captain of the debate team, after a Vanilla Latte, successfully argued that the moon was made of cheese for a full ten minutes before anyone realized what he was saying.

But it wasn’t until the end of her shift that Jenna witnessed perhaps the most miraculous transformation of all.

Frank, her perennially grumpy manager, emerged from his office with a strange look on his face. Jenna tensed, remembering his floating adventure from the day before. This time, Frank’s feet remained firmly on the ground, but there was an unusual spring in his step.

“Jenna,” he said, his voice uncharacteristically soft. “You know, I had the strangest dream last night about floating around the shop. Gave me a new perspective, you might say.”

Jenna nodded nervously, unsure where this was going.

Frank continued, “So I decided to try that new coffee again. Funny thing, instead of feeling lighter than air, I feel… inspired!” His eyes twinkled with an enthusiasm Jenna had never seen before. “I’ve been doing some thinking.”

“Oh?” Jenna managed, trying to keep her voice casual.

“I think it’s time we gave you a raise,” Frank declared. “And maybe added some benefits. In fact, let’s give everyone a raise! And we should extend our hours to help more students! Oh, and we need to start composting our coffee grounds. It’s better for the environment!”

Jenna stared at him, mouth agape. It seemed that even Frank wasn’t immune to the Percolator’s peculiar perk, though its effects were certainly unpredictable. Yesterday it had him defying gravity, and today it had apparently expanded his heart and business acumen simultaneously.

As she left work that evening, Jenna felt a warm glow of satisfaction. Yes, she was playing with forces she didn’t fully understand. Yes, there were probably a million ways this could go wrong. But today, she’d helped a shy professor find his rhythm, given a clumsy dancer a shot at her dreams, and even managed to make her curmudgeonly boss grow a heart three sizes—for the second day in a row, no less.

Not bad for a part-time barista.

She patted her bag, feeling the reassuring weight of the magical beans inside. Tomorrow would bring new customers, new challenges, and new miracles. And Jenna couldn’t wait to brew up some more magic.

After all, in the right hands, a little coffee could change the world—one cup at a time.

Feature Photo by Afta Putta Gunawan