"Guess who," demanded a friendly voice as hands covered Warren's eyes.
Warren turned from the soapy dishes in front of him at the cheery utterance, "What?" he asked tiredly. His shift had just begun but he was already exhausted. The holidays were always busy at the paper lantern so it was going to be a long night.
Behind him stood a young Chinese girl in the tuxedo like uniform of the Paper Lantern waiters. She looked familiar but it took Warren a minute before it clicked. "Magenta?!" he said somewhat incredulously, barely recognizing her without her Goth get up. "What are you doing here?"
"I work here. Surprise," Magenta replied with a smirk and a shrug.
"Oh, since when?" he asked momentarily confused.
"Since my aunt needed a little help over the holidays."
"Your aunt? Who's your aunt?"
"The owner. Which you'd know if you ever paid any attention, but yeah, she talked to my mom and my mom volunteered me, anyway I'm going to be waiting here till January."
As she said that the owner of the Paper lantern walked over. Mrs. Chen was a plump but imperious little woman who ruled her domain with an iron fist. "Ahh Warren, you met my niece. I believe she goes to school with you," she said speaking in Chinese. As she looked at Magenta, Magenta's expression turned decidedly meek.
Warren had known that the Chen's had connections with the super community, that's how he got the job. His mother had known Mrs. Chen. When Warren was 13 his mother had gotten sick. Since she couldn't work Warren had needed a job to help with money. At 13 not a lot of places would hire him but since she knew his mother Mrs. Chen had given him a chance. Warren's mother had even approved because she knew the Chens would be willing to over look it if Warren's control over his power slipped. The situation had suited and Warren had stayed on, he'd even learned Chinese. Mrs. Chen had mentioned that she had a niece attending Sky High with Warren but he never connected the plump and imperious Mrs. Chen with sarcastic Magenta Ma. Now that he though about it, it made sense. Magenta had even said that her aunt owned a restaurant.
While he contemplated this Mrs. Chen turned to a noticeably subdued and submissive Magenta. "Now, Magenta, come with me. I'll show you what you are to do." Mrs. Chen continued bossily, still speaking in Chinese.
"Yes, Aunt Chen," Magenta said respectfully in Chinese but she rolled her eyes as she turned to follow her aunt.
Several hours and what felt like several thousand dishes later Warren was relieved to be sent on a break. Warren had had a hard day in school. Today they had played Save the Citizen in PE and early on he and Will had been called in. Once in the game you played until you were defeated so he and Will had played all period. Despite being nearly indestructible and good with his powers, it's not easy to keep fighting for an hour with only short breaks. After school Warren had gone straight home and done his homework knowing he probably wouldn't have time after work. So by nine when the dinner rush was slowing he was more then ready to fall asleep on his feet.
After grabbing some lo mien Warren headed to the break room. He'd been eating for a minute when a familiar figure walked in and settled next to him.
"Man, I never knew how hard waiting tables was!" Declared a tired looking Magenta, "Waitresses deserve ever tip they get, what with all they crap they take from the customers!"
"Huh, that's why I bus table and wash dishes… After I cursed out a couple for being rude your aunt declared me unfit for waiting."
"Wow… I'm surprised she didn't fire you on the spot, my aunt must really like you."
"I'm sure she would have if they hadn't been so damn nasty, believe me they deserved a whole lot more then getting cursed at," Warren replied grinning first sheepishly then with a little bit of menace.
Magenta grinned back as she pictured a couple bad enough to spare Warren her aunt's formidable wrath. "So how long have you worked here? And is it always this busy?"
At Magenta's question Warren let out a sigh, "Its worse on Fridays and Saturdays but this time of year is always super busy. It won't start to get normal again till after Chinese new years so don't get your hopes up. Any way, yeah, I've worked here since I was 13 that's… lets see 3 years."
"Wow that's a long time. You spoke Chinese to the other employees before… did you know it before or did you learn while working here?"
"Well at first I had a hard time because most of the other workers speak primarily Chinese and only a little English. After a while I started to pick up a bit, but it was your aunt who really helped me. I guess she noticed that I was trying to learn so one day she when I came in she called me into her office and gave me a couple books: 'Mandarin Chinese for Beginners' and an English/Chinese dictionary. She never said anything about it just gave me the books and sent me back to work. I thought it was pretty cool and you know me with a book. Once I got started I never stopped. I'm practically fluent now."
"Wow, that's pretty impressive, Chinese is usually really hard for non-native speakers to learn. My parents are both Chinese and they speak mostly Chinese around the house so I've always been bilingual, but its cool to finally meet some one, other then my cousins, whos my age and actually speaks Chinese," replied Magenta this time in Chinese with another smile.
"I'm impressed Maj, there's actually a story behind that sarcastic Goth exterior. I never even knew that you were Chinese... I kind of thought you were Korean."
"Korean, please!" Maj joined in on the weak joke.
Warren felt bad. He really didn't know that much about Magenta. Since Layla had befriended him he'd gotten a lot more social but he'd never taken the time to get to know his new friends other then Will and Layla. He had sort of taken them at face value, now he was thinking that maybe they could have a lot more to offer if he just took some time to get to know them.
Warren turned to Magenta again this time his eyes thought full, "Hey, I'm glad we're actually talking. I guess I never really took the time to get to know you."
Magenta smiled mockingly, "Oh god, really… oh Warren, thank you so much for bestowing the great gift of your attention on me!!" She declared in a dramatic tone clutching her hands over her heart.
"Seriously Maj, I mean it," Warren said insistently a little hurt by her sarcastic rebuff.
Seeing that Warren was really serious Magenta backed down a bit, "Sorry, its just you're supposed to be our friend but you never have any time for anybody but Will and Layla."
"I know and I'm sorry," Warren said, looking down. "I'm just new to this friend thing and I really don't know how to act half the time."
"Yeah you kinda suck," Magenta said this time grinning. "I kidding Warren, its really not that big a deal and I know that you're just awkward with people. Ethan and Zack probably didn't even notice," she said trying to make him feel a little better.
"Thanks Maj, so umm tell me about your self," he said looking intently at her.
Magenta started cracking up at this, "Hmmmm lets see, I write poetry, I read, I do martial arts, I love animals, I don't know… I like lots of stuff."
"Wow, next thing I know you'll be telling me you're going to try out for the cheerleading squad…"
"Well now that Penny's in jail…" Magenta joked back in a fakely peppy voice and with just a hint of whine, "Do you think I'd make squad captain?!"
"Oh god I can see it now: black pompoms!" Warren said laughing so hard he almost choked on his noodles.
"Hey, tomorrow we should just start speaking Chinese around the guys, it'd tick Zach off for sure."
"Yeah but then Ethan'll be on us to teach him. You know how he gets when there's something he doesn't know," countered Warren grinning at the idea nonetheless. "So do you have any other little tidbits you'd like to share, other then that you wanna be a cheerleader? I could help you practice if you want, that's what friends are for isn't it?"
"Just for clarification, I do not want to be a cheerleader. That was sarcasm. And well, if you wanna learn my secrets you'll just have to pay better attention or keep wondering… they are after all, secrets," she said with a wink as she got up with her now empty plate and headed back into the kitchen.
Warren grinned after her and caught himself staring at her slightly swaying rear as she sauntered out of the small room. Shaking his head Warren mused that it was going to be an interesting couple of weeks if working with Magenta. He had had a little too much fun chatting with the pretty Asian, but over all he was glad he was actually getting to know her.