DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN SOUL EATER.

As Maka hurriedly scanned through the sheets of jobs, her frown got bigger and bigger.

"Cook, garden tender, babysitter, professional mountain climber, yeti tracker, Bigfoot tracker, Loch Ness Monster tracker, sumo wrestler...etc. etc..."

"What the hell?" She shouted. "What kind of jobs are these? They just keep getting more and more ridiculous!"

Snorting, she banged her fist on the wooden table. "Sumo wrestler, my ass!"

Rinnnnnnng!

Maka's head snapped to the phone. She snatched it up with relief, glad to slip away from the world of careers and jobs, even for a few seconds or so.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Maka-chan."

Maka's mood brightened considerably. "Tsubaki-chan! What is it?"

She could hear Tsubaki hestitate over on the line. "Well...The thing is...Umm...I saw a job that might fit your needs, Maka-chan."

"Really?" Maka was now grinning from ear to ear. Suddenly, her stomach dropped. "Wait...Don't tell me it's a sumo wrestling job?"

Tsubaki's clear laugh could be heard. "No, of course not!"

"Thank God. What is it, then?"

Tsubaki got hesitant again. "Well, er, the job will fit within Shinigami-sama's expectations, but you may not like it personally..."

"Truth to be told, Tsubaki-chan, I'm so desperate right now that I wouldn't mind working in a maid cafe."

"Really? Then, Maka-chan, you've nothing to worry about!"

"Oh? What is this mysterious job?"

"Death Cafe is currently hiring workers your age!" Tsubaki announced happily. No reply came.

"Hello? Maka-chan? Maka-chan? Are you still there?"

Maka slumped to the floor, stunned. Me and my big fat mouth. She thought gloomily.

"Yes, Tsubaki-chan. I'm here. I was just caught off guard about the job."

"Oh, Maka-chan, if it's not to your taste-"

"No, Tsubaki. Thank you for all the trouble you went through. I'll take it." Said Maka, feeling worse and worse by the second.

"Oh really? Well, the interview's actually tomorrow at 10:a.m.. Sorry for the late notice, Maka-chan."

"No! I'll be glad to start my job as soon as possible! Thank you, Tsubaki-chan!"

"You do know where the cafe is, right, Maka-chan?"

"Yes. Again, thank you so much!"

"Don't mention it." Maka could almost imagine Tsubaki smile as she put down the phone.

As the click on the line indicated the end of the conversation, Maka stared at the piles of job applications on the floor. She shuffled across the room and brought in a huge recycling bin a few moments later.

Maka, sullen and completely not ready for the interview, stepped out of the door but quickly stepped back in again as an icy blast of wind hit her face.

Groaning, she checked the time for the umpteenth time that morning. The clock read 9:30 a.m..

"I'd better get going, or I'll be late." She muttered, feeling dejected. Soul's nagging voice echoed inside her head. That's not cool, man. "Shut up, stupid Soul." She told the voice.

Slowly, she dragged her heels out the door and into the chilly morning.

If papa finds out about this, I'm history.

It was 9:55 when Maka pushed open the doors of Death Cafe, her cheeks red from the cold. The first thing that struck her was at how perfectly symmetrical the whole place was, but in utter chaos at the same time.

"Liz! Get ready for the customers!" Somebody hidden behind a stack of perfectly symmetrical chairs yelled.

"Geez, I'm on it." A muddy yellow-haired teen grumbled, checking her polished nails along the way.

"Patty! Please stop making paper giraffes out of the napkins! It's making the napkins asymmetrical!"

"Hai, hai..." A blonde-haired girl reluctantly stopped folding the perfectly symmetrical stacks of napkins laid neatly out on each table. "And I was so close to finishing Dotty too..."

"Black*Star, you idiot! Don't ruin the symmetrical picture of the skull on the wall!"

"Hmph. You're just too scared of my greatness, Kid!" A spiky, blue-haired boy snorted, but stopped doodling on the perfectly symmetrical picture hanging on the wall.

Maka gaped at the scene. I must have walked into the wrong shop. She decided, and turned to leave.

"Hey! A customer!" The teen named Liz noticed Maka and yelled.

"N-no, I'm actually here for the job..." Maka stuttered, realizing that it was the right shop after all.

"Ohhhhhh, the job?" Liz suddenly had a sly grin on her bored face.

"Y-yes." Maka confirmed, deciding that it was too late to turn back now.

"Kiddo! An employee-to-be!" She called over her shoulder.

"An employee-to-be? A nice change with you three monkeys around."

Something in Maka's head clicked. The voice...sounded so horribly familiar. Mocking. Getting on her nerves. She had not regonized the voice during the chatter a moment ago, but now that the whole room's pin quiet and with everyone staring at her, the voice was as the same as ever. Maka's eyes went dull and her expression was blank as she stared at the person that emerged behind the stack of perfectly symmetrical chairs. Just who she suspected to be. The boy that had mocked her two days ago.

Oh no. Don't tell me the asymmetrical zebra bastard is the manager of this cafe? Maka thought dully as she stared at the three white stripes burned into the boy's coal black hair.