Terezi walked into Red Dragon at 10:55, her usual arrival time at the Chinese restaurant.
"Ms. Pyrope, come here for a second!" the manager called.
"Yes, Mrs. Wilson-Lee?"
Mrs. Wilson-Lee, the restaurant's manager and owner, motioned with her finger for Terezi to come to her.
"Come with me into my office."
Terezi followed the woman into her office.
"I need to talk to you about you working here," Mrs. Wilson-Lee said.
"Yes?" There was a bit of worry in Terezi's voice.
The manager smiled. "You've worked outstandingly hard these past few days," she said. "I've decided you can forget about working off your debt. I'm hiring you."
Terezi's face lit up. "You mean...I'm going to get paid to work here?!"
Mrs. Wilson-Lee smiled and nodded.
"Oh, thank you so much! My fiancé and I have really been needing the money, thank you!"
"My pleasure." She paused. "Oh, by the way, I love your sunglasses. I think they're stylish!"
Terezi laughed, not really knowing what to say. "Um...thanks!"
Karkat finished putting up his lunch after his lunch break and turned around. Mr. Jones was standing right behind him.
"Um, hello, sir," he said.
"Mr. Vantas." Mr. Jones turned around to look towards the dining area. "I'm going to ask you to mop the floor, while business is still slow."
"Uh, sure." It surely wasn't that hard to clean a floor!
"Great. The cleaning supplies are in the closet by the restrooms. It's already unlocked."
"Alright." Karkat washed his hands and went out of the kitchen and over to the closet and opened it.
"Holy...fuck." Karkat's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. Ah, shit, he thought, I forgot humans don't have anything against buckets!
He just stood there, staring at the bucket in the closet.
"Mr. Vantas, is anything wrong?"
Karkat turned around to find his boss standing there.
"Um, actually—"
"I was going to do it for him."
Karkat looked to his left and saw a guy about 19 or 20 years old. He quickly mouthed "Thanks" and the guy nodded back.
"Very well then, Mr. Freeman." Mr. Jones turned to Karkat. "Mr. Vantas, you may return to your original workstation."
Karkat sighed with relief and went back into the kitchen to wash his hands.
A few hours later Karkat's shift was over. He grabbed his stuff and got ready to leave. He was too tired (and possibly traumatized) to work any overtime.
As he approached the door to leave, Karkat saw the same guy who had volunteered to clean the floor in his place. I really don't want to, Karkat thought, but the nice earthly human way is the best fucking thing to do.
"Hey, thanks for what you did earlier, man," Karkat said.
The guy turned around. "No prob. You looked like you really didn't want to do it and had no idea how to, and I've done it before, so..." He paused and stuck out his hand. "I'm Cole Freeman, by the way."
Karkat shook Cole's hand very cautiously. "Karkat Vantas."
Cole looked at him funny.
"My mother didn't do a very good job of naming me." Karkat had always remembered what John had said: When in doubt, lie your ass off.
"Oh, by the way, sweet horns, man. Are they from some sort of sci-fi or fantasy movie or something?"
Karkat brought his hand up to his head and touched his nubby horns. He had almost totally forgotten they were there.
"Um, no, actually-"
"Hey, they're cool either way." Cole looked at his watch. "I have to get going. I guess I'll just talk to you tomorrow then."
"Okay."
One of my friends told me Karkat needed a so-called "friend" besides John or Terezi. And this is the result. Next chapter up-you know what, whenever I get around to it.
