While Rosita was on her break, not only was she able to dye her hair blue, but she wanted to go to the Paper Lantern to surprise Warren.
She enters the Chinese restaurant to be greeted by Mrs. Lee. "Ah, Rosita, my dear. It's so good to see you again." Mrs. Lee, the owner of the Paper Lantern, greets Rosita as she gets her into a tight hug.
Mrs. Lee has always been a family friend not only to Rosita's family but to Warren's family as well. When Warren's parents were going through their messy divorce, Mrs. Lee was there to take in Warren. In the aftermath of Sirena's death, Mrs. Lee was there to help out Francesca with Rosita.
In the corner of her eye, she spots Layla, looking lonely as ever. "Uh, Mrs. Lee, can I share the table with her over there?" Rosita asks, pointing over at Layla.
Mrs. Lee capitulates, and Rosita makes her way towards Layla.
"Hey." Rosita greets the redhead hippie. It was able to garner Layla's attention and she gives a small smile back to her. By the sound of her tone, she sounds a little crestfallen.
"You okay?" Rosita asks. "I-I know that we haven't spoken much since the beginning of the year, and…" Rosita begins to ramble on, but Layla cuts her off.
"Will told me that he would be here, but…" Layla begins to explain, but drifts off a bit, however, Rosita catches on.
"He stood you up, didn't he?" Rosita asks. Layla takes a deep inhale of breath. "I guess so."
"You mind if I join you?" Rosita asks, causing Layla to shrug. "Guess it wouldn't hurt." she says as she sits at the seat across from Layla.
Shortly after Rosita joins Layla, her food comes out. The two girls are talking and catching each other up in their classes.
While eating the Shrimp Egg Foo Young that Rosita always has every time she stops over at the Paper Lantern, it was there when Layla tells Rosita about her power to control plantlife.
"Okay, that is a kickass power. Without a doubt, you would be able to make it into Hero classes easily." Rosita tells her.
"Eh, not a big fan of the whole hero-sidekick separation." Layla simply tells her.
"Honestly, I don't blame you. Almost everyone that is in Hero seems to be…I don't know…self-absorbed…" Rosita chimes in. She tries to be nice about what she thinks of her peers, besides Warren, in the Hero classes.
Her grandmother did raise her not to lie.
"Is that why you stick around Warren?" Layla asks, causing Rosita to shrug. "I mean, he's the only one who understands me. The both of us are pretty much ostracized because of the actions of our parents." she tells Layla.
"See you dye your hair." Rosita hears a familiar deep voice speak up. "It's that obvious, huh?" she asks as she walks over to Warren to greet him with a kiss. "I wanted to surprise you." she adds in with a small pout.
"Hey…" Layla chimes in, feeling awkward in the company of the brooding pyrokinetic and the angelic umbrakinetic.
"Hey…" Warren replies back, being just as awkward as her.
"We go to school together." Layla tries to jog Warren's memory. "You're Stronghold's friend." Warren deduces. "Yeah…" Layla trails off.
"You want me to heat that up for you?" Warren points over to the uneaten food that is on Layla's plate. It must've been there before Rosita showed up.
Layla looks around before whispering, "You're not supposed to use your powers outside of school."
"I was just gonna stick it in the microwave." Warren clears up, causing Layla to chuckle at her own confusion with Rosita biting back a smile.
"I was supposed to be meeting Will here, but…" Layla was about to explain, but trails off. "You want to sit down?" Layla invites as Rosita makes room for Warren to sit down next to her.
After observing the almost completely empty restaurant, Warren accepts. "I think I can spare a minute."
When he sat down next to Rosita, he lit a candle with just a flick of the finger.
After sitting down, Layla then asked how Rosita and Warren met.
"While my dad was going through his legal proceedings, my grandmother took me in to see Mrs. Lee. Met Warren, and the rest is history." Rosita was explaining. "It's cliche, I know, the whole childhood friends to boyfriend-girlfriend."
"No, it's not cliche." Layla counters.
"Okay, how about you and Will?" Rosita then asks, now piquing Warren's interest.
Warren knew that The Commander, or Steve Stronghold, has a knack of being too arrogant for his own good, and it seems like the arrogance is now carried by Will. From this only interaction with the environmentalist, he is interested in how the two became friends (and eventually how Layla began to crush on Will).
"There was this time in first grade. You know how you grow lima beans in school? Well, Will couldn't figure out why mine was growing so quickly. It was driving him crazy. So I finally took mercy on him and I told him about my powers. We've been best friends ever since." Layla explains herself to the couple.
Warren then points out an observation that is blatantly obvious. "And falling for him, was that before or after the lima beans?" he asks.
It seems that Layla is really bad at lying when she is trying to play it off, nonchalantly. "What? I am not in love with Will Strong…" he starts, but Warren and Rosita both have their eyebrows raised, their faces telling her that they do not believe it one bit.
"Is it that obvious?" Layla winces.
"Yeah." Warren muses out.
"Kind of figured as such when I met the two of you on the first day." Rosita points out.
"Great." Layla adds, cringing.
"So why don't you tell him?" Warren asks, however, Rosita counters it. "Let me guess, he's too oblivious about it all, is he?" she guesses.
"Well, I was going to ask him to Homecoming, but there's two problems. He likes somebody else and she's perfect." she tells the two.
"I have a hunch that it's Gwen she's talking about." Rosita mutters to Warren, who doesn't disagree with her in the slightest.
"Hmm. You know what I think? To let true love remain unspoken is the quickest route to a heavy heart." Warren advises Layla.
Layla is blown away. Rosita sheepishly smiles as she hides her face into Warren's large shoulder. Layla glances over at a bashful Rosita and looks back at Warren.
"Wow. That is really deep." she comments.
"Yeah." Warren chimes in. "And, your lucky numbers are four, sixteen, five, and forty-nine." he adds.
Layla chuckles as Rosita jokingly hits Warren's arm. "Of course. Why am I not surprised?" she pouts out. "It's on the fortune, babe." Warren tells her.
Mrs. Lee peers out of the window and starts talking to him in Cantonese, and Warren replies back in Cantonese.
"I gotta go." Warren tells the girls as he hands Layla the fortune and kisses Rosita on the head. "See you around, hippie." he adds in to Layla before going back to work.
"I should get going, too. I need to close up tonight." Rosita now mentions. "I can take care of the order." she adds in.
After taking care of her order and Layla's order, she begins to think; maybe it's nice to have a friend like Layla.
REVIEWS:
schweenieboy: Honestly, same here
hateme101: Thanks :)