Dateline: Tuesday, April 28, 1981, 9:05 AM, Pacific Daylight Time.

"Morning, Smitty," Violet said as she strolled the makeshift hallways of the "Cube Farm". "How'd your lunch date with Python go yesterday?"

Smitty ran a hand through his afro. "Uh, I'd rather not talk about it."

"That bad, huh?"

"Let's just say I am done obsessing over super heroes."

Hallelujah! Violet thought.

"So, what have you been up to, Miss Parr?"

Violet tried to remember what her mother taught her about opening up to people without revealing her secret identity. "Let's just say I've recently acquired three new roommates and I need a raise so I can put a down payment on a house."

Smitty shook his head. "You're going to have a tough time explaining that to Mr. Black."

"I know. Wish me luck!"

"Good luck!"
Violet took a deep breath and entered Mr. Black's office. "Um, Mr. Black?"

"Ah, Violet Parr, Director of Personnel, just the woman I wanted to see! Come in, sit, sit!" Mr. Black was a little more chipper than usual, which concerned Violet.

"Uh, Mr. Black," Violet began a little nervously, "listen, my brother and I have recently…"

"Violet, how long have you been my Director of Personnel?"

"Um, it will be a year come May, I think."

"Do you realize how much change has occurred in my life since I hired you?"

"No, sir, I don't recall us exchanging two words since I started here."

"Well, I've had three wives, 17 mistresses, a baker's dozen bastard sons, four surgeries…" Mr. Black just kept going on and on. With each new statistic, Violet was more and more surprised that her boss had done all of that in 11 months. When he finally finished, he concluded with, "…but I've only needed one Director of Personnel."

"Thank you, sir, I'm flattered."

"So, I just want to show you my appreciation, but I don't know how. Is it appropriate to give an employee flowers?"

Violet saw her window of opportunity open wide. "Well, sir, most employers would thank their most loyal workers by giving them a raise in pay."
"That sounds like a fantastic idea! How much am I paying you now?"

"18 dollars an hour, sir."

"Great! How about I double it?"

"Thank you very much, sir!"

"You're very welcome. Now, what was it you came in here to tell me?"

"Oh, nothing. It would be a waste of time now. I'll just get back to work now." And she did.

"Hey Smitty! You're not going to believe this, but Mr. Black just doubled my pay!"

"No way! How did you ever convince him?"

"I didn't! He was in an unusually good mood today."

"Huh, that's weird. Maybe somebody drugged his coffee or something."

"Either way, me and mine can finally afford to move out of our apartment!"

As Violet left to make an appointment with a realtor for that afternoon, another employee strolled by Smitty's cube.

"Hey Jennings, did you Mr. Black is in a strangely upbeat mood today?"

"He had better be, I didn't drug his coffee for nothing!"

Then for the next eight hours, nothing happened. It was really boring, so I'm not going to bore you with the boring details.

Anyway, after work, Violet drove to the realtor's office.

"Hello," she said, "yeah, I'm looking for something that comes fully furnished; I'm on a tight budget."

The realtor smiled. "Let me guess, you've finally decided to move out of your apartment and buy a house because you've just gotten a raise at work, right?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Elementary, my dear Watson. Your clothes look like they haven't been washed in 19 days, and yet you come into my office looking for a home."

"Wow, I'm impressed, except that these clothes haven't been washed in only 15 days."

"I made a broad estimation, so what? Never mind such trivia, I think I have something in your price range." He escorted Violet to his car, and the twain drove off to a suburban development on New York Avenue.

"Now, here we have a nice ranch-style house, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, fully furnished like you requested, and only 55,000 dollars."

"Not a bad price, but do you have anything with two stories?"

"Well, if you'll come with me, you'll see this two-story, 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house for around 78,000 dollars, but it's not fully furnished."

"Uh-huh. Anything else?"

"Well, there is this other house, virtually identical to the previous one, except this one comes with the furniture. However, it is not cheap: 119,000 dollars."

"Hmm. Can I see the inside of that first house?"

"Of course!" The realtor dug out his key to the house and he escorted Violet inside. The interior of the house was painted a soft green, with white crown molding. The living room was about as large as the apartment, and it reminded her of her childhood. The sofa was a tasteful shade of blue; it matched the walls well. The master bedroom looked like it was large enough to hold a party. The other bedrooms were suitable; they had walls and a ceiling, which was more than she could ask for.

But what really convinced Violet that this was the right house was the kitchen. Everything was in just the right place for her to perform her culinary magic.

"Is everything to your liking, Miss Parr?" asked the realtor.

"It's perfect," she said. "I'll take it."

"Great! I'll just get the car, and we can drive back to the office, and make this a done deal, okay?" The realtor walked toward the front door, then he realized that Violet wasn't with him.

"I'll be right there," she said. "Just let me bask in the glow of my new house."

"O-Kay!" And he disappeared.

Right away, Violet started to delegate whom would sleep where. "Okay, Dash and Kim can have this room, Ashley can sleep here…and José will bunk with me in the master bedroom. And, when we're married and have kids, those bedrooms will be where they sleep; by then, Dash, Kim, and Ashley will have found new homes, and…"

Violet's little housewarming party was interrupted by the scream of the realtor. She ran outside to see what was going on. What she saw simply made her hang her head in frustration.

It was Herr Cannon, on the rampage once again. Only this time, he was striking a little closer to home.

(A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update, people. School's starting up again soon, so I won't be able to update as often as I would like. I do have a master plan for this story. It's probably going to be forty chapters long when it is finished. Hey, don't forget to tell me how I'm doing! Chapter 30 is under construction! See you!)