-1AN: Warren is actually really fun to write. In his head. I don't know if it's in character or not, but I suspect Warren would talk to himself a lot since he doesn't talk to anyone else very much. I like the idea of him saying all this stuff in his head while giving everyone else one-word answers. And I'd like to think of him as a smart-ass.

Top notes:

1. Han zi- as in the last chapter, Chinese characters used in writing.

2. S.O.B.- Son Of a Bitch

As always, enjoy and please review.



Reaction, Reconsider: Warren



I strode briskly through the hallways, dearly wishing Sky High was not, in fact, a floating school so I could drive home without taking the stupid bus. I mean, what use is your license and a motorcycle for which you've been saving up for practically your whole entire freakin' life if you can't use it to get around? Well, I actually didn't have a motorcycle, not yet, a month or so more at the Lantern and I'd be set. I actually had a beat up old army green Honda Accord. But still, I was saving for that motorcycle, wasn't I?

While lost in my daily gripe about a) not being able to drive to and from school and b) not having my motorcycle, I bumped into someone…and walked right through her. Ugh, disgusting. Like walking through warm Jell-o. Let me reiterate: disgusting.

I immediately stopped and turned to see who had the Jell-o power besides Ethan. It was new girl…shimmering transparently while staring very, very hard at the ground and muttering to herself. Psycho.

"Hey." As was to be expected, she jumped. And 'Eep!'-ed. Also as was to be expected, I gave her an eye-roll. "I just walked right through you."

Her eyes widened.

Truthfully, new girl's eyes were kind of weird. No, scratch that, really weird. Like Layla's. Layla's eyes are usually somewhere between mahogany and dark chocolate. But, when she goes nuts with the plant thing, they get this freakish lime-green glow. Yeah. New girl's eyes, excuse the cliché, burned with the light of a thousand suns all the time. Regular Japanese girl with the black hair and general petite-ness and then BAM. Gold cat eyes.

"Ohmigod." She returned to a more solid form and winced. "I'm so sorry, it must have been so weird. I mean, I've never done it before but, I mean…yeah. I'm really sorry. I was trying to figure out how to get home."

There was nothing to do but stare at her like she was an idiot. I swear. Stooping a little to her eye level, I smirked, "You know, the school bus leaves in ten minutes."

She smiled sarcastically up at me. I wondered briefly if I'd still be taller than her if I sat down. "I'm not stupid. I was trying to figure out how to teleport from here. I mean, since the school's not exactly at a fixed location it's difficult to do."

Shrugging, I replied, "Well, like I said, ten minutes." Returning her smile, I moved to board the bus.

After settling down into my regular seat, a plus to being known and feared is that people never encroach on your territory, I noticed freaky cat eyes get on with Ethan. And Ethan usually sat across the aisle from me. Therefore freaky cat eyes would be in close proximity. Great.

I shot Ethan a "Hey" and a wave as he took his usual spot and gave cat eyes another smirk.

"Shut up," she snapped, obviously not so pleased that she couldn't 'port home.

Suppressing a chuckle, I merely raised my hands in defense and turned away. You win some, you lose some; and that one, I most definitely won.



It was study night at the Lantern. Meaning everyone comes in, takes over a table, and doesn't leave until we close. (Not) Surprisingly enough, cat eyes was the topic of conversation.

"She seems nice," said Will as they compared (read: complained about) History project topics. I, of course, was working and popped into the discussion only when clearing the tables in the vicinity.

"She says she's not actually from Japan, she used to live on the coast and moved here for school last year. So she was just visiting the country for the summer," Ethan offered. "But she said she'd give me her aunt's phone number so I could interview her. Can you imagine? The Ryoko?" He was, very obviously, tickled pink. But I guess that kind of stuff would do it for him. Ethan is a geek first, super person second.

"Well, does she speak the language? Because I've got some J-rock stuff I wanted to translate," Maj cut in, simultaneously attempting to eat her spicy won ton and see how many bits of napkin she could stick in Zach's hair before he noticed.

"When I asked her, she said she spoke a little," Layla replied. "I think it's cool that she knows some of a foreign language-" Uh…Hello. I spoke a foreign language. "-like Warren." Thank you.

"So," Will turned to me as I approached the table from behind. Sometimes I wonder if he has pre-cog in addition to the flying and the punching stuff. Talk about counting your blessings…or curses if you think about it that way. "What do you think of her?"

"Freaky cat eyes?" I asked, earning a swat from Layla. "Hey, watch the glasses; you break 'em, you buy 'em! And her eyes are freaky."

"Well, yeah, but you don't have to say so," Maj replied, rolling her eyes at me. This is what I get for vouching for them to be able to study here.

"Dude, just because you guys," Zach gestured to Maj and I, "have unnaturally colored hair, you're not freaks."

"Yeah," Maj whispered teasingly. "We're freaks because we have powers."

"Hey-" he began.

"You must admit," you set yourself up for that one," Will shrugged, trying, and failing, to pick up a piece of lemon chicken with his chopsticks. He ended up stabbing it instead.

A generally contented silence ensued as Zach tried to think of a good comeback.

"You know, guys," Ethan mused, "this is exactly why we never get any studying done here."



A few weeks later, just as I was exiting the Paper Lantern after my Saturday shift, I got a call from Layla. "Do you want to come with us to see that new horror movie?" she asked. Translation: Come pick us up so we can see the new horror movie, or else. Which is how I found myself driving to the mall, car bursting at the seams, and trying to stop a fight over who got to control the radio. Needless to say, when we finally pulled into the parking lot, I was very, very happy. Not only because it saved my car from certain death, but because it increased the chances of my sanity staying intact for the next few hours.

"Okay, so…box office," Will pointed in the general direction of the theater and, like good little lemmings, we all followed suit.

Upon reaching said office, who should we see but little miss Cat Eyes sneaking out a side door.

"Yuri!" Layla exclaimed, waving to our collective acquaintance. "What are you doing here?"

Cat Eyes waved back, making her way through the crowd to our little huddle. "Just got off work," she explained. "The boyfriend cancelled the dinner plans so I'm gonna go home and shower." She shrugged. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Seeing the new horror movie," Maj replied, psyched. Zach, on the other hand, looked as if he'd faint as soon as he got into the theater. Aah, the price of love. I was also looking forward to 'borrowing' Will's new camera phone for blackmailing purposes. So I'm a little evil, so what?

Layla, ever the humanitarian, then blurted out, "Do you want to come with us?"

A small inner-debate seemed to rage within Yuri's mind. Either that or she spaced out on us. "Well, I've already seen it, but…" A gleam not unlike Layla's 'dastardly plan' gleam entered Yuri's eyes. "Come on." She motioned for us to follow her as she sauntered up to the ticket counter. "Hey Joe," she smiled, at the bored-out-of-his-mind clerk.

To our surprise, he smiled back. "Yuri, why haven't you escaped this hell hole yet? You got off at six."

"Found some friends," she motioned towards us. "You wanna give me seven tickets to the seven-thirty in theater ten?" she asked.

Two minutes later, she was handing out our (free) movie tickets and heading toward the concession stand. Now, we're a little particular about just who gets into our little group of outcasts (or maybe there just aren't any more outcasts?), but free movies and popcorn? Well, Cat Eyes may be a bit freaky, but she got my vote of acceptance into the Sky High misfits.



Fast-forward three months. The time: close to dinner. The people: well, duh. The place: Cat Eyes', okay, okay, Yuri's apartment. The purpose: who the hell knows? I was the last to arrive because I had to gas up my baby. That's right. Brand-new, decked-out, custom detailed Suzuki V-Strom 1000. Black, of course and turbo-powered. Oh. Yeah. And Yuri lasered in Ling shu Yan, Huo Long in han zi (1), which is 'Spirit of Flame' and my Chinese name, 'Firey Dragon.' Needless to say, she was no longer freaky.

Anyway, so I arrived. Ethan was attempting to study. Zach and Maj had ditched for a movie date, saying maybe they'd be over later (meaning: don't expect us before eleven). Will and Layla were playing footsie, ugh, on the couch. Yuri was attempting dinner. Key word: attempting. And just about everyone was arguing over what to watch on TV while they waited for the food.

"Hey Warren," Yuri waved me over, "when you cook rice, is the pot supposed to boil over?"

I groaned. I didn't know how Yuri would survive when she moved out. She hardly functioned when her parents were away on business and she could barely even cook Easy Mac. "No, not really."

"Shit." She ran back into the kitchen. I stifled a snort as she nearly tripped on the hem of her too-long sweat pants.

"So guys," I swiped the remote and turned to the Food Network. "What're we eating?"

Layla and Will looked at each other. "Well, from the way things are going in there," Will jerked his head in the kitchen's direction as the phone started ringing, "I'd say pizza."

I had to laugh.

"Can someone please get that?" Yuri shouted. "I'm a little busy."

I grabbed Yuri's cell phone and flipped it open. "Hello?"

Silence.

"Hello."

Still nothing. Telemarketers really irritate me. Of course, they never actually talk to me; people say that, when I answer the phone, I sound like I'm extremely pissed off. Or that I'm about to commit mass murder. Or that I've just been interrupted having some hot, kinky sex. No actually, that's just Zach and I'm pretty sure he does it to piss me off.

I sighed, about ready to shut the phone.

"Um…hello?" A girl with a 'shit, I have the wrong number' voice piped up. Either that or she thought she'd interrupted Yuri and I having some hot, kinky sex.

"Yeah?" I asked, walking to the kitchen.

"Um, is…this is Yuri's phone, right?" she asked, nervously. Okay, okay, so it wasn't the kinky sex.

"Yeah." Geez, it's only on your caller ID, lady.

"Oh, um, good. Can I, uh, speak to her, please? It's kind of important."

Oh really? "Sure, who is this?"

"Um…Lisa."

I cupped the phone in my hand. "Hey Yuri, Lisa." So saying, I handed her the phone and went to scrounge a soda from the fridge.

"Hey Lis'." Yuri motioned for me to check on the new batch of rice. "Yeah. No, that was…no. No."

I peered into the pot. At least it wasn't boiling over and looked somewhat normal.

"What do you mean, 'you saw him'? That's not possible."

I decided to take it off the stove before it burned.

"No way. He wouldn't…she told you? And he's what?" Yuri was getting huffy so I began slowly backing out of the room. She may be a girl, but she hits kind of hard when she's mad and I did not want to be the unwilling punching bag. Probably all of that Japanese martial arts training…or the years worth of marching band twirling flags. Either way, girl had guns.

As I exited, I heard a sharp 'bye' and a click of the phone snapping shut. I hurried to the side so as to avoid the feet stomping in my direction.

"Guys, is chicken okay? I ran out of beef," she sighed, walking out of the kitchen with one hand on her hip, the other massaging the bridge of her nose.

"Uh, yeah. What was that all about?"

She glared at a picture hanging on the wall. It looked suspiciously like the prom. Yuri and a guy I didn't recognize were in the traditional prom-wear. Meaning poofy, shimmery, black thing for her and penguin suit for him. Of course, 'McKinley High School Junior Prom '05' helped explain things too.

She huffed. "My soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend has been sneaking around at my old school in my absence," she explained, shooting a not-so-accidental laser through the face of the guy in the wall picture. "And my friend just called to tell me that she saw the little S.O.B. (2) walking over to drop by, unannounced, tonight."

Seeing the sparkle in Layla's eyes, I began to inch toward the door. That sparkle was familiar…as in 'dastardly and cunning evil plan that will probably embarrass the unwilling victim, Warren' familiar. There was only one direction this could be heading and I did not want to take it.

"Yuri!" she called, rising and grabbing my elbow before I could protest and following Yuri into the kitchen.

Pulling chicken out of her refrigerator and popping it in the microwave, Yuri tensed. "What?"

"Why don't you pretend that you knew about…whatever his name is' immoral behavior and," Layla pointed to me as if I were some prize bull, "pretend Warren is your new boyfriend."

I knew it.

Yuri blinked at the suggestion and a look that could only be described as 'hmmm…' came over her features as she opened her mouth to reply.

I knew I had to act fast if I wanted to get out of this with my pride and dignity intact. So I beat her to vocalizing my thoughts.

"Fuck that."




I would like to thank Zoycitenega and rootbeergirl19 for their supportive reviews. Was this quick enough for cyber cookies:) It took a little longer because I had to add a scene for plausible backstory. My apologies. The hot kinky sex line was inspired by my good friend, Matt, who is such a perv, but I love him anyway. Haha. I hope you all enjoyed, and please leave a message at the beep!

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Love, SeraphStar