The Violet Hour (X-Men AU)

3: Rhubarb Pie and Kleptomania

A/N: A deeper look into the life of a teenaged mutant who isn't a ninja turtle. (Sadly)

I worked at the diner on the corner of Berry Street and Hillcroft Street on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, sometimes random days or weekends. Five o'clock to seven-thirty. It was an odd schedule, but my boss was a leaned-back woman who was good friends with my mother and knew me through childhood, to my early teens, then to now, when I served fries and got paid.

       I was punctual, usually, but after school, Peter and I had gone to a race track behind an old abandoned school and he had done laps to further demonstrate his ability then we talked. We talked for an hour about music and only music. He had something else to do, said goodbye, but by the time I had gotten to the diner, I was five minutes late for my 5:00 shift and I hated being late for the woman who was so at ease with my schedule.

        "Well, if it isn't Miss Green, here five minutes late?" Said Queenie, the co-owner of the restaurant. Today she sported shocking blue eyeshadow and bright red lipstick that was both eye-catching and marvellous and I could see her husband Charles wave to me from the kitchen.

    I set down my bag in the coatroom and dug out my uniform, "I'm sorry, Queenie, I just recently made a friend and I got a little caught up in a talk about a band we like and-"

    Queenie placed her hands on her wide hips and swung her braids over her shoulder. "You finally made a friend? Oh, love, we've all been waiting for you to find a friend."

     "Oh," I genuinely laughed, "Seems like everyone knows I'm alone." And Queenie shot me a knowing look and kissed me on the cheek.

     "Glad you have a friend now, Venus, but be on time tomorrow, okay? Now go get dressed." She turned and looked at me over the shoulder, before sashaying back into the kitchen.

         "I will, I promise."

     I slipped into the washroom, discarded my jeans and t-shirt and slipped on the blue waitress dress. I buttoned it up the front and smoothed the plaits of the skirt down. It was cute, but was styled to bring the hungry working men in for dinner. Queenie let me button up the shirt and she made my skirt a little longer so that it was around my thighs, rather than my ass. I grabbed a banana clip and pulled my hair back so it was off my shoulders, but I left the bits at the front out, the way I always did.

      Once I looked decent and ready to work, I pinned my silver nametag to my breast pocket and shoved my school clothes back in my bag, before heading into the kitchen to get my notepad and pencil.

      "You have a proper friend now? Now you don't have to be friends with us," said Deborah, a fellow waitress of mine. She was eight years older than me and very tall, as well as very pregnant. "We've been talking about how you need friends your age." She gestured to the other waitress named Poppy, who was out tending to customers, and the three chefs, Robert, Sandra, and Margaret, who were all in either their late thirties or mid-forties.

     "So my social life is a big topic here on Friday to Monday?" I chuckled, wrapping my short apron around my waist and tying it in a simple bow in the back, tucking my notepad into the pocket of it. "As grateful as I am you all worried for me, I've always been just fine."

      Margaret laughed from where she stood over the stove, "Sure you have, that's why you're quiet as a mouse until spoken to. You need to pipe up, find someone who brings out your liveliness because we all saw how lively you can be in a comfortable setting." She waved her spoon in the air.

     "I prefer to be adequately professional, that's all." I countered, but Queenie walked by laughing her loud, melodious laugh.

      "Professional and silent are not one in the same, my dear," she said, putting on a hairnet and tending to a bubbling pot on the stove. "Speaking when you are spoken to is for the weaker links in society or for those who live in pure fear. You are neither, now get out there, a customer just sat down."