Opposites Attract

The Paper Lantern

"WARREN PEACE?" Dad exploded.  

"See this is what I mean when I use the word 'overreaction'," I muttered.

"So Baron Battle's son just waltzes in and hospitalises you on the first day?!" he continued.

"I mean it could have been an accident..." I replied.

"Does Principal Powers know? Does she know that he hurt you?"

"Dad, come on-"

"I mean on the first day as well! You kids didn't even properly start the school term!"

"Dad-"

"Scratch that! You'd barely started the first lesson!"

"DAD!" I screamed.

His eyes scanned the living room. Mum was sat with her head in her hand, waiting for his rant to finish; Will was sat staring at the floor wide-eyed; and I was staring at him in boredom, eyebrow raised.

"What?" he asked, confused.

I rolled my eyes. Any resentment I'd held against Warren had gone, and I was starting to think about things diplomatically again.

"At the end of the day, the only things I can tell you are based on what I saw. Yes, me and Warren had an argument at the beginning of the lesson, but aside from that, the only thing I saw with my own eyes was what happened with the shredder. I didn't see his fireball- I felt it, so I don't know if he was aiming at me. I don't even know if I was moving and he couldn't get a good shot- there are endless possibilities because there are so many different perspectives. I wish I could offer you a better one but to be fair, I've only been awake four hours today," I chuckled.

Dad sighed, smiling.

"Thank God you got your Mum's patience, huh?" he smiled over at her; "Okay, okay, so how about we drop it for tonight? I think we all need time to think on it, and you're probably sick of re-telling the story, so let's just get food and watch a movie, yeah?"

We all nodded, smiling.

"Bagsy Chinese food!" I exclaimed.

"Ugh fine! Bagsy Back to the Future!" Will retaliated.

Dad chuckled; "Okay, I'll ring the order in, Rosie, are you okay to pick it up? Josie, you can set everything up here, and Will can take care of the film. Deal?"

Everyone nodded. I went to slip my shoes on and then headed back into the living room for the heads up from Dad. The Paper Lantern was only a couple of blocks away so it was walkable. Dad soon came back, gave me the nod, and I headed out.

The Chinese place looked a little tacky from the outside- they'd taken the whole oriental theme slightly too far with the origami strung up everywhere and the red hue over the restaurant. But the food was nice enough. 

I made my way to the counter, smiling at Mrs Lee. I was basically a regular here, so she knew me by name, and had even attempted to learn a minimal amount of English for our conversations.

"Rosie!" she grinned brightly, "You have reservation?"

"No thank you- pick up," I answered.

She nodded, tapping away on the register.

"I will check the progress for you, and get a waiter to bring it for you. Sit?" she suggested, gesturing to red booth behind me.

I smiled warmly at her and sat, watching her bustle away to the kicthens, yelling at her husband in Chinese. I twidled my thumbs mainly, not paying an awful amount of attention to my surroundings, but I did vaguely notice another waiter take his place behind the register and begin tapping some orders into it.