This was not Celeste's day. She had a buttface customer, a jerkface coworker, and she had some pretty terrible news that enraged, humiliated her, and made her feel terrible in just about every aspect. She leaned against the counter, waiting for her shift to end. It hadn't been a terrible, awful day. Just a pretty darn awful one. And it didn't look like it was getting much better. She only had about an hour left. It had slowed past the primary dinner rush, mainly just some stragglers. A couple people who just got off work and decided to stop by. Some business people were doing something, well, shady in one corner of the restaraunt. 

She pulled some papers out of her apron and sighed. Her parents had actually filed a civil suit against her for the 3,000 dollars. It wasn't something she was surprised to have to deal with, she knew it was going to come back to bite her in the *ss. It would have been nice if karma would eventually bite them in her *ss. Instead, she had lost her apartment, her roommate died, she was sleeping on a couch, and she was a freaking waitress. How could life get any better? There was a lot going on, but she was trying to be optimistic -  she was starting college in the winter, she was getting closer to Booker and learning more about Vanessa, plus her last semester of high school was going pretty well and she was almost dating a really cute guy. There was lots of good things... Despite all the crappy things.

She stared at the papers. She was named a "Defendant." Wasn't what they did to her illegal? What kind of nerve did they have coming after her, especially after she had ran away from home for literally months with no word from them. They didn't have the decency to even reach out to her about it. They literally served some stupid crap on her. She probably wouldn't even see them in the end. Did people go to court over this? She had no idea. She almost couldn't believe it, anyways. They never called. They never cared but they cared enough about 3,000 dollars to try to fight to get it back. Couldn't they leave well enough alone? Better yet, how in the world was she suppose to afford a lawyer to fight on her behalf? She didn't understand any of this legal jargon crap. 

She rubbed her face and glanced across the Wallflower Diner with a deep sigh. It was a cute diner, for sure, but she was growing to hate working there. She really hated the customers. At least, most of them now. They seemed to continually try to get on her nerves, bug her, be general jerkholes. She was sick of them. Maybe it was just a bad day, though. Maybe she'd be happier, go lucky again tomorrow. But right now, she was sulking. She was pissed, she was angry, and she really wanted to go burn her parents house down. She wished she had a way to counter sue all the lost hopes and dreams that they did to her, but that was... Impossible. She didn't even know how she was going to pay 3,000 dollars to them. She didn't have any money, especially not now that she was practically homeless. Hopefully, she'd be able to move into Xavier's soon, but that wasn't ready yet. 

She stared at the door, waiting for the next customer to come in. At least it was slow, though. She was able to at least think and sulk about the crappy stuff going on in her life. 

(OOC: Ion )

Ion needed somewhere to sit and work, that wasn’t work. He had papers to go through and needed a change of scenery. Having been at work since early o’clock he felt going out for a bite would suffice. To that end, Ion loaded his documents into his briefcase and headed out of the building. He left his suit jacket behind. He looked in places as he walked, he was looking for somewhere that would have tolerable food and not be too busy. He was not about to wait to be seated.

The Wallflower Diner. As Ion walked past the windows he looked in. It wasn’t busy and it looked nice enough inside. A quaint little retro diner. It was good enough. He went inside.

As he had seen through the windows, it was not busy and it was clean. A tall, for a woman, blonde waitress stood watching the door. Ion gave her a smile (always be nice to the people who handle your food) before he took a booth to himself. Somewhere he could spread out some of his papers and still have room to eat.

Ion rolled up his sleeves and took a look at the menu. Nothing stood out to him as what he should order. He’d ask the waitress what she would suggest.

Celeste sighed as she stared at the papers, unsure about what to really do. She couldn't go to jail with this, hopefully. Maybe they could trash her credit score? Ugh. Why did she have to deal with this? Maybe she would be fine with a trashy credit score for a while. It'd eventually pop off, right? H*ll, how did they even know where she worked? 

Her attention was grabbed by a man who walked in, gave her a smile, and went over to a booth. She folded it in a way, entirely accidentally, that the large 'defendant' word were sticking out of the apron. She gave a returned, weak smile as she slipped the papers into her apron. She walked over to him and gave him a warm, sad smile, "Good evening, my name is Celestina, I'll be your waitress tonight." Could she really keep saying for the rest of her life? She was growing to dread it more and more every day. 

With another smile, "What can I get you to drink? We have water, Coca-Cola products, tea, orange juice..." She pulled her receipt booklet out and her pen as she prepared to write down his order. Once she got his drink, it was time for the usual attempt at up sell, "Any appetizers? We got some really good onion rings, if they're your thing."

The waitress Ion had smiled at came to his table. She smiled a smile that told Ion she was dealing with something before introducing herself as Celestina. The reason for the sadness in her smile was not hard to see. She had a summons poking out of her apron. Which was curious, the woman looked around eighteen or so. What could a young waitress have done that would have her served? More than likely it was small claims.

”Evening.” He said in reply.

Celestina then asked what he would like, listing off drink options and asking if he would like an appetizer.

”I’ll have tea. Sweet. And no appetizers.” He looked back at the menu before adding. ”In your opinion what’s the best thing on the menu, Celestina?”

The man seemed educated. He didn’t really seem like the kinda guy who would come into a retro diner, though. Maybe he was looking for something different? Granted, they did have some fancy people show up every now and then. Sometimes they were nice, sometimes they weren’t. 

She nodded and wrote down sweet tea on her list, “My favorite? Hm, I love the grilled swiss and mushroom burger. I usually substitute the fries for the onion rings, honestly. And the Oreo milkshake is pretty good if you’re interested in a desert at all.” The onion rings were a lot better than their fries. Plus, they didn’t charge if you switched. 

She waited for a moment for him to decide, “I can go get your drink and come back if you need more time.” 

Grilled swiss and mushroom burger with onion rings? Quite greasy but he was in a diner. What else was there? Ion looked at the menu and pursed his lips considering. The Oreo milkshake was certainly out.

“I can go get your drink and come back if you need more time.”

”No need.” Ion said as he closed and set down the menu. “I’ll have the burger. With the onion rings.”

His eyes snapped for a moment to the summons the girl had. The firm was on him about taking a pro bono case. Something to satisfy the bar maybe get some publicity. Bit shot firm helping a poor waitress could be good for something. He made a note to ask her about it after he had eaten and gone over his current case some.

She waited patiently as the man decided his dinner. She wasn't in a rush - she had a lot of things on her mind anyways. It was only a second later that he told her that he wanted the burger with the onion rings. He was taking her choice. She nodded, "Alrighty. It shouldn't be too long. I'll be back in a couple minutes." She waved and went over to provide the kitchen with his order. 

It was about 15 minutes later when she returned with his meal and she smiled, putting it on the table in front of him, "Careful, it's hot." She smiled as she brushed her hands on her apron. "Is there anything else I can get you?" 

Ion’s order taken Celestina left. While he waited for his food, Ion pulled several documents out and reviewed them. It wasn’t an overly complicated case, just one with many small details to keep in order. It was like being back in school. Memorize all the facts to regurgitate on the test and then let them float away. In their time lawyers come to know many things, in a career a lawyer might forget more about an industry than most actual employees there ever know.

When Ion heard the Celestina approach he looked up from his documents. He saw she had his food and quickly whisked them away into his briefcase. The waitress set his order on the table while informing him it was hot. Ion gave a, ”Thank you.” as she set the food down. When she asked him if there was anything else he thought for a moment before putting his napkin in his lap and replying, ”No thank you, this should be enough.” Ion paused a moment before holding up a hand to keep her from walking away. ”Actually, there is one thing. If it isn’t too much of an intrusion. The document in your apron. What’s the story?”

Celeste had a lot on her mind that day. With everything else going on, she really wasn't prepared to deal with a court case because of her parents douchebaggyness. She knew she would have to deal with it, but how? She needed to find a lawyer - despite the fact that she barely had any money.

After she had dropped off his food, she did the usual questions. He said no, as usual, so she turned to leave to go do other waitressy things. However, she noticed his hand go up before she fully turned and perked a brow. He asked about the document in her apron. Her eyes widened a little bit. She didn't think anyone would notice (or that it was so obvious out there.) She bit her lip for a moment, debating on what to say.

After a couple seconds, she sighed. "It's kind of a long story... Well, it isn't but it is." It came out as more of a 'are you sure you really want to listen to this' kind of question than a statement. Maybe he would have some suggestions, but she first needed to see if he really wanted to actually listen to the situation. "It involves mutants, sh*tty parents, and a runaway girl," she muttered under her breath. Huh... Maybe it wasn't so long.

A long story that wasn’t and involved mutants, parents of the year, and a runaway. It sounded like the makings of a pro bono case right up Ion’s alley. Small claim, involved mutants, and had positive publicity written all over it. While the state required pro bono work the firm of Roark and Rearden requested their attorneys do only work that could help the image of the company without complicating matters for their large clients.

”I’d love to hear it. If you have a moment.” Ion gestured to the seat across from him, ”Maybe I can help.” He said smiling to her.

He wanted to hear it. He even offered to help. She hesitated for a moment - he was a random stranger, who probably was a lawyer of some sorts. At least, based off the stuff he had laid out in front of him.

She looked back towards the other people in the small diner and nearly huffed. They'd have to finally do some work, maybe.

With that, she took a seat across from him. It was going to be awkward telling him all of this, but he did ask to hear it. She fiddled with her hands on the table, "So... I'll try to keep it simple and short. But um, my parents hate mutants. A lot." She looked up at him and shrugged a little, "I mean, you know how the story goes. They had another kid to replace me, basically ignored me besides doing enough to make sure they wouldn't go to jail for starving me, that kinda stuff." She looked down, "So, when I ran away, I stole about 2,000 bucks to help me get here." She wasn't proud of doing it, but she did it to survive. She had to get away somehow. "Um, anyways, they haven't even tried calling, checking in on me, and then I got this... Thingy this morning."

She took it out of her apron and handed it towards him so he could take a look. It was basically a small courts summons - they wanted their 2,000 dollars back. She sighed, "I'm just trying to save money for school. They didn't do anything for me most of my life, and then instead of actually even checking in on me, they just sue me? I guess it's being sued, anyways." Sh*tty parents. Heck, she wasn't even sure if she wanted to even give them the respect of being called parents.

Celestina wavered for a moment. A look back before she sat. Ion took a drink before she started into the story. It was a story that was all too common. Parents have kid, kid is mutant, parents try again for what to them is a real child. The twist was she stole some money on the way out when she ran away and were suing her for it. Celestina also produced the document. Ion took it and gave it a quick once over. Notice of Claim for two grand. It had the court date and all the necessary information for Celestina to know where to go and when. There was even a nice note informing her she did not require an attorney. How cute.

Ion handed the document back to Celestina. ”How long ago did you run away and how old were you at the time?” Ion took hold of his burger before adding to his questions, ”At any time did you parents ever discuss the possibility of paying for school or indicate any type of fund or money set aside for you? Even in jest.” That asked he took a bite.

He didn’t think they would have, but he needed to cover the basics.

She felt weird explaining her story to a stranger who was technically her customer. So much for a tip. In either case, maybe he would be able to help her. It'd be a blessing in disguise, but hopefully something could be done. She bit her nail as he read over the document. She didn't really understand all the legal mumbo jumbo, so she was grateful to have someone who was educated in the matters read it over. Even if he refused to help, maybe he'd at least give her some tips on what to do.

He began asking her questions. "It was early summer of last year. I was 17 when I ran away." Still a minor. That probably wouldn't look good. But they did take the powers out on her after she was 18 and they didn't even bother to call her, file a police report for a missing kid, when she was 17. That had to count for something. Maybe. She had no idea.

She shook her head, "I mean, if you want to count when I was a kid. They'd talk about getting me ready for college, but after my mutation revealed itself? Nothing. It all became about Isabel, my sister."

Early summer of the previous year. So this was still recent but before age of majority. Her parents had discussed getting her ready for college but never discussed the financial side. That all but eliminated promissory estoppel. Still not a bad avenue to explore.

Ion chewed his food, thinking. She fled while a minor, took two-thousand dollars, had no specific guarantee for money for college, and they were anti-mutant. Society had come a long way from the days of the Mutant Registration Act. Erickson v. California was one heck of a turning point.

After swallowing and then washing down the bite, Ion asked, ”Did they ever say they would not pay for college or any secondary education of any kind? After your mutation was revealed or otherwise.” Then changing gears Ion asked another question, ”Did you ever admit to taking the money, other than to me? Do they have any way of proving it was you specifically that took the money?”

She fiddled with her thumbs as she waited for him finish thinking. She mainly kept her eyes towards the door and to see if the other waiters & waitresses would actually take those orders.

She shook her head, "No. My father tried to adjust, but he ended up being like my mother. Avoided me, didn't talk to me." She shrugged a little. They basically ignored her. Fed her 2 meals a day and barely ever acknowledged.

She took a deep breath. She shook her head, "No one up there, anyways. I've told a teacher and my boyfriend, but not really anyone else." She thought for a moment, "I don't think they would."