As if being a pigeon explained a lot of nasty behavior. But in Boo’s case, the observation rang true.
“I just…don’t want to be left behind.” Her eyes welled with tears. “It happens to me all the time, and I hate it.”
“Did you get chased by a monster with someone else?”
Mini laughed, but because she was crying, it sounded like a wet hiccup. Aru scooted away a little. The last thing she wanted on her was snot. She was already covered in monster ashes.
“No,” said Mini when she had finished snort-laugh-hiccupping. “You don’t know what it’s like. You’re probably popular at school. I bet you’re good at everything….You’ve never even been to the Otherworld before and you fought Brahmasura better than me. I bet at school you don’t get called the Tattletale. And you’ve probably never shown up at a birthday party to find no one is there because they put the wrong date on your invitation….People wouldn’t avoid you.”
Aru tried not to wince. She had to admit that being a tattletale was theworstthing you could be at school. No one would tell you anything.
“Have you ever done anything you regretted?” asked Mini.
Aru didn’t meet her eyes. She could have told the truth about a lot of things. That she wasn’t popular. That shedidknow how it felt to be on the outside. That her best talent wasn’t defeating monsters…it was pretending.
For a moment, Aru even wanted to tell her the truth about what happened with the lamp. How it hadn’t been an accident at all, but something she’d done on purpose just to impress people who probably weren’t worth impressing anyway, but she couldn’t.
It felt nice to be consideredmorethan what she was for a change.
So she asked a different question. “If you could go back in time and un-tattletale on someone…would you?”
Mini looked up. “No. Dennis Connor was about to cut Matilda’s hair.”
“So? Why stick your nose into it?”
That kind of thing happened at school all the time. Aru just let it be. It wasn’t her business. Or her fight.
Mini sighed. “Matilda had to leave school last year because she got sick, and when she got chemo, she went bald. Her hair has only just started to grow back. If Dennis had cut it, she would’ve been really sad.”
“See?” said Aru. “You did a good thing. Plus, Dennis hastwofirst names. He was asking to get in trouble.”
Mini laughed.
“So you’re not a tattletale…you’re just honorable. Like a knight! Knights always rescue people.”
Mini raised her palm. The saat symbol still looked like a backward three. “What about when knights aren’t strong enough?”
“Even when they fail, they’re still knights,” said Aru. “Now come on. Boo said this was a special kind of Otherworldly Costco, and I want to see if their toilet paper floats. Maybe they have special Otherworld-Costco things like bulk bags of wishes or dragon teeth or something. We can pick some up as soon as we get that second key. What is it, again? A bite of adulthood?”
This seemed to perk up Mini. She nodded.
“Still have the first key?” asked Aru.
Mini patted her backpack. “Right here, still wrapped in your Kleenex.”
“Handkerchief.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Let’s go, Sir Mini.”
Like at every Costco Aru had been to, lots of customers were walking in and out. But here the people changed as soon as they crossed the threshold. For example, one woman pushing a cart toward the entrance looked like any woman you’d see on the street. Sensible shoes. Sensible hair. Sensible outfit.
The minute she stepped over the mat that saidWELCOME TO COSTCO,she was suddenly covered ingoldenfeathers. Like a giant bird! And her feathers were edged in flames. Little embers sparked and burned, falling onto the pavement and sputtering like a blown-out candle.
Another family was getting their receipt checked at the door before exiting. On the other side of the mat, they looked like humans from the waist up, but from the waist down they were snakes. The moment they crossed the mat, they were all human.
The snake boy winked at Mini.
