* * *
I love my new best friend. Hanging with her is better than attending orientation. We’re learning some interesting facts about Unitas University in our first year class, but Honey knows all sorts of extra facts about the university’s history and the four mafia families that helped found it. And she has a key that will unlock any door in the school. “All doors but one.”
After she told me about her night of horrors with the lacrosse team, she didn’t want to talk about it anymore. So I didn’t bring it up again. Better to keep her out of my plan for payback so less suspicion falls on her.
Which is why, when I return to campus on Saturday, I go alone. I’m carrying a big basket full of a special surprise for Penn and Radley and all their friends. I also dressed in a sexy cheerleader outfit with heavy makeup to disguise my face. Plus, I added streaks of pink to my hair to match my pink and black pom poms and put it up in high pigtails on either side of my head.
I look like I’m ready for Halloween, several months early. And a bit deranged.
YOLO!
The point is, no one will recognize me.
Supervillain Rule #1: Your best offense is a good disguise.
Anonymity is a weapon. Anyone who’s suffered second-degree burns after mistaking a giant hogweed flower for Queen Anne’s lace knows this. Nature hides the deadliest poison in the prettiest bloom.
I’m almost to the sports dorm where the lacrosse team lives when I sense someone following me. I turn, and no one’s there. But I can feel myself being watched.
Weird. Maybe I’m just being paranoid. I am about to enact an evil plan. It’s good to be wary, but I don’t think the lacrosse team has any idea what’s coming.
“Mwahahahaah,” I try out my evil laugh. It needs work.
I still feel someone watching me when I reach the sports dorm, but I ignore the sensation and focus on the two guys loitering by the door. Their eyes widen as they take in my costume. “Hey,” one says while his friend checks out my boobs. “You here for the party?”
“Yes,” I lie.
“You’re a little early.”
I hold up my heavy basket. “I have these gifts from the athletic department.”
Snacks and an energy drink with a special surprise. “Good luck at your big game tomorrow!” I give them each their gift and thank them when they hold open the door for me. “See you at the party!”
“Should we tell her it’s not a costume party?” one asks, and the other shushes him and says something crude about how my pigtails would make great handholds.
I smile to myself and continue down the hall. Two players down, eighteen to go. By Sunday, I’ll be that much closer to unlocking supervillain status.
And the lacrosse team will learn to never fuck with my friend ever again.
3
Kaiser
* * *
It was a simple job: shadow the Poisoner’s daughter. Monitor her every move. Don’t engage, unless one of the Poisoner’s enemies tries to harm her. Then, protect the asset.
It should’ve been easy. She’s eighteen and freshly enrolled in Unitas University.
Sure, her father has powerful enemies, but none of them have made a move yet.
It’s a piece of cake to stalk someone who isn’t expecting it. Most people live comfortable lives. They never had to sleep with one eye open in case someone tried to stab them in their sleep. They move through life, oblivious.
This girl is more oblivious than most. She hasn’t just been sheltered and protected for most of her life; she’s been kept in a bubble. Locked down. She’s been homeschooled for years and barely has any friends. Barely any contact with anyone other than her father. And now she’s living in a big house near campus, all alone.
She thinks she has more freedom, but it’s an illusion.
I’m watching her. Following her from home to campus and back again. I’ve been doing it since the spring.
