Ghost had told me the other day that he’d refused to join The Mission because he felt like it went against his beliefs in Mother Miriam. The guards were purposefully targeting people who weren’t in The Mission and punishing them by forcing them to join anyway.
“Let’s get out of here,” I told Charlie. I didn’t want to get dragged down to The Mission office and forced to sign up against my will.
We met up with Kallie and Chancey near the double doors, who high-fived each other as we approached.
“Good game!” I called out. “You made Mad Dog’s team eat dirt.”
“That was the plan,” Kallie replied with a snicker.
“It was almost too easy. What a bunch of chumps,” Chancey said with glee.
“Bet it was easy to win, with Marcus cheering you on,” Charlie teased.
“If he wasn’t too distracting,” I grumbled. I was still too mad at him to joke around.
“He’s bulked up since he started working out with you and joined the cheerleading team,” Kallie said in appreciation. “He’s actually got some pretty big muscles.”
I hadn’t really been paying attention, since I’d always considered Marcus kind of a skinny guy, but on second thought, I guess hedidlook more muscular. “I bet they feel nice.”
“Oh, theydo.” Kallie smiled. “Trust me.”
“All right, enough of that crap. We gotta hit the showers,” Chancey said. “You guys wanna come to a party tonight in the Villain’s Den to celebrate?”
“Wish we could, but Kallie and I have to finish up my project for Criminal Justice,” Charlie said reluctantly. “Unlike you, I still haven’t turned in my profile.”
Chancey laughed loudly. “Bet that’s the first time I’ve ever beaten you on homework.”
“It’s never happening again,” Charlie deadpanned.
“If you weren’t such a perfectionist it’d be turned in already. I was perfectly happy with a C minus,” Chancey drawled.
“I want to do itright,” Charlie grumbled. “I already had to lie to get Professor Jobe to give me an extension.”
“Yeah, that was pretty funny.” Chancey snickered, and did an impression of Charlie. “I’ve got all the info. I just need help typing it up. I can't do it, because, you know,I'm blind.”
“I don’t sound like that, jackass.” Charlie scowled. “And for the record, I can use a computer, but Professor Jobe doesn’t need to know that.”
“We really do need to finish that profile. It was due over a week ago. Sorry, Chancey,” Kallie replied.
“Aw, come on. Semester’s over, and you’re our star girl!” Chancey said, slinging an arm around Kallie’s shoulder. “You can’t turn down a reason to celebrate!”
“Charlie’s right, I promised I’d help him,” Kallie said. “Butnext timewe win, that party is definitely happening.”
We split up, and I went back to our cell with Charlie to grab the materials we needed to complete the criminal profile. On our way to the library, we passed Professor Warbright, who waved us over.
“Ah, Mister and Mrs. Wahkin, I’m so glad I found you,” Warbright said cheerfully. “I’m putting together a little summer music group for some of my best students, and I want you and your friends to join. You were all so wonderful this semester, and I think we should keep the fun going. I’d like to have our first practice, say, tomorrow after Work-Study hours?”
“We’d love to, Professor,” Charlie responded. “We’ll definitely be there.”
“Excellent.” Warbright gave us a wide smile. “See you then!”
My spirits lifted. I was glad Warbright was giving us a reason to continue our music lessons. I hadn’t uploaded anything to my vlog all semester, but I had some ideas rattling around in my head. Maybe we’d get some time during the summer music group to make new songs.
When we got to the library, Marcus was already waiting for us. Neither one of us needed to be here, but Charlie had asked us to look over his and Kallie’s work before he turned the profile in, just in case there was something they’d missed.
I didn’t need to talk to him. I rolled down an aisle and pretended to be engrossed in books about incurable fungal growths. Marcus acted like my sudden interest in magical mushrooms was completely normal and conjured a cat toy for Rishi to play with.
Thankfully, Kallie showed up right after that, so it felt a little less awkward. Oberi changed into a phoenix and sat on the back of my chair, preening her feathers.
