Convergence - The Last Science #2.1 - In Plain Sight

B2: Chapter 16 - Rebirth - IV

  "Man, you gotta drag me out to the library on a Sunday?" Mitch groaned loudly as he walked up.

  Kelsey smacked him on the head. "He said it's an emergency, didn't he? Code red or whatever?"

  "We've only called a code red twice before," said Steven. "Both of those were pretty serious."

  As they rounded the corner of the stacks, Natalie was still staring determinedly at a space on the bookshelf behind Quinn. Since they came from her side, none of them could see the bandage yet.

  "So what's going on?" Mitch asked as he slid onto the chair next to Quinn. "You two get in a fiiiiiiiiiioly shit."

  "What?" Kelsey asked, coming around to their side of the table. Once glance at Natalie and her mouth fell open too. "Jenny, what happened?"

  Natalie shook her head, still unwilling to answer. To her relief, Quinn spoke up. "She got hurt. Huddle up. Steven, make sure no one's nearby."

  Steven nodded and went out to check. Kelsey and Mitch gathered in close, sitting three across from her. As soon as Steven returned, he took the last spot on the opposite side.

  "Where's Tyler?" Quinn asked.

  "He's got some church thing with his parents all day," said Mitch.

  "Okay." Quinn glanced at Natalie. "So you guys obviously noticed something happened."

  "No shit," said Mitch. "Jenny ditched school Friday and apparently got her face beat in? That's definitely something." He glanced at her apologetically. "Are you okay?"

  Natalie nodded. "It doesn't hurt much."

  "Yeah but... are you okay?"

  She was surprised. Mitch wasn't usually the sensitive type. "I think so," she lied.

  "This is the biggest code red we've ever had," Quinn added. "I mean this is serious, really serious. So when we tell you this, it's not a joke. We're not just having fun."

  "Dude, I take everything you say seriously."

  Steven rolled his eyes. "Mitch, stop talking."

  "What's going on? What's a code red?" asked Kelsey.

  "Something the whole group's gotta deal with together. A threat to one of our members." Quinn glanced at Mitch. "Last time it was Steven's older brother."

  "Your brother?"

  "He's an asshole and wanted Steven to help him with a drug thing," answered Mitch. "We blackmailed him."

  "Wow."

  "When we've got a code red," Quinn went on, "everything is one hundred percent confidential. Anything we have to do is totally secret for life. Not a word to anyone outside the group." He nodded at Kelsey. "Since we've got two new members, I thought you should know how serious we take this."

  "No kiddin'," said Kelsey. "I get it. Totally secret. I swear on my life. Hope to die and yeah."

  "Okay." Quinn glanced at Natalie. "Do you want to tell them, or me?"

  Natalie shook her head. "I can tell them."

  "Is this about you being in witness protection?" asked Steven.

  "I'm not in witness protection." Natalie took a deep breath. "Me and Lily are hiding from everyone, including the government. Because we can do magic."

  Before any of them could express doubt, she held out her hand in the center of the table, palm up. A flicker of candlelight appeared in midair above it. She watched their reactions. Despite everything, there was always a little trickle of fear in her mind that the day would come when someone found out her secret and reacted like the people of Rallsburg did. That they'd call her a monster and try to kill her.

  Steven frowned, almost like he doubted what he was seeing. Mitch just looked surprised. Kelsey was excited, and the first to speak up. "Badass! What else can you do?"

  Natalie smiled. She'd really hoped Kelsey would like it. Leaving the fireball in midair, she had it rapidly change colors, before flying it in circles around her head a few times. It returned to the center of the table and vanished in a puff of smoke that she conjured up deliberately. A moment later, just as Kelsey opened her mouth to say something else, Natalie picked a book at random off the shelf behind her and floated it onto the table, where it landed with a thump.

  "Whoah," Steven murmured.

  "There's a lot of other stuff too," Natalie added. If nothing else, she still felt a bit of joy from magic every time she used it.

  "So that's how you flipped Bill on the first day of school," said Kelsey. "Can you like, make yourself super strong?"

  "Yeah."

  "Awesome."

  "Big deal," grumbled Mitch. "I can flip him over too."

  "What's the code red part of this?" Steven asked, glancing at Quinn.

  "If anyone finds out who she is or what she can do, she's done for," he explained.

  "I can't always control it," Natalie muttered. "Sometimes it just gets out."

  "So we gotta help cover for her. And before you ask, no, you can't learn how to do it," he added. "It doesn't work like that."

  "Aww," said Kelsey, her face falling.

  A cat peeked his head around the corner of the stacks to their little alcove, looking at Natalie. The same cat she'd befriended at the school, in fact. She was surprised he'd wandered this far away from his home. He meowed once and jerked his head to the side before wandering away again.

  "Someone's coming," she hissed.

  "...You can talk to cats?" Mitch asked sarcastically.

  "Yes."

  Sure enough, the library cart rolled past a moment later, pushed by one of the employees. The young man pushing it didn't give them a second glance, just put a book on the shelf before moving on. As soon as he was out of earshot.

  "The principal's already suspicious," Quinn continued in a lower voice. "Jenny's probably gonna get called into the office on Monday since she left school early and burned a desk."

  "That was my desk by the way," Kelsey added. "You left a big mark all over my armrest."

  "Sorry?"

  She laughed. "Nah, it's not a big deal. They'll probably just throw it out."

  "It's our job from here out to help cover for Jenny with the principal and the teachers, whenever anything happens," said Quinn. "So tomorrow, you guys are gonna have to be ready. When Jenny gets called in, we gotta have a story ready to go, and a signal."