“Goodnight, Emerson.”
“Goodnight, Marcus.”
I decided to walk home because I didn’t feel like an angel. And I didn’t feel pure or close to Omnis.
When I get home, I find Ameana standing out front. She was wearing a long trendy black jacket and scarf. I walk right past her and up the stairs. Once in the house, I walk past her room and go right to mine. I shut the door.
From the window I can see her standing out front. She turns around and sees me. We stare at each other silently. A few hours ago we leaped across oceans. Now, only a few yards apart, the distance seems too great to cross.
*****
The house was quiet in the morning. Reese and Jay weren’t having their usual banter. Miku and Rio weren’t fighting to ride shotgun in the car. Ameana hadn’t said a word to anyone. I left the house before them. I wasn’t going to give them a chance to ask a bunch of questions. Although I honestly don’t think they would have asked questions. Everyone pretty much let things be.
When I got to school I remembered that this weekend was Triweekend. Triweekend is a three-day celebration commemorating the birth of the council. It is the only holiday we have. Both sides are forbidden to attack each other for the next three days. It is supposed to be a time to reflect on the balance of good and evil. It is a time when we should be thanking Omnis for making up the council. Instead, we make it a party weekend. All weekend.
I see Jay and Reese in the hallway and call out to them.
“Hey, what you doing Triweekend?” I ask.
“Me and Reese are trying to figure out a good hiding spot for when Ameana finally loses it and somehow blows us all up,” Jay says.
“Yeah, I’m thinking it might be best to stay out of the house completely until the end of World War III,” Reese adds.
“Forget about that for now. I was thinking we’d play some Runner Ball,” I say.
“Hell yeah! When?” Jay asks.
“Let’s blow off the rest of the day.”
“Emmy has class. We can’t let her grades drop because of us,” Reese says sensibly.
“Alright, as soon as class is over, we’ll go look for a game,” I say.
“I heard the Paras are coming down here this weekend,” Jay says.
“No, way. They’d never come in a six-six-six year,” I say.
“I broke a Splash and they said it might be happening.”
“Since when did you start breaking Splashes?”
“You kidding? Some of the stuff they got in there is hilarious, man,” Jay replies.
“Did you read the one about the angel with the edible wings? That was crazy!” Reese adds.
“None of that stuff is true. You guys know that.”
“Yeah, that’s why it’s fun. You can’t take that stuff seriously. Except for the one article that called me sexy, that’s real talk.”
“Whatever,” Reese says, rolling his eyes.
“Look, we on for after school, right?” I ask.
“Yeah, are the girls coming?” Jay asks.
“Anybody who wants to can come,” I say.
“When are you gonna fix things?” Reese asks.
“Look, man, I did everything I could. I told Emmy I was with Mimi and that I wasn’t going to be with her. What else am I supposed to do? Ameana had no right to do what she did. I had to take her wings away.”
“When are you gonna give them back to her?” Jay wonders.
“When she starts acting like an angel and not like a jealous school girl.”
“So, you think she was the only one out of line?” Reese asks.
“No, Emmy was, too, but she doesn’t have any powers for me to take away, now does she?”
“Whatever you do, do it fast. The tension in the house is deep. A man can’t concentrate enough to get any cooking done,” Jay jokes.
“Let’s just go play ball, okay?”
“So rather than dealing with the many problems we have encountered, you’d rather go play Runner Ball like a juvenile delinquent?” Reese asks.
“Yeah.”
“I’m in.”
“I bet we could get in some Diving, too,” Jay adds.
“Hell, yeah. Tell the others when you see them,” I say, heading off to class.
I meet up with Rio in the lab. I ask him about playing Runner Ball after school.
“You really think that’s gonna help your problems?” he asks.
“Why can’t you just be cool and say yes?”
“I just think you need to figure some stuff out.”
“What do you think I should do?”
“That’s not for me to say.”
“That’s bull. You’re standing there like you are the freaking Sage and you’re judging me. If you are so much smarter than I am, tell me what to do.”
“First off, you shouldn’t be rolling Runners up in a ball and kicking them around like a damn school kid. Then maybe you can be a man about it and just tell Ameana that you want your Rah back.”
“Why are you so concerned about my girlfriend?”
“Well, someone should be. Now that you’ve stripped her of her powers, what is she supposed to do if they attack her?”
“It’s Triweekend. No one is going to attack anyone.”
“You drove her to do that, Marcus. You drove her to attack Emmy. How could you just think she would be okay with being disrespected like that?”
“I wasn’t the one who did it. I didn’t have any idea what the third condition was going to be.”
“You have to stop these games. It’s hurting her. It’s hurting both of them.”
“Rio, is there something you’d like to tell me about you and Ameana?”
“Yeah, I’m her friend. Maybe you should try that sometime.”
“Look, the guys want you to come and hang for Triweekend. You in or not?”
“No, thanks. I think I’d rather be a grown-up today. Try me tomorrow,” he says as we walk down the hall.
Just then Miku and Emmy came around the corner.
“How do you feel?” I ask Emmy.
“Okay, thanks.”
“You have to take her. I need to go recharge. I have been up all night. I need to go back in the car and get some quiet,” Miku says. Her tone was unfriendly and cool.
“Yeah, no problem,” I say.
She turns and walks down the hallway. Emmy calls out goodbye to Miku but she does not reply.
“She’s a little mad at me,” I say.
“Well, that’s something we have in common. I think she’s had it with me, too.”
“She isn’t upset with you. She’s just ticked off because I took Ameana’s wings away.”
“Did you really have to do that?”
“I had to. She injured a human who was in no way attacking her.”
“Okay, I didn’t touch her, but I could understand her being mad.”
“If you knew she was gonna be pissed, why did you do it?”
“Because you would have taken the same risk for me.”
“Emmy look—”
“Wait. I’m not asking to be with you. I’m just saying that last night I thought I would take the chance, but now I wouldn’t. It was wrong.”
“Alright, let’s just forget about it.”
“So, when are you gonna fill me in on all things angel?”
“Miku hasn’t been doing that?”
“Yeah, but I still have questions.”
“Okay, what do you need to know?”
For the rest of the day, we would meet between classes so I could answer all her questions. She wanted to know about everything. She listened carefully and asked really good questions. I was impressed with how much information she had retained.
“So, that’s the last question?” I ask.
“For now. If I think of anything else, I’ll let you know,” she says.
“We are taking off for Triweekend.”
“The council’s holiday is this weekend?”
“Yeah, supposedly the Paras are gonna be there.”
“I thought they never come down here.”
“They will for Triweekend. Or so the Splash said, but you can’t really go by them.”
“The Splash?”
Shoot. I forgot to tell her that part. And I know all too well why I did. I explained about the gossip paper and how to read it.
“That sounds so cool. Can I break one?”
“It’s really just trash, Emmy. They never get anything right. As a matter of fact, they go out of their way to get things wrong.”
“What’s the big story now?”
“I didn’t break any this week.”
“Okay, let’s go get one and break it.”
“You have class.”
“Why do I get the feeling you are trying to hide something from me?”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because you want to protect me?”
“Yes, I do.”
“C’mon, Marcus. What’s in the Splash?”
“Gossip and innuendo.”
“Tell me. You said no more keeping things from me.”
“The big story is us.”
“The Guardians?”
“And you.”
“Me?”
“Well, yeah. You’re kind of big news.”
“Cause I’m the clue?”
“The clue who kissed me.”
“How did they know about that?”
“Traveler angels are sneaky. They eavesdrop on people all the time. Anyway, just forget about it, Emmy. Soon they’ll move on to another story.”