LEGENDS OF THE STONE
KittyKat: behind you
[]Sythlight: thx
MEGAdawn has logged on.
MEGAdawn: LOTSCON IS GOING TO BE IN TORONTO IN MARCH
[]Sythlight: Seriously? Sweet. I’ll have to get tickets.
KittyKat: that’s cool
[]Sythlight has entered the waterlands.
MEGAdawn: LUMBERLEGS IS GOING TO BE ON THE SAME GROUND IN THE SAME COUNTRY AS ME
KittyKat has entered the waterlands.
KittyKat: hey Meg, as long as you’re on, we should talk about our project.
MEGAdawn: CAN’T TALK NOW TOO EXCITED
MEGAdawn: THIS IS SUCH A GREAT WEEKEND
KittyKat: we need to soon
MEGAdawn: gah look we can talk about it at school then you can come over on Friday and we’ll work on it then
MEGAdawn: just
MEGAdawn: be sure to show up before 6
MEGAdawn: or after
MEGAdawn: just not at 6
MEGAdawn: stupid jerkface will be here
KittyKat: ok
MEGAdawn: ugh, now jerkface has made me grumpy
[]Sythlight: HEY MEG, DID YOU HEAR LOTSCON’S GOING TO BE IN TORONTO?
[]Sythlight has entered the greenlands.
MEGAdawn: OMG WHAT? THAT’S AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
KittyKat: you guys are ridiculous. I’m logging off now.
KittyKat: bye
[]Sythlight: bye :)
KittyKat has logged off.
MEGAdawn: you going to go?
[]Sythlight: For sure. You thinking of flying out here for it?
MEGAdawn: I will hijack a plane if I have to.
[]Sythlight: She’s just kidding, NSA.
MEGAdawn: um right. plane hijacking is a bad idea. but we’ll find a way.
MEGAdawn: there’s no way we’re missing out
[]Sythlight: Well, I hope you do come. Both of you.
MEGAdawn: oh don’t you worry, we will. both of us.
KAT
AT LUNCH ON MONDAY, MEG MEETS ME AT MY LOCKER AS ALWAYS. “OKAY,” I say, “so I’ve been thinking about our project—”
“Hang on—that’s what you want to talk about after the most epic weekend ever? Why aren’t we talking about LotSCON? Aren’t you going to ask me about my date?”
I blink at her. “You told me about your date all weekend.”
She leans against the locker beside mine. “That wasn’t in person, though.”
“Fine. How was your date?”
She grins. “Glorious. Now come meet Grayson.” She slams my locker door, grabs the lock out of my hand, and snaps it shut.
Here’s the thing: we can’t avoid our science project forever. I can’t avoid testing people forever.
But here’s the other thing: I do want to meet Grayson. Even though it makes my stomach twist. “Okay, but then we should go work on our project.”
She scowls. “No way. You know how I feel about homework at lunch. We’re eating with Grayson and his posse.”
My stomach twists even further. It must be facing back to front.
Meg’s expression softens. “Look, we can eat in the stairwell instead of in the caf. Then you won’t have to be so on edge.”
I’m already on edge. We started a group project today in Ancient Civilizations, and Mr. Bates put me with these two guys, Eric and Sunil, who I’ve never spoken to in my life, and who only ever seem to talk about hockey. They want to write about the impact of the Neolithic Revolution, and I don’t even know if they can spell “Neolithic.” Or “Revolution,” for that matter.
One paleontologist . . . two spelling . . . three strangers . . .
“It’s just—our project—we really should—”
“Dude, what’s going to happen if we wait until tomorrow? It’s not like the entire universe is going to implode or get mad at us or something.”
“It might.”
“Yeah, well, some days the universe is just wrong. Besides, you’re coming over on Friday. We’ll get a ton done then. Now come on.” She loops her arm through mine, then pivots us around toward the back stairwell.
I sigh, giving in. “Will Grayson know to meet us out here?”
She stops abruptly. “Good point. I’ll text him.” She grabs her phone from her pocket and taps a quick message with her arm still looped through mine. Then she slips the phone away and drags us off down the hall, where we drop our backpacks in the corner of the stairwell and sit cross-legged on the beige concrete floor.
Meg starts babbling immediately about LotSCON and all the events they’ve announced. I’m not sure why she’s so excited, since it’s across the country and there’s no way we’ll be going. At least, I definitely won’t. I don’t do planes. But I guess it is kind of cool to have something so big happening in Canada. We get passed over so often.
I’ve just pulled out my lunch when the guy Meg’s pointed out to me in the cafeteria a few times peeks over the banister, then grins and waves at Meg. “It’s this one,” Grayson shouts over his broad, bony shoulder as he comes down the rest of the stairs. His boxers peek out of the top of his pants, just like Meg said—patterned with little skulls and crossbones.
Meg leaps to her feet and bounces over to him and kisses him. On the lips. Right there in the stairwell. This guy she barely even knew a week ago. They beam at each other.
A big, teddy-bear-like guy appears behind them at the bottom of the stairs, and it suddenly feels awkward to be sitting when they’re all standing, so I clamber to my feet and stumble over.
One first kiss . . . two pirates . . .
“Grayson, this is Kat. Kat, Grayson.” Meg wiggles her hips and shoulders in an excited little half dance.
Shaking hands would be weird, so I shove my hands in my pockets and nod at him.
“Hey.” He smiles pleasantly at Meg, then at me, and then gestures at the guy behind them. “This is my buddy Roman. The other guys already went to the caf.”
“Hi,” teddy-bear-Roman says, then nods at us. Then we’re all nodding at one another like some sort of bobblehead convention.
Five bobblehead . . . six eternity . . .
Grayson pulls a deck of cards out of his backpack. “You guys want to play euchre?”
“Yes,” I say immediately. A little too eagerly, maybe, but playing cards means we don’t have to talk. Playing cards means that if eating lunch with Grayson and his bobblehead friend turns into a regular occurrence—which I suspect it will—I might actually be able to survive it.
“Great.” Grayson sits down in the corner of the stairwell and, as we join him, starts to shuffle and deal out the cards, all without saying another word.
I like him already.
MEG
SOMETIMES KAT AND I DO OUR HOMEWORK TOGETHER AFTER SCHOOL, BUT we spent all our after-school time this week finishing up the questionnaire for our science project and didn’t get to any of the other stuff. Which, I know, I know, is my own fault, since I refused to work on it during our lunch periods—a rule that I stand especially firm on now that Grayson and his buddies have been eating lunch with us. Alas, it does mean that now I’m stuck doing my math homework all on my own.
I wouldn’t even bother, except that my snitch of a math teacher, Mrs. Brown, called Mom and told her that I’m failing math and that it’s because I’m not doing my homework, and Mom told me I’m grounded if I don’t start doing it.
So I settle in at the kitchen table, all by my lonesome, and give my textbook a death glare. When it doesn’t disappear in a puff of smoke, I groan and drag the bloody thing across the table toward me so it’s right in front of my face. Then I flip to the page I have listed as homework in my planner. Graphs. Tiny little graphs. An entire page of them. I groan again.
“Calculate the slope,” the page demands.
A blur of black—a bird—swoops by the kitchen window. Probably forgot to set his alarm to head south for the winter. Kenzie’s pitchy squawking floats up the stairs. She’s singing along with the obnoxious melody of her show. If you can call it singing along when she clearly doesn’t know the words. Or the melody.
“I’m not stupid,” I mumble to myself. “I can do this.” Except what does “slope” even mean? I flip through my notes and find the definition a couple of pages back, wedged between a meaningless graph and a doodle of a cat. I can draw pretty adorable cats.
“Slope = rise over run,” my notes report. Great. Now what the hell is “rise” and what the hell is “run”?
I scan my notes again. Nothing. I’d call Kat, but she texted me that she was going to play a game of chess with Granddad, and I don’t want to interrupt his favorite game.
Kenzie is dancing now. I can tell from the way her voice has gone breathless. And how she keeps yelling, “Head bang!” in between lyrics about three little kittens.
I can’t even find the page now where it said that thing about slope.
Screw this.
I shove back my chair, skip down the stairs, and join Kenzie in a dance-off of epic proportions.
LEGENDS OF THE STONE
KittyKat has logged on.
MEGAdawn has logged on.
MEGAdawn: we’re doing a rift run. ne1 else in?
Moriah: sure
<>Pterion: sry about to log off
HereAfter: I’m in
[]Sythlight: Me too. Which one?
KittyKat: there’s a new one near my castle. on shore.
HereAfter: The water castle, right? I saw that rift. It’s big. Maybe we should VoiceChat.
MEGAdawn has entered the waterlands.
MEGAdawn: sure
[]Sythlight: Kitty doesn’t have a mic.
KittyKat: no mic, remember
<>Pterion has logged off.
MEGAdawn: want me to bring you one?
[]Sythlight: We can make do with typing.
HereAfter: Moriah and I are already voicechatting, but typing is fine.
Private Message from KittyKat to MEGAdawn:
KittyKat: I actually do have a mic
MEGAdawn: oh
MEGAdawn: wait so are you mad at syth or something?
[]Sythlight has entered the waterlands.
[]Sythlight: Ready whenever.
Moriah: we’re on our way
KittyKat: just need to organize my stuff
Private Message from KittyKat to MEGAdawn:
KittyKat: no not mad
MEGAdawn: ur scared?
KittyKat: not scared. I just don’t talk to strangers.
MEGAdawn: right
MEGAdawn: you don’t have to marry him you know. it’s just VoiceChat
KittyKat: I thought you said I should marry him
MEGAdawn: ha I knew you liked him
KittyKat: THAT’S NOT WHAT I WAS SAYING
[]Sythlight was slain by a wingling.
[]Sythlight: So there are winglings in the rift. Bring a good helmet.
KittyKat: ha ha
MEGAdawn: rofl you went in without us?
HereAfter: lol
Private Message from MEGAdawn to KittyKat:
MEGAdawn: it’s just syth
KittyKat: and hereafter and moriah. it’s not just about syth
KittyKat: maybe next time
MEGAdawn: fine
[]Sythlight: Just wanted a peek.
[]Sythlight: I’m almost back.
[]Sythlight has entered the waterlands.
KittyKat: I got your stuff
[]Sythlight: Thanks
Moriah has entered the waterlands.
HereAfter has entered the waterlands.
MEGAdawn: HI!
Moriah: hi
HereAfter: hey
MEGAdawn: all right let’s do this
[]Sythlight: To the rift!
MEGAdawn: to the rift!!!