"That's it. That's just plain it." I slammed the phone down on the counter, fuming. I looked at my muted TV.
Images of my friends crowded the screen. Of course—we were all over the media nowadays—but the difference between us was striking.
The look of an old man who'd lived a thousand years had not yet left Jake's eyes. Most of the shots of Cassie showed her like she was meant to be, smiling up at the camera from her position crouching in the dirt, petting a dog or a llama or something. Rachel was smiling, always smiling, even though most of the time she looked like she wanted to kill the paparazzi, and then there was me—a little vertically challenged, but attractive in a way that made girls cheer and pass out at the sight of me.
So everything was as it should be. Except for Jake.
I mean, I can understand why the guy might not be Mr. Smiley Face—he sent his cousin in to kill his brother, for goodness sake—but he never smiled. Never laughed. He had everything, but he always looked like he was walking back from a funeral.
But I was Marco. I was Marco the amazingly funny and painstakingly cute and astonishingly clever. I wasn't just going to sit here—I was going to do something.
Hold on, where was I? Oh yeah, the phone call.
It was Jake. He sounded so lonely, you know? Like my dad, after my mom "died." Now I've seen sobbing, I've seen shocked, I've seen all different levels of sad, but that tops it all. That's something nobody should have to endure, especially not the world's savior, Jake Berensen.
So I did what I do when I'm thinking. I played some video games, watched old Baywatch reruns, listened to my iPod with the volume up. And I had it.
"Remind me why we're here again?" Rachel demanded of the hawk doing flips in the air next to her.
Because Marco said you owe him something, Tobias replied, a teasing edge to his voice. Rachel didn't notice. "That. Oh, that."
"Yes, that," I said loudly, leaning back on a heap of hay.
"What is it now? And why are we meeting in some random barn?"
I shrugged. "For old times' sake." "Are the others on their way?"
"No." "What—" Rachel began, but Tobias cut her off. Marco…
"Okay, here it is, our first mission independent of Cassie or Jake," I announced. "Who," I added as a sly afterthought, "happen to be the subject of today's meeting."
"What?"
"We have to get them together," I said flatly. "WHAT?! I'm not going to screw up their love lives." She crossed her arms across her chest, stubborn as always, and sat on a bale of hay.
"He's your cousin," I persisted. "Don't you see how sad he is?"
"I—"
He's right, Rach, Tobias noted quietly.
I grinned in triumph. Rachel might never do as I asked, but she would never go against the wishes of Tobias. In fact, I was about to make a crack about the power of the birdboy over Rachel, mighty warrior princess, but I decided the better of it.
So, Tobias mused, snatching me out of my glorious moment of victory, How exactly are we going to do this?
That wiped what I'm sure was a very silly (but exceptionally cute) smile off my face. It wasn't like I didn't have a plan—of course I did—but it was a very rough draft, very reckless, could easily fall down in shambles around my ankles, and didn't-have-a-few-of-the-finer-points-worked-out plan.
Basically, we were going to fake an emergency.
"So—you're saying—that we—are going to—go on a mission—like the old days—and get Cassie and Jake—to fall in love? And—we're—going to be the villans—and the heroes—at the same time?" Rachel asked me in carefully measured tones, a failed attempted not to let her anger show. "Hell no."
"You have a better idea?"
"They could just do it the old-timey way—you know, falling in love of your own free will."
"How?"
Rachel thought for a moment, and then threw her arms up in the air, exasperated. "I don't know! But my point is that this is wrong! The only thing this plan will accomplish, Marco, is to scare the two of them out of their skins!"
Rachel, now that Marco mentions it, I don't think we have a choice. It's what's good for the both of them, especially Jake.
"Whose side are you on?"
But I think it would be wrong—
"Ha!"
to cause the emergency ourselves, Tobias finished calmly. Rachel shot him a sulky look. I asked the question that I knew was taking shape in her mind. "Who else would cause it?"
The Ellimist.
Rachel and I both stared at him, open-mouthed.
"He doesn't interfere in human affairs," I pointed out. No, Tobias agreed. He meddles. I grinned. Rachel looked us over as if she were a wise old woman observing two little-boy nutcases. Then she sighed. "Fine."
"Let's do it!" I supplied, jumping to my feet in a very Rachel-like way.
Everyone laughed.
