Disclaimer: Still not mine. Go figure.
Possibility 4:
"I need more sleep…I walked into the wrong classroom again."
"Wait, wait, wait, let me see if I can get this straight, you volunteered us to work an extra shift this Saturday when we could be going to the biggest part of the year?" demanded Irma icily, her eyes darkening as she stared at Hay-Lin sitting in front of her.
The Asian-American nodded, her face as innocent as an angel's as she answered her fuming friend sitting across from her in the cafeteria. "Uh-huh. My parents are supposed to be celebrating their anniversary that night so I said we'd cover for them so they could go out to a fancy restaurant for dinner."
"Hay-Lin, your parents own a restaurant."
"I know."
"Then couldn't they have their anniversary there?"
Hay-Lin seemed to think for a moment with her index finger going to her chin. Several minutes passed before she shrugged. Apparently she didn't have an answer to Irma's question, making the other teen groan in dismay.
Will chuckled, offering Irma a consolatory smile before pointing out, "They probably remember the disaster their anniversary turned into last year when they had dinner at their own restaurant. We almost burned down the place."
Irma snorted. "Yeah, but that was in the name of justice—a monster was inhabiting the kitchen, remember?"
"Ye-ah, considering Mr. and Mrs. Lin don't know about the monster fighting business, I'd say it isn't all that big of a surprise they're still a bit ticked off about the whole thing."
"I take it that's why we never got those Christmas bonuses, huh?"
"Probably."
"Probably what?" asked Cornelia as she took a seat alongside her friends, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the tray of food Hay-Lin was actually eating.
"Screwed up our own chances of ever getting a raise," replied Irma glumly, propping her chin in her hands. "Tell me again why we agreed to fight monsters for the rest of our natural lives?"
"We didn't," stated Hay-Lin brightly.
"Maybe we should consider retirement."
"Irma, we're only seventeen. I don't think we qualify for retirement," added Will with a frown.
Cornelia rolled her eyes and said, "As if. We aren't working for the U.S. government, Will, we're working for Meridian. They might have an early retirement age."
"For Guardians of the Veil?"
"Don't knock it until you rock it."
"That's the lamest thing I've ever heard come out of your mouth."
For a reply Cornelia stuck her tongue out at the red head, ducking as Will grabbed a sweet roll off Hay-Lin's tray to toss at Cornelia. It was at that moment that Taranee arrived, a solemn expression on her face.
"Something wrong?" teased Irma.
"I need more sleep…I walked into the wrong classroom again," murmured Taranee with a sigh.
"Which period?"
"First."
"Ah."
"Don't you have chemistry for first period?" questioned Hay-Lin.
"Uh-huh, but instead I showed up for P.E….my last class of the day. I was already in the pool when the coach asked me what I was doing. I spent the rest of the time explaining to the principal that I really didn't do it on purpose. I don't think he believed me."
"It might have helped if you hadn't done it before," agreed Will with a shrug.
"If I got more sleep I wouldn't be walking around in a catatonic state all the time."
Cornelia grinned. "I rest my case. Retirement."
Taranee frowned. "Retirement?"
"Don't ask," muttered Will with a shake of her head. "It's not even worth hearing about."
Irma snorted. "As if, she's just jealous that I thought of it first…actually, isn't Corny the one who's supposed to be jealous of me? Hmm, okay, so new plan. We need more sleep—we're starting to switch roles."
"Spare me," murmured Cornelia with a roll of her eyes. "Nobody wants to be like you, and nobody's switching roles. If that were the case then you'd start acting like someone other than yourself—and since you're still as annoying as you were ten minutes ago I'm going to take a wild guess and say we're all just fine and dandy."
"Hey," started Hay Lin with a bright grin, "that rhymes with candy! That's brilliant. Now I can finish the poem I was working on in English!"
"But you aren't taking English this semester," pointed out Will with a frown.
"Aren't I?"
"Uh, yeah, because didn't you complain that you ended up with a bad schedule this semester because you could only take electives and next semester you could only take required classes for your senior year."
Hay Lin seemed to consider the information placed before her, eyebrows creasing together before realization dawned on her face. "Then why do I have an English text book in my bag with a poetry assignment due today?"
"Does the book have YOU SUCK written on the cover?" questioned Taranee curiously.
"Yeah."
"Then I think it's mine. I was wondering why it wasn't in my bag this morning…"
Cornelia eyed the back pack in question, wrinkling her nose at the sight. "Sweetie, you might want to double check that entire bag of yours—Hay Lin's name is written on the outside of it."
"No it's not." Taranee brought the bag onto the table to prove Cornelia wrong, only to have herself proven wrong as the bag did indeed turn out to have Hay Lin's name written across the back. "Like I said, I need more sleep." The dark skinned teen sighed as she shoved the bag in Hay Lin's direction. Hay Lin studied it for a moment before reaching down for the bag she had been carrying around all day. With a shrug she handed it to Taranee and then tossed her formerly missing bag onto the ground. Apparently it was a normal occurrence for the Asian to walk around with a backpack that didn't belong to her.
"Retirement, huh?" questioned Will after a while. "I think I like the sound of that."
"Told you," replied Irma with a chuckle.
Cornelia sighed forlornly. "It's a nice idea and all, but I'm not so sure Elyon would see it as one. She's kind of set on keeping us around."
"Just yesterday she was thinking about replacing the whole lot of us."
"And get rid of free slave labor?" snorted Taranee. "She'd be crazy to even consider it."
The girls chuckled at the joke, though each one was secretly wondering if it really wasn't a joke after all. They had spent the last four years fighting monsters on Elyon's behalf, and with high school graduation looming around the corner they were all growing weary of the secrets and mental, as well as physical, exhaustion that came with their positions as Guardians of the Veil.
"Hey, Irma."
Five heads swirled to look up at the sound of Matt's voice as he came to stand at one end of the table. Will and Irma exchanged quizzical glances before Irma replied. "Uh…hey?"
"I was, uh, just…you know, wondering when you'd like to get together. For the science project we're working on."
"Science project?" Irma frowned as she tried to remember when she had agreed to take science for her last year of high school.
"Yeah. We were partnered together, remember?"
"Well…no, not really. See, I didn't even know I was taking science. Are you sure it was me you got partnered with? I'm totally not remembering that class."
Matt chuckled weakly, a wary glance going to Will before returning to Irma. "Yeah, yeah I'm pretty sure. That's the class you always sleep through…well, because you slept through it this morning you ended up partnered with me because I didn't have one. I figure we should get a head start on it since it's due at the end of the semester and you're usually pretty busy with the…uh…job thing you do."
Will couldn't help but giggle at the look on Irma's face. "Look at it this way; Matt's making sure you don't completely fail the class."
"Lucky me." Irma let out a loud sigh as she glanced up at Matt again. "Okay, fine. We can meet up after school and work at the library or my house…whatever works for you."
"Alright. See you then." Matt gave a sharp nod to indicate he understood the deal as he slowly backed away from the table, giving Will one last nod before disappearing into the crowd.
Cornelia studied Will thoughtfully. "I think it's sweet—he hasn't totally gotten over you yet so he's trying to work with one of your friends to stay close."
Will snorted. "And what gave you that stupid idea?"
"The fact that you and Matt have only one class together this semester and he has like a bajillion with the rest of us."
"There she goes again," murmured Irma with a shake of her head. "She's making up numbers that don't exist."
"It's better than words," pointed out Taranee with a grin. "Last week she was saying 'sollyflop' like it meant something."
"Har. Har." Cornelia gave her friends icy glares. "You can only laugh for so long before I bury you two under a pile of rocks."
Hay Lin grinned. "And if she did that Matt would be able to console Will."
"I don't think I like the sound of that," whispered Taranee to Irma.
"Eh, blondie wouldn't actually try to hurt one of us—who would she cheat off of in English class?"
"I resent that!" shouted Cornelia.
Will raised an eyebrow at her friends. "Ye-ah, I think I'm going to head to my next class…as much fun as it is to sit here and uh…watch you guys threaten each other. I'll see you guys after school."
The girls watched as Will gathered her things and departed from their table. It was Cornelia who spoke first. "The poor thing, she's taking her breakup with Matt harder than I thought she would."
"No kidding," agreed Irma dully, "that was my lunch she just tossed into the trash."
"We should cheer her up this weekend," suggested Hay Lin.
"I vote for a sleepover at Cornelia's house—she has the biggest bedroom—and its Blunk free. He's too afraid of her to try and crash in on us," added Taranee with a nod of her head.
"True." Cornelia tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Let's do it Saturday night then since we're supposed to work. That'll give me time to let Caleb know I won't be tagging along on his…journey thingy he's got going that night."
"Journey thingy? Sounds enchanting."
"Humph. I have no clue what it's about, I just know it requires a lot of walking and something else…he said it would be romantic since there would be moonlight—but Blunk was way too excited for me to get excited about it. I'm thinking it's another swamp that Caleb wants to check for enemy campfires."
Irma shook her head in amusement. "Tell me again why you're with Caleb."
"His looks."
"Last week you said it was his mind," state Hay Lin with some confusion.
"Yeah, well last week he wasn't suggesting we go tramping through a swamp instead of kissing under the stars. Besides, cheering Will up is twice as important as spending time with Caleb. I know a ton of guys she could date instead of Matt—we need to get her back into dating again."
Taranee sighed. "Somehow I get the feeling Will isn't going to like this."
"Did you get that feeling before or after Cornelia mentioned 'a ton of guys'?" asked Irma.
"I think it was right about when she mentioned 'twice as important'."
"Oh good, so we're on the same page then."
A/N – I apologize that this has taken so long to get up. I had part of it written like a week ago…and it's still horrendously short, but none of these chapters are going to be particularly long. Anyhow, the next chapter will be up sometime after the Fourth since I'm going on a quick vacation and I have promised updates on other stories too…le sigh.
