Chapter Twenty: The Meeting

Cass felt jittery as she faced her friends, gazing at their determined (or, in the case of Max's, dazedly cheerful) faces. Her clammy hands nervously smoothed over her jeans as she cleared her throat. "Okay," she began, averting her eyes from staring at the almost tangible, colorful auras of her fellow Terces members. She, suddenly feeling lost, cleared her throat again. "Okay," she repeated, this time a little more confidently, "For some weird reason, we've been experimented on by Dr. Yufredo - if that's even his real name. And though we're not sure if he's, um, evil or not, we've been given reason to believe that he's still somewhat involved with the Midnight Sun...due to, er, suspicious behavior." She swallowed thickly. Cass couldn't remember when talking to her friends last seemed so hard. Were the auras really that distracting? The pointy-eared girl watched, fascinated, as Max's aura morphed from a puzzled orange to a cheerful cherry.

"Yeah," chimed in Yo-Yoji, leaning casually against Cass's bedpost. His aura flickered to a spiteful green. "And we have to figure out a way to get this magic stuff off of us so that we won't have to join a circus when we're older."

"It's not magic," blurted out Max cheerfully, eyes roving over Cass's Wall of Horrors with an interest. "It might be alchemy. Or science. Or a trick. But it's not magic - there's no such thing. Hey, what's that? Is that a bear trap?" He wandered over to the picture-covered wall, index finger tracing over an old article Cassandra had pasted years before. "Cool," he whispered, eyes widening in awe. "It's like a wall of disasters." He turned to Cass, aura changing from a slow, lethargic aqua to a quizzical lavender. "Doesn't that depress you at all?" he asked her, expression amused in a puzzled sort of way.

Cassandra shook her head. Max smiled, walked back over to stand by Yo-Yoji, and announced simply, "I like you guys."

"Great, yo," sighed Yo-Yoji, a little tiredly, "Now can we get back to business? My parents were really upset I wasn't home by six like I told Gajin and I have samurai training with Master Wei in a couple hours, so they'll really have a cow if I'm late."

Cassandra took a deep breath and flicked a braid behind her shoulder. "Okay then. Let's brainstorm. We can go back to Yufredo's office and demand to be switched back to normal - "

" - But then he could take advantage of the situation and do some other wackier experiments on us," cut in Yo-Yoji grimly. His aura was a sour yellow that oozed negatively around his slumping form. Cass narrowed her eyes a little at this.

"Well," she continued hopefully, "We could ask Lily Wei to contact the other Terces members so that - "

"But this has nothing to do with the Secret," interrupted Yo-Yoji.

Cass stared at him, a little aggressively. It wasn't like her friend to be so argumentative, and the more Yo-Yoji interrupted the more her ideas were running out. "So?"

Yo-Yoji gave her an irritated look. "So, what if they won't help us? This is our problem. It's our faults we went to his offices and got ourselves into this situation. Plus, with Pietro gone, they could be anywhere. Master Wei probably doesn't know where they are. Not to mention, even if we did somehow come into contact with one or two of them, who would believe that a former Midnight Sun member drugged us and then did experiments on us for no reason?"

Cass frowned and bit her tongue. "I guess that makes sense," she muttered reluctantly, "But we should at least try. I mean - "

"But what are they supposed to do?" countered Yo-Yoji bitterly.

Cass's ears were growing redder and redder as she snarled, "I don't know, maybe give us advice? In case you don't know, we could sort of need some!" Yo-Yoji's aura turned to an aggressive fiery color as the two glared at each other.

"Cass! Max-Ernest! Yo-Yoji!" sang Melanie from downstairs. Cassandra and Yo-Yoji went rigid as Cass's foster mother called, "I made cookies downstairs. They're not as good as your grandfathers', Cass," she added with a good-humored chuckle, "but I think they're alright for a woman with almost zero cookie-making experience! Come on down - you kids probably need a break."

The two walked downstairs, Cass a little more bitterly. What is wrong with him? she steamed angrily in her head. He was fine yesterday, and now he's all...angry! And who is he to shoot down my ideas? I don't see Yo-Yoji coming up with any...!

The cookies were delicious. Cass and the Yo-Yoji munched them quietly as Melanie wandered around the kitchen, talking happily on the phone with Albert 3-D (who else?) and giggling like a schoolgirl. As Cassandra swallowed the last chewy bite, she grabbed Yo-Yoji and walked briskly back upstairs. They had work to do, and getting mad at one another was the last thing they needed.

Max was snoozing peacefully on the floor. Unfazed, Cass stepped over him and turned to her tallest friend. "Look," she said firmly, "We can't be all morbid about this. I mean, you're all I have...er, I mean, since Max-Ernest isn't being, of, well...o-of much help. You're all I have in this particular situation. Um." Cass cleared her throat uncomfortably and continued, "So you can't let me down. We've got to get through this without fighting or anything, because this time Pietro's not here to help us."

Yo-Yoji blinked. "Okay," he muttered. "Sorry I was a jerk earlier. I mean...it's just that I knew we couldn't trust Yufredo from the start, but we got caught anyway. I guess I just wish I could have done more to save us. If I had, then we could just enjoy our summer like normal kids." His aura was a gloomy bluish gray that swirled around him slowly.

Cass paused, then smiled a little. "But we're not normal kids," she reminded him with a slight chuckle. Her hand instinctively went up to touch her pointed ears as she remembered a certain jester she met long, long ago. "We're part of the Terces Society."

Author's Note: Haha, the twentieth chapter! Whew, this story's going by fast, isn't it? Hope you guys enjoyed! :^)

Sincerely,

PancakesWithMilk