4 – The Calm Before the Storm

That Monday morning dawned clear and warm, and surprisingly devoid of the wrath of Sadie Macbeth.

'She seemed awfully happy when I saw her this morning,' Newton commented, fairly absorbed in dismantling and repairing the microphone in Trixie's pen. Trixie herself, who was resting her head atop her folded arms on the desktop, looked up at him with marginal annoyance.

'That doesn't really mean anything,' she said bluntly. 'She's had a day to recover.'

'Yeah, but she was prepared for endgame,' he replied. 'And if that was her final card – which is really unimpressive, if you ask me – then you'd think she would be a little upset that Zero blew it up.'

Trixie didn't reply. She just squeezed her eyes shut and sighed a little.

Newton felt a poke between his shoulder blades, and Vin leaned over from the other aisle. 'Speaking of which, have you seen Zero?'

Almost in answer to his question, the classroom door slid open and Zero walked in, hurriedly adjusting her bag on her shoulder. Her face relaxed in relief when she saw that Mr Soper hadn't arrived yet, and she slipped into her seat beside Vin without a word.

'Where have you been?' he asked curiously, head tilted.

'Ran out of mascara,' she said irritably, pulling her books out and dumping them on the bench. 'Sorry Trix, I stole yours again.'

'All good,' Trixie mumbled. She didn't lift her head.

Vin squinted at Zero critically. 'Why do you need makeup?' he asked generally. 'I mean, what's the point?

She looked at him in annoyance. 'Why's it your business?'

'Well -' He cut off and shrugged. 'I just don't understand it.'

'You don't need to understand it.'

'Fine, fine. It's just – hey, what happened to you?'

Zero frowned at him. 'What?'

'You've just got a bruise -' He reached out and tentatively poked the corner of her jaw. Zero jerked violently in surprise and smacked his arm away, her face going red.

'Leave it.'

'But what -'

'Zero's got a hickey!' Newton crowed, his expression nothing short of absolute delight. He shot her a devilish grin. 'That's brilliant!'

Vin looked at him confusedly. 'How - ?'

'It is not,' Zero snapped, socking Newton abruptly upside the head. 'I burnt myself with the straightening iron. Oh, shut up!' Both he and Vin were both laughing madly, only to be silenced, when she hit them both over the head with her textbook. Trixie wordlessly handed her a little plastic tube, which she opened and applied liberally. Newton's heckling was cut short when it seemed to magically disappear, and he gaped at her.

'Where'd it go?' he asked stupidly.

She smirked, giving the tube back to Trixie.

'That,' she said, looking pointedly at Vin, 'is why you will never find a girlfriend.' He too had been gawking at the witchcraft she had just performed, confusion written all over his face. At her words, he shook his head and looked at her incredulously.

The door opened again and Burt sauntered in, which was the key indicator that Mr Soper wasn't far off. Sure enough, less than a minute later he arrived, followed by a short girl with long, brown hair pulled back into a ponytail.

'Good morning, everybody!' he said cheerily, setting his laptop down on the front desk. After he got a scattered, mumbling response of 'Morning, Mr Soper,' he continued. 'I'm delighted to announce that we have a new student with us today, which is brilliant, since we haven't seen a new face around here in years. Class, this is Elizabeth, who will be joining you for your last year of school.'

A number of heads perked up at this, looking at the girl with considerable interest. This wasn't surprising, seeing that she was, in fact, very pretty. Already Burt and Hector were muttering together, probably betting on who could get her to sleep with them first.

Mr Soper told Elizabeth she could sit in the empty spot beside Newton, and began setting up for the lesson.

'Hi, I'm Newton,' he said as she dumped her books beside him, holding out a hand.

She shook it, still looking around the classroom with a slightly scrutinising gaze. 'Charmed,' she replied. 'Are all the classrooms like this? Loaded up with flora 'n' shit?'

Her heavy accent caught him off guard, and he blinked for a moment before replying. 'No, it's pretty normal, actually. Mr Soper just likes biology.'

'Huh,' she replied. She laced her fingers and rested her head on them, now looking around at the people. Newton was happy enough to leave her be, and opened his textbook.

Surprisingly enough, Elizabeth actually seemed fairly bright. She launched herself into the work with an odd level of enthusiasm, and was extremely absorbed in everything that Mr Soper had to say. In fact, it wasn't until half way through the lesson that she said anything at all.

'So,' she murmured, nudging Newton in the side, 'who's Beyoncé over there?'

'Hmm?' he replied, looking up. 'Oh, you mean Trixie?'

'I guess so. And the blond?'

'That's Vin.'

'Huh.' She looked between the two of them for a moment, her expression unreadable. 'So are they dating?'

Newton nearly dropped his pen. 'Vin? And Trixie?' He snorted. 'No way. They're more like brother and sister.'

She raised her eyebrows. 'Wow. They're too pretty-looking.'

'Well,' Newton shrugged, 'they've just never liked each other that way.'

'So they're single?'

'Yeah. But I'll warn you, Vin knows he's good-looking. If you tried to date him, you'd be dating his bedroom mirror as well.'

She snorted. 'Right.'

Newton hesitates before continuing. 'And besides, he's been in love with . . . some girl . . . since he was like, ten. There's really no point in trying.'

She looked at him curiously. 'Hmm, drama?,m '

He pulled a face. 'No drama. If you want drama, go make friends with Vanessa.' He indicated to the other side of the room, where Van was twirling a pen between her fingers and chewing a piece of gum. 'Though . . . the low IQ doesn't make for much conversation.'

Elizabeth clapped a hand to her mouth, and Newton thought he'd offended her for a second, until he realised she was holding back laughter.

'Harsh,' she whispered, eyes shining.

He shrugged. 'But true.'

She watched him with her grey eyes for a long moment, and he felt the strangest desire to shrink under her gaze. Then she took a spare pen, and twirled her hair up into a bun with it to keep it out of the way. 'You,' she said as she worked, 'you seem like a good kid, Ginger. I'll keep that in mind.'

Newton didn't know what to say to that, but he was pretty sure it was a compliment.

'Thanks, Shortie,' he replied, flipping a page in his textbook.

She grinned at him.

'I'm not sure about this,' Zero said as she hung upside down from her favoured bar in their usual spot on the grounds. 'Something about her seems weird.'

'I don't want to judge her just yet,' Trixie said absently, scrolling through her phone. 'It's only been a few hours. You just don't like her because she was looking at Vin.'

Zero shot her a withering look. 'Like I'm that shallow.'

'Uh huh. What do you think, Newton? You're the one who's actually talked to her.'

Newton, who had just arrived, looked up from the book he brought with him. 'She seems cool. And she's pretty smart, so we had a bit to talk about.'

'And do you share Zero's sentiment, and agree that she's interested in Vin?'

Newton looked across the grounds, to where Vin was talking with Cathy outside Mr Soper's classroom. 'Well, if she is, I don't think he'd be too upset about it. I mean, she's probably as pretty as he is.'

Trixie gave an ungraceful snort, and pocketed her phone. 'Really? You think so?'

Zero merely quirked an eyebrow. 'He's a moron, Trix, not blind.'

'Oi!' Newton cried indignantly. 'I've seen more things than I'd care to see –' He cut off with a yelp when Zero swung forward and caught him by the ear.

'You care to finish that sentence?' she asked quietly, her gaze flint. Trixie had the strangest feeling that this wasn't something she was supposed to be part of, and awkwardly pretended not to notice.

Some sort of unspoken agreement passed between the two of them, and Newton grinned awkwardly. At this, Zero let out a huff and released his ear, swinging back into place.

'Anyway, do you think Cathy the Vampire's staking her claim?' she asked, looking over at the classroom. 'Y'know, before things inevitably go south?'

'Probably. But what does it matter? He's most likely not going to do anything.'

'True.' Zero huffed. 'He seriously needs to get a girlfriend.'

'I agree there.' Trixie smirked up at her. 'But you keep scaring them all off.'

She rolled her eyes. 'Yeah, alright. Whatever.' In one fluid movement, she swung backwards off the bar and flipped to the ground, dusting off her hands. 'I've gotta go. See you next class.'

From where she sat on the bench under the trees, looking out on the playground, Liz could conclude one thing: Macbeth was stupid as hell.

She had been on this mission for less than six hours, had one grainy photo to use as reference, and she could already tell who two members of the Invisible Network of Kids were. And in like, six years, Sadie couldn't figure out even one!

The shitty picture wasn't stopping her, though. She knew Ginger was one almost as soon as she sat down. His lanky body shape and posture matched up pretty closely to one of the silhouettes, but she wasn't sure for certain until she looked further into it. Still, judging by his brains, it was a pretty good guess.

Second, the blonde. Not the dumb blonde, the other one – she just didn't know her by name yet. The one with the tiny skirt and ass-kicking boots. And, not to mention, a black leather jacket that had clearly been picked up in a thrift store. That one. Liz wasn't quite sure how she knew about that one; she could just tell. And she was hoping that her hunch was right, seeing that girl seemed like she would be the sort to be involved in some espionage group – you know, since she had that hardened, muscly vibe going on.

Liz was a little thrown off by her brash appearance, to be honest.

She didn't have a decent idea who the other two members were, but she had her suspicions. The kid with brown hair and glasses . . . what was his name – Hector – and that nerd girl Cathy both seemed plausible. She just had no backup evidence for them either.

She absently scratched the bridge of her nose. Oh well, she had plenty of time to figure it out. The whole school year, in fact. She could work her way through this investigation at a leisurely pace, talking to the right people and showing a bit of bare leg when she needed to, and this "Invisible Network" would become putty in her hands.

At least, that was what she hoped.

'You,' Zero said, 'need to quit it with the hickeys.'

Burt huffed a laugh and immediately began attacking that exact spot on the corner of her jaw, and she made a noise of frustration.

'I mean it!' she said, smacking him on the shoulder. 'I almost got caught today.'

'Is this what you wanted to talk about?' he asked, cocking his head with a bit of a wicked grin. 'Because Van is waiting -'

'Yeah, yeah, but you've got to mmph -' She cut off with a surprised gasp as he went back to exactly what he'd doing, one hand slipping up her shirt, tracing along her abs, and the other down the waistband of her skirt.

'What were you saying?' he asked innocently.

She blinked momentarily, having lost thread of her words, before slapping away the lower hand. 'Cut it out.'

'We've got time,' he said, moving his mouth down to her shoulder, pushing her shirt sleeve aside for better access.

'No, we don't,' she hissed. 'I've got to go, and the last thing I want is -'

'You do want it, don't lie.'

'No,' she said, yanking his hand from where it had slipped up her bra. 'I do not. For fuck's sake, if you're this horny go find Van – I'm not in the mood and I've got to go.'

'Aw, quit being such a bitch.'

'I said later, Burt.' She rubbed the mark on her jawbone irritably. 'Now I've got to go fix my makeup – thanks for that. You know how many lies I've had to tell for you? I'm getting really fucking good at making them up!'

He folded his arms and leered at her. 'What, are you on your period or something? You're being a tease, you know that?'

She glared stonily at him. 'Fuck you. And get the hell out of my pants.' She smacked away his hand, which had once again magically appeared on her waistline.

'Stop denying me. It's not like anyone else will sleep with you.'

'I don't care about that,' she hissed. 'And I am leaving.'

She turned away and started walking around the side of the building where they had been standing.

'You'll be back, Sweetheart,' he called after her. 'You can't stay away.'

Zero ground her teeth, and tried to ignore the fact that she knew it was true.

10/12/2021