Sir That's My Emotional Support Nerd

You could cut the tension at breakfast the next morning with a knife.

Zeron was banged and bruised, cuts across his face as he gave a short reply to some kid across the atrium. He'd been in a bad mood all morning, snapping at kids and throwing death threats at me with his eyes. I threw them right back. Without White Noise, he was nothing more than an overgrown bully.

Varvatos and Zadra had taken their places beside me as always, viciously ignoring Zeron's presence. But that didn't stop the occasional glares. Or rumors.

News that Zeron had been bumped down the ranks was already spreading like wildfire. And the practically visible tension radiating off all of us - plus the fact that Zeron looked as though he'd been put through a shredder - was not helping.

It was the topic of almost every conversation. Each time I rounded a corner, all the kids around would go quiet, pretending not to watch as they eagerly waited for me to leave. Same thing when I entered the locker room.

In between classes I was able to catch a few of their theories. That I'd mind melded Zeron into disarming. That Varvatos had tortured Zeron into giving up his authority. Even that Zeron had been busted for being the abusive asshole he was - hence the very obvious cut across my chest.

It was easy and difficult to keep the truth to myself. Easy because it was no one's business but my own. Difficult because now everyone wanted it to be their business.

Thankfully, no had noticed that I'd slept in Zadra's room that night. Both her and Varvatos agreed it would be safest if I stayed there permanently.

Despite the rumors, endless glaring from Zeron, and the feeling of being haunted by two shadows, I felt good at dinner. Even if I was just a giant spectacle here, even if I was on my own, things were about to get a little better. And maybe I could end up doing some good.

For the first time in so long, I had a string of hope to hold onto.

I was just about finished when I heard my name being called - from somewhere across the atrium. I immediately turned at the sound, almost questioning if I'd even heard them right. None of the others kids dared near me. Let alone screaming my name across the room.

"Hey Aja! Over here! Aja Tarron!"

But there it was again. I craned my neck around the crowd of kids blocking the sound. They seemed to be stopping whoever it was from approaching, some even snickering as they did it. Others looked genuinely concerned, continuing to shush the offender.

"Would you stop messing around?" One boy hissed. "This is stupid! Leave her alone!"

I rolled my eyes, turning back to my tray and then standing to take care of it. I was done anyway. No need to stay with these kids for any longer than I had to.

"Don't go to the roof," Zadra said, shooting me a side look.

"Why not?" I called back.

"Because I said so."

"Okay."

So I headed up to the roof, dumping the remnants on my tray in the large garbage bins on the way. I could still hear whoever it was continue to yell for me as I reached the doors, the shushing and laughing escalating. Even one of the agents came over to see what the commotion was.

I shook off the growing blush. That boy was right, this was stupid.

I had one foot out the door when something other than my name was called.

"Angel! Ninja-kicking angel!"

I froze.

Oh my God.

I whipped around, I barreling back towards the crowd. "Who said that?" I demanded.

"Over here, ninja-kicking angel!"

Kids scattered back, parting to reveal the small body they were shielding. All the breath was knocked from my lungs. Everything was frozen all over again. It - It couldn't be -

Tears blurred in my eyes. "Eli?"

His glasses were gone. His hair had grown long enough to hang in his eyes. And he was so terribly skinny. But when he saw me, his eyes were still just as bright as they've always been.

"Hey, ninja-kicking angel."

"Eli!" I cried, flying towards him.

My arms latched around him, spinning us until his toes lifted right off the floor. His boney little arms clung around my neck, his glasses-less face buried in my hair.

Just like that, the eyes of every other human being in the atrium were on us. The heartless, soulless Orange - who never touched anyone unless it was for a beat down - was hugging someone. And that someone was hugging back.

They were going to have a field day with this one.

"Oh my God," I gasped, tears dripping into my eyelashes. "Oh my God - you're - you're okay!"

I pulled back, grabbing his face to get another good look at it. He was paler than before, his lips horribly chapped, and faint, green bruises around his neck. But he was okay. He was here.

"You're okay too!" He cried back, gripping my wrists, then shoulders, and back again. As if he couldn't decide. "After I heard what happened, I - I've been looking everywhere for you guys!"

"What are you doing here?" I choked on the laugh as I hugged him again. It felt like a balloon had popped in my chest. "How did you - how are you here?"

"I got picked up outside of Jersey a couple days ago," He replied. "Apparently the troll network is what tipped them off about a Creepslayer being up for grabs."

I didn't reply, clutching him tighter. And he clutched back. So small. So skinny. And way too good to be true. I'd all but given up hope of ever seeing the friends Trollmarket had given me again. So having them literally appear out of thin air was making my brain spin.

For a moment, I wondered if I was dreaming.

"I'm so glad you're safe," I whispered. "I wanted to go after you as soon as we knew the truth - we all did. I - I'm so sorry -"

"Don't be," He hugged tighter. "I'm just glad I found you. I was so scared I wouldn't see any of you guys again."

I gave a humorless laugh.

"Is anyone else here?" He pulled back, squinting over my shoulder. "Where's Krel?"

The breath died in my throat.

"Wait a minute," A tall boy came forward from one of the tables. "You actually know her?"

"Yeah, jackass," Eli threw back. "What is with you people anyway? You act like she's some alien from outer space."

Hm.

"Tarron," Zeron was striding towards us, a tight smile plastered all over his face. I pulled Eli under a protective arm, his head barely breaking my shoulder. "You didn't tell me you knew a Creepslayer."

"We went to school together." And I left it at that.

"You went to school together?" He took a step closer, his eyes zeroing in on Eli. "Did you ever travel together, too?"

Eli shot me a glance. "Uh . . ."

"Aja," Varvatos laid a hand on my shoulder, giving Zeron a warning look. "Why don't you introduce Varvatos to this - er - friend?"

Zeron opened his mouth to say something, but then Zadra came flying forward, catching him mid sentence and blabbing on about some emergency that he simply must help her attend to. And they both disappeared out the doors.

Eli stared after them. "This place just keeps getting weirder and weirder."

"Aja, who is this?"

"Oh," I turned back to Varvatos, releasing Eli. "This is one of my best friends."

"Eli," He said.

Varvatos's eyes narrowed suspiciously, but Eli just narrowed them back. He offered to shake Eli's hand, but once he did so, I heard at least three definitive pops in Eli's knuckles.

"Gah," He shook his hand to get the feeling back into it. "Wait a minute - is this . . .?" He pointed his good hand back at Varvatos. "Are you . . .?"

"Grandpa-geezer," I confirmed.

Eli's bright eyes pulled wide. "Wow. He - he's actually a real guy. Not that I thought you were lying or - I don't know - I just didn't think -"

"I know what you mean," I said. And I did.

When you're put into a box of a life, a life that's all run and hide and survive, it's hard to believe the good things. Not because you think they're not true, but because you aren't used to them anymore.

Varvatos gave him a skeptical look. "Where did you meet this Eli?"

"Trollmarket," I replied. "He's the one who got me there in the first place. He's one of the Creepslayerz, Varvatos."

Eli gave him a weak smile.

Varvatos's stern brow didn't flinch, but his mouth did hint at a smile. "You are very small for your reputation."

Eli didn't miss a beat. "Well you aren't exactly reaching to top shelf either, geezer."

Varvatos fought back a grin. "Varvatos likes this one."

"Come on," I tugged Eli's arm. I wanted to talk with him, where no one could stare and whisper. I wanted to know what he'd been through, how he'd gotten here, and everything in between. I wanted to know what he knew about Trollmarket.

As if reading my mind, Varvatos began herding us towards the doors, letting us slip away while he shooed off the remaining agents.

"Not to the roof," He called after us.

"Uh-huh."

The sun was just setting when we arrived on the roof, casting a golden glow across the space.

"Good to see your respect for rules hasn't changed," Eli said, watching me climb up on the lip of edge.

"Good to see your nagging habit hasn't changed."

He lowered his eyebrows at me, a look that was so Eli, it made me want to cry all over again from how much I had missed him.

"So where is Krel?" He kept craning his neck back and forth, eventually pointing to a deck chair. "Is that him?"

He deflated at my silence. "That's a garbage can, isn't it?"

"Uh . . ." I managed to swallow. "Did you tell your Minder you're as blind as Damzalski's grandma?"

"Minder?"

"The adult agent that brought you in."

"Oh, yeah," He sighed. "They said they'll have the prescriptions by tomorrow."

"Where have you been?" I asked. "What happened to you?"

He rubbed the back of his neck, coming to lean against the rim with me. "Long story short? Some trolls crashed my family reunion. I didn't have much choice but to make a run for it."

"So you saw them?" I leaned forward. "You saw your parents?"

A sheen layer of tears covered his eyes. "Yeah."

I put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "How long were you with them?"

"Barely even a day," His voice broke a little. "We were just starting to catch up and then - and then . . ."

I gave his shoulder a squeeze. "I bet they were so proud of you."

He sniffled. "They kept saying that actually, my dad especially. They just - they're - they were happy to see me."

"I'm happy to see you too," I said.

"Yeah," He wiped under his eyes with jerking movements.

"So where did you run to?"

"Back to Jersey eventually," He said, his eyes blowing wide again afterwards. "Oh! I forgot!"

"What?"

"Your parents!" He grabbed my shoulders, shaking me back and forth. "I met them!"

'Dumbfounded' would be an understatement.

"You what?"

"Yeah!" He was bouncing. "They were in Jersey looking for Trollmarket - looking for you!"

My throat closed up, tears jerking. A mix of pride and love shot through me, pulling a little laugh from my throat. But then a bitter anger I worked endlessly to keep quiet erupted. They'd been looking for us. They'd come for us. And they'd missed us. All because Seamus couldn't handle his power complex.

"Oh," Eli deflated. "Oh, I - I'm sorry, I didn't mean -"

"It's okay," I sniffled, wiping under my eyes. "I - what did they say? How did you know it was them?"

"Uh, because you two are literally carbon copies of them," Eli laughed, and I laughed with him. "They had the accent and everything."

"Accent?" I tilted my head.

"You know," He gestured to his throat. "The accent."

"What accent?"

He pinned his lips together. "Nevermind."

"How did you find them?" I leaned over eagerly. "What did they say to you?"

"I wasn't with them for very long," He said. "They were doing this thing - like they had their own little resistance."

"What do you mean?"

"They were sneaking kids back to their families," He said. "They had all these different places for kids to hide at. I was in one of them for a while. And when I saw them, man Aja, you really do look exactly like your dad."

I giggled, my hands coming to cover my mouth as tears poured down. The pride was bursting inside me again, making my chest and face hot, my cheeks aching from smiling. Mama and Papa, they were helping other kids - kids like their own.

"Tell me more," I said. "Tell me everything."

He laughed again. "When I told them I knew you, they wanted to know everything about you guys. They were ecstatic just knowing you guys were together again. But that was nothing compared to when I told them you guys ran away from the League - they laughed until they cried."

I laughed too. Krel and I outsmarting the same organization our parents had years earlier had a satisfying ring to it.

"More," I begged. "Tell me more."

And he did.

He told me how they both had the same brand I did, an arch between their brows. He told me how they had learned to outsmart the PSFs and how good they were at it. He told me how my father carried one of Krel's puzzle boxes with him, and my mother held onto my first, hot pink skateboard.

They carried those little pieces of us wherever they went. They smelled like sage constantly. My father would tell stories to the children, recalling his military days and all the trouble Krel and I had gotten into. My mother would constantly hum, and more often than not, the children would hum with her. She taught them scores of Portuguese lullabies.

They took in every child they found, whether they had the room or not. If there wasn't enough to go around, they would make enough to go around. If PSFs or trolls or anyone came looking for a fight, they would give them a fight.

They braved. They lead. And they searched. Endlessly looking for their own children, wishing on the stars every night that one day, they would be able to bring them home.

I was sobbing by the time he finished. Not sad. Not happy. Just so, overwhelmingly proud. I felt the warm love everywhere inside me. Like I was recognizing them with my whole being.

That was my Mama and Papa.

Eli patted my back awkwardly as I slowly calmed down, clearing the salt out of my throat. "What happened to them?" I asked. "How did you get separated?"

Eli pursed his lips. This was the not-so lovely part of the story. "They were looking for Trollmarket when they found me, and I was like, what a coincidence, so am I. So I helped them get there but . . ."

I braced myself.

"The tunnels were collapsed. Everyone and everything was gone. I - I thought -" He sighed. "I don't know what I thought, so I decided to go looking for you alone. I made it like, a week and a half before the League picked me up."

I nodded, continuing to wipe at my eyes as I lifted them to the stars barely beginning to peek out. Maybe Mama and Papa were looking up at the same stars, still wishing for me to come home.

I wished that too.

"Krel isn't here, is he?"

My eyes fell back down to him.

Eli was doing a good job of hiding it, but I could still see the disappointment in his eyes. "None of them are. You're alone here."

I looked away.

"What happened?" He asked. "What happened to Trollmarket?"

That part of the story was easy. Well, easier than it had been the first time I'd had to explain it. He nodded along as I spoke, a look of relief in his eyes when I told him we'd gotten everyone out in time.

"But what about Morgana?" He asked. "Her army? How did they get away from that?"

I lowered my eyes. "I don't know."

"How did you get picked up by the League?"

I pinned my lips together. This part of the story was not easy. But after everything that had happened, someone needed to know.

For the first time in far too long, I had someone to trust.

Eli was purely horrified when I told him about the panic button. Almost shooting into a lecture right then and there until I told him about how I'd used it to save Krel's life. Then he went quiet.

"So," He almost looked afraid to ask, "where is Krel?"

I took a measured breath. "He left."

"He just took off?" Eli gawked. "Without you? You sure that was Krel? I mean, have you heard about the cloning they're doing now? It's a whole new conspiracy -"

"Yes," I cut in. "I'm sure it was Krel."

"But why would he leave without you?" He asked. "Is he coming back?"

"No. He defected."

Eli opened his mouth, only to close it again.

"But someday," A tear fell from my eye. "Someday, I'll find him. And we'll go home. We'll all go home."

I wasn't looking at him, but I could feel how little he understood. How completely confused he was. I braced for the flood of questions, the interrogation he no doubt was ready to launch at me. But it never came. Instead, he did something that surprised me even more.

He hugged me.