Evan's POV:
I stared at the email. "He has a family?!" Kermit suddenly yelped in my ear.
"Ow," I muttered, rubbing my ear. It felt like I had a knitting needle stuck into my ear! "Don't do that." I snapped at him, then turned back to the computer. Then I added, "I guess he does."
"Weird, isn't he a werewolf?! Didn't he, like, I dunno, berserk when he first change?" He added, looking incredibly confused.
"I'll ask him," I said, turning and writing again. I decided to ask him for suggestions on code names, plus I wanted to know more about what it was like out of his wolf form.
By the time I finished, I could hear Andy calling up to us. I added her in, then hit send. I wanted to tell her, but decided to respect Anubis's wishes. I just hoped Kermit did. After all, he was just 10.
Ten minutes later, we were all screaming. Mostly because some creep we walked by was holding a plastic egg that looked like it would hold silly putty, but it was green. However, that (obviously) wasn't what scared us. What scared us was the fact that he tripped, then it flew out of his hands. It smashed against a rock, and what came out wasn't silly putty. Oh no. It had to be MONSTER BLOOD. And it grew FAST. However, while we were freaking out, the guy just calmly took out his phone and called someone.
Another guy came running down the street a few minutes later. He was, mysteriously, carrying cleaning supplies. However, it made sense a few moments later, when he started up the vacuum cleaner. All the MB was sucked up into the trash bag he was carrying.
"Triple-ply," he said triumphantly. "That should hold." Then he turned to us, and said, "Sorry. We got tossed a ways over by my ivy plant. He found that monster blood, and we were trying to get rid of it before we headed back home."
The creep misunderstood my confused look. He said, "Monster Blood is a substance that gro-"
"I know what it is," I interrupted, annoyed. "I've had to deal with it before." The creep and the other guy looked at me in surprise. Then the guy scribbled something down, and handed the paper to me. They then turned and left.
I looked at the paper once they left, and groaned. It was his email! I scrunched up the paper, and shoved it in my pocket. How many people are going to give me their email?! I thought. Then, we went back, so as to not run into anymore weirdos.
Unfortunately, that didn't happen. We bumped into someone as we were heading back. Literally. He jumped up pretty quickly, and helped us up.
"So sorry! I was… a bit distracted. Sorry." he quickly sputtered, looking down at the ground.
Inexplicably, I smiled at him. I felt like I was seeing a friend, although he didn't look familiar at all. I apologized as well, and introduced myself.
He kept on smiling, but there was another emotion that flickered underneath. Surprisingly, he looked shocked, However, the expression quickly disappeared, and even I nearly doubted that I saw it. Nearly.
"I'm Grady. Grady Tucker. Nice to meet you, Evan." he said, smiling at me. He held out his hand. I stared at it for a moment, not comprehending. Then he looked between his hand and me, and said, "Hey, I'm not gonna bite. Shake?" Then he held his hand a bit higher.
I finally understood what was going on, and took his hand. After we shook hands, he stood there, looking a bit embarrassed. As I looked around, wondering what he was embarrassed about, I realized there was an awkward silence from my friends, as well.
I could have facepalmed, and probably would have if I wasn't suddenly so self conscious. I hadn't introduced Grady to Kermit and Andy!
I did so, and they seemed to like him. We talked for a while, getting to know each other. As we walked around town, he told us he and his family were passing through, for some kind of convention in town. He was only here for the day, though. Apparently, it was like vacation for him.
"Huh, sounds like someone else I know…" I muttered absentmindedly.
"Oh?" Grady said, looking mischievous. "Who?" I was about to answer, but then I saw Kermit, shaking his head and making slicing motions across his throat. Then I realized what I had said. Crap! I was not supposed to say anything! Especially to someone who was practically a total stranger!
"Uh, er…" I stuttered, trying to think of an excuse. My mind was unfortunately blank. Oh, man…
Andy made it worse by asking, "Yeah, what are you talking about? You're walking with, like, your only friends in town right now."
Then Kermit piped up. "Um, me and Evan just fixed a computer, and we were emailing a friend of his this morning, from… some time back. Heh… Right, Evan?" He gave me a quick look that said, "get with the program, quick!"
"Er, yeah!" I said. I grinned, probably sheepishly, at both Andy and Grady. "That's it. From… my home town."
Grady looked almost disappointed. "Oh, I see. Ok. That makes sense." Then he fell silent for a long stretch of our walk, seeming very grumpy.
I felt bad lying to Grady, but I reassured myself that it wasn't quite a lie- I had met Anubis some time ago. That amount of time was just... a lot shorter than he thought.
Andy finally broke the silence by saying, "H-hey, look! There's a toy store!" She said this nervously, as if worried she was about to set off a bomb. Then she checked herself, and said, "Wait, a toy store?"
I stared, horrified. The toy store?! That place shut down!
Kermit just looked confused. "Wait, I thought there were no toy stores in this part of town."
"There aren't any." I said.