Chapter Sixty One
...
Storm clouds rolled over and through Sky High, keeping the students inside of the cafeteria. The danger of being hit by lightning brought up rumours of previous students who had been hit by lightning, their bodies turned to ash in an instant. It was ridiculous, of course, since lightning didn't turn people to ash anymore than someone getting an electric shock through a faulty power socket would. Wendy rolled her eyes at the whispered stories as she walked through the cafeteria towards her friends' table.
She was late since she'd gone outside for a walk in the storm, ignoring the other students staring from the windows, and pretending she couldn't hear several teachers calling out to her, their voices lost in the wind.
"What did you do to the weather?" Lisa demanded, stopping in front of Wendy.
"Nothing," Wendy replied, frowning.
"The WET weather reports only said heavy rainfall, not a storm."
Wendy brushed her wet hair back and rung out her braid. "Weather changes. Besides, it is raining heavily on Maxville. We're the only ones who are dealing with the storm," she added, being quite generous in her explanation, really. "How did you get a WET weather report?"
Lisa's jaw clenched. "I have my sources," she said firmly.
"Good for you. Can I go eat now?" Wendy asked, trying hard not to sneer when she saw some nearby freshmen watching the exchange curiously.
"Stop the storm, Wendy," Lisa said, stopping Wendy from passing by.
"Why would I do that?" Wendy asked, rolling her eyes.
"Because you're the one who created it! The storm could hurt people."
"Everyone's inside, the storm isn't reaching the ground. They can see a bit of lightning in the clouds, that's it. The rest of it's just rain, which was already predicted for the citizens. I'm already making sure the storm won't hit us, if that's what you're really worried about," Wendy said, moving to step around Lisa.
Lisa blocked her again. "Stop the storm, Wendy, or I'll make you," she said firmly, blinking her third eye open.
A few of the surrounding students could suddenly see how tired Wendy was, as though all of her energy and concentration was on something beyond school, and far beyond Lisa.
A bolt of lightning came close to the floating plot of Sky High, a roll of thunder immediately behind it, a few students crying out in fear at the sudden light and noise.
"Are you threatening me, Lisa?" Wendy asked.
"Stop. The. Storm."
Wendy looked ready to throw Lisa out into the storm herself, but then she stopped suddenly and turned to face the window, one arm thrown out in front of her body, her hand splayed. A bolt of lightning stopped a metre from the lawn outside of Sky High, redirecting back out into the atmosphere instead, a few students' screams echoing.
"It's not my storm, Lisa. I already told you I'm making sure the storm won't hit us, so stop distracting me," Wendy snapped, shoving past Lisa to finally go sit down.
Applause from the freshmen had Lisa's cheeks burning, and she went back to Ben and her friends, ignoring the glares from other supers who had seen Wendy's work and exhaustion.
Donny hid a grin as his girlfriend sat beside him and started to eat her lunch with gusto.
"Want me to warm you up?" Warren offered, handing a junior's lunch back to them.
"Yeah, lemme finish eating first," Wendy said, shovelling another mouthful in as she kept half of her attention on the storm outside.
"Do you know who the storm belongs to?" Ethan asked curiously.
"Natural," Wendy said around a mouthful. "I'm keeping a barrier around the school so we won't be hit. Trying, at least," she added as another flash of lightning went by.
"Good work," Zach said, impressed.
"Thanks. It should be gone by the end of lunch. I'm gonna be wiped," Wendy said, sounding tired, her hand trembling as she reached for her pudding.
"Wendy?" Robin said from the end of the table.
"Hey, Robin. Can we leave English for later?" she asked apologetically.
"Oh, yeah, it's not about that. We brought towels for you," they replied, nodding to their friends, each with an armful of towels.
"Where'd you get the towels from?" Ethan asked.
"Gym," Terry replied, passing his towels down.
In a matter of seconds, Wendy was covered from head to toe in different-coloured towels.
"Thanks," she said with a smile, her gaze going behind them as another thunderbolt rushed past the school.
"That was really nice of you," Layla said, smiling at the freshmen.
Robin shrugged. "We figured she was freezing since she was trembling before."
"Lisa just had her head too far up her ass to notice," Justina said.
Warren almost choked on his water, laughter bubbling out as Layla grinned beside him.
"Don't let them hear you say that; we wouldn't want you to get into trouble," Layla said, her voice quiet but firm.
"I don't care. It was wrong of her to accuse Wendy of creating the storm just because she's a weather-super," Justina said, glaring over in Lisa's direction. She was too short to be seen over the other students, so her glare wasn't as effective as she would have liked.
"Maybe I should make her fly up off her seat for a while," Rita murmured. "It wouldn't last long or be very high, but it'd be something."
"We're not allowed to use our powers outside of class, remember?" Todd said nervously.
"You'll get into trouble, Rita. And Justina, calm down; Wendy can fight her own fights. We've been to Save the Citizen, remember?" Robin pointed out, Rita nodding, and Justina looking disappointed. "We'll leave you to your lunch. Thanks for keeping the storm away from us, Wendy," they said with a bright smile, leading their friends back to their table.
"Such cute rebels," Craig said with a snicker.
Adam elbowed Craig firmly. "Don't be a dick."
"Still need to be warmed up, Wendy?" Warren asked.
"Yeah, please. The towels dried me off, but they're damp now," she admitted now that the freshmen were gone.
Warren held out a hand across the table, taking Wendy's hand. A burst of power had heat flowing through her body, the towels even drying in patches.
"Whoa, thanks. Can I get that in pocket size?" Wendy asked, pulling the towels off with Donny's help.
Warren rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Adam, want my pudding?" he offered, realising he was the only one who'd grabbed a chocolate pudding.
"Hell, yes."
...
"Sign the petition?"
"What are you petitioning?" Layla asked curiously, stopping with her friends on the way back to their lockers.
"The UN's decision to hire one super to represent all of the supers in the world. Not that Babel's not great, but every country should have their own super representative," Katherine said.
"We're sending the petition to the UN once we get enough signatures," Ritchie added.
"We'll sign," Adam said.
"You got any more paper, or just the one sheet so far?" Craig asked.
"Uh, yeah, I've got some pens too," Ritchie said, using a burst of power to bring a cup of pens out of his bag.
"Nice control. You've been practising?" Warren asked, grinning as he remembered their Save the Citizen match.
Ritchie nodded. "Yeah. Not much time or privacy outside of school, but I'm trying," he said.
Jewel smiled and handed a clipboard to Ethan, gloves protecting him from her power.
"Why don't you come to our practise sessions? We've got the gym four afternoons a week. Tonight's out because of the language class Mr. Bowie's running, but come by tomorrow," Warren offered.
"You're going to the language class, too?" Grant asked, handing a pen to Zach.
"Yes. Are all of you going?" Layla asked as she signed the petition before passing the pen on to Wendy.
"I can't," Katherine said. "Cheerleader practice. It's easier without Penny being there and taking over everything," she admitted.
"Ah. Who are you cheering for?" Wendy asked.
"Wildcats; they're a citizen's high school basketball team," Katherine replied. "We don't exactly have a sports team here. It wouldn't compete with Save the Citizen anyway," she said, knowing that it was useless to try.
Citizens' sports were boring compared to Save the Citizen, even Katherine knew that.
"Well, good luck to the team. I hope you have fun cheering for them," Layla said with a smile.
"Oh, we've got pamphlets. There's a few UN reps on Twitter; they're all listed, so we included their phone numbers," Jewel said.
"If you want to call and let them know you're not happy about the lack of super representation on the UN, that'd really help the cause," Grant added, offering them each a pamphlet.
"Thanks. Good luck getting more signatures," Wendy said.
"Don't be late for class," Ethan called over his shoulder as they left.
Realising that the bell was about to ring, the four supers packed up as fast as possible and rushed to their lockers.
"Did you just invite all of them to our training?" Donny asked Warren.
"Yes. I figured there had to be a reason Honey told us to sign the petition. I doubt the petition itself will work, so it just seemed right when Ritchie started talking about training," he replied.
"Good thinking," Layla said, kissing his cheek. "If it goes wrong, then you have more people to practise on, Donny," she added with a bright smile.
"True," he admitted. "See you at Mr. Bowie's class later," Donny said, heading off with Wendy.
"We've both got Mad Science next," Warren said, shaking his head. "See you later, hippie," he said, kissing her briefly before leaving for his locker.
Layla smiled and headed to her locker, ignoring the fact that their friends were making loud gagging noises behind her.
...
"Good afternoon," Jared said as he entered the classroom, smiling at the small group of gathered students. "There's a few more than I expected, that's great! How are you all doing?" he asked, looking around the class. "Come on, I won't bite. Genuine question here."
"Fine, Mr. Bowie," Ethan said.
"I'm hungry," Craig said, grinning.
Jared laughed. "Great. How about the rest of you?"
"I'm kind of tired?" Jewel said.
"All right, understandable."
Encouraged by his interest and responses, the others started to respond more truthfully: tired, sore, hungry, cramping, worried, anxious, calm, happy, exhausted, getting better, drained, guilty, good, scared, worn out, alive.
"Excellent. That's a great start," Jared said, smiling at everyone broadly.
"How are you, Mr. Bowie?" Adam asked curiously.
"Fucking terrified," he replied promptly.
"What, why?" was the common response and Jared held up his hands to quiet their noise.
"First, I'm still somewhat new to teaching, so it's fucking terrifying standing here and teaching you as though I know all the answers, when I sure as hell don't. Secondly, I'm still on probation as a teacher, so if this extra-curricular class doesn't go well, I might as well kiss my job goodbye. Thirdly... I'm hungry, which affects my emotions, too. Anyone know a good food delivery place?" he asked, looking around the class.
"We can't get food delivered here, Mr. Bowie. But I can get some fruit and vegetables, if you don't mind those?" Layla suggested.
"Yeah, awesome. Don't overdo it," he added, almost as an afterthought.
Pulling out a small packet of seeds from her pocket, Layla tipped them onto the desk and grew several large bunches of grapes and apples, and a lone carrot in the middle.
"Dibs on the carrot," Craig called as Layla handed an apple to Jared.
"Thanks, Lay," Zach said, taking an apple for himself.
In a matter of seconds, the fruit had disappeared. Grant sighed when the apple turned back into a seed, and placed it back on the desk.
"Thanks anyway," he said with a slight shrug.
"Wait. Let me try something else," Layla offered, opening the classroom window.
Outside, a tree grew and shifted to an apple tree. Concentrating, Layla watched the apple grow and ripen, waiting for the right moment to retract her power, the apple falling down into her waiting hand. Closing the window, Layla offered the apple to Grant. He took it, obviously not expecting much, and looked surprised when it stayed as an apple in his hand.
"What'd you do?" Craig asked around a mouthful of carrot.
"Stopped growing it with my power. It's as natural as a power-made apple can be," Layla said. "It might be bitter, sorry," she added.
Grant bit into the apple and shook his head. "S'great. Fanks," he said with a broad apple-filled grin.
"All right. Any languages you guys want to learn? It's easier if you're actually interested in the language."
"All of them," Ethan said promptly.
Jared nodded. "Okay, ambitious, but we might get there eventually. If we narrow it down now, it's best to start with one language as it's easier for most people to learn one rather than two or three. Or more," he added when Ethan looked disappointed.
"We're currently learning ASL at the Council on Saturdays; does that count as an extra language?" Adam asked.
"All of you?" Jared asked, surprised.
Grant, Jewel, Ritchie, and the attending heart-eyed freshmen shook their heads.
"Oh, well, it's great that you're learning another language on your own initiative. It does count as another language, but as it's using hands rather than spoken, you should be okay learning it at the same time. In fact, the ASL class could even count as extra credit, just like this class. But that's for another day. We should probably get started," Jared said, turning to the board and starting to write up a list of languages. "These are the twelve languages I'm fluent in. Any spark your interest?" he asked, stepping to the side.
"I vote for Arabic," Ethan said.
"All right, that's one," Jared said, putting a tally mark next to the language.
"Spanish," Craig said, a freshmen agreeing with him.
"Mandarin," Warren said.
"Japanese," Wendy said.
"French," Jewel said, two of the freshmen agreeing with her.
"Russian," Adam said. "They're known for being really good at coding, it could help," he added in explanation when Craig looked at him in confusion.
"Korean or Vietnamese," Grant said.
"Uh-uh, just one for now," Jared said, waiting with his whiteboard marker.
"Damn. Uh, Korean."
Italian, Hindi, Portuguese, German were the last four languages on the board. Layla was one of five people who hadn't yet voted, and she looked from the languages to her fellow students.
"Spanish," Ritchie said.
"Okay, good. Last four to choose?" Jared asked, looking to the last four students.
"Italian," one student said.
"German," another said.
Layla wanted to roll her eyes at their decisions; it was obvious they didn't want to be the deciders, so they'd purposely chosen languages that wouldn't affect the end result.
"This doesn't have to be set in stone, guys," Jared said, sounding a little disappointed at the two students' choices.
Their faces burned, but neither one changed their votes.
"I heard that Arabic's really hard," the third student said hesitantly.
"It can be, but it can also be a beautiful language. For example, if I say the phrase Ya'aburnee - which directly translated means 'you bury me' - I would be saying that I hope I die before you because it would be too difficult to live without you. It's such a simple phrase, but the meaning, the devotion behind it is something that transcends even 'I love you'," Jared said emphatically.
"Can you write that on the board, Mr. Bowie?" Zach asked, curious to see how the word would translate to the written Arabic language.
"Sure," he said, writing the phrase with careful strokes and dots.
"You're sure they're words, Mr. Bowie?" Craig asked, tilting his head.
"Positive. Layla, Debbie, what are your choices?"
Debbie looked overwhelmed by the written Arabic word, and promptly chose Hindi, which left the final decision up to Layla.
"Spanish, Mr. Bowie," she said after a moment of deliberation.
"Excellent choice," Jared said. "Now, if you guys change your mind at any time, just let me know, okay? We can swap languages."
From there, he started speaking in rapid Spanish, much to the confusion of most of the class. He repeated his speech twice, then indicated to a person to answer his question using the words they'd picked up from his monologue.
It was going to be a very interesting lesson, Layla thought to herself, watching as one of the freshmen answered Jared's question hesitantly.
...
"Does it feel like your brain's trying to escape your head, or is it just me?" Craig asked with a groan as they headed to the final bus.
"It was a little over-whelming, but we went from knowing nothing to picking up at least six new words," Zach pointed out.
"The exercises helped. There are some interesting Spanish advertisements," Ethan said, flicking through the papers he'd collected.
"Yeah, great. Can you do the video thing again?" Craig asked.
"Of course. They helped?"
Craig nodded, then practically collapsed on a seat, curling around Zach's taller frame on the seat in front of him.
"Dude, go hug yourself," Zach said, shrugging him off.
"That's boring. Eth, can I hug you?" Craig asked.
Ethan shook his head, then adjusted his glasses. "I have to collate the information and find videos. I'll hug you later though," he offered.
"But that's not now," Craig whined.
"I'll hug you if you shut up."
"It's not a hug if there's no love involved," Craig said, scowling at Donny.
"C'mon, Craig; back seat," Warren said, tugging on his shirt collar.
"You're going to be like a giant heater. Hell, yes," Craig said, practically jumping over his seat to get to the back.
"That giant heater is gonna make you sweat buckets, dude," Adam said, shaking his head as he sat down after shoving Craig's bag to the side.
"Worth it," Craig called, curled up against Warren's chest.
"Why is Craig attached to you, Warren?" Layla asked.
"Brain hurts; I wanted a hug," Craig replied.
"Okay. Let me know if that helps; I've still got three hours of work to get through," Layla said with a slight grimace.
Warren wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kissed her cheek.
"Why is there an orgy happening in the backseat?" Grant asked, grinning at them as he sat down, Jewel and Ritchie on the seat across the aisle.
Craig flipped him the bird, but didn't move from his position.
"Needs to be more people for an orgy; three people is just a threesome," Warren replied, unperturbed.
"Are you offering?" Ritchie snickered.
"Are you asking?" Warren replied, rolling his eyes when Ritchie's cheeks reddened.
"Don't dish what you can't take, Ritch," Grant said, grinning.
Robin waved to Wendy as they boarded the bus with their friends from chess club. Terry looked hesitant at disturbing them, but moved closer and sat near Ethan.
"Uh, Ethan? Excuse me?"
"Yes?" Ethan asked, surprised that the students had approached him.
"Mr. Medulla said you beat him last year in the championships. Is that true?" Terry asked, his friends crowded behind him and waiting for the response with bated breath.
"Since when does Mr. Medulla lie?" Zach asked pointedly, grinning.
Terry nodded. "Can you teach me? Us? If you beat Mr. Medulla, then you must be amazing at chess."
"My mother's better than me, honestly," Ethan replied with a grin. "She'll be competing this year, so you can meet her at the competition in May."
"We can't go to the competition," Rita said, her eyes wide.
"Why not? I did," Ethan said.
"Yeah, but you actually won," Justina said.
"Sit down, kids!" Roger, the bus driver, called.
The freshmen hurried to take their seats at the front, and within minutes, the bus was flying out over Maxville.
"Didn't peg you as the type to have a fan club, Ethan," Grant said with a grin.
"I don't have a fan club," Ethan replied, frowning.
"Then you need new glasses; the chess club's practically creating 'Ethan's #1' banners."
"You might be immune to powers, but I can still smack you on the head. Stop being a dick," Wendy said, glaring.
"I'm making a point, not being a dick," Grant replied.
"You're being a dick. Takes one to know one," Craig called from the back seat, still hugging Warren.
Grant laughed. "All right, maybe I made a point in a dickish way. So why's a junior defending a bunch of freshmen?"
"Why are you asking so many questions?" Donny muttered, both annoyed and relieved that he couldn't read Grant's mind.
"Curiosity. Usually juniors, even sophomores, wouldn't give a flying... bus about freshmen. Some other seniors think you're upsetting the hierarchy," Grant said.
"Which seniors would those be?" Adam asked, thumbs poised over his phone screen.
Sensing the threat laced in Adam's words, Grant held his hands up in a gesture of peace. "It's only some of them, not the overall consensus. Most of us have too much to worry about with finals to pay much attention to what the lower grades are doing. That being said, I'm pretty sure every senior agreed to Stronghold's laser tag party so we can blow off some steam."
"I'm not going. I've got Mad Science tutoring on Saturday," Jewel added. "I'd prefer to play laser tag, honestly."
"Yeah, you're not the only one," Zach muttered.
"You guys didn't get invites, did you?" Ritchie asked.
"Sensitive, Ritch, really," Grant said, rolling his eyes.
"What? I'm curious and there isn't a subtle way to ask."
"You didn't actually ask the question," Ethan pointed out, not looking up from his notebook.
Ritchie sighed. "Fine. Why didn't you guys get invited to Will's birthday?"
"Ex-girlfriend, ex-best friend, ex-best friend, ex-best friend, current friends of the above," Zach said, ticking off his fingers.
"Will's invited the whole school; why aren't you questioning him about why he's hanging out with freshmen?" Wendy asked Grant pointedly.
Grant shook his head. "He has three motives: one, he's inviting the school as a power move to gain more popularity. Two, he needs the support of second-gen supers as Airborne and is going to choose a sidekick. Laser tag's the perfect way to see how individuals work within groups without telling those people they're basically auditioning to be his sidekick. The third motive is to get everyone in the same place for nefarious purposes, but that's more Royal Pain's style, and so last year."
Craig snorted in amusement.
"Dude, if you've just got snot on my shirt, I'm going to light you on fire."
"No, you won't. You love me," Craig said, though he pulled away from Warren briefly to determine if his shirt was snot-free or not, then settled back down.
"Are you feeling any better, Craig?" Layla asked.
"Yeah, just sleepy now," he admitted, yawning widely.
"We're about to land, hold on, dude," Adam said over his shoulder.
Craig tightened his grip around Warren's torso, and the bus hit the ramp with a slight bump. "I'm alive," he called out.
"Good to know," Adam said.
They were silent as the bus merged onto the highway and continued through traffic to the pickup parking lot.
"See you guys next week," Grant said, shouldering his bag and heading down the bus aisle as the bus came to a stop.
"Seeya," Ritchie said over his shoulder.
"We'll probably see you tomorrow; there's another two days of school left," Jewel said, rolling her eyes as she followed them off the bus.
"Hey, Heids," Zach called off, waving to his sister wildly as he got off the bus.
Heidi grinned and waved back. Ida and Anita were talking with Craig's mother Cindy, as well as Nina, Honey and Frieda, and all six women seemed seriously intent about their discussion.
"What are they talking about?" Adam asked Donny.
"Upcoming plans for a day out and chess strategies. Wait a sec, Eth," Donny said.
"Is something wrong?" Ethan asked curiously.
"Your fan club's hoping to meet your mother," he replied, nodding to where the five freshmen were hanging back and waiting.
"Robin, come on, dear!"
"What're you doing, Todd? Get in the car already; we've got to get your sister from cello practice!"
Their parents shouts had the freshmen hurrying to their respective cars, Terry, Justina, and Rita not wanting to be called out by their parents as well.
"Thanks, Donny. Would they have been that bad?"
"Bad, no. Overeager, yes. Your mother would have agreed to teach them, and it'd ruin her chances at the championship."
"Damn. How can I get them to back off? Mum's been practising hard to win. The other day she drove us to the bus and was naming cars as different chess pieces," Ethan said.
"Anita almost screamed at another driver because they didn't move the right way," Zach said, grinning.
"They moved three spaces instead of one; they were meant to be a king. It ruined the rest of the game," Ethan said.
"It was hilarious, Eth."
Donny ignored them and concentrated on the visions he could see in Honey's head. Blinking a moment later, Donny looked to Ethan. "Tell your mother the truth about the chess club. She'll be prepared to say no next week."
"Oh. Okay, that's easy. Thanks, Donny."
"No problem. See you tomorrow," he said over his shoulder, heading to his parents' car with Wendy beside him.
"Hey, Heids. How was your day at school?" Zach asked, signing to her.
Heidi rolled her eyes and started signing back, obviously annoyed at something that had happened.
"What? Did you report them?"
Heidi gave her brother a pointed look, signing a few words to basically say 'no, of course not' before continuing with her story.
"What's going on? Why's Heidi angry?" Ethan asked with a frown, pushing his glasses up his nose.
"How can you tell she's angry?" Craig asked sarcastically.
"She's obviously not that angry, or the cars would start," Adam pointed out.
Beside them, Anita's car engine started to rumble without anyone in the driver's seat or the key in the ignition. They looked to Adam, who held his hands up with a wince.
"My bad," Adam said.
"Heids, you need to calm down," Zach said, signing to her. "No, not calm down because of your emotions. You're allowed to be angry, but if you break Anita's car, we're both in deep shit, okay?"
Heidi huffed and stopped signing, stomping between the cars to try to let out some of her anger.
"Dude, what the hell happened?" Craig asked.
"An idiot substitute teacher thought she was listening to music, so they told her to take her hearing aids out, then got pissed when she didn't answer a question and berated her in front of the whole class. Heids couldn't hear them, signed as much, and they thought she was being disrespectful, so she's got detention on the weekend."
"Excuse me?" Anita asked behind them, her voice like steel.
"Uh..." Zach faltered.
"Heidi's been discriminated against because of her disability," Craig said helpfully.
"Yes, so I heard. Get in the car; we're going back to the school," Anita said, ushering Zach, Ethan, and Heidi into her car. "I wish you'd told me what had happened when I picked you up, Heidi. I could've dealt with the principal there and then."
Heidi shrank in on herself at the reprimand, even though it wasn't said harshly.
"Oh, no, sweetie. I'm not upset with you. I'm just upset that you've been dealing with this awful day for all this time and I didn't know about it. Come on, let's go; I'll give that principal of yours a piece of my mind."
"I kind of want to know what happens," Craig said, grinning.
"Public school security? I can do that with my eyes closed," Adam said. "I'll send you guys a link later," he added quietly as his mother came over.
"Ready to go, Adam? You get to choose tonight's takeaway," Ida said with a smile.
"I'm missing takeaway night? Aw, damn," Craig pouted.
"We had takeaway last night, Craig," Cindy said. "You promised to do your homework tonight since I let you skip last night," she reminded him.
"I hoped you'd forget," Craig admitted, following his mother to her car.
"I thought you would, which is why I wrote a note and set an alarm to remind myself. If you finish your homework tonight, we can have takeaway on Friday to celebrate."
"Awesome, thanks, Mum."
"See you guys tomorrow," Adam called, leaving with his mother.
"Ready to go to work, kid?" Nina asked Warren, who nodded.
"Yeah, ready. See you later, hippie," he said, kissing Layla's cheek.
"Have a good night at work," she replied before heading to Frieda's Toyota with Honey.
"Don't worry, I've got a plan."
"For what?" Layla asked, wondering if Honey meant whatever had happened with Heidi, or the chess club and Anita, or something else entirely.
"Adam. I'm going to hire him to redesign the Labyrinth website. Well, maybe. It depends how the appointment with him and Ethan goes this weekend," Honey amended.
"You have an appointment with them?" Layla asked curiously.
"Hostile business takeovers," Honey replied. "Hmm, now that I'm thinking about it, I think those might be enough for Adam. I'll get the website redone by... ah, yes. That will be just what the readers expect. Adam's work would be too good to be believable for Labyrinth. Which is unfortunate, since he'd do a splendid job. He has a good eye for detail and the flow of information."
"Are you saying all of this so I'll hire him to create the Hive's website?"
"Would I go to all that effort?" Honey asked with a smile.
"Yes," Layla said without a second of hesitation.
Honey laughed. "I suppose you're right."
...
End of the sixty-first chapter.
Thanks for reading!
