Reynie

Reynie entered the cafeteria, nearly got hit in the head by a flying wad of someone's homework, and promptly exited. Miss Perumal had made him a lovely peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a little bag of carrots and celery and thermos of milk, all of which she packaged neatly into an insulated lunch box they'd found on sale at some store or other. He was about to head to the bathroom and eat there when he realized that he hadn't seen Kate around at all since their strange conversation in the hall that morning.

He checked the most obvious places first, but she was nowhere to be found, not even in the gymnasium – which had a very Kate-like vibe to it, what with ropes and bars and ladders every which way. Just as he had begun to worry, his phone rang.

A cell phone was a new acquisition; up until now, Reynie had lived a life quite sheltered from technology. However, in light of their integration into public school, the adults had collectively decided that for the sake of safety, it was best to provide the children with proper communication.

Constance complained immediately that she didn't understand why she didn't have a fancy device, too, to which Sticky unhelpfully launched into a lecture on the negative effects of radioactive waves on "little kids" but then semi-helpfully said she could borrow his old graphing calculator to play with, so long as she didn't erase any of his programs. This earned him a poetic barrage entailing loads of unkind rhyming and horrible phrasing; unfortunately, while her maturity might have increased in the past few years, Constance's poetic skills remained sub-par.

Milligan, for his part, presented Kate with a phone disguised as a radio. She'd been thrilled at first, thinking that this was her initiation into his little gathering of secret agents, and was less pleased to discover it was "just a dumb old phone."

Naturally, Sticky spent two minutes reading over and memorizing the entire manual; he then proceeded to engineer a case that would supposedly "preserve the exterior," in addition to a textbook's worth of aerodynamics and physics and scribbled notes on applied force that went straight over everybody's heads.

The three of them shared a plan which enabled unlimited messages and calling. While such a setup would normally delight many of their peers it was a bit of a letdown, accustomed as they were to mind-blowing missions full of danger and limit-pushing.

All of this passed through Reynie's mind as he answered his first call from Sticky. The caller ID featured a grainy photograph of him grimacing at the camera; judging by the steep upper angle, it was probably taken by Constance. Making a mental note to change it both for his sake and his friend's, Reynie answered, "Hello?"

"Hi, is Reynard Muldoon there?" Before he could answer, Sticky evidently hit himself in the head, causing a muffled thump. "I'm sorry, Reynie, I'm just terribly nervous, but it's your phone, so obviously… well, anyway. How is it over there?"

"Pretty good. Kate disappeared after homeroom, though, so I'm trying to find her."

"Hm. Did you try the exterior of the building?"

"Not yet."

"I would recommend it." He paused, then confessed miserably, "Oh, it's simply awful here!"

Reynie finally located a door leading outside – the very one that Kate had passed through a few hours before – and stepped into the crisp autumn air. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said presently. "Why is it so bad?"

"I keep sweating and polishing my spectacles and all the older children keep looking at me – I mean, they're in their twenties, after all – and I can't even get my hand up, I'm shaking so much. I got so nervous that on the first exam I almost forgot one of the definitions. And it was one of the words that I correctly answered on my highest-scoring quiz!" His voice had become quite shrill. Reynie knew that he was referring to the quizzes his parents had forced him to partake in once they'd realized his high intellect.

Trying to sound soothing while simultaneously searching for Kate, Reynie asked, "Have you made any friends there?"

"No, not really. There's a… a girl in my pottery class. She's our age; she's taking extracurricular classes here. I think she goes to your school, though."

Reynie bit back a laugh. "You're taking pottery?"

"Yes, well, I had to take an elective, and that was the only decent one; I'm hopeless at understanding anything but the psychological concepts behind music, and pottery has such an intriguing history; I mean, have you ever read… oh, there she is. I – oh." A loud clatter sounded on his end of the line.

"What?" Reynie started up the hill.

Sounding mortified, Sticky mumbled, "She waved at me and I accidentally dropped all my books."

"Come on, you can do it, Sticky!" Reynie encouraged, admittedly preoccupied as he thought he caught a glimpse of Kate, only to discover it was another student bearing a vague resemblance. "Really!"

He sounded despondent as he replied, "I hope so. Remember, I antagonized the only girlfriend I've ever had by remarking on her pulchritude. It was a compliment, for heaven's sake!"

"You aren't exactly the most, erm, average boy, that's true," Reynie conceded. Then, spotting a familiar lock of blond hair up above, he said hastily, "Oh, I've just seen Kate. I'll see you after school, okay? Hang in there!" and hung up.

With a rising sense of giddy anticipation – was he mad? He'd seen her barely three hours ago! – he hurried up the hill. Sure enough, she was sitting there, legs in some sort of pretzel position and chewing an apple as though it was the most normal thing in the world. Impossibly high above her hung a pair of tennis shoes.

"Oh, hello, Reynie," she said brightly. Following his upward gaze, she explained, "I wanted to take my shoes off, but they're new and Milligan warned me against getting grass stains on them, at least the first day, so I just tied them up there."

"But how did you get up that high? It's – you know what? Never mind. I don't think I want to know."

She pretended to be hurt, then laughed, shoving him gently (well, gently for Kate, which meant a bit roughly for a normal person), her hair falling onto the side of her face and catching the afternoon sun.

"I heard from Sticky," Reynie said to break the silence. "He's doing… well enough."

"He must be pleased to be around other geniuses like him," said Kate matter-of-factly. "I mean, despite the fact that he's so dreadfully awkward, it's just as well he isn't at high school with us."

"That's true," replied Reynie, privately grateful that he had Kate to himself. The second the thought crossed his mind, though, he felt incredibly ashamed. What was wrong with him? Had their adventures meant nothing to him? Since when was it a competition for Kate, between him and his very best friend, Sticky? He didn't know what to say, then, and thankfully the bell rang.

Kate lost no time in springing to her feet and grabbing his hand (almost yanking his arm out of his socket), and was sprinting back into the school building before he could so much as catch his breath. A split second later, she'd scampered back to race up the tree, snatch her shoes, returning in under two seconds. These things, which had once seemed odd, now were so familiar that he was rather surprised to see girls who didn't share Kate's remarkable agility and buoyant personality.

Speaking of girls, a small group met him as he was heading into school. They were at the cafeteria door and as he pulled it open, one boldly jumped in front of him.

"Hi, you're Reynie, right?" she said, flashing him a confident smile. "And you're a sophomore?"

"I… yes, I am," he responded, taken aback.

"That's awesome. I'm Sophie, I'm also a sophomore, and I think we're in a few classes together. Oh, by the way, this is my best friend Chloe" – a red-headed girl waved – "and our other friend Meg." Meg was a tall girl with thick brown hair and lots of eye makeup. "Here's my number. Text me." She handed him a slip of paper, then linked arms with her two friends and, with a friendly wink, skipped off, leaving Reynie contemplating what further interactions might prove to be as peculiar in the coming weeks of high school.