Hey, so I realized that I haven't been spacing these right and they haven't been putting a space after every paragraph when I upload the chapters. Whoops! I think I fixed it this time, so sorry about that.
Sticky
"No," said Constance stubbornly.
"Please come out. I know you're upset," said Mr. Benedict. He, Miss Perumal, Rhonda, Number Two, Sticky, Reynie, and Kate were gathered outside her door.
"No," repeated Constance.
"Constance, I'm sorry I yelled at you," said Sticky. "Although I can't help but feel that my point was a logical one and if you'd had the patience to wait around and hear me out, you might have been impressed by my reasoning."
Kate hit him in the head, making slashing motions against her throat. Constance started screaming incoherently, causing Sticky to wince.
"Nice try," Reynie said helpfully.
When Constance was done, Kate spoke up. "Listen, Connie-girl, I know you're angry that we – well, I'm not sure exactly what we did. But whatever it was, we're sorry, and we still need you to be part of the Society. So will you come out? Please?"
There was a long stretch of silence while everyone waited expectantly. Then the door slowly unlocked and there was the sound of furniture being dragged around. Finally, Constance opened the door, looking red and rather tear-stained. She sniffled once.
"Are we eating now?" she asked. They said yes, and Constance then proceeded to refuse her chicken and instead ate two and a half cherry pies for dinner. Everything was back to normal.
Sticky, for his part, felt horrible for yelling at Constance. Clearly, he was an incredibly kind and giving person at heart. The only problem was his voice of reason, which seemed to lord over everything he might be feeling. Particularly when it came to Cleo.
As difficult as things were for Kate and Reynie, they were possibly more difficult for Sticky. He was at a social disadvantage to begin with – he'd grown accustomed to being an outcast, he looked and talked quite conspicuously different than anybody else, and his nature was not a typical teenager's one. Not to mention that he was going to university with, basically, grown ups, and his intelligence was evident and not universally-accepted.
To add a girl to the mix was almost unfair. He picked at his dinner, thinking about Cleo. She was just so warm, so nice, with her round hazel eyes and thick russet hair…
"Sticky?" asked Reynie questioningly. "Sticky! Mr. Benedict just asked you a question."
Sticky started, then blushed. "Sorry. What was it?"
Mr. Benedict chuckled. "I was going to ask how your first day went. You're clearly distracted – is that a good or a bad sign?"
Constance cleared her throat. Sticky looked at her – was she going to disclose the details she'd picked up in reading him? She gave him a slight shake of her head, and, showing unexpected maturity, asked, "May I be excused?"
Number Two squealed in delight. "I've been trying to get her to say that since she got here!" she explained to the others around the table. "I'm so proud of you, Constance."
"Don't be," Constance said, compensating for her momentary politeness. "You can thank me later," she added in an undertone to Sticky, who now understood in a rush of gratitude that she was preventing herself from blurting something out. He couldn't help but feel touched.
"My day was… good," he said. Reynie and Kate smiled at each other; he had filled her in on Sticky's incident with Cleo, but they'd agreed not to talk about it to adults who, while caring, might end up asking embarrassing and invasive questions.
"How were the classes?"
"Easy," he said. "I know more than some of the seniors in my history course."
"I can't say I'm surprised." Mr. Benedict turned to Reynie and Kate. "And you two! I'm curious to know, how did Kate function in a public school setting?"
Reynie looked at her. "I think she did no better or worse than one would expect someone like Kate to do," he said carefully.
"Oh, stop being so diplomatic," Kate said, shoving him playfully on the shoulder. Laughing, he returned to his dessert, leaving the rest of the adults to make small talk.
When the children – or teenagers, now – cleared away the dishes, Sticky asked quietly, "Thanks for not mentioning Cleo."
"No problem," Reynie said. "I think we satisfied Mr. Benedict just by coming home safely and not doing anything crazy to necessitate federal involvement."
"How was your first day, though?" asked Kate curiously. "Aside from Cleo."
"It was… bad," confessed Sticky. "I stick out like a sore thumb. I don't have social skills. I know that now. You guys are just more accepting and open-minded than others."
"Come on, Sticky," said Reynie reproachfully. "I'm sure it's not that bad."
"Maybe. Maybe I'm making it up in my mind. I just hope tomorrow is better than today."
"I'm sure it will be," said Kate reassuringly.
Unfortunately, it wasn't.
Okay, that was probably kind of a depressing ending. I think that when they return to school, Kate will get into some sort of run-in with the girls flirting with Reynie, Sticky will get himself into a, well, sticky situation, and I don't know about Constance yet.
I actually think I had already written a lot more in this fic awhile ago, but I lost the document on my computer! So this isn't going in the direction I originally planned, but I really hope you guys still like it. Review!