It was admittedly a little awkward for me at first. The only girl I’d had inside my personal space for more than a few moments at a time was my ex, Electra. That said, it didn’t take long for me to loosen up.
“So,” Vestibule droned after a few seconds, “you seem to be adjusting well to West Coast living.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Well, this is what – the third event you’ve attended out here in the past few weeks?”
“Fourth,” I corrected.
“Really?” she muttered, seemingly surprised. “Getting sucked in by the glitz and glamour, are we?”
“It’s not like that,” I insisted. “My mom and grandparents are traveling abroad at the moment. The rest of my family is trying to keep me from spending a bunch of time by myself in an empty mansion.”
As I spoke, I reflected on what I was saying and – although it was generally true – it was a complete understatement of the actual facts. My mother and grandparents were actually off-planet, traveling the stars and finally bonding as a family unit after decades apart. It was time they sorely needed together, but it did leave me on my own to a large extent (although, in all honesty, I wasn’t completely alone).
“I assume that this extended family you’re talking about is your cousin Avis,” Vestibule remarked, interrupting my thoughts.
I nodded. “Yes, but you already know that. You’ve been at a couple of events that she invited me to.”
“Must be cool to have one of the most powerful supers in the world finagling invites for you to exclusive events.”
I frowned. I got the impression that Vestibule was trying to tell me something, but in a roundabout way. She had mentioned my cousin Avis – formally known as Rara Avis – who was indeed one of the preeminent capes on the planet. She was also a fixture on the celebrity circuit, with a reputation for partying hard, so getting tickets to star-studded events and such was no big deal for her. More to the point, Avis had recently been reaching out to me since my immediate family had left, probably at the behest of my mom or grandparents (or perhaps even my father, who was her paternal uncle). To be fair, however, Avis’s sisters – Monique and Vela – had also made overtures.
“I remember when I was trying to decide which team of supers to join,” Vestibule continued. “I must have gotten invites to a thousand galas, movie premieres, con–”
“Wait a minute,” I interjected, almost coming to a stop on the dance floor as I finally caught on. “Are you saying that all this – all these parties and premieres I’ve been getting invited to – are just a recruiting junket? An attempt to get me to join the A-List?”
“Officially, I’m not saying anything like that,” Vestibule replied. “But unofficially…”
She trailed off, which essentially let me know that I had guessed right.
“Why are you telling me all this?” I asked.
Vestibule looked away for a moment, and I sensed a small emotional conflict within her.
“You were going to find out eventually,” she admitted after a few seconds. “And when you did, you were going to discover that I knew about it, and I didn’t want you to think poorly of me.”
“Think poorly of you?” I repeated, finding it an odd choice of words. “What do you mean?”
“I didn’t want you thinking that I’m only being friendly as part of some recruiting effort. I wanted you to know that I’m hanging out with you because I think you’re a lot of fun.”
“Well, I knew that,” I almost exclaimed, grinning. “I’m major fun.”
“I’m serious,” she said, trying not to giggle. “I didn’t want you getting the wrong idea about me, which could still happen with your buddy telling you what a selfish, brainless airhead I am.”
“You mean Smokey?” I asked. “He didn’t say anything like that.”
“Oh, really?” Vestibule muttered in a skeptical tone. “I saw the look he gave you earlier – like he was shocked I could string together two syllables.”
“Not true,” I insisted, shaking my head. “He was just surprised that you knew how to conjugate verbs.”
Vestibule immediately started giggling, and I found myself chuckling as well, taken in by her ability to laugh at herself.
“Look,” I said after a few moments, “I admit I had some preconceived notions about you, but I was wrong. So whatever I or my friends thought before is irrelevant. As far as I’m concerned, you and I started over with a clean slate, and if you give him a chance, I think the same can be true of you and Smokey.”
“All right,” she said with a nod. “I’m willing to put forth the effort.”
“Great,” I uttered. “I know Smokey will as well.”
“Good,” she declared. “Now, since you mentioned giving people a chance, I thought I should say something: my cousin thinks you’re cute.”
“Huh?” I muttered in surprise. “Your cousin?”
“Catalina,” Vestibule replied, tilting her head towards an area just off the dance floor.
I looked in the direction indicated and saw Vestibule’s cousin, who generally went by “Cat,” talking to a guy dressed like a cowboy. She was our age and very pretty, and I’d actually met her the previous week at the movie premiere (where she’d been Vestibule’s plus-one). However, she tended to do her own thing at events rather than hover around her famous cousin, so I really hadn’t had a chance to get to know her.
At the moment, I couldn’t help but notice that Cat had taken her nickname to heart with respect to her costume. Basically, she was wearing a skintight bodysuit that bore a cheetah print, along with matching ears and a tail. In addition, she’d gotten an elaborate bodypaint job done that not only gave all exposed areas of her skin the same big-cat semblance, but also made her
