“I’m not one of them, you know. I hope that thing is accurate.” She turns away from him and cradles her drink with one hand. “Eh, it probably doesn’t work anyway.”
“It does work!” he says. “I know you’re normal.”
Ron smiles a little, taking a sip to conceal it. This guy is so full of himself. He’d be easy to cozy up to—just gotta stroke his ego—but she’d rather not. She stepped into this bar with the intention of asking for his help, but now, she understands why Giselle spoke about him like that. She’ll just tell Iris and Giselle later on that she decided not to ask him, but that means she has to come up with a different plan now.
Ron turns back to him, holding her glass. “Oh yeah? How would you even know that it works for sure?”
“I’ve tested it. It works.”
“On who? There a gifted person in this town?”
Carl’s eyes open wide for a split second and then narrow again. “I don’t gotta prove anything to you. Stay out of my way.”
He turns to go back to the table.
“Yeah well, just make sure you stay out of my way too,” Ron says. “Don’t need a delusional ‘genius’ like you ruining my search.”
He turns back to Ron. “Delusional?” He shakes the scanner in Ron’s face. “This works, okay? I’m not delusional.”
Ron gives him a pity smile. “Sure it does, mister.”
She turns back to the bar.
“Hey Carl, she’s just a kid, man. Don’t let her get to you,” another guy says. Probably someone from the table who came over.
Carl huffs. “I’m not letting her get to me. Whatever. Let’s get out of here. We’ve got important things to do tonight.”
The two of them leave, and Ron assumes the rest of the table does too, but she doesn’t bother looking over to confirm.
Important things, huh?
Looks like she won’t be going home just yet.
Chapter 15
Li returns to the hexagon room from the door to her office, making me jump.
“Let’s go have brunch. I’ve called a meeting,” Li says, like it’s no big deal that she scared me or that I’m still in this room.
“Do I have to go?” I say.
“You don’t have to do anything. But what? You aren’t going to eat then?”
I put an arm around my stomach. I am feeling pretty hungry, since I only had some garlic bread last night for dinner. Now that I think about it, I should have gone earlier, as soon as brunch started. Then I might have run into just a few people.
“Are you coming or not?” Li says.
I’ll just go for the food.
I stand up.
Li walks past me and out the door that leads to the hall. I follow after her, out of the Main House. Some sleepy-looking kids and teens are dragging themselves from the cabins to the pavilion behind the kitchen. When we get to the kitchen, it’s pretty quiet. Looks like most still haven’t gotten here yet.
Perfect.
In that case, I might be able to scarf something down and head out before it gets crowded and the meeting starts.
On the table are large heated pans of scrambled eggs, French toast and bacon. Li goes before me, putting mostly French toast on her plate, then she heads out to the tables.
I’m kind of tired of all the bread I’ve been eating lately so I just take one piece of French toast, and fill up the rest of my plate with eggs and bacon. I hurry outside to the tables and stop short right outside of the door.
The tables are mostly empty still, but Hunter is sitting at one of them with the kids from Cabin 2. He doesn’t seem to notice me.
I sit at a table closest to the kitchen door, my back to Hunter and the kids. I eat quicker than I ever have before. It probably only takes me like five minutes to eat. I do my best not to look up every time the door opens so I don’t have to see how they look at me, but I can tell the tables are filling up more and more. I still feel kind of hungry by the time I’m taking the last couple bites of eggs but decide not to risk getting more food.
I stand up with my plate.
The door opens in front of me and out walks Remington.
He smiles. “Oh, hey Chrys.”
I look around, hoping no one has heard him. Has his voice always been so loud?
Hunter is looking up at me now, but luckily the kids with him are still busy chatting among themselves and eating.
“Uh, hey,” I say, and then hurry past Remington.
“Going back for seconds?” he asks.
I ignore him and walk into the kitchen. I put my plate in the big tub by the sink and go out the door. I almost bump into a kid who’s coming in.
“Jesus,” he says. “You scared me half to death, Grim Reaper.” He laughs, pushing past me.
I swallow hard, rooted to that spot. From here, I can see the whole camp walking towards me from the cabins. There’s no way I’m going to walk in that direction.
I’ll have to take the long way.
I turn left, into the forest, and walk towards the Main House, around the perimeter of the camp. Walking towards the pavilion would have been shorter, but I’m worried someone might hear me creeping around in the forest.
After about fifteen minutes, I make it to the back of Cabin 10. No one is out and about anymore either, so I walk around the cabin to the front, shoulders finally relaxing a bit. I’ll be able to be alone and think for at least a half an hour.
I go up the steps and through the door.
My breath is caught in my throat. Valeria is sitting on my desk chair with the chair facing towards Hunter’s bed. She’s hunched over with her head in her hands.
She looks up after I enter and then stands up. She hurries over to me. Her
