Imaginer

60 - Where There is Hostility

60

      It was a wise choice for us to spend that day together, because the first day into the countdown, I didn’t see Jacoby at all, and half the second had passed before I couldn’t stand it anymore.

      “What if something’s wrong?” I confessed my worries to Bee when we were the only two in our dorm room.

      She removed her ridiculously large headphones and raised her eyebrows. “What?”

      “What if something’s wrong?” I asked. “What if something happened to Jacoby? What if he gave too much Demophide?”

      She rolled her eyes and waved my protests away. “He’s with Tweed and Mrs. Campbell. Nothing’s going to go wrong.”

      I scoffed. “Says the person who was just as concerned as I was, what, yesterday?”

      Beatrice was silent, and I worried that I’d offended her, somehow. I needed someone to talk to, and it wasn’t the wisest choice to anger that one person.

      “Fine. Let’s go check on him.” She turned off her mp3 player, tucked it underneath her pillow, and set her headphones on the table. “Let’s go, Princess, if you’re so worried.”

      “But what if we’re interrupting them when they’re in the middle of some important process?” I said.

      “Princess. Look at me.”

      I did, and found her running me through with her signature impatient face.

      “You can’t have it both ways,” she said. “You either stop worrying about him, or check up on him. You can’t worry but not want to do anything to make yourself stop worrying.”

      I stuck my tongue out at her, and she drawled, “Don’t make me rip that out of your mouth.”

      “Ew, Bee,” I complained. I rolled out of bed and stuffed my feet into my shoes. “Let’s go.”

      “Yes, Your Highness.”

      I narrowed my eyes. “Stick with one nickname, will you?”

      Beatrice laughed. “Sure, your Royal Hiney. Which’ll it be?” She dissolved into quieter giggles. “We have a wide variety for you to select from today.”

      “Just stick with Princess, Queen Bee.”

      She gave me a shove once we neared the bottom of the steps.

      “Shut up, Whiny Hiney.”

      I pushed past her and ran up the steps. “You’re the one with the bigger hiney.”

      “What’d you just say about my ass?” she screeched.

      I laughed and raced down the path, sprinting down the trails and making wild left and right turns until I got to Tweed’s house, with Beatrice right on my heels.

      I slammed my hand against the door, shouting, “Got here first!”

      We were both laughing breathlessly until the door opened, and an angry Mrs. Campbell opened the door.

      “What do you girls want?” she snapped.

      Beatrice and I quieted immediately.

      “We wanted to see Jacoby,” I mumbled. “I mean, we wanted to know how he was doing.”

      “He isn’t here.”