"If either one of you gets any of that face paint on the seats, I will personally make sure you clean it up," I grinned, looking at Cam and Kate as they climbed into the back seats. It was Friday afternoon, and I was parked outside the hockey arena in the area we had discussed earlier that day as a meeting spot.
"We have a little bit of a complication," Cam said right away.
"What is it?" I asked, fearing that after my warning on Monday, Kate had still managed to forget her contribution.
"I may have accidentally forgotten my school bag at Byerlin when we left this morning," Kate said, speaking more hurriedly as she saw my expression through the rear-view mirror. "But it's all packed and stuff, so is it okay if we go grab it first? I have homework to do over the weekend."
I sighed and nodded. "It's not too far out of the way, actually. I have to go in that direction anyway before we go to DQ."
"Why?" Cam asked curiously. "Brandon's house is on the other side of town, and there's an LCBO on the way there."
"I know, but I have to make a run to this part of town first," I replied, as I began to weave my way out of the parking lot, trying to get through the crowds of students and hordes of parked vehicles. Kate made a scoffing noise and I frowned. "Something wrong?"
"No," she said in her usual snide tone. "I was just thinking that since we're on a tight schedule, this can't be as important as sticking to the plan and keeping on schedule, can it?"
"Funny, I could say the same for you," I retorted. "You'd think that since we're on such a tight schedule, you would have had the foresight to remember your bag in the morning." She glared at me, unable to think of a suitable response to that. "Unlike you, though," I grinned, "my little errand is important for the plan. Can we say the same for yours?" Her glare became positively menacing, but I couldn't care less; I wasn't about to take shit from someone who never used a decent tone to talk to me. In fact, I had initially thought that I wouldn't even let Kate in on this plan, and Ben had shared my view. But then we had both realized that Cam would probably end up mentioning it to Kate at some point, whether by accident or on purpose, and then Kate would want to come anyway.
We drove without speaking much on the way to Byerlin, but Kate did manage to utter a subdued "Thanks" once we reached. Cam and I exchanged a grin once she had gone inside the school.
"So did you remind her to bring her money for tonight?" I asked.
She laughed. "Yeah, I remembered that just before I was about to leave for school! Good thing, too, she said she would have forgotten if I hadn't reminded her!" I shook my head in resignation and smiled. "So what else do we have to do in this part of town?" she asked curiously.
"You'll see in a few minutes," I said, as Kate appeared at the front doors of the school again, heading towards the car and seating herself beside Cam again.
"Thanks for this, Akash," Kate said, "I appreciate it." I was rather taken aback by the sudden change in her tone, it was much more genial than I had ever heard it. It was a pleasant surprise, though, and my previous annoyance with her vanished for the time being.
"No problem," I replied cordially. "Like I said, we have something important to do in the area here anyway, so let's get going. And I'm going to need you two to help with it." Glancing at the dial in the car, I noted that it was only half-past three. We had plenty of time.
The atmosphere in the car was much more relaxed, now that the tension had been resolved between me and Kate. I chuckled at the surprise on their faces as I pulled into the parking lot where Target and a couple of other stores were located. "Why are we going to Target?" Cam asked.
