Cartoon

Chapter Twelve

"I need to make you mine," I half-whispered, half-sang, my lavender colored hair brush gripped tightly in my palm underneath my chin. 

I looked my expression over in the mirror in front of myself and smiled. 

"Jenny don't change your number," I decided to go on, now throwing my index finger of my free hand up to my ear and tilting my head to the side a little. 

Then, suddenly, three loud knocks came from the other side of the bathroom door beside me. 

I let out a miniature scream and dropped my hairbrush in the sink. 

"Mae!" Mel's voice shouted from the other side of the door. "You ready yet?" 

I took a heavy breath and placed one hand on top of my pounding heart. 

"Y-Yeah," I shakily yelled back. 

"Well, get out here, then," she replied. 

Soon after her words left her mouth, I heard a pair of footsteps, presumably hers, begin to pace away from the closed doorway. 

"Oh, o-okay," I mumbled as I picked my hairbrush out of the sink and placed it onto the countertop beside it. I then glaced back up to the mirror, nodded at myself, and spoke up once more. "Right, yeah."

After that, I turned to the door, swung it open, stepped into the hallway, turned left, and strode my way to the door at the very end. Then, I opened that one, slipped past it, made my way into the large office area, and walked over to the side of a small table that Mel currently sat at. 

I pulled up a semi-cushioned metal folding chair and took a seat across from her. 

"You did a great job last week, Mae," Mel complimented as she tapped a thin stack of papers onto the desktop between us.

"Oh... yeah, I... I know," I responded, watching her set the pages down and lean forwards some more.

"But," she picked back up, snatching my gaze back to her face. "This is the mission that really counts."

I nodded in understanding while she looked down to sift through the information set before her.

"No pressure, though," Katie commented from her swivel chair, in front of her usual desktop computer, right behind Mel's backside. After she had spoken, she turned herself around to face me and wheeled herself swiftly up to Mel's side.

"Well, yeah," Mel went on, glancing upwards once more. "But... know that we only have limited time here, and... we may not get another chance to even get a chance like this for another few weeks, which might be too late..." Her eyes trickled down to the tabletop in between us. "For Ace, at least."

I followed her gaze and fell quiet for a moment.

"But," Katie perked up. "That's more reason to just give it your all!"

I looked up and smiled at her smile.

"Yeah, okay, little miss sunshine," Mel laughed out. "Now, Mae, pay attention."

I switched my focus back over to her as she continued.

"This evening, you will be paying a nice little visit to the basement of Mr. Antonio's pawn shop and be retrieving the official information on the whereabouts of section twenty-two. Why they chose a pawn shop to store it, I haven't got a clue, but I do imagine the whole store will be heavily secured and on video surveillance, so please be careful when you're trying to get in. I'll walk you through the steps you need to take when you get there but, before that, I want you to really pay attention to where the security cameras are and stay away from them as much as possible, okay?"