Chapter 9

Tria entered the cafe looking as casual as possible. No one had to know unless she was sure that she would never set foot on this floor again. She sat beside Pal, as usual. Well, she didn’t sit right beside him, because then she would have no table space. So, she sat one seat away from him.

“Have you started on your good copy yet?” Tria asked Pal who still did not seem to know that Tria was there until he heard her voice.

“Oh, heavens, no!” Pal said. “I’m still on the climax.”

“What’s the climax?” Tria asked. Pal just stared at her for a bit until she quickly added, “I don’t mean no spoiler alerts, but I’m totally fine with hearing it.”

Even as Pal stared at her, he looked as though he was just bursting to tell her. But, he knew all about spoilers. So, as you must know, he was delighted to say, “Well, then! I will be more than happy to tell you!”

Pal started his story. “Well, you see, my big group o’ friends and I are nature rescuers. There’s also this team that is trying to break dis old boat that is carryin' a shipment of glue. They all took their big bows and arrows and stuff.  They’ve already made this big crack and all the oil is going to spill with one more arrow.”

Pal then looked down to his notes and read off a paper full of scribbly writing. “My team and I all burst in with a big scary entrance before they can manage another shot. Everyone runs away except the boss. He has a big cool bow that looks kinda like the ones in th’ hunger games but way, way more heavy duty. He quickly aims a shot right out at dat core of the boat.” Tria looked wide eyed. “Intense right?” Pal said smugly, brushing back the little hair he had left.

“Good thing ma numba one sidekick comes into play! He throws a stone shot on the arrowhead and knocks it off course. By now oil is slowly sliding out of the boat.” Pal took a quick break to breathe. That gave Tria some time to think.

Wow, this explaining could be better. But, eh. What can you expect?

Pal quickly started talking again. “Everyone went on to fight him, but he just threw them back to where they were. So, then everyone on my team except me ran away. Now we was even. He aimed one more shot, but I had no one to throw a rock at the arrow, no one to fight him. I launched at him, just in time for his shoot. But, it was already flying through the air with no intention to stop.”

Pal had so much to read, that he flipped over his paper to read more. “Luckily I’d set that arrow shooting a teensy bit off course. It hit the glue bag above the crack in the ship, and wet glue slowly slurped and gurgled down the boat, stopping right where the crack was.” Tria smiled. She was afraid he might make a sad ending. “Wadda you know?” Pal asked Tria, though she had no time to answer. “Neither glue nor oil got into the ocean, and we’d scared that evil team away for good.”

“Great!” Tria exclaimed. “It’s real great.” She quickly got up and left. Home time.

Tria burst through the door, thinking of good excuses to be able to go to the All3way without her parents knowing. “What’s new?” Tria’s dad said casually. “Last Volleyball practice!” Tria mumbled quickly and more worriedly than she intended it to come out. Her mind was so full of excuses that may only have a 20% to 70% chance of working on her parents.

“Is something up?” Tria’s dad asked.

“The sky?” Tria said, making it still very obvious she was in trouble. Uh, that sounded pretty dumb. “I mean math test!” Whoo, glad I remembered that!

Tria still looked very suspicious in her dad’s eyes, but at least it would hold up the questions for now. The rest of the day went by really quickly. So, there is not much to tell about that night.

The next morning, Tria walked over to Chloe’s house. Chloe’s parents were not there that time. That was a good thing for Tria because they would always crowd over her, telling her what good friends she a Chloe where, or telling boring stories about Chloe’s early childhood. (In those times, both Tria’s and Chloe’s face turned bright, bright pink) “Terrible agony” as Chloe described it.

“What we doin’ now? Taking more notes?” Tria asked Chloe while hanging up her coat.

“No,” Chloe said dramatically. “We’re solving the crime!”