Will was having breakfast two days after New Year's Day when her phone buzzed. Things had been going better - not perfectly, but better - since our return from Meridian. Mom's birthday hadn't gone very well since it coincided with Irma getting backstage passes for a concert that weekend. Now I like listening to Karmilla as much as the next girl (as long as the next girl is Will) but I was a bit vague on how listening to them on stage is superior to the CD player.
The usual diplomatic exchange of views between Will and Mom had taken place, ending up with Mom cancelling the planned mother-daughter trip to Roseville (which sounded really interesting, except that there was zero chance I'd be able to pretend sufficient familiarity with it) and she had also forbidden Will from going to the concert.
I will admit that I had been a little out of line telling Will that I'd rather stay home and listen to her and Mom having another argument, but she had just accused me of planning to sneak out and go with the girls in her place, something that would be entirely too risky since the passes were courtesy of Irma's dad and he might well insist on dropping me off here afterwards, which would look kind of suspicious if Mom spotted him.
And then Mom had caught me in the bathroom that morning, forcing Will to spend half the day hiding in the loft while I had an excruciating awkward lunch. Mom was still fuming when I had to cover for Will sneaking out fight off another Metamoorian invasion. Doesn't Cedric ever have a new idea? And coincidentally the invasion was at the concert.
Where was I? Oh yes, the phone.
"Cornelia?" I said, recognising the caller ID.
"Will?" she asked.
"Hope. What's up this early in the morning?" I asked, keeping my voice down. She and Will had spoken just the last night, having dinner with the other girls at Irma's.
"I can't get in touch with the others." I could hear birds from the other end of the phone - she must have been calling from the balcony of her apartment.
"Hay Lin is talking to Irma and Taranee is talking to a certain Nigel."
"And how would you know that?"
"That wasn't me, it was Will's phone!" One of Will's powers was to awaken electrical appliances to some degree of intelligence. She could talk to them and get some measure of co-operation. It made me uncomfortable to be honest, particularly since I'd started to hear them too. The other Guardians could hear them, but I'd assumed it was because they were magical whereas Mom couldn't because she wasn't. If I could hear them...
I wasn't sure what it meant. Wasn't Elyon's spell supposed to make me less magical, not more?
"I heard it through the phone line grapevine, that's all," the phone added in explanation.
"Well, did Will tell you about the Interpol agents we met at Irma's house?" asked Cornelia.
"We didn't get a chance to talk yesterday and she only just woke up. What's Interpol?"
"The international police!" Cornelia hissed. "They're investigating Elyon's disappearance and they found out that her family's paperwork was falsified!"
"Uh-oh." That didn't sound good. If nothing else it meant that getting Miss Rudolph to set up false paperwork for me might not work, but if the police were poking around then who knew what else they might find out. "What else can go wrong?"
"They've been parked outside for hours! I must have made them suspicious last night."
"What for? They can't think that you had anything to do with Elyon disappearing!"
"I don't know! But the minute I step outside I bet they'll follow me. And we're supposed to go to Elyon's house today, to close down the portal in the cellar in case they manage to find it!"
I rubbed my head. "I guess that would look pretty suspicious. Okay, I'll tell Will and we'll see if we can figure something out." There were footsteps outside and I pressed myself against the wall behind the door, wriggling behind the free-standing full-length mirror that occupied that corner of the room. "Got to go!" Stabbing the end call button I held my breath as the door opened.
Fortunately, it was only Will. "Mom's getting dressed," she said quietly after switching on her CD player to mask the sound of our conversation. "You should be clear to get some breakfast soon."
"Thanks." I held out the cell phone. "Cornelia rang. Apparently Interpol are stalking her."
"Oh great. At least they're not watching us here. If they were they might notice you here."
We exchanged glances and then I pressed myself back into the corner while Will went to the window. "Okay, I think it's safe," she allowed after a moment and then gulped. "Wait, there's a suspicious looking guy down there. He's all covered up in a coat and hat."
"Well it is pretty cold out..."
Will squeaked and backed up sharply. "He just looked right up at the window! He's got to be another of the Interpol agents!"
I felt light-headed myself. What would happen if they caught me? Would I put in one of those rooms with the bright lights that make you confess to everything? "I'm gonna hide until he's gone! Is there any food that Mom wouldn't miss?"
"Cookies and fruit, probably." Will scratched her head. "She's dropping hints I should start thinking about cleaning up a bit, so I might be able to make a few things disappear for you. Do you want anything warm to wear up there?"
"I'll probably just curl up in my sleeping bag." That was a christmas gift from Cornelia - a very warm camping sleeping bag that kept me toasty warm even on the coldest nights. All the girls had been very generous at Christmas, something that made me feel a little guilty. After all, it wasn't as if I'd been able to get any of them presents.
(I'd tried drawing pictures since I figured that at least wouldn't mean spending money that Will was already sharing with me. The results hadn't been very impressive - and I don't just mean compared to Hay Lin, I mean compared to Irma's attempts at art.)
"Will!" Mom called through the door, "Could you do a little tidying up before you go out with your friends today?"
I ducked for cover again, in case she came in. Yikes, never mind Interpol! What if she'd heard me? I might want her to know eventually, but Will and I agreed it would take a lot of careful explanation or she'd blow up on us.
"Sure thing Mom!"
"And would you might turning the music down a little bit? At least until I've left the apartment? I can't hear the news."
"Sorry!" Will looked at me with one finger pressed against her lips as she adjusted the volume on the CD player.
After moment we heard Mom's footsteps moving away.
"Whew!" we mouthed at each other in unison and Will giggled. "I'll go get the laundry basket," she decided, looking at the clothes that had been kicked into corners of the room over the last couple of days. "Maybe I can sneak some fruit in with it, to tide you over."
"That'd be nice." I picked up a couple of sweaters that had been hung over the mirror for convenience and dropped them on top of yesterday's jeans before taking cover again as she went out the door.
Once the door was closed I scrambled up on the furniture to get up to the hatch in the ceiling. It wasn't particularly tricky - but Will's desk had developed a worrying creak after the first few dozen times I stood on it to reach and moving quietly was kind of important.
I was about halfway up the rope when its tendency to turn as I climbed brought the window into my line of sight.
The window and the rather startled face looking right at me through it.
While I was climbing a rope, which meant that my nightshirt (Will had declared two sets of pyjamas to be mine but despite the source, I preferred the long T-shirts that Irma had given me for Christmas) was riding up.
Oh come on! You'd have slipped too!
"Wh-" Thump. "Ow!"
Despite my best efforts I didn't get my feet under me onto the desk which meant that I landed on the floor. Fortunately there was a rug to soften the landing and even more fortunately I did manage to get my arms up to take the brunt instead of my chin.
"Honey?" "Hope!" Two concerned parties entered the room from different directions and then saw each other.
"I didn't mean to startle you," a mortified looking Vathek (Oh thank heavens it was only him at the window, I thought) protested. "Are you -"
"Aaaah!" Mom recovered from her shock and grabbed me by the shoulders, dragging me away from him.
There was a shout of "Mom!" and Will burst into the passage, the Heart of Kandrakar already in her hand.
"Will?" Mom looked down at me, then up at Will. "And Will? What is going on!?" She was still towing me away from the bedroom and I got a first hand view of Vathek sticking his head cautiously around the doorframe, evidently mystified by what was going on.
Will's view must have not been as good - or less charitably, she may have still been thinking of Vathek as Cedric's henchman. Whatever her reason, she shouted "Guardians unite!" and pink light filled the corridor.
"Wait...!" I managed to call out before Will pushed past us in full Guardian mode. "It's just..."
"Vathek!?" Will exclaimed at the top of her voice. "What are you doing here?"
"What did you just do!?" Mom demanded of her and then looked at Vathek. "And what were you doing in my daughter's bedroom?"
Honestly I felt more sympathy for Vathek at this moment, although given it was his fault I was probably going to be bruised from wrist to elbow for the next few days, that wasn't saying much. "Uh..."
They all looked at me.
"Oops?"
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.
The usual diplomatic exchange of views between Will and Mom had taken place, ending up with Mom cancelling the planned mother-daughter trip to Roseville (which sounded really interesting, except that there was zero chance I'd be able to pretend sufficient familiarity with it) and she had also forbidden Will from going to the concert.
I will admit that I had been a little out of line telling Will that I'd rather stay home and listen to her and Mom having another argument, but she had just accused me of planning to sneak out and go with the girls in her place, something that would be entirely too risky since the passes were courtesy of Irma's dad and he might well insist on dropping me off here afterwards, which would look kind of suspicious if Mom spotted him.
And then Mom had caught me in the bathroom that morning, forcing Will to spend half the day hiding in the loft while I had an excruciating awkward lunch. Mom was still fuming when I had to cover for Will sneaking out fight off another Metamoorian invasion. Doesn't Cedric ever have a new idea? And coincidentally the invasion was at the concert.
Where was I? Oh yes, the phone.
"Cornelia?" I said, recognising the caller ID.
"Will?" she asked.
"Hope. What's up this early in the morning?" I asked, keeping my voice down. She and Will had spoken just the last night, having dinner with the other girls at Irma's.
"I can't get in touch with the others." I could hear birds from the other end of the phone - she must have been calling from the balcony of her apartment.
"Hay Lin is talking to Irma and Taranee is talking to a certain Nigel."
"And how would you know that?"
"That wasn't me, it was Will's phone!" One of Will's powers was to awaken electrical appliances to some degree of intelligence. She could talk to them and get some measure of co-operation. It made me uncomfortable to be honest, particularly since I'd started to hear them too. The other Guardians could hear them, but I'd assumed it was because they were magical whereas Mom couldn't because she wasn't. If I could hear them...
I wasn't sure what it meant. Wasn't Elyon's spell supposed to make me less magical, not more?
"I heard it through the phone line grapevine, that's all," the phone added in explanation.
"Well, did Will tell you about the Interpol agents we met at Irma's house?" asked Cornelia.
"We didn't get a chance to talk yesterday and she only just woke up. What's Interpol?"
"The international police!" Cornelia hissed. "They're investigating Elyon's disappearance and they found out that her family's paperwork was falsified!"
"Uh-oh." That didn't sound good. If nothing else it meant that getting Miss Rudolph to set up false paperwork for me might not work, but if the police were poking around then who knew what else they might find out. "What else can go wrong?"
"They've been parked outside for hours! I must have made them suspicious last night."
"What for? They can't think that you had anything to do with Elyon disappearing!"
"I don't know! But the minute I step outside I bet they'll follow me. And we're supposed to go to Elyon's house today, to close down the portal in the cellar in case they manage to find it!"
I rubbed my head. "I guess that would look pretty suspicious. Okay, I'll tell Will and we'll see if we can figure something out." There were footsteps outside and I pressed myself against the wall behind the door, wriggling behind the free-standing full-length mirror that occupied that corner of the room. "Got to go!" Stabbing the end call button I held my breath as the door opened.
Fortunately, it was only Will. "Mom's getting dressed," she said quietly after switching on her CD player to mask the sound of our conversation. "You should be clear to get some breakfast soon."
"Thanks." I held out the cell phone. "Cornelia rang. Apparently Interpol are stalking her."
"Oh great. At least they're not watching us here. If they were they might notice you here."
We exchanged glances and then I pressed myself back into the corner while Will went to the window. "Okay, I think it's safe," she allowed after a moment and then gulped. "Wait, there's a suspicious looking guy down there. He's all covered up in a coat and hat."
"Well it is pretty cold out..."
Will squeaked and backed up sharply. "He just looked right up at the window! He's got to be another of the Interpol agents!"
I felt light-headed myself. What would happen if they caught me? Would I put in one of those rooms with the bright lights that make you confess to everything? "I'm gonna hide until he's gone! Is there any food that Mom wouldn't miss?"
"Cookies and fruit, probably." Will scratched her head. "She's dropping hints I should start thinking about cleaning up a bit, so I might be able to make a few things disappear for you. Do you want anything warm to wear up there?"
"I'll probably just curl up in my sleeping bag." That was a christmas gift from Cornelia - a very warm camping sleeping bag that kept me toasty warm even on the coldest nights. All the girls had been very generous at Christmas, something that made me feel a little guilty. After all, it wasn't as if I'd been able to get any of them presents.
(I'd tried drawing pictures since I figured that at least wouldn't mean spending money that Will was already sharing with me. The results hadn't been very impressive - and I don't just mean compared to Hay Lin, I mean compared to Irma's attempts at art.)
"Will!" Mom called through the door, "Could you do a little tidying up before you go out with your friends today?"
I ducked for cover again, in case she came in. Yikes, never mind Interpol! What if she'd heard me? I might want her to know eventually, but Will and I agreed it would take a lot of careful explanation or she'd blow up on us.
"Sure thing Mom!"
"And would you might turning the music down a little bit? At least until I've left the apartment? I can't hear the news."
"Sorry!" Will looked at me with one finger pressed against her lips as she adjusted the volume on the CD player.
After moment we heard Mom's footsteps moving away.
"Whew!" we mouthed at each other in unison and Will giggled. "I'll go get the laundry basket," she decided, looking at the clothes that had been kicked into corners of the room over the last couple of days. "Maybe I can sneak some fruit in with it, to tide you over."
"That'd be nice." I picked up a couple of sweaters that had been hung over the mirror for convenience and dropped them on top of yesterday's jeans before taking cover again as she went out the door.
Once the door was closed I scrambled up on the furniture to get up to the hatch in the ceiling. It wasn't particularly tricky - but Will's desk had developed a worrying creak after the first few dozen times I stood on it to reach and moving quietly was kind of important.
I was about halfway up the rope when its tendency to turn as I climbed brought the window into my line of sight.
The window and the rather startled face looking right at me through it.
While I was climbing a rope, which meant that my nightshirt (Will had declared two sets of pyjamas to be mine but despite the source, I preferred the long T-shirts that Irma had given me for Christmas) was riding up.
Oh come on! You'd have slipped too!
"Wh-" Thump. "Ow!"
Despite my best efforts I didn't get my feet under me onto the desk which meant that I landed on the floor. Fortunately there was a rug to soften the landing and even more fortunately I did manage to get my arms up to take the brunt instead of my chin.
"Honey?" "Hope!" Two concerned parties entered the room from different directions and then saw each other.
"I didn't mean to startle you," a mortified looking Vathek (Oh thank heavens it was only him at the window, I thought) protested. "Are you -"
"Aaaah!" Mom recovered from her shock and grabbed me by the shoulders, dragging me away from him.
There was a shout of "Mom!" and Will burst into the passage, the Heart of Kandrakar already in her hand.
"Will?" Mom looked down at me, then up at Will. "And Will? What is going on!?" She was still towing me away from the bedroom and I got a first hand view of Vathek sticking his head cautiously around the doorframe, evidently mystified by what was going on.
Will's view must have not been as good - or less charitably, she may have still been thinking of Vathek as Cedric's henchman. Whatever her reason, she shouted "Guardians unite!" and pink light filled the corridor.
"Wait...!" I managed to call out before Will pushed past us in full Guardian mode. "It's just..."
"Vathek!?" Will exclaimed at the top of her voice. "What are you doing here?"
"What did you just do!?" Mom demanded of her and then looked at Vathek. "And what were you doing in my daughter's bedroom?"
Honestly I felt more sympathy for Vathek at this moment, although given it was his fault I was probably going to be bruised from wrist to elbow for the next few days, that wasn't saying much. "Uh..."
They all looked at me.
"Oops?"
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.