“You know,” Valo said slowly, “I’m really worried.”

“About what?” Grant asked, stretching and rolling onto his back. He kicked his blanket to the foot of his bed.

“About Cassandra,” Valo replied. “What was she apologizing for?”

“I really don’t know, sweetheart.”

Valo frowned. “Maybe she’s planning to kill herself?”

“Not likely.”

“Are you sure?” Valo asked. “Is there life insurance on her?”

“Yeah, I think so. I know there’s insurance on S, so it’s likely there’s life insurance on Cassie too.”

“Does she know?”

“Yeah, she knows,” Grant replied.

“Is it null and void if she kills herself?”

“Yeah.”

Valo scratched her head. “Do you think she knows that?”

“Of course,” Grant replied. “She’s not stupid.”

Valo shrugged and murmured, “That’s true. But still… what’s she sorry for?”


Cassandra sat in a corner, watching the other women participate in various activities. She made mental notes about various women-- their quirks, their apparent fears, and so forth. Could prove useful, she thought.

One woman, a very tough-looking woman, noticed Cassandra’s gaze. “Hey, Curly Sue, what are you looking at?” she yelled. “You one of the government agents sent to spy on us, to read our thoughts?”

Cassandra froze, frightened somewhat. She’ll do, she thought. Aloud, she replied, “And what if I am?”

The woman glared at Cassandra. “I don’t want people invading my privacy. Especially government people. Do you know what I do to people who spy on me?”

“What?”

“I kill them.”

Cassandra swallowed hard. “R-really?” she stammered, frightened.


Charise stared at herself in the mirror. For the past day or so, she’d remained hidden in her room, trying to plan out what she would say to S. I’m looking pretty good, she thought. He’d be a fool to turn me down.

As she reached for the doorknob, her cell phone began to ring.

“What, what?” she muttered. She peered at the tiny caller identification screen. “It’s Dad. What’s this about?” She sighed and flipped the phone open. “Hey, Dad.”

“Charise, I hope you weren’t busy.”

“No, I was just about to go visit Dunstan,” she lied.

“Oh, I see. I was calling to ask if you wanted to come eat over here tonight.”

“Sorry, Dad,” Charise replied. “I’ll have to pass.”

“Ah, I understand,” Preston replied. “You want to spend time with your boyfriend.”

“Yeah,” Charise said. “He’s pretty awesome. You know, a few months back, at the charity concert thing at the high school, he donated a ton of money in my honor.”

“Is that so?” Preston said slowly. “Are you sure?”

“Oh, yeah, definitely. He told me himself.”

Preston fell silent. He’s a liar, he wanted to say. Damn it, why are you listening to that? I was the one who donated that money!

“Well, I have to go. Talk to you later!” Charise said cheerily, ending the conversation. She pocketed the phone and opened her bedroom door.

“Here goes nothing,” she whispered, walking out of her room and heading down the hall to S’s room. She rapped at the door. “S? Hey, S?”


Gideon peered out his own bedroom door. “S isn’t here,” he called out. “I think he said he was going to hang out with Tacita.”

“Where?”

“That really weird coffee shop. The one with the animal skeletons out back and the really funky art stuff,” Sheridon added, peering over Gideon’s shoulder.

“Oh God… the one with all the stoners?” Charise groaned.

“Don’t forget that cute guy with the long hair fetish,” Gideon added, smirking.

“Don’t remind me,” Charise groaned. “I swear, Valo looked like she was about to kill the guy for touching her hair.”

“But yeah… that’s where they are,” Sheridon said.

“Okay, fine. See you guys later!” Charise replied, rushing away from the door and down the stairs.

Sheridon and Gideon watched her, smiling to themselves.

“So, is this Plan B? Sending Charise to where Tacita and S are hanging out?” Sheridon asked.

“Yeah, I think so,” Gideon responded. “Want to go back to watching that Jeff Dunham DVD?”

“Eh, why not?”


“I just don’t like coffee, that’s all,” S said slowly.

“Well, they have tea here too. It’s really good. I like their iced peppermint tea,” Tacita replied. “You don’t even need to add sugar to it, since it’s good on its own.”

“Fine, that’s what I’ll get, then.”

“Awesome,” Tacita said approvingly. “Hey, Benny,” she added, to the young man behind the counter, “I’d like two iced peppermint teas, please.”

“Great choice,” Benny replied. “Kodie made some about two hours ago and popped it in the fridge. It’ll be nice and cold now.” He turned to the small refrigerator and pulled out the pitcher of tea and poured some into two mugs. “Here you go. That’ll be $5.”

Tacita handed him some money and passed S a mug of tea. “Here you go,” she said. “Come on, I see a table where we can sit.”

“Yeah, sure,” S replied, following Tacita to the table. They sat down and sipped at their tea.

Tacita smirked and said to S, “Look over there. At the sofa right across the room.”

S turned to look. A trio-- two males and a female, all apparently in their twenties. The woman sat between the two men. The dark haired man, who looked rather drunk, had his arm around the woman, who leaned against him. The long-haired man on her other side toyed with her fingers, just out of view of the dark-haired man.

“Classic love triangle there,” Tacita remarked. “They’re in here a lot. The guys are friends, and the chick… she’s sort of seeing Paul, the black-haired guy. But not officially, you know? Just, like, sleeping over at his place and stuff. The long-haired guy, Mark, has a thing for the chick, but he thinks Paul and Jade are a couple, so…” She nodded towards the trio. “That.”

“How do you know all this?” S asked.

“Eh, I’m kind of friends with the chick,” Tacita replied with a shrug. “She’s nice. Really weird, though. Kind of like a chick version of Donnie Darko, in a way.”

“Crazy,” S remarked.


Just then, they heard a clatter come from the direction of the entrance.

“Sounds like someone knocked something over,” Tacita said, craning her neck to see the cause of the commotion. “Hope it wasn’t anything expensive.” Then, she grinned. “Hey, look, it’s Charise! She banged into one of those damn art deco things I‘ve been telling Benny to toss out. Maybe he‘ll actually do it now...”

“What?! Charise?!” S exclaimed.

“Hey, Charise!” Tacita called out. “Over here.”

Charise looked over, and, seeing the pair, began to walk over.

Oh God, S thought, biting his lip. What now? More drama?