Reaction 3.1
▲
Taylor
⧗
Now
The arcade visit two days ago went off without a hitch, culminating in a short stop at the prize counter near the entrance. According to the attendant, the selection was expanded last weekend, which definitely seemed to be the case considering how interested the Dallons looked. The reward that gained most of Amy's attention was a Cthulhu plushie, nearly two feet tall and aquamarine in color, overlooking its gaming domain from the safety of the top shelf. We swiped that one immediately.
Lisa, of course, had her eyes on a smug-looking fox, sharing its grin when I handed it to her. While I found the thing cute as well, the one I liked even more was a similarly-sized flannel moth sitting next to it. It was just so damn
fluffy, the floppy antennae especially!
We'd gotten it as well. Obviously.
I expected Victoria to get a plush too, what with our collective haul from Skee-Ball, Depth Crawler and that blasted punching machine, but she was fine with just two starburst hair clips, silently watching us with an oddly soft smile.
During the walk back home after stuffing our mouths at a pizza place, Victoria spotted some space warping and flew on ahead to investigate. The three of us found her talking to Vista with a forlorn expression, Kid Win floating above on his hoverboard in an ever-expanding circle. According to Amy, the green-clad Shaker knew Victoria's boyfriend as well, and had apparently taken his move nearly as badly as the older blonde herself. She certainly appeared rather rigid; way less cheerful than the media showed. Their hug didn't help much, either, so this was pretty serious.
I was still far too unsure about my judgment of the Wards; my feelings mixed and shifting, so many of them negative. Ultimately, I resorted to standing at a distance, stewing in my thoughts with Lisa and Amy keeping me company. At least I wasn't alone then, because otherwise I'd have just left.
The chat didn't last long, as the Wards were ordered to keep going. I wasn't surprised much when Victoria decided to tag along with them — she was
quite enthusiastic with her coaching back at the arcade. I figured she still needed to punch something, and as long as she was careful? Beating down on gang members sounded pretty therapeutic.
Thus, it was just us three, left to our own devices.
Of course, arriving at my home with no supervision whatsoever, we did what any group of three perfectly sane teenage girls would do in our situation: kick off a lengthy discussion featuring numerous crimes against nature.
…Okay, not really. Almost.
In reality, me and Lisa spent a good twenty minutes catching Amy up on my power. While she did know the basics already, the fact that I could combine thorns into spikes was still new to her, for one — I was far from verbose back when I told her of our Empire encounter.
Another discovery was a formula, courtesy of Lisa — a fruit of experimentation, boredom and curiosity. It described how long it would take for me to summon a brand new thorn: for each one already active, the time was essentially doubled. Though I still had yet to memorize the effect spikes had on the equation, I knew from all my testing that the lowest was eight tenths of a second.
Victoria would've found this fascinating, there was no doubt about it, however I was set on avoiding any mention of my powers to
anyone beyond my teammates. This was, of course, common sense — like with most capes that weren't unmasked, my team and I benefited from anonymity; the incredibly powerful ability to lead a double life. Were said anonymity threatened, anyone close to us would be in danger by default, and that extended to ourselves tenfold — in costume or not, it didn't matter.
It wouldn't be hard for the blonde Dallon to slip up somewhere, considering how prone she was to gossip about everything. And it didn't even have to be with civilians — just her mom would be more than enough to screw things up. Amy would get yelled at, and probably grounded until college. Judging from her stories, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to expect her to get banned from associating with us, either — we
were encouraging the healer to be more creative with her powers.
Regardless, with the catchup completed, I suggested testing a new interaction: Lisa and Amy's powers, merged within a spike. I've been intrigued by the possibilities ever since Amy pointed out her biokinesis, thinking of different ways the combination could express itself: would it focus on Lisa's intelligence, offering ideas for augmenting brains? Draw from her 'intuition', granting even more innate knowledge of any living matter touched? Lean towards Amy's potential, showing ways of optimizing even the most complex of organs? Something completely different?
A bit of everything, apparently.
Amy had christened it a 'tech tree', a term I remembered hearing from several of Greg Veder's monologues, both her and Lisa's excitement skyrocketing once I described my sensations in full. Touching a grape with the spike caused a web of options to bloom in my mind, some of them unavailable and locked behind others. I could make the small fruit bigger, replace all of its insides with seeds,
remove the insides entirely, apply an addictive effect… Not counting the unavailable ones, there were at least twenty changes I could select from and, considering the 'test subject', it felt like barely even scratching the surface.
My first attempt was to enlarge the grape, and it was only then that I noticed the price — each alteration had one, marked by varying,
vague feelings of volume. There were also fractions, but I ignored them for the time being, focusing on selecting enough biomass within the grape in my hand. The price for enlargement was small, about half of my subject in total, and, as soon as I had confirmed it, the aforementioned half disappeared.
…And then began growing back. And so did the grape after that. Amy's face was priceless as she stared at the resulting fruit. Lisa's evil cackles only added to the effect — the grape was the size of an apple, yet it was just as dense as before. Amy called my power bullshit, Lisa demanded a taste, and that was as far as we'd gotten thanks to Victoria crashing the party.
In hindsight, it
was getting late, though we were still annoyed by the delay.
…Which brought us to now, two days later, Amy at my door; a tote bag over her shoulder, anticipation in her eyes. She was wearing a black Linkin Park shirt and a pair of denim jeans, sporting several holes that were probably intentionally made. While I never really got the point of that trend, she was certainly rocking the look.
"C'mon, let's do this. Where's Lisa?"
"Upstairs. Did you bring me some biomass?"
"Duh." Amy tapped at her bag. "
You're doing the groceries next time."
I snorted and let her in, beelining towards the stairs. Two long days of waiting only made us more eager to continue.
While I and Lisa could've technically kept going, Amy was part of the team, and her power was part of the interaction. Even if I could resummon any previously-existing constructs, I still would've felt pretty bad, testing it without her.
Then again, I couldn't, so the point was moot regardless.
We stepped into my room, and Lisa looked up from her laptop.
"Took you long enough. Sup." She glanced at the bag and grinned. "You've come prepared, I see."
"Not like I'm letting you two violate nature without me."
"Oh?" The blonde raised an eyebrow. "Well, you're more than welcome to join."
I didn't need to see Amy's face to know that she rolled her eyes. "Screw you, Lisa. Scooch. What are you up to, anyway?"
"Oh,
you know…" Lisa drawled with smugness, eyeing me and Amy as we sat by her sides on the bed. This thing was designed for one person, so Lisa getting squished was inevitable.
Not that any of us minded, really — those new wine-red fox-themed pajama bottoms made her even softer than usual. Though she could've gone without stealing the owl shirt from my wardrobe…
"...You're hacking the PRT again, aren't you," Amy guessed, exasperated.
"Guilty," was Lisa's answer.
Amy sighed. "God damnit."
"To be fair," I commented, "what she's doing is useful. We need all the info we can get, and we can't be everywhere at once."
'Yet', I avoided saying. I'd think of something, eventually — having more range would be invaluable for our safety.
"Also, without me,
you wouldn't have known about Acrid," Lisa pointed out, still tapping away at her keyboard. "He might just be a theory, but better safe than sorry, right?"
She kept on periodically switching between several command prompt windows, mostly just keeping an eye on them as she rifled through PHO. And
that was without even mentioning the dozens of browser tabs opened — I would've gotten a migraine just by trying to find the right one.
Amy groaned in response. "Yeah, I guess…" She paused for a moment. "Still feels…"
"Wrong to do this? Sure. It might, but think of it this way: Coil is
also in on this —
I'm just leveling the playing field." The Thinker huffed in annoyance, refreshing the page yet again. "Even with this, we're at a massive disadvantage. Probably always will be, unless we get an anti-Thinker." Which would be dangerous in its own right, most likely. "And we still need to deal with the mercs, and the Undersiders — wow, feels weird to say
that — and whoever else the fucker has on retainer." She rolled her neck. "Lots to do, that's for sure."
I squeezed Lisa's free hand.
Humming in acknowledgement, Amy leaned back against the headboard. "Do we even have a plan for him yet?" Another pause. "'Cause I'm helping too."
I flashed a grateful smile at her, to which she answered with a shug. Even though she'd already agreed to join our team, I was still reasonably worried that she'd refuse to help with Coil. Hearing that she was willing to pitch in… It was like a weight being lifted from my chest. With her, we might actually stand a chance. With her, we had
options.
Lisa, though, looked conflicted. That wasn't a good sign.
"Amy…" she began. The softness of her voice surprised me. "You don't have to do this. Really, you don't have to."
…What? I mean, she was right, but… why use such a tone? Did I not pick up on something?
Clearly, I didn't, because Lisa's words seemed to have struck a nerve.
"I'm
helping. Shut up." Amy was almost growling, her freckles scrunched up in annoyance. "Shut up or I'll mute you," she added. What did I not see?
To that, Lisa just sighed, then passed her laptop to me. She turned around on her side, facing Amy's glare head-on.
"Amy."
"
What."
"Coffee shop."
"What?"
I blinked, not following as well. Was this the monster thing again?
…No, doubt it. We haven't yet done any testing. Was it something about Coil? Fuck, I didn't know.
"Remember what I told you in the coffee shop, Amy. The first thing, not the second."
Hmm, 'coffee shop'… What else did Lisa mention? Shitty adoptive mother? Fear of turning evil? Fear of earning a kill order? Fear of us leaving for..?
Oh.
"Taylor already got it," Lisa said, confirming my guess. "Remember who you are — a person, not a power."
"Yeah, Amy, we're still here." I reached over and touched her hand, partially hidden by the crossing of her arms. "We won't leave. Promise." Not like Emma.
Never like Emma.
Amy looked away.
"I don't want you boarding the 'fuck Coil' train in an attempt to be fucking
useful," Lisa continued, now serious, and I found myself nodding to her. "Nor of obligation, for that matter. Of..? From..? Ugh, fuck grammar.
Moving on." She sighed. "I'm only okay with you contributing if you actually, genuinely
want to. Because, reminder — you don't
have to. We won't suddenly run off. I get that living with Brandish made you think that you're just a tool, but
that's not how people work." A pause. "Well, some do. Not us, though."
"But-"
"No buts, don't even think about it. Yes, your power is bullshit. Yes, it's extremely useful. But if you don't want to help out, then
don't. Will I be annoyed? A bit, but I'll respect the choice, and I'll deal." Lisa shrugged with one arm. "Always have. Got it?"
Amy groaned again, both eyes closed this time. "You and your words. Jesus."
"Thinker five~" Lisa grinned. "And Trump. And Stranger, somehow." She shook her head, chuckling. "Dunno what they're on, but I want some."
Amy's lips have quirked upwards. "Still not sure where the Stranger bit came from."
Before we got completely derailed, I poked her in the shoulder. "Are you okay now?" I asked, not wanting to leave this unresolved.
"Yeah. I guess," she grumbled. "I still want to help you, though."
"Want?"
"Want."
"Okay," I agreed. "And thank you." I just hoped she knew what she'd signed up for…
She shot me a lazy thumbs up, then sat up, opening her eyes again. "Carol talked about you two yesterday, by the way." Oh. Oh dear.
Amy was smirking now, though, so it shouldn't be too bad. Right?
I was still mildly annoyed that we couldn't just text about this, but all of us have agreed to keep the cape stuff as secret as possible. If even one of us wasn't careful enough…
"Hmm? Oh." Lisa arched her eyebrows. "Interesting."
I rolled my eyes and lightly elbowed her in the ribs.
"Et tu, Taylor?"
I sighed. "Just let her talk, Lise. And stop using your power for everything — we still need it for the experiments." I looked at the laptop on my lap. "Oh, should I..?"
"Nah, gimmie. There. Not much new info yet, anyway." She closed the device and handed it to Amy.
"What do you want
me to do with this?"
"
You're the closest to the nightstand."
"You can reach it too, you know."
"Yes, but I'm lazy."
"You think
I'm not?"
Suffice it to say, I burst into giggles. This was just all too much.
▲
"...And I just sat there with a shitty poker face. Nobody noticed, I think. Fingers crossed?"
Amy's tale of her mother's antics was as entertaining as it was concerning. Mostly due to her paranoia, and her urgent warning to steer clear of Nebula. According to Lisa, the PRT logs didn't link her two identities outright, but the info Amy gave contradicted that — Brandish was informed by Armsmaster himself. That, of course, resulted in her alerting both Amy and Victoria, as she 'didn't want them to fall prey to the whims of an enemy Thinker'.
Lisa appeared amused by it, but I could tell that she was worried too.
"Welp. Better than having Halbeard showing up on our doorstep again."
Amy blinked. "Wait, what?"
"That was right after Sophia."
"Yeah, he came with Miss Militia," I clarified. "It's how I got into Arcadia, actually."
"Huh," Amy managed. "That explains it." She chuckled. "I like how you maimed a bitch and they
still gave you a transfer."
I pressed my lips into a straight line. "She
was one of my bullies. And I let them read my diary."
"Wait, you have a diary?"
"Sorta? They took it for evidence. And it wasn't what you would expect it to be — just a daily log of all their
'pranks'. There wasn't much else to write about."
"Oh," Amy said. "Sorry." She huffed in annoyance. "I'd hug you but Lisa's in the way. Blame her."
A giggle escaped me. "Sure, I forgive you."
Lisa, meanwhile, gasped. "You can climb over just fine, you know."
"That implies laborious movements," Amy retorted. "I came here to flip off Mother Nature, not…
move. Eugh."
Lisa and I shared a glance. I could just… Oh, yep, she's gotten the same idea.
Some shuffling later, and the problem was no more.
"Better?" I asked Amy, with Lisa now behind me. The former had simply shrugged, then rolled into my embrace.
Being hugged by both of them, at the same time, was just… wonderful. All of my stress vanished, if only for a moment. Lisa and Amy, too, seemed to agree with my judgment, almost melting into me, no longer as tense.
Amy was the first one to break the cozy silence, her voice slightly muffled by my shoulder. "Weren't you there too, Lisa?"
"Wh-"
"During their visit. Did they not question you?"
"Ha! If they did, I'd not be here right now," Lisa answered smugly, and I could
hear her grin. "No, don't worry, I hid. They never even saw me~"
"Maybe that's where the Stranger rating came from?" I joked.
Lisa snorted. "Doubt it."
"Hmm." Amy grimaced. "You think they will come back?"
Lisa's grip became rigid. "I sure fucking hope not."
Once again, I felt tension in the air, mixed with a fog of silence. We had far too many enemies to make plans against already, and adding the Protectorate to that list felt wrong… And yet, we had to, didn't we? Coil would surely exploit them. Pull some strings in the PRT, cause some effect by proxy, catch us unawares…
I shuddered.
"Um, how about we continue where we left off?" I summoned a thorn next to each of them, ending the double hug. "Not like we're gonna fight Armsmaster." And we needed a distraction. And resources. And weapons…
"Please don't jinx us like last time, Taylor." Like last..? Oh, right, the Coil mercs.
"Sorry?"
Lisa just waved me off. "It's fine, best not to dwell on it."
As she said that, I reached over Amy for her bag. Oddly enough, her plush was here too. "Why'd you bring Cthulhu?" I asked.
Amy frowned momentarily, but then seemed to remember something. "Carol kept glaring at him, so I figured I'd leave him here. Better than having him taken away for tinkertech analysis."
…What.
"Did you put anything inside him?" Lisa asked with an eyebrow raised.
"No..? The fuck?"
The Thinker shrugged. "Just asking. Thought maybe you'd smuggled some biomass."
"That's what the apples are for," Amy deadpanned. "And Taylor can grow more if needed. I'm not about to start gutting toys, Lisa."
"That's actually a good idea," I murmured.
…And now they're staring at me.
"Taylor, sweetie, what the fuck?" Lisa queried.
"Well, we could trap them? Or something? Just in case?"
"The last time you made a trap, its victim lost their ambidexterity privileges." …Low blow.
"Yeah, well… Yeah. But more options is good!"
Lisa just softly facepalmed, exchanging a glance with Amy. Why did they not agree? We weren't
completely safe here.
"How about we stick to…
tamer stuff, for now? Weaponizing plushies sounds like a last resort to me. At least start with entrances or something, I dunno."
Amy sighed. "Flipping off Mother Nature is more tame? …Yeah. Somehow, it is. God, you two are impossible." She grabbed an apple. "Fuck it."
▲
In. Out.
In. Out.
In. Out.
Knot… Done.
Another hole repaired. Hopefully the last one — my fingers were getting numb… Looking over the costume, that seemed to be the case. Phew.
So far, the session was a success. Yes, I was nursing a Thinker migraine from Lisa/Amy spike overuse, and yes, we didn't make anything sentient, but we still grew a bunch of cool things that will be useful in costume and out. This was also a nice exercise in designing stuff with Nymph's theme, as we had to make a clear distinction between her and Panacea.
A good example would be the caltrop plant we created: its caltrops were green and purple, and pyramidal in shape. Well, with small thorns — not mine, the plant kind — sticking out from each point, but the comparison still worked. Each caltrop had many smaller iterations inside, connected to the previous ones through the aforementioned thorns. Much to Lisa's chagrin, Amy insisted on calling them 'fractrops'.
…
I liked it, at least.
Additionally, Lisa suggested making them glow in reverse proportion to their size — nothing too noticeable in a fight, but easily identifiable when you knew what to look for. The idea was that Nymph's power had to make at least
some part of every plant glowy, even already existing ones if she needed to touch them for something.
Of course, having a
very conspicuous plant would be just asking for trouble — even dad would notice, and I didn't want that to happen. That was why, a handful of internet searches later, we decided on making the thing into a blue moonstone succulent instead — the fractrops would grow inside its leaves, which could be peeled apart like an orange, or an onion. As long as I kept it at my desk, the lamp and fairy lights would keep it alive.
Low watering requirements, too. I couldn't say no to that.
Currently, the caltrop plant was one of our two only renewable creations, with the small potted fern at my nightstand being the other.
That was a potent anti-paralytic, mostly to counteract my new combat knife. It also worked with the Venus handcuffs I came up with, and most other conventional paralytic substances. Rubbing several leaves on the affected area was, usually, more than enough. For stronger and/or full-body impairments, though, the recommended course of action was ingestion.
There
were some annoyances, however: the glow rule, for example, meant that the knife needed to glow at least
sometimes, and I really didn't want that to be the case. The compromise we settled on in the end was applying bioluminescence to the paralytic agent instead, causing it to only light up when not on the knife itself. Theoretically, it'd also help me track my target, as each cut would leave a softly-glowing golden mark regardless of if it struck flesh or not.
…Might have to think of a way to prevent it from glowing while on me, though. Close-quarters combat could be
quite messy, and allowing enemies to partake in the tracking aspect was far from the best of ideas.
Stretching in the desk chair, I stowed away the needle, placing it in the storage compartment of the silk generator nearby. It was still far from ideal, but even in its current iteration it saved us a trip to Parian — refill with biomass, put in the needle, have it auto-threaded and feel free to sew. While what we had now sufficed for repairs, I was already thinking of upgrades: tentacles with silk glands on each one, perhaps, having them work in tandem with each other? Would let me control the thing via power instead of manually, too.
Much like the patched-up costumes, I hid the bottle-shaped artifact far from prying eyes, then stood up, looking at the bed. Two pairs of eyes stared back.
"Any luck with the mushrooms?" I asked, sitting down next to my teammates.
"Nah," Amy answered, yawning. "I'll finish 'em some other time."
I yawned as well, followed by Lisa. "Fair." Speaking of whom…
"We may need your input, Tay," she said, then gestured to the thing stretched over her and Amy's legs.
Looking at the plant-based barebones of a robe, I shook my head. "Not now. Later?" It was far from done, and I was pretty exhausted… The migraine, too, had yet to fully recede. I couldn't imagine how she dealt with them near-daily.
The Thinker blinked, then nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right." She stretched, arching her spine.
"Wait, we're done?" Amy asked, bewildered. She was definitely the one who had the most fun out of all of us.
"We can pick this back up later?" I offered.
She looked at the robe, frowned for a split second, shrugged, then flopped backwards, bonelessly. "Eh."
"Guess that's Amy for 'yes'," Lisa commented.
Lightly, I smiled at nothing in particular, but then noticed the costume melting into one big glob of goo. "Uh. Amy?" That was her doing, right?
"Hm? Oh. Don't mind that." She waved me off.
Lisa saw my confusion first. "She can remember it, dork. Rebuilding shouldn't be hard." Oh, okay, right. Better than keeping even
more obvious tinkertech, I supposed. And this wa- "Yes, Taylor, this counts.
Wet tinkertech, but still. Also,
ow." …
Thinkers.
Amy poked her in the arm. "Stop thinking."
I nodded in agreement, then reached for another apple. Huh, only two left?
We sat in silence for another solid minute before Amy turned her head to look at what I'd been making. "Are those gummy worms?" She asked, propping herself up on one elbow.
I made them wiggle in my hands, courtesy of Amy's power. "Yup." My current goal was to make the flavor reminiscent of Fruit Gushers. The fact that I was playing around with genuine fruit tissue helped a bit.
She rolled her eyes and reached over, touching one and blinking. "Not bad. I'd do a few things differently, though." Well, I sure wouldn't mind some more tips.
I let her confiscate my potentially-biohazardous treats, then restored physical contact between them and Amy's thorn. Oh, I
did miss a few things, interesting…
Lisa cleared her throat. "If you two are gonna do
that, I'll be obligated to sing
the song to annoy you." She was watching the gummy worms too, mildly put off by their squirming.
Amy, being Amy, made them wiggle even more in response.
"I warned you!" Lisa pointed accusingly.
"And I don't care," Amy answered with a grin. "Hell, I can even start for you."
"Oh god, what did I do," I heard Lisa whisper through her hands.
Ignoring my own chuckle, Amy sat up a bit straighter and started: "Nobody loves me, everybody hates me. Guess I'll go eat worms!~"
Lisa groaned.
"Come- on- Lisa and- join- the- fucking song," Amy sang to the tune, "Look at them wiggle and squirm!~"
I giggled.
Midway through tormenting Lisa — who was doubly annoyed by Amy getting one of the lines wrong 'on purpose' — we collectively heard the front door closing, heralding dad's arrival and spurring us to clean up.
"I'm home!" He announced from below. "With pizza!"
That got our attention.
"Didn't we tell him that we had pizza two days ago?" Lisa asked me. "Ow!"
Amy, after casually elbowing her, offered a piece of wisdom: "Never say no to free pizza."
As someone who enjoyed it as well, I slowly nodded in agreement. Then I stood up to shout, "Coming!"
Once we double-checked my room yet again, we made our way to the bathroom.
An emergency appetite refresh and one flight of stairs later, we were settling into our places at the kitchen table with gusto. I was glad that dad brought two pizzas instead of one, because every single one of us was positively ravenous.
"Hello again, Amy," dad greeted. "Have you girls been having fun?"
Both me and the healer shared a glance and looked at Lisa.
"Yes," she answered dryly, pointedly ignoring our grins. "Tons. Loads, even."
"Turnabout is fair play," Amy commented, sticking her tongue out victoriously.
"What did you two d-" As dad's gaze wandered to me, he did a double-take and frowned. "Taylor, why are your eyes… greener?" Huh. He noticed.
Amy's offer to fix my eyes came out of left field, in my opinion — she was fiddling with her mushrooms at the time, while I was trying out more different spike-made modifications. Still, I took her up on it in the end. Though I always liked wearing glasses, enjoying their mask-like feeling of protection, my poor vision made me reliant on them, which my tormentors used to their benefit. On numerous occasions I couldn't do anything but lay there, unable to fight back because I couldn't see a thing. And yes, the bitches were gone — hopefully forever — but still, I had to be careful… I didn't have any willingness to become a target again.
Lisa, naturally, saw how torn I was on the decision.
Her suggestion was to, instead of fixing my eyes outright, make them adaptive. I instantly agreed, as it offered the best of both worlds — the continued ability to wear glasses as well as perfect vision whether I had them on or not.
…As for the color change, that was originally an Amy slip-up, but I asked for her to just roll with it — both her and Lisa's eyes were much prettier than my boring brown. Lisa's were a darker shade of green, quite like an empty wine bottle, while Amy's were almost yellow, comparable to sun-soaked grass. I opted for something in the middle of the two, keeping a bit of the brown on the outer part of the iris.
Now, then, how to explain this… Truth would
probably work fine.
"Amy healed my vision, and…" Right, uh. Color. Fine, small lie it is. "...that's a side-effect?" I turned to Amy.
"Yup," she answered tersely.
"Oh." Dad blinked. "I see."
Lisa snorted.
Trying not to groan, I reached for a slice of pizza.
Somehow, dad wasn't as easily misled. "Why are you still wearing glasses, then?" He asked me, motioning with his own slice.
"Uh." Succinctly put, Taylor. That wasn't suspicious at all.
"They're adaptive," Amy almost whispered. I could see how much it pained her to reveal that.
Dad turned to look at her. "Huh. You can do that?"
She just nodded, looking at her food. "Please don't tell Carol."
Dad, thankfully, didn't prod much further. "Okay, I won't," he nodded and took a bite. When he swallowed, though… "Oh, by the way, I spoke with her."
Lisa choked on her soda, and Amy stopped moving at all.
"What do you mean, you 'spoke with her'?" I asked.
"Well, she called me during my break, curious both about me and who Amy was spending her time with…" An audible gulp could be heard from the healer's location. "...Which is why she'll be coming over tomorrow for dinner. Her husband and daughters are invited too, of course."
My appetite withered and died irrevocably.
"Fuck," Lisa summed up our thoughts.
