38 - Something to Drinky-Drink

I woke up the following day to bright, bright sunlight. The alarm clock read 10:30. Algebra started at 10:00. I must’ve really needed my sleep, because I slept clean through the alarm.

I groaned. Why couldn’t I have slept through Ilneat Relations? I actually needed algebra classes. Su-Bin could only help me so much; if I wasn’t in class, I’d miss something important. I’d have to email the professor and ask if he’d send me the slides for today’s lesson.

I opened up my computer to a pair of emails.

Subject: RE: Episode

Hello, MGU

Lol. K

Ill wait for your Episode. The boys havent gotten theirs screened yet, either. I hope yours is more fun than it sounds.

Sara

Alright. That one wasn’t so bad, other than the beginning and how little effort she’d put into it. But the other one was worse. Much, much worse.

Subject: Megafauna Rising and Wall Closure Information

To All Students

The Huntsman’s reports from the Rockies and Great Plains point toward increased megafauna activity. Experts in Tokyexico City and elsewhere believe the world is on the verge of the seventh Man vs. Nature event.

As per Tokyexico City policy, nonessential travel into and out of the city will be restricted leading up to and during Man vs. Nature Seven. This applies to trips home as well as visits from family and friends. For those students without a reliable way to video call with loved ones out of town, Tokyexico University offers free use of video call tools in the ballroom at the Student Union Building.

This a reminder to our Powered students. Heroes and villains in the major and minor leagues should report to The Huntsman or the Tokyexico Council of Heroes for the [Man vs. Nature Casting Call]. Join The Huntsman for fighting in the Great Plains and Mountains or the TCH for city defense. Signing up for the [Man vs. Nature Casting Call] is mandatory for major league heroes and villains and strongly encouraged for minor leaguers.

Little leaguers and Unpowered students are required to avoid the wall and Man vs. Nature Episodes at all costs, though they may defend themselves as necessary.

All Powered students are requested to avoid Episodes that could require major league intervention during this trying time.

Thank you for your cooperation,

Helen Barber

Vice-President of Student Services

Tokyexico University

If all the minor leaguers and up were busy, what’d that mean for Sara-N-Dipity’s recruitment drive? She hadn’t emailed anything about that, so it probably didn’t affect her plans too much. Or maybe she’d just put us on hold or tell me I’d won the sidekick spot and then wait until after the Man vs. Nature. Peter and I couldn’t do Episodes during MvN Six because…

Shit. Peter.

I needed to talk to him. Or at least text him. The Episode-hunting and classes had kept me busy, and I’d forgotten to text him back. And…I didn’t know what I wanted to do about that, either. I didn’t want things to be over—they just needed to feel better. I headed to the bedroom and dumped the Lil Pal on my nightstand.

<Hey, Peter. I’ve been thinking a lot. We need to fix some things - Annie 10:43>

The tiny repulsors wouldn’t fire, so I kept checking and rechecking my wiring while I waited for Peter to respond. He probably wouldn’t. He was probably at work. He’d text back when he—

My phone buzzed. Then it buzzed again.

<Hi. I’m sorry. I don’t know what I did, but I did something. - Peter 10:48>

<We can’t see each other on the 11th. - Annie 10:48>

<City’s locked down. MvN 7 - Annie 10:48

<Oh - Peter 10:49>

I waited. Then I waited some more, throat tight. He didn’t respond beyond that, ‘Oh.’ I started typing a text and hit send. My phone buzzed less than a second later as his reply finally came.

<How do we fix this if all you can say is ‘Oh?’ - Annie 10:52>

<Okay, on break at work. Gotta eat and stuff too - Peter 10:52>

<Im at work, Annie. Gimme some slack? - Peter 10:53>

<Okay. Sorry. Just…this all feels wrong the last few weeks - Annie 10:53>

<It’s k. Chill - Peter 10:53>

Had he really just told me to chill? Didn’t he realize what was at stake? I almost stopped replying. Hell, I did stop responding. I rubbed my temples and glared at the Lil Pal.

<I could get over there safely. I’ve got a lot of Panic Pals - Peter 10:53>

<And two LABRATS now - Peter 10:53>

<They’d get me there safely - Peter 10:53>

I screamed into a pillow for a second, then rage-worked on the Lil Pal. He didn’t see the problem! It didn’t matter if he visited because most of the time, we’d be apart! The left repulsor popped on with a hum, and the Lil Pal flung itself off the side table. I grabbed it, flicked it off, and went for my phone.

<We have bigger problems - Annie 10:54>

<Oh yeah? Like what? - Peter - 10:55>

<Like focusing on US when it’s US time! We don’t do that well - Annie 10:56>

The damn Lil Pal wasn’t working right. Its right repulsor wouldn’t go. Every time I flipped the ‘on’ switch, it hummed Professor Panic’s theme song and the left repulsor flipped it off the table. I shoved it into its bag again.

<Okay. I want to come up, though. I’ll stage an emergency or something - Peter 10:59>

You know what Peter’s problem was? He thought if we could see each other, it’d solve everything. But that wasn’t the issue. That wasn’t the issue at all.

<No, you won’t. It’s not worth running into megafauna - Annie 10:57>

<Just…stay home - Annie 10:57>

<And pay attention when we video chat! It hurt when you went Genius - Annie 10:58>

<K - Peter 10:59>

<Break’s over. <3 you - Peter 10:59>

<<3 - Annie 11:00>

I rolled over on the bed and screamed. Nothing had been solved. Nothing had been talked about. And I wasn’t sure if he’d ignored what I said because of time issues or if he just…didn’t care.

What the hell were we going to do?

◄▼►

The doorbell rang at precisely four o’clock.

To be honest, I wasn’t up for this. My conversation with Peter…had been bad. It didn’t ease any of my worries about us. And Ilneat Relations was never not going to be a bummer. I couldn’t imagine a world where I’d need to know about their digestive tract. It wasn’t like I planned to have Rocko over at the dorm room.

Speaking of Rocko, though…I had to see if Pataki could do anything with The Cloud’s cape scrap. I didn’t have another [Adaptive Armoire] slot for the Costume, but maybe I could store Costumes like I stored skills. It was part of his outfit, and he had given it to me, so it met all the requirements for [Adaptive Armoire].

The doorbell rang again. I shook my head and breathed deeply. Now wasn’t the time for Rocko or Peter—even if fixing our mess was priority one for me. It was time to hang out with a friend. I opened the door.

Bianca pounced as soon as I did. Between the giant backpack and her nervous energy, the quick hug nearly knocked me over. Then she’d dashed off to the couch in front of the enormous TV. “Hey, I got something to make this a real party. No peeking, though!”

I turned around, letting her unzip the backpack. She pulled out something that clinked, then re-zipped the pack and set the clinking something on the table. “Okay, turn around!”

A bottle of vodka and a pair of tiny shot glasses sat on the table. I raised an eyebrow. “Where did you get that?”

“Fake ID. I’ve been doing it since my sophomore year. Gotta know where to buy, but there’s always somewhere that’ll sell to a pretty girl.”

Bianca certainly was pretty. Her wavy black hair framed her green eyes nicely, and she had an athlete’s build. She’d played soccer, though, so that made sense. I shook my head and sat down. “Alright, today’s Episode is ‘Brick House vs. The Florida Man-Eater.’”

“Why Brick House?” Bianca asked curiously, flopping on the couch next to me.

“Uh, I don’t like him much,” I lied. Well, I sort of lied. Jungle Jim had seemed like a reasonable guy, but Brick House? He’d been a problem for the superheroes in the First Power War. “And he gets his ass kicked most of the episode.”

“Oh really?” Bianca asked, a twinkle in her eye. “How about this? Every time Brick House gets clobbered, we take a shot?”

I’d drank a little with Peter at Flat Top, and once or twice at house parties—enough to know that Bianca’s game was trouble. I’d seen Brick House vs. The Florida Man-Eater a few times before. We’d be lucky if we didn’t die before the Man-Eater did. “I’ve seen the episode, Bee. How about just a sip every time Brick House gets hurt?”

“Deal!” Bianca poured two shot glasses full and handed one to me. She held one up and grinned. “Cheers!”

I bonked my glass into hers, tried to drink as much of it as I could, and pressed play. The booze was already hitting my brain before Brick House waded into the mangroves for the first time.

◄▼►

“So, anyways, she wanted to go party, and I said sure, why not? Because, uh, I’d never been to a party,” Bianca slurred. Loudly. We’d been drinking for two hours, and we were finally on ‘Brick House vs. The Florida Maneater IV: Get Housed!’ And boy, was Bianca housed! “I’m not much of a party girl. But she says her friends’ll be there, the liar. There’s, um, no one there we know, and everyone else is a senior. But we get red solo cups with something—“

The sound of a snapping pier mixed with a completely-unedited curse as Brick House, bleeding from a dozen bites but somehow still in one piece, ran from the Florida Man-Eater. The gator must’ve been forty feet long; its teeth were the size of my arm, and it’d been using its size against Brick House most of the series. But the villain had landed a good blow to the monster gator’s back leg at the end of Part III, and now the tide was turning.

“—and she gets super, super drunk. Kinda like me right now. And I’m drinking too because there’s nothing else to do at this party. But, uh…”

“Yeah?” She was wasted. I wasn’t doing a lot better. I’d forgotten how many times Brick House got tossed around in these four Episodes. He looked a lot like I imagined we had against Theseus, except he had so much grit. I couldn’t help but feel jealous of how tough he was. He’d probably taken fifty or sixty points of superhero damage altogether. And he just kept going.

Bianca was leaning on me. Or was I leaning on Bianca? It was hard to tell, but she looked so happy with my head on her shoulder. “I wish I had snacks,” I said.

“Me too! We should order snacks! We can do that, you know? So, anyways, uh, she’s super drunk. Totally wasted. And we get up to leave, but she kinda falls on me, and we crash into the wall. The entire fucking party’s looking at us, and she…” Bianca trailed off, face reddening. She started staring at the TV intently. “Nevermind.”

“She what?” I asked. Brick House had turned it around. The Florida Man-Eater’s back leg drug uselessly, and a chunk of scale and skin bled where one eye used to be. Brick House wasn’t doing much damage per hit, but the slow, unwieldy megafauna wasn’t long for this world. It tried grabbing Brick House in its mouth and death-rolling, but the villain’s arms held its jaws shut while he kicked its skull repeatedly.

Bianca shook her head. Then she turned to me, grinning, and asked, “You really wanna know?”

I nodded. “Yeah, you’ve got me so curious!”

“She drags me outside, just around the corner, and we’re both stumbling around. The goddamn party music is still bumping. And suddenly, she’s kissing me.”

Huh. I leaned in a little, the mega-gator’s death roar ignored. “What was that like?”

“Oh, it was great! I kissed her back. We were together until…just before college. Uh, distance wasn’t gonna work for us.” Bee looked at the floor for a bit. “I…I should get back to my place.”

I looked at the TV screen. It was asking if we wanted another episode of Man vs. Nature. I pressed ‘yes’ on the remote. “Nah, stick around for a while. It’s not dark yet, and I’ve got questions!” My phone buzzed, but I ignored it. ‘Brainiac vs. The Forest That Walks’ was up, but I ignored that too.

“Tell me more,” I said. “Did you know you were into girls before her?”

“Uh, yeah, she was my first girlfriend, but I’d kinda known for a while. It just sorta felt right. How’d you know you liked boys?”

Oh, yeah, that made sense. It was just like that, huh? “Peter and I sort of clicked. We…had similar interests. Kinda like—“

“Hey, that tree’s gonna grab Brainaic! Why’d they send him to fight a forest, anyway?” Bee interrupted. Sure enough, the tree grabbed the Genius and tossed him across a clearing. I glanced at Bee, who nodded. We both took another sip.

“Ha, this was a Man vs. Nature I episode. They did the best they could.” Honestly, Bee’s interruption didn’t bother me at all. Because I’d been about to say something I couldn’t resolve with my relationship with Peter. I’d been about to say, ‘Kinda like us.’

◄▼►