o bump either of them into the condiment masterpiece before she’d managed to photograph it.
“See?” Alex said. Cat could hear a little bit of smugness in his voice, even if she couldn’t see his face. “You’re not the only one who’s thinking about the Quest.”
Cat felt her face going red. She rocked back onto her heels—and winced. Pulling off a shoe and shaking out yet another LEGO (would it ever end?!), Cat laughed. “I guess I deserved that.”
“The LEGO or my correctness?”
“Both?” offered Cat.
“Definitely both,” Alex confirmed. “Come on, grab a photo and let’s go give it to this guy.”
“Technically, though,” Cat mused aloud as she snapped a pic of her brother’s mustard masterpiece (what can’t mustard do, honestly), “this random guy is not your favorite convention guest. We for sure do not even know his name.”
“I’m trying not to get so caught up on technicalities,” Alex said proudly. “Plus, I think he might be my favorite now. No line but still sticking it out with his books? That’s pretty cool. I think it might just be kind of inspiring.”
Cat tossed her phone at her brother. “So what you’re saying is you’re not getting caught up on technicalities but you’ve still managed to justify it so that you think it should count for full points, anyway?”
“Yes!” Alex agreed enthusiastically. Cat laughed, and they pushed through the glass doors in front of them to hopefully make Alex’s new favorite convention guest smile. His ketchup creation watched them go.
27. Create a portrait of your favorite convention guest out of the medium of your choice, and give it to them. Traditional art materials disallowed. (40 points)
11
Alex
Alex felt better than he had all day. Sure, he’d had a bit of a moment with the Vigilante League. But he’d seen some really pro-level LEGO skills and had made that author’s day with his mayo masterpiece, and oh! Alex even bought the guy’s book. Did it sound terrible? Yes. Was Alex unlikely to read it? Okay, also yes. But he felt good for supporting an artist. That’s what you did at GeekiCon. Alex hoped that one day someone at a convention would buy his comics out of a sense of pity and/or excitement, too. As long as people were buying them, right?
Cat seemed to be in a good place too, Alex thought, looking over at his sister. She was buried in her phone again, submitting their Quest photos for the relish relief and the “actually eat healthy at the con” item (cucumber peanut-butter sandwiches counted as healthy in Alex’s book). And she hadn’t tried to order him around in at least fifteen minutes. That was unusually good for Cat, when he thought about it.
Yeah. Yeah, thought Alex, feeling like he was glowing on the inside. They were at GeekiCon, someone liked Alex’s art, his messenger bag was overly full but it was fine, they were getting through the Quest … Yeah. Alex was convinced at this moment that life couldn’t get any better.
“Hey!” an angry voice shouted from the other side of the signing hall. “You two!”
Sigh. When would Alex learn to stop thinking thoughts like that so loudly?
“Ughhhhhhh!” groaned Cat, standing on her tiptoes to see who was shouting at them. “It’s you-know-who!” Alex did not know who.
“Fi?” Alex guessed.
“No.”
“Dad?” Must be Dad.
“No—”
“Team Dangermaker?” Could it be—?
“No!” Cat cut him off. “It’s James M.!”
Ah. “I was just messing with you; I knew all along.” Alex tried his best to lie to his sister.
“Now is not the time!” Cat said through gritted teeth. She was looking around frantically for a quick escape. So much for chill Cat.
Well, fine. Keep Cat chill, thought Alex. He could handle this. Couldn’t he? Yes, there wasn’t a zombie horde in the world that could stop him this time. This time, he would be responsible for their great escape.
Wouldn’t he?
But where could they go and what could they do and quick? What was happening right now…? Think, Alex, think. Alex tried desperately to remember the con schedule in his mind. One P.M.… one P.M.… what was going on at one P.M.…?