Con Quest!

“There is a point to it, dude,” Rowan shot back rapidly.

“I doubt it.”

“You just have to think about it.”

“It’s just a cartoon,” Fi argued.

“I promise you, it’s more than just a ‘cartoon.’” Rowan looked mortally wounded at the very suggestion.

“It’s not even in English.”

“It’s even more rad when it’s not in English.”

Fi laughed at Rowan’s absolute and intense certainty on this. This had been going on for the better part of an hour. Fi and Rowan were wandering around the con in search of the twins—arguing back and forth about everything the convention had on offer. Rowan loved anime; Fi didn’t understand it. Fi explained her love of soccer, showing Rowan the soccer ball she always carried in her backpack; Rowan tried to relate it to her love of sci-fi. Rowan insisted Fi just had to read this comic book; Fi wouldn’t be caught dead with a picture book in her bag.

But despite (because of?) the incessant back-and-forth, Fi was forced to admit that she was not miserable. She wasn’t having fun, of course. Far from it. But she was maybe having the best time she’d had at the con all day. Which wasn’t saying much, considering. But if she did still have to search for the terrible two, at least she had some help. Things weren’t totally hopeless. And more importantly, it seemed like Rowan wasn’t likely to rat her out to any of her friends at school.

Well, soon-to-be friends. Totally.

Fi almost tripped when Rowan held out an arm to stop her from walking any farther. Thanks to the rapid halt on the floor, someone bumped directly into Fi’s back and cursed at her. Rowan flipped the dude off in response.

“Thanks.” Fi laughed as the guy huffed away, complaining about con crowds. “But why’d you stop in the first place?”

“C’mon,” Rowan said conspiratorially, grabbing Fi’s hand. Fi’s palm was sweaty. The con does that to a person.

Rowan tugged Fi over toward a corner of the anime booth they were in—why were all these cartoon girls’ skirts so short, seriously?!—and tucked them into it until they weren’t likely to disturb any other floor traffic. They were really close together. So close that Fi could actually smell something … pleasant. For the first time. All day!

“Are you wearing perfume?” Fi asked almost compulsively.

“What?” Rowan asked, distracted by her phone. “Here, check it.”

Fi took Rowan’s phone when she handed it over. She didn’t recognize what was on the screen—some sort of checklist. “What is this?”

“Well, we weren’t having any luck finding your sibs just wandering the floor,” Rowan explained, “so I found their profile on the Quest app. Team DoubleTrouble.”

“The Quest app,” Fi repeated. She took a deep breath, letting the idea settle in her mind. “Did you just, like, have this on your phone?”

“Who doesn’t?” Rowan brushed it off. “Look, we can see every time the twins upload an item—it gets crossed off their list.”

Sure enough, as Fi watched Rowan’s screen, she saw one of the items on the twins’ Quest list stricken in real time. Number seventeen: Sneak up on one of your fellow team members and videotape the jump scare.

After all the angst the twins had caused her, the thought of Alex having the living daylights scared out of him actually made Fi smile a little.

“Can this help us find them?” Fi asked, shuffling a little closer to Rowan to get a better look at the screen.

“Every Quest team can have four members,” Rowan said, pointing to the app’s top bar. “Team DoubleTrouble only has two. If you register as a member and join their team, you can start completing Quest items for them and—”

“Noooooo way.” Fi cut Rowan off, stepping backward and bumping into the booth’s wobbly cardboard wall. She steadied it before continuing. “I am not becoming a member of their weird little nerdfest for kicks.”

“Not for kicks, dude!” Rowan interjected. “It’s a strategy.”

Fi immediately knew where Rowan was going with this. And Fi didn’t like it. It made sense, sure. But it also meant getting herself involved in one of the twins’ schemes. And that was never a safe place to be.

“If I’m completing items, we’ll eventually run into them?” Fi guessed.

“Heck yeah.” Rowan flipped her hair out of her eyes, and Fi smelled that nice smell again. It wasn’t a bad plan. And Fi didn’t exactly have anything better on the table right now. Plus, it might get her out of here sooner. Which was a good thing. Right?

“Fine.” Fi decided it was easier just to give in than to get into another argument with Rowan. “Let’s go.”