“But these are basically impossible to get—”
“I know,” Cat said, dropping her arm. “That’s why I’m giving them to you. Just don’t report me. I’m sorry. Okay?”
Dahlia only waited for a moment before holding their hand out in front of them, palm open. “Fine. We’re even, then. But don’t mess with Team Dangermaker again.”
“Yeah. Whatever,” Cat said quietly, dropping the two tickets into Dahlia’s hand. She felt like she was handing over her life. And it was all her fault.
Dahlia closed their hand around the tickets with a vise grip and Cat didn’t blame them. She turned around without another word—and ran almost smack-dab into her brother’s face. He was right behind her.
“Alex!” Cat said. She forced a smile onto her face, just like he had before. “We did it!”
“What did Dahlia want?” Alex said, panicky. “Did they know?”
“Nobody knew, bud,” Cat said. “We did it!” A second too late, she spun in a circle and struck a pose. Alex frowned. He clearly wasn’t buying it. She had to distract him before he kept asking questions. Cat knew she could fix this. She knew she could.
She just … needed a little time. That was all.
5. Find the Quest donation box and drop off a toy from the convention floor. (56 points)
18. Play a sport on the main escalators. (20 points)
22. Even baddies have to stay in shape. Participate in Dancercize with a Star-Trooper squad. (44 points)
28. Convince a cosplayer dressed as a character you’ve never heard of that you definitely know who they are. (24 points)
14
Alex
There was something up with Cat.
Alex wasn’t great with people, but his sister was the one exception to that rule. He basically spent twenty-four hours a day with her. He had since the second they were born. Alex didn’t need special psychic twin powers to know when something was up with Cat.
Although, for real, it would have been pretty excellent to have special psychic twin powers.
Regardless. There was something up.
And Alex was going to find out what.
Just … not yet. Usually when Cat had done something wrong she tried to make up for it in really grandiose ways (he’d gotten that one wrong last week on the spelling test and had worked on it a lot since then, thank you very much). This time was no exception, even though he still didn’t know what, specifically, Cat felt she had done wrong. Was she just trying to make herself feel less guilty about cheating?
Because she had definitely cheated. Alex had recorded the quick clip of Cat Dancercizing in front of the Star-Troopers and had immediately uploaded it to the Quest app before he had a chance to even think about what they were doing. Looking back, though, there was no doubt they’d stolen that item from Team Dangermaker. Cat and Alex hadn’t done any of that hard work themselves. They’d just passed off what Team Dangermaker had done as their own. Extremely, incredibly unchill. The only way Alex knew how to deal with what he’d just been a part of was to … not think about it at all.
Thankfully, Cat’s something-upness was making that part, at least, easy on Alex. They’d bolted from the atrium as soon as Cat was finished talking to Dahlia. In a stroke of socializing genius that never would have occurred to Alex, Cat DM’d one of the women who’d been on their winning Hexforce Legends VR team earlier in the day. She wouldn’t tell Alex why, but they were now rushing to meet their new friends by the AC Comics booth on the floor.
Usually when Cat refused to tell Alex what was going on, he worried. This time, he was just looking forward to the AC booth’s plush carpets. His feet could use a break from all the concrete. It had been a long day—and it was only …
Alex gasped as he checked his watch while fast-walking through the con crowd. It was almost three o’clock. Three o’clock! The Epic signing! And the volunteer had told them to be back there well before that …
“Cat,” Alex called out weakly, but his sister was too far ahead of him to hear. How could he have forgotten about the Epic signin
g? He’d gotten so caught up with James M. and the donation box and the cheating—don’t think about it—and Team Dangermaker that it had completely skipped his mind. His only chance to meet Adrianna Tack … his only chance to complete item sixteen … he was blowing it!
Again!
Alex sped up a little bit in the hope of stopping his sister. Sure, they were heading to see Cat’s new friends or whatever, but wasn’t Adrianna Tack more important?
He tried again. “Cat.” Still nothing. Cat took the last curve toward the AC booth at a breakneck pace, and Alex started to jog to keep up with her. Why wouldn’t she stop?