Con Quest!

“You want to tell me that nothing happened?” Alex was not having this.

“No.” Cat shook her head. “One tiny thing happened. I had to—”

“I’m back!” said a cheerful voice from across the table. Oh, right. The gal. Who owned this table. And all the art on it. Was back!

“Great! Oh, great!” Cat stood up so fast she knocked her chair over. Alex just stared at her for a second before tucking away his console and standing up, too. He set Cat’s chair back upright.

Cat climbed out from behind the booth and wiped her sweaty palms on her cape before shaking the gal’s hand. “Thanks so much.”

“No, thank you! I can’t tell you how much I needed the break. Take a pin,” she offered, holding out one of her cute Whom, M.D. designs. Alex took it immediately, thanking her.

Cat and Alex walked out into the main aisle of Artist Alley. Cat’s leg was bouncing even though she was standing up now. Her brain was just one giant scream. She couldn’t keep doing this. She had to get it out. She had to—

“So what were you going to—?”

“I lost our Hall M passes!” Cat blurted out so fast she barely registered it was happening.

Cat slapped her hand over her mouth and stared at her brother in horror. It was out there. She’d had to admit it. He knew. He knew.

It was going to be fine. He wasn’t going to be angry. Alex never got angry—

“You what?!”

Okay. Alex was angry. Cat registered that Alex had continued talking (definitely angry) but started running through options in her head. What was the best damage control in this scenario? And were things really so bad, anyway?!

That was it. She just had to help Alex see logic; that was all. Alex loved logic.

“I know!” Cat interrupted her brother, who was still on his very angry mile-a-minute tirade. “Okay, I know. I messed up. I’m sorry. But look!” Cat gestured toward Alex’s messenger bag. “I figured out how to get your Epic comi

c signed! You met Adrianna Tack!”

Alex swung his messenger bag away from Cat’s view and looked at her like she’d just committed the worst sort of betrayal. “Are you really going to use Adrianna Tack to try to make me feel better about this?”

Yes? “No?”

“Because it’s not going to work!” Aaaaand there he went again. Cat knew everything Alex was spouting had an element of truth to it—she did need to be more organized and responsible; it was only on, like, every report card she’d ever gotten—but it wasn’t helping anything.

“I just think”—Cat cut her brother off again and tried to sound like one of the “wellness influencers” she sometimes came across online—“that what we really need to focus on right now is positivity.”

“Is that going to positively bring back our Hall M passes?” Alex demanded.

Cat stared at him. “Maybe?”

Alex just shook his head. “I can tell you’re not even listening to me.”

“I am!” Cat insisted loudly. She could tell the artists in the booths near the aisle were starting to look at them weird. Usually that wouldn’t bother Cat at a con, but … it kind of did, right now. “I am,” she said again, quieter this time.

“Good. Because … because you know what, Cat?” She could tell Alex was struggling with whatever he was about to say next by the way his hands kept fiddling with the bag strap.

“What?”

Alex took a deep breath, his hands clutching tight around the woven strap across his chest. “Even since before the Vigilante League thing, you’ve been just telling me what to do. You haven’t asked what I want to do even once. And actually, the Quest just isn’t any fun anymore.”

Cat couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Telling you what to do?” she repeated, shocked. “I’m not telling you what to do; I’m just trying to get our Quest items done! I’m fighting for both of us here, since you don’t seem interested!” Cat was getting louder and louder and she couldn’t stop herself—she was so angry now! “I’m doing this for you—so you can get that mentorship!”

“Stop it!” Alex, usually so quiet, now matched Cat’s tone. “You’re doing this for you—so you can hang out with Corwin Blake and be just as cool online as Team Dangermaker. Don’t lie to me, Cat. It doesn’t work.”

Cat swallowed around a huge lump that had just formed in her throat and steadied her voice. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”