Minutes.
This was taking …
Forever.
After easily at least ten hours (how had it only been fifteen minutes?!), Cat stood up to stretch her legs.
“Catalina Gallo!” she heard a voice bellow.
Cat immediately crouched down again. She knew that voice. It was scarier than even James M. It was …
“There you are!” Her sister Fi’s head popped around the person standing in line in front of her. Fi hopped over the barrier keeping people from cutting into line without so much as
a second thought.
Cat sighed. She supposed getting caught by Fi was pretty much the least of her worries at this point.
But she wasn’t standing up. Her heels were in too much pain for that.
“Your sister?” a new voice asked. Cat looked up and saw someone following Fi into line. She had shaggy purple hair, dark roots artfully showing through near her scalp. (Though Fi’s friend looked like she could be a boy or a girl—or both or neither!—Cat took her cue from the SHE/HER! pronoun sticker hanging off the bottom of the badge around her neck.) Cat was surprised but also stoked to see the girl was wearing Voltage: Defenders of Legend leggings. What was someone so obviously cool doing hanging out with her sister?
“Are those Jess Carrell pins?” Cat had noticed the rainbow of happily violent pins affixed to the girl’s denim vest and scrambled to her feet to get a better look. Now this was worth suffering through blister pain for.
“‘Oh, hello, older sister; sorry I put you through a living nightmare today and forced you to run through nerdtopia for literal hours in order to find me.’” Cat heard Fi’s sarcasm but was too busy examining pins. She was dying for that one with the pink cat holding the spiky baseball bat. It was a mood.
The purple-haired girl laughed. “Jess Carrell’s stuff is the best,” she confirmed. She stuck her hand out, forcing Cat to take a step back in order to shake it properly like a cool adult or whatever. “I’m Rowan; you must be Cat.”
Cat went to grasp Rowan’s outstretched hand but opted at the last minute to go for a sideways high five instead. Always keep ’em guessing.
“That’s me,” she replied. “Do I know you?” The more Cat stared at the girl, the more familiar she looked. Was it the purple hair…? Cat could have sworn she’d seen her before, though she had no idea where. Maybe in line somewhere…?
“Nope!” the girl responded cheerfully, pushing a hand through her bangs. “But I’ve been helping Fi look for you. She’s been worried, like … a lot, dude.”
Cat took a deep breath—she’d have to get it over with sometime, so it might as well be now, right?—and turned to face her sister. Fi had been standing to the side, watching this whole thing between Cat and Rowan go down in silence. Fi’s face was a fun shade of purple that Cat didn’t know the name for. She’d have to look it up later.
“Hiiiiiiii, Fi.” Cat plastered her sweetest smile onto her face, holding her hands under her chin and batting her eyes. “Have you been having the best time?”
The purple got a little darker. Maybe that had been the wrong approach? Should Cat have just made a break for it instead? But she was stuck here in this line—
“Have I … been having … fun?” Fi interrupted Cat’s thoughts when she started speaking, each word increasing in volume. “Rowan.” Fi turned to the other girl, her eyes taking on a wild vibe that Cat was definitely not into. “Would you say I’ve been having fun?!”
Rowan, to her credit, looked like she’d rather be anywhere else in that moment than between Cat and her older sister, who was definitely, absolutely coming loose at the seams. “Well, uh.” Rowan swallowed. “I kinda hoped you’d been having a good—”
“That’s not the point!” Fi exploded. The people napping on the blankets in front of them jolted awake with a start. Whoops. “Do you have any idea what I’ve been through today?! What were you thinking?! And where,” Fi added, breathing heavily, “is our brother?!”
Cat crossed her arms across her chest. How dare Fi even ask her about Alex right now. “You’re not the only one who’s been through some stuff today—” Cat began defensively.
“You are in no position to be snarky with me right now!” Fi cut Cat off before she could even finish her thought.
“You don’t understand—”
“You’re right!” Fi cut Cat off again. “And I don’t want to! We’re leaving!”
Leaving?! “We can’t!” Cat said quickly. “We have to—”
“We have to find Mom and Dad!” Why wouldn’t Fi let Cat finish a single thought?!
“If you’d just listen—”