Part 2 - Out the Dungeon
Chapter 11
We were all crammed around my tiny kitchen table. Everyone was looking at me as I took a big bite of pizza and chewed it. A useful tactic for situations like this. I was holding out hope that someone would step in and talk, but everyone seemed happy to just stare at me.
I needed to quickly read the group chat.
Elise // Hey A. Great news. Plz reply.
Huck // Aurea, stop sulking and respond. If you don’t respond, I’m going to find you.
Colin // aur im begging you - dont reply so we find other diver that is better - maybe can actual win dives
Huck // Can you be a bit more helpful Colin?
Elise // NOT NICE. A is great.
Huck // <<Missed Call>>
Elise // <<Missed Call>>
Huck // <<Missed Call>>
Huck // <<Missed Call>>
Huck // Look, Aurea - Elise knows a school looking for a minor team and they are willing to sign us on! We just have to meet them tomorrow.
Huck // Aurea, respond! We need you to join us.
Huck // <<Missed Call>>
Huck // <<Missed Call>>
Huck // <<Missed Call>>
Huck // Anyone know Aurea’s address? Elise? Colin?
Huck // I don’t know why I’m asking you, Colin. Elise, do you have Aurea’s address?
Elise // Can ask P.
Huck // Who is P? What is P?
Elise // Mom.
Huck // Your mom knows where Aurea lives? Why does she know that?
Elise // Consults Roose.
Huck // I don’t know what that means. Can you use complete sentences?
Huck // Hello?
Elise // Got it.
Elise // <<Tap for Address>>
Huck // Awesome, I’ll head over there this evening. Elise, can you join me? Colin, do you want to come?
Elise // omw
“Mhere’s amofer mhool?” I said, trying to talk around the large piece of pizza gluing my mouth shut, breaking the silence.
“What?” Huck asked looking confused at Elise, as if expecting her to translate.
“She asked if there’s another school,” Daniel responded. He knew me, we’d been friends since pre-school. He’d stolen my lunch and as punishment his dad made him be my friend. He was still suffering to this day.
“Mhes,” I said, still working on the pizza.
“Yeah, Elise found us a school to join!” Huck said, barely containing his excitement.
“Well, I didn’t find it specifically,” Elise said, “Rather, Patricia knew a school was looking to sign on a new Lethality Minor team and they hadn’t yet started their search.”
Huck waved the comment away, “She found us a team.”
“Who’s Patricia? Is that the other diver in your group?” My mom asked, I couldn’t tell if she was less thrilled that we had so many unexpected people over at our small place or that I would be continuing to be part of Lethality.
“Oh, she’s my mom,” Elise said, turning her head quickly to see my mom, her hair, once blond, was now dyed neon green, swishing behind her, “She prefers it if I call her Patricia. Keeps her from feeling old I guess.”
“Mhat’s meird,” I said. Pretty sure my mom would kill me if I ever called her Eveline.
“Stop talking with your mouth full,” Daniel said, chastising me as a bit of pizza sprayed out of my mouth. I opened my mouth and stuck my tongue out a bit, giving him a full view of chewed up pizza. He rolled his eyes.
I then caught Elise’s gaze and shut my mouth. Oops. I swallowed the food hastily.
“So your mom found us a school?” I asked, “I didn’t think anyone had openings?”
“Well, they don’t have any openings,” Elise said, not clarifying the situation at all, “but they are looking for a new Minor team.”
“I don’t… understand?” I said, looking from Elise and to Huck. Huck sighed in exasperation, picking up a greased-stained napkin.
“What she means is that their Minor team is moving into Moderate and they were going to start looking for a new team soon. Instead, Mrs. Patricia was able to send our dive to them and they are interested in signing our group on,” Huck explained, taking the napkin and wiping up the bits of food I had spit out on the table and then placing the napkin back in the nearly empty pizza box.
“That’s it?” I asked, confused. I knew that schools would often sign on divers trained by Roosevelt, or from other schools since not everyone had a training program but… this seemed too easy.
“What’s the catch?” Daniel interjected, studying Huck and Elise, “Seems to me like one of those ‘too good to be true’ things.”
“No catch that I saw,” Huck answered.
“My family knows the owners,” Elise said, “Patricia does some consulting work with the school’s owners on their ads or something.”
“Your family knows the owners?” I asked, incredulity in my voice. I really didn’t know Elise as well as I thought I had. I glanced at my mom who was looking a bit nervous. Ten minutes ago she was hoping I was over being a diver, and now I was getting a second chance. I was already excited at the prospect.
“Yeah, I’ve been friends with their daughter for… nine years? Maybe actually eight. I forget,” Elise said, “Lena is the bookish sort. Has no interest in doing dives, but her dad owns the New York Manticore.”
“THE New York Manticore?” I asked, my eyes growing bigger. “The Manticores?” I asked again, in disbelief.
“Who are they?” My mom asked.
“You know who they are! They have Nikki on their roster, she’s their big diver!”
“Which one is Nikki?”
“You saw her dive before I left for Roosevelt.”
“Was she the one with all the knives? Got bit by a snake-thing?”
I sighed exasperated, “Yes, mom. It’s like you don’t follow the dives.”
“It was a hydra, by the way,” Huck interjected, leaning forward on the table. I could see he was as excited as me about joining the Manticores.
“Well, how far away are they? Are they safe?” My mom asked, worrying creasing her forehead, “You already got bit by a rapid animal. Don’t you think you’ve had enough?”
“Who cares how far away they are?” I said, dreaming of my time in the school, “I’ll get to be a diver!”
“I’m a healer!” Elise happily announced to my mom, though it didn’t seem like that was reassuring her. I didn’t care. I was too excited to join the school. “I healed her injuries, so she’s fine—and no one dies in Minor dungeons!”
“Do you have to join immediately?” Daniel asked, “You did just promise to finish school.”
“You haven’t completed school?” Huck asked confused, “How old are you?”
I ignored him and glared at Daniel. “I never promised to go back. That was you and mom cornering me. And don’t think I don’t know who is to blame for all this. I know it was you who got her to turn on me.”
“She told you?” Daniel asked, turning with a betrayed expression as he looked at my mom. My mom wasn’t paying attention, she had a dejected expression as she stared at Elise, who was happily telling her all about how badly I had gotten hit, lots of blood in this story, and how Elise had been there to heal me. Elise… was not helping matters.
“No, I just know you,” I said, turning my attention back to Huck, “When are we meeting them? You said tomorrow?”
“Yeah! We have a meeting scheduled for one tomorrow to sign the paperwork. Elise can send you a draft of what we are signing in case you want to look it over,” Huck explained, as I jumped out of my chair and excitedly paced back and forth.
I didn’t really care about reading it. I’d sign whatever. I was going to get to be a diver. And it was for Nikki’s school!
‘The New York Manticore Diver’s School…,” I whispered to myself. They weren’t a top-rated school, not like Roosevelt, but they had a lot of Lethality Moderate teams that competed around the world. Their highest ranked diver was Nikki, but if I could spend a few years there then… I became lost in my thoughts as Huck seemed to be explaining to Daniel and my mom about the school and how they hadn’t lost anyone to a dive in over a year now.
It didn’t seem to help.