Daydream || Rick Tyler [DC's Stargirl]

• Chapter 18

The following morning, Molly wasn't surprised when she received a text message from Courtney in the group chat to meet at The Pit Stop in an hour. Luckily, Molly naturally woke up early due to wanting to be prepared for school so she didn't miss the message. Once she was dressed and told Aunt Tessa she had a JSA meeting, she was out the door.

When she arrived at The Pit Stop, she noticed that Jennie wasn't there. Courtney informed her that Jennie left this morning, which made Molly a little sad. She really liked Jennie and didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to her.

"Where's Rick?" Molly immediately asked when she noticed that only the girls and Pat were there.

"He's not here yet. We've tried reaching him, but he isn't answering his phone," Courtney sighed, not trying to sound too frustrated.

Yolanda, who was sitting on the steps, spoke up with a small smile on her face, "Besides, we figured if anyone would know where he is, it would be you."

A nervous feeling immediately began to grow in Molly's stomach as she asked, "What are you talking about?"

"She just means that you two have gotten very close," Beth shrugged with a smile.

Of course that's what they meant. Why would they mean it in any other way? Molly shouldn't have gotten so nervous about it. She had no reason to. She just gave the girls a small smile and replied, "We just have a lot in common."

"Which is surprising," Yolanda joked as Molly sat down next to her. Molly just gave her a playful look and elbowed her lightly.

That's when the door to The Pit Stop opened. It was Rick, who was walking in with his head down and his hands in his pockets. Everyone looked over at him as Pat spoke up, "You're late, Rick."

Pat's statement made Rick finally look up at him. He just looked around at everyone nervously, his eyes finding Molly's last. Even though she knew nobody else could tell, she could see that he was nervous. As if he knew she was on to him, he quickly looked away from her and back to Pat, "Sorry. I had to... feed the dog."

Molly furrowed her eyebrows at him as he sat down on the stool next to the stairs as Yolanda asked him confused, "When did you get a dog?"

Rick just looked up at her before looking away. It was clearly no secret that Molly and Rick had become good friends these past six months, but she thought his recent behavior was very strange. She didn't know if she should be worried about him or not. But now wasn't the time to worry about it. Pat taping a black and white photo on the whiteboard caused her to look up. When she saw who the photo was of, her heart nearly stopped.

It was The Shade.

"Well, turns out the girl who cried wolf was right after all," Pat began.

Courtney just laughed from the step below Molly and began to brag, "Of course I was right. There's a wolf in Blue Valley. He's called The Shade, the last member of the Injustice Society."

Molly noticed Rick's posture tense, knowing that he was thinking the exact same thing she was. However, nobody seemed to noticed as Pat continued, "The Shade worked with the ISA in the past, but he quit awhile back. I don't know what he's up to now, but he's going by the name Richard Swift. He's posing as an antiques dealer, and he's basically an antique himself. There's photographic evidence of him going back to the 1800s."

Pat gestured up to the picture on the board. Yolanda said from beside Molly in surprise, "So, he's like really old."

Then, Courtney shot up from the steps and turned to face her fellow teammates, "Pat thinks he doesn't age. His powers-"