✅ The Last New Start [NaNoWriMo2021]

106. Remakes, Reboots, and Restarts

"Turning into a nerd now?" Mindy's voice vaguely intruded on Tess's awareness, but wasn't enough to break her concentration.

"Maybe," she mumbled, and carefully turned over the next page of her book. She always took extra care of her comics, making sure that the cafeteria table was clean before setting them down, but this one was different. She was reading Golden Ark, the final series in the New Ark trilogy. It wasn't particularly well regarded, even among MK's fans, but this particular copy had a special meaning to Tess.

"You need to spend more time with real people if you want to be popular, babygirl."

"Thanks for the pointer. I'll keep it in mind, just in case." She looked up, and tried to figure out what the best response would be. She was starting to get into the story she was reading, but she knew that she should try to help other people. If Mindy was here without a couple of minions ready to praise her skills in mockery, then this could be a somewhat-awkward attempt at making friends. An apology of sorts, even if she couldn't phrase it like that. Callie Wilson was watching from a few steps away, but Tess didn't know whether that was a reason to doubt Mindy's sincerity.

"How you getting on?" Spike's voice changed the mood instantly. He slid onto the seat behind Tess, and almost automatically put his hand on top of hers. It was amazing how mch closer they'd gotten in the last couple of months, especially compared to a year of friendship before that in which Tess had been too nervous to give any real hint about her feelings for him.

"Don't bother the baby nerd, Spike," Mindy answered for her, laughing just a little. "She's reading comic books. She likes looking at the pictures, maybe she's not old enough for real words. If you hang out with her, you might never have a social life."

"That's nice," Spike said with a shrug, and sat down properly beside Tess. "Which issue are you up to? I couldn't wait to see how it ends, so I went back to Isaac's shop and bought the last two. I can lend them to you when you finished those."

"Bad boy," Tess chuckled. "You need to be more careful with your spending. You lent me quite a bunch, and I said I was going to pay for the remainder."

"Yeah, but they're just that good. Too deep for a lot of people to understand, I think. Although perhaps I wasn't paying enough attention, because I didn't know why the celestial dragons weren't even watching from the shadows."

"I kind of thought about that," Tess nodded. She noticed Mindy storming away again, and wondered if she should have said something. More often lately, the queen bitch seemed almost vulnerable, and Tess had started to worry that she might be the bully now, the tables somehow turned. But she dragged her mind back to the conversation at hand and did her best to remember what she was about to say. "Like... the Dragons are always there, right? Like the three angelics. If there's something they would be interested in, even if they aren't in this story, you always see them lurking in the shadows. Like they watch and decide somebody else could handle it. There's no way to use creation magic without them knowing. So how come you don't see them anywhere in the New Ark series? It seems a weird omission."

"Glad I'm not the only one who missed it," Spike grinned. "There's a good reason for no dragons. And no recurring characters, either. It's because New Ark is a stand-alone trilogy. Not set in the Millhouse Underground universe at all. I asked Isaac when I went in to get the last ones."

"I'm glad he likes you enough to stand and chat," Tess chuckled. "The first time I took you into that shop, I was petrified he'd say you're not serious enough to be a real fan or something." Tess only realised after she'd said the words that she was talking like a visit to Malarkey and Sons was some nostalgic memory from the roots of their relationship. Maybe it would be an important memory in the future, especially if they both got into graphic storytelling more. But that memory was less than a week old, and she had to remind herself that they were both introducing each other to the mysterious corners of Maurice Kernigan's creative output.