Call Spirits in Your Past **Book Two**

Chapter 19 (Friday week 1)

Ripple's heart hammered. What had Mina been doing to get them so out of breath? She steadied herself, rubbing her temples and opening her eyes wide. Strange, inky lines of red crossed her vision, almost like drips of blood in water. She stared at the whorls spelling out words. Hello? it read. She slowly grew aware of pounding footsteps, the open gym around her.

She glanced up, meeting Maro's gaze, and the inky redness swirled and retracted to his fingertips.

"Hi, Maro," she said between breaths. "It's Ripple. Where are we?"

Maro tilted his head and signed something, arms moving rapidly.

Ripple tried to decipher it, but gave up because he was using Spanish. She knew the Spanish version hardly at all. "Sorry," she panted for air. "I didn't understand that."

Maro blinked several times, but switched from the Spanish sign language. "Whichever alter was out before understood that signing."

Ripple leaned against the cold wall. "Okay, I didn't know...wait, is that real blood?" She'd only seen him use his inky powers when there was actual water nearby, so she'd never thought to ask.

He gave her a flat look. And shook his head.

A whistle blew, and Ripple jumped. Coach Preta stood near the edge of the gym, holding her clipboard. Next to it stood a large digital stopwatch, which showed ten minutes even. Ripple groaned. "We were doing timed runs today, weren't we?" And Mina--one of the least physically agile people Ripple knew, in the body or not--had been running for them. Like, Lucille had once tried to teach her to ski, but Mina just ended up head first in the powder. "And I just failed, didn't I?"

Maro nodded.

She groaned. Hopefully she wouldn't switch out during the mission assignment tonight. Hopefully. She bit her lip. Minutes ago, she and Cory had been sitting in the front room, waiting for more alters to show up, so they could discuss the mission assignment in case anyone else fronted during it. Ripple had left to check if anyone was in the theater, but...she didn't really remember after that.

Rubbing her temples, she followed Maro towards Miss Preta, who gave the clipboard to Maro so he could write down his time. Five minute something. Ripple frowned. How far had they had run?

"Rimira," Miss Preta said softly, "if you want to come in after classes end today, I'll count that time instead," Miss Preta took the clipboard back from Maro.

Ripple bit her lip. She had approximately an hour between when her counseling with Bea ended and before their mission assignment began. "Okay," she nodded, hoping Ani wouldn't front during counseling again. "Wait, can I have a paper? To write it down on?"

Miss Preta flipped through the papers on her clipboard. "Sorry, I don't have anything I can lend you," she smiled apologetically, and Ripple just sighed. No one in their class had brought a backpack, those were only needed on B days. Maybe Bea would have something.

The bell rang, and Ripple stared down at her worn t-shirt and gym shorts. "Oh."

Maro grabbed her hand, pulling her towards the changing rooms. "Wait," she muttered, "I have the paper I wrote our locker combo down on," she dug in her shorts pockets, but found nothing. "Where'd Mina put it?"

Maro shrugged, eyes wide, dragging her into the locker room. The door shutting in their wake did nothing to disturb the thick deodorant smell. But Ripple's gaze fell to a scrap of paper lying on the tile. She sighed, picking it up and smoothing out the wrinkles. She'd left little room to write anything beside her locker number and combo on it though.

Maro pushed her from behind, and she glanced along the row of changing stalls, then back at the paper. She always forgot which stall number was hers, too.

He insistently pushed her again. "I'm going, Maro," she hissed, stepping away. "I won't be late to class this time."