What He Heard

Chapter 8

            Willow dropped down onto the couch beside Rune, letting her backpack fall from her fingers to the wood floor of his family room. “Your mom not here?” she asked, glancing around. She noticed the katanas mounted over the TV and hid a smile before turning her attention back on her friend.

            Rune fake shuddered. “No, thank god. She’s meeting her friend Phoebe for their weekly lunch and cackle. It’s just us. Hand it over.”

            Her eyebrows rose, but Willow leaned over the arm of the couch to unzip her bag, pulling out a piece of paper. She held it away from Rune’s reaching hand, shaking a finger at him. “You have to show me yours first.”

            “That’s what she said,” he replied, grinning. He grabbed the sheet of paper off the coffee table and handed it to Willow. “Here you are. Now, give me yours. I can hardly wait to read it.”

            Willow let him take it, but shook her head. “For someone so anal about politeness, you can be awfully rude.”

            He chuckled. “Politeness is for strangers, acquaintances, and coworkers. You’re my friend. I’m allowed to be rude and order you about.”

           “So glad we cleared that up,” she replied dryly, making him laugh again. Her eyes fell to the page in her hand. The title, Masked Vigilantes Attack Dance, had her choking.

            Hearing her, Rune looked up from her article and grinned again. “You have no idea how much fun I had writing it like I was Jonah Jameson.”

            Willow had to smile before focusing back on the article. Friday’s dance was invaded by Spiderman and Deadpool. Two people, who remain at large, dressed as the famed superheroes and created havoc throughout the dance.

            Their first attack, Spiderman spraying unsuspecting dance goes with silly string, was a vicious attempt to ruin the experience for everyone. Moments later, Deadpool forced the DJ to play U Can’t Touch This, distracting everyone from Spiderman, allowing the wall-crawler to escape.

            Their disruptions didn’t end there. Having won the costume contest, Deadpool not only refused to unmask, but also stole the medal from the presenter, leaving this reporter to wonder what kind of monster lies under the mask.

            Willow looked up after that line and made a face at Rune. “Was the monster comment really necessary?”

            He nodded. “As necessary as your ‘The dancing, if rubbing against each other can be called that, was in full swing when the costume contest finalist were announced,’ line was. Besides, isn’t it so much more fun to hint at the fact that you get hairy, when there’s no chance anyone other than your family will get it?”

            “Fine, but if Ed decides to lecture me, I’m sending him to you. And you’ll deserve it.”

            “Completely,” Rune agreed, eyes dancing.

            “Smart ass,” Willow muttered, smiling. She ignored Rune’s chuckle, concentrating on where she’d left off in the article. Not content with only making a mockery of the contest, the pair had one final attack. When teachers attempted to apprehend them, they disrupted the music, stopping the students from dancing, the whole point of the event, and yelled. Before anyone could stop them, they escaped out the door.

            As much as I hope that these two are brought to justice, I hope even more never to see them again. There is no place for such blatant disregard of rules, social conventions, and safety of their fellow students. I pray that the authorities catch up with these vigilantes and teach them that there is no room for people like them at our school.

            Willow looked back up at Rune. “It’s short but I like it. If you’re trying to deliberately throw people off our scent, you’ve done it a little too ridiculously for anyone to really believe you’re against our alter egos.”

            He grinned. “That’s the point. There’s no way we could convince anyone who’s read our previous articles that we find the whole incident anything but hilarious, so this is a good way to throw confusion into the mix. Really stupid people will think I’m serious calling out Spiderman and Deadpool. Others will see it as the parody it’s supposed to be. And the best part is that there’s nothing Mr. Marsden can point out as being a problem, because I know he’ll have an opinion similar to the one in the article. It’s a perfect plan.”

            “Mr. Marsden’s not stupid. He’s going to notice what you’re doing. If you keep pulling stuff like this, he’ll start looking for ways to undermine us or shut us down.”

            “If it happens, it happens. Right now I’m enjoying the battle of wits.”

            Willow took in the joyfully mischievous expression that Rune wore, his eyes bright with confidence, and sighed. There were times she was impressed he’d managed to live this long. She was really going to have to talk to Andre about getting Rune into at least the basic self defense course. She had a feeling he was going to need it sooner, rather than later. Out loud, she said “One day, this is going to come back and bite you in the ass. And I’ll be there to laugh when it does.”

            Rune shook his head. “No you won’t. You’ve already proven that if I’m in trouble, you’ll go all mother bear on me and try and take out the threat. Which is actually pretty fun to watch, even if I think you’re too overprotective.”

            She snorted. “No, it’s that you get in way over your head. And you don’t know when to keep your mouth shut. And you provoke people stronger than you. And you’re a trouble magnet. Honestly, I’m surprised you haven’t given me an ulcer yet.”

            He waved a hand in her direction. “You worry too much. I’ve survived this long, haven’t I?”

            “And that’s why you shouldn’t tempt fate any further. You need a permanent bodyguard.”

            Rune put on an expression of disbelieving excitement. “Is that your way of proposing to me?” he asked, his hands fluttering around his mouth. “We’ve known each other for such a short time, I don’t know what to say.”

            Willow smiled, but sighed inwardly. While she found Rune fun, it was hard to have a serious conversation with him. And she really did need to talk to him about his safety. He was entirely too cavalier about it for her peace of mind.