The SVE Club

11. Announcement

"So you're saying hot coffee did that?" Nate asked, looking dubiously at Midas' hand. It was early in the morning and the public bus was crowded as ever. Midas, Nate and Winston sat together in the same seats as the day before. This morning, Nate shuffled a deck of cards between his hands, making them flip and turn in complicated-looking ways.

Midas shrugged. "If you think that's ridiculous, you should have seen what they wrote on the coffee cup." He glanced down at his own hand. It was tightly bandaged. Beneath the bandages were the tiny stitches one of the housekeepers had nimbly sewn into his skin to close up a particularly deep cut. He could move his fingers, but gripping anything sent pain shooting through his right hand. It was one of the few times he was glad to be a lefty.

He turned his head to watch Nate's shuffling. It was mesmerizing; the boy must have been practicing for years.

Nate shook his head, still shuffling with ease. "See? That's why I never go to Starbucks. They spell your name wrong, don't even fill the cup up all the way and then the coffee tries to kill you."

Winston squinted at Nate. "When's the last time someone spelled your name wrong?"

"It happened once!" Nate protested. "They completely missed the 't' somehow. So it ended up being 'Nae'. And that was at a Starbucks!" 

Winston tilted his head as he looked at his twin. "So you're boycotting Starbucks just because of one bad experience?"

The bus stopped to let off the passengers. The three of them stood, exited the bus and began walking towards the school.

"I'm boycotting every coffee place," retorted Nate. "I'm allergic to caffeine."

"That's probably why the coffee tried to kill you," muttered Winston.

"How hard can you throw one?" Midas said suddenly.

"Huh?" Nate and Winston answered at the same time.

"A card," Midas said. "How hard can you throw them?"

Nate smiled smugly. "Hey, Winston? Why don't you roll up your sleeve and show him what I did last night?"

Winston sighed and pulled up his sleeve. Several slight cuts could be seen on his arm. There were some on his hands, too. Midas stared, his mind ticking away.

"Practically paper cuts," Winston said self-consciously as he pulled his sleeve down. They were approaching the school now.

"What were those for?" Midas asked.

"Don't pity him," Nate said. "Last night he got it into his head that he could actually catch one of my throws. He practically begged me to throw cards at him."

"I caught one, though," Winston said.

"One out of the entire deck!" Nate exclaimed as they entered the school building.

"Hey! There he is!" someone shouted.

A group of students rushed up to Midas, all holding SVE fliers.

"Midas! Midas!"

"We're going to join the SVE club!"

"An ISH student starting a club? So cool!"

"Do we really get to be heroes?"

"How do we sign up for the club?"

Midas backed away in confusion. The fliers... the fliers had actually worked?