The SVE Club

18. Villains

    The entire SVE club, including Mr. Lee was assembled in B3, with the strange exception of their leader. Midas was nowhere to be seen.

    Mr. Lee tapped his foot impatiently and checked his watch. "Well," he said, "Is he planning on showing up?"

    "I think so," Taro said thoughtfully, sitting with his feet up on a desk. "He sounded pretty excited about it when I saw him in the office."

    Rachel paused her pacing across the room to stare at Taro. "Why are you here? Last I heard, you bombed your interview."

    "Yeah, dude, what's your talent?" Nate asked, shuffling a deck of cards as usual.

    Taro shrugged cockily. "I'm a human black hole."

    Rachel howled in frustration. "You mean that disgusting show of eating everything in sight?" she asked. She shook her head. "No. That's not a talent, that's a disease."

    "If that's the case, you could probably stand to catch it," Evan muttered, tapping his fingers on his desk.

    "What did you say?" Rachel growled.

    "Nothing," Evan replied evenly.

    "Well, folks," Mr. Lee said, standing up. "I'm sorry to say this, since I'm having such a lovely time and all, but if Mr. Mask doesn't come in about five minutes, I'm leaving and the meeting will be adjourned."

    "But I canceled all my plans for today so I could be here," Willow murmured, just loud enough to be heard.

    "And that sucks for you, it really does," Mr. Lee replied. "In fact, I'm sure we all have better things to do than wait on Midas, so how about we just call it a day? What do you guys say? Samantha?"

    Sam, who had been silent and downcast during the entire meeting, looked up from her desk and frowned. "Sure. What's it matter anyway?" she sighed, standing up.

    "Sam?" Evan said. "You alright?"

    Sam made a face. "Of course I'm alright. Why wouldn't I be alright? Do I not look alright?"

    "Nope, not at all."

    All in the room turned to find Midas breezing in through the doorway and dropping his backpack on the desk by the blackboard.

    "Everyone take a seat," he ordered. "And I'll give you the details of our mission." He took a white piece of chalk from his backpack and began scribbling on the board.

    "Mission?" Sam whispered.

    "A mission already?" Nate laughed. "You move quick, Midas."

    "But first," Midas continued, as if they had never spoken, "the rules of the SVE club."

    There was a collective groan as Midas etched out the rules. There were only three.

1: Tardiness is unacceptable.

2: Stick to your assigned role.

3: Absolutely NO DROPOUTS. Ever.

    Midas set the chalk down.

    "Any questions?"

    Taro raised his hand, saying "Are snacks allowed?"

    Midas ignored him. "Okay, no questions. Now let's get down to business. I'm not going to sugar coat it; I need you guys to help me break into ISH."