The Company

Chapter Six- Angry Emo Boy Gets Loud Ringtones and Immediately Regrets It

Lionel was in a horrible, horrible mood after that little episode with the Badge. I don't think I'd ever seen him that mad.

He was slamming doors, huffing, and just being all-out madder than a librarian on her period.

It was the funniest thing ever.

The only thing funnier than an angry person is a tiny, adorable, angry person. It's just great. They're honestly too short to be taken seriously, even if Lionel was just a little shorter than me.

He was just too adorable for this world.

The FAR people called a meeting that night, and they ordered that the boy with the picture  bring said picture so it could be "investigated."

But before then, Lionel and I walked over to the mall block, just like the Badge had predicted. I decided a little fun would calm him down.

I took him to a little Chinese restaurant by an Aéropostale for lunch.

"How about it?" I asked as I slowly ate my General Tso's chicken. "I told you it was a good place, didn't I?"

Lionel didn't say anything. He just poked at his chicken and kept on that angry face.

"Lionel?" I asked, and he looked up at me. "Are you okay, man?"

He rolled his eyes and went back to his food.

"Lionel, come on man," I insisted. "You've gotta tell me what's happening."

He sighed. "I need to get that guy back."

"Who?" I asked. "The Badge?"

He nodded. 

"You can't get revenge on a Badge, Lionel!" I insisted. "Don't you get it? You do it, and you can't come to the Academy ever again."

"That's what we're doing with FAR , though," he said. "We're going against the Academy. That can get us kicked out!"

"Not going against the Academy," I replied. "That's freedom of speech. We have the Constitutional right to do it."

"It's not just that, though," Lionel said, pulling out a piece of paper from his jeans pocket. "Look at this. Does something look wrong with it to you?"

I looked over the picture. It depicted a guy in a lab coat talking to a bunch of casual-looking kids. No maroon sweater vests, no crazy tech, no nothing. Just normal-looking stuff. I shook my head to him in reply.

"Look a little closer," he said, pointing at the kids. "Have you ever seen any of these people?"

I looked again, and to my surprise, he was right. I didn't know a single kid in that was in that picture.

"See? That's my point. And how about this?" He pointed at the center point of the picture. "Tell me what you see? Is that a floating torso between some legs or is something horribly edited out here?"

My eyes widened as I realized what was happening. "They edited out something! But what?"

"This." He held up his phone, showing a familiar picture.

"No way!" I gasped. "That's a-"

"Stockphoto, my friend," Lionel said with that amazing smile of his. "They edited out the Stockphoto copyright, and horribly at that. Something is up, and they're hiding it from us, and I think I know what it is."