The Gradebook

Chapter 8: Krypto-Knight

CHAPTER 8: KRYPTO–KNIGHT

“Really, Mia, an extra inch of eyeliner wouldn’t do any difference to the couple of pounds you have on there.”

Rolling my eyes, I waggled my finger at Adrian. “Be quiet. This is a concert we’re talking about, I can’t go looking bad. Must look my best at all times.”

“Whatever you say, but don’t forget to wear more than one square foot of fabric. You want to look decent,” he said sarcastically.

I sighed and tried not to let him get under my skin; after all, he’d gotten me the ticket some way or another. Apparently he could pay Tyler Cooke the money back through Pokémon trading cards. He did do me a favour, even if I didn’t know why.

I shut the lights off and skipped my way back to my room. Finally! A night to unwind, get my thoughts cleared out, party like there was no tomorrow. And I’d get to meet the best band on the universe.

I was way too excited.

Deciding to try to unnerve Adrian by layering lots of clothes, I picked up a long t-shirt with a lace back and a dark wool cardigan. The black leggings I chose seemed a little ragged, but after the night, there’d be no point in keeping them anymore. Ten bucks I’d be pushed against a bar table by at least half the crowd.

Just a little while later, the bubbly bath I was taking soaked its warmth into my skin and made little popping noises as I plopped my feet over the water, under the water. Even after I got out and the air in the room tickled at my body, I still felt boiling hot and relaxed. I teased my hair just a little, slipped into my clothes, and bounded over to Adrian’s room, where he kept my ticket.

Without knocking, I burst into his door and made a little twirl in my new ensemble. “You like? It’s about ten times more than your definition of decent.”

“Yeah, seems alright,” Adrian said with a sheepish smile as I smirked in his direction. The moon filled the room with a dull light and stars twinkled in the sky. Oh, the optimistic feeling.

I gave my brother a curious look. “Aren’t you going to give me the ticket? I said I’d pay you off next week. What are you waiting for?”

Adrian adverted my gaze and shifted his feet around, twiddling with his thumbs. Adrian was never like this when he was making business transactions. It was... inhumane of him.

“Well? Spit it out.”

“Er, well... You see, big sis, there were no more tickets. They were all sold out,” he whispered. My heart fell down to the ground, a miserable weight pressing down on any og my hope. But then he spoke again, “Instead, they gave me this paper that says you can get into the concert as long as you’re the highest bidder and win one of the items at tonight’s auction at Collector’s Paradise. I’m really sorry for the inconvenience, sis, but you can always try, right?”

The sadness suddenly left and anger infuriated me. This kid said he already had the ticket purchased, and now he couldn’t find it, or for that matter, even get a hold of it? He was a liar all along, telling me he had it. I’d just have to check out this auction; I still had two hours until the concert started. It’d be a race against time.