Twilight's Spell

PAR-TAY

Once Hannah's gone, I decide to leave as well. I'm still kind of mad at Grandpa and don't feel like staying with him. I say goodbye and get into my ship. I don't know what to do next. I really don't feel like going on a hunt for the Guardians. Maybe I could stay with Maddie until I find somewhere else to go. I type a message on the phone and wait for a response.

She responds fairly quickly and offers her couch up to me again. I feel somewhat guilty for imposing on her, but I really have no where else to go. I put the address she sends me into my ship and set autopilot. I'll have to find someway to thank her for her hospitality, but that will have to wait until a good idea comes to me.

Once I arrive, I decide it might be a good idea to try and disguise my ship. I find a large tarp in a nearby garage can and throw it over my ship. It doesn't exactly cover the whole thing. Good enough, I think with a shrug as I walk towards the front door of Maddie's building. When I enter, I am met with Maddie helping out three people with various problems. She looks up as the door makes a sound when closing.

"Oh, Brooke," she says. She sounds tired. "Why don't you go upstairs to the apartment? I've got a few more people coming in today." She looks extremely stressed at the thought of having to handle more people. I decide this is my chance to pay her kindness back. I walk over to her.

"How about you tell me what to do and I help you instead?" I ask. She smiles gratefully at me and begins instructing me on how I can help. Apparently this is physical therapy. It helps people recover from injuries that keep them from doing certain tasks. I tell Maddie I went through something similar to this after I got hurt on a mission when I was 14 and Yondu ordered me to bed rest before letting me slowly work myself back up to my usual workloads. This brings a laugh from her.

As the day progresses, I learn that Maddie was inspired to become a physical therapist after tearing her meniscus and having to go through the process herself. Along with that, I get to learn more about her life story. "It's not as interesting as yours," she starts. "My parents are both from Canada, but my brother and I were both born here in America. We actually have dual citizenship.

"Anyway, my parents ended up moving back up to Canada while my brother moved down south to Texas. He's the assistant manager of a hockey team down there. They're playing the Rangers tomorrow, so my brother and I were planning to go out to dinner tonight. You can join us if you'd like."

I can't find it in myself to impose further so I lie and say my sister lives in New York and we were going out tonight as well. She seems excited for me. As there becomes a lull in the customers nearing closing, I decide to go upstairs and text Hannah.

Are you doing anything tonight? Maybe we could hang out or something? I hit send and await her response. It usually took no time at all when we sent messages over the pads on the Ravager ship, but that's probably because people's jobs/lives were at stake most of the time.

Well I'm going to Tony Stark's party over at Stark Towers... why don't you come? she sends me. I'm a little nervous because I don't know who Tony Stark is, much less who anyone else would be. But, my only other option is to admit I lied to Maddie and become further indebted to her.

I agree to go and quickly look up who Tony Stark is. Looks like he's a billionaire tech genius that spends his spare time being a superhero. It also seems like her fought the Chitauri when they attacked Earth not too long ago.

I hear the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs, telling me Maddie has closed for the night. Make or break time with this bluff. "That was a long day, but thank you for the help," she tells me. "Oh, and did you find out what you and your sister are doing tonight."