The Vigilante's Handbook (Misfits #1)

Twenty Nine: Picking Up Strays

The whole Julien breaking my nose incident was the catalyst for the newest rule for the Misfits: No going out alone. If what Julien told me was true, then we needed to be prepared for more attacks, especially solo fights. Being picked off one by one didn’t really jive with our new fight crime and stay in the shadows mentality. 

It was easy enough to explain to my co-workers that my roommate Ari--Ariana’s poorly constructed secret identity--was going to start walking me home after my shifts. No one questioned it when I came into work with a bruised face and a cast holding my nose in the right place. 

To explain the unwanted nose job, I spun some simple tale about an angry tourist who thought my purse had more cash in it than it really did. No one questioned my story, but they did have a few choice words about the new vigilantes that were supposed to be protecting our streets. 

It was a good gig though. If Ariana got off first, I made her a chicken quesadilla while waiting for my last table to leave. If I got off first, I got to wait in the comfy chairs of the real estate office and read gossip magazines about which celebrity was moonlighting as which new vigilante. I could live with the trade off. 

For a few weeks we had no issues. Everyone had a designated town buddy. If I wanted to go out after my shift, it was easy enough to convince Stitch or Miguel to accompany me. They were always desperate to leave the apartment, seeing as they were cooped up most of the day and spent their nights running communication and planning for the more well known members of our vigilante group.

So far, Ariana and Cody were the frontrunners of public popularity. They were in charge of dealing with law enforcement if our paths crossed. Plus their Gifts were mild enough that they could do damage, but no one was afraid of them. Stitch took the brunt of that. The local paper had started calling him The Monster. 

Today Ariana was scheduled off early so she could meet with the police about how to lower the crime rate during tourist season. But I had a table that had been munching on free chips and salsa since we opened at eleven. It was closing in on four in the afternoon now, and they had finished their flan hours ago. 

Ariana wasn’t happy when I informed her. I think she might have stormed over to the table if Diana hadn’t appeared with her usual chicken quesadilla and a bonus slice of tres leches cake. “How’s it going, Ari? The cook made some extra cake this morning and asked me to send it out for you. Lyd, I think table four is almost ready to go.” Like magic, they were beginning to pack their leftovers into styrofoam containers along with as many chips as they could manage. 

Diana may not have known that she had a superpower, but her ability to know everything about any customer was the most powerful Gift I had ever witnessed. “If you want to finish their ticket on the register I’ll start clearing the table.”

She was like an angel sent from above. I could practically hear the chorus singing praise from the heavens--or that was the music the cooks blasted from the kitchen. Ariana’s fists noticeably unclenched at the announcement. It seemed that I would not be losing my job today because she punched a customer in the nose. 

With Diana’s help, Ariana and I got out of Tacos El Jefe in record time before the dinner rush began. I stowed my tips in my purse before we left. The last thing I needed was an actual run in with a purse snatcher

“I like Diana,” Ariana said while she ate her cake with a plastic fork. “She’s much nicer than you.” 

I tried to muffle the heavy sigh that fell from my lips. Ariana and I had never been friends at Paramount Lake Academy. We had good conversations. Most of them ended in a way similar to that argument during our last night at the academy, with her insulting me or calling me a traitor. These walks just proved we weren’t meant to be best friends.