Shadows and Popularity

Chapter 23: Taco Truck

Chapter 24: Taco Truck

Cardor was hiding from neither Maya nor Nathan. He was hiding from Zack.

When Maya’s group got back to the Taco Truck, a large, oval, grey van with a taco sign on top, Nathan studied the structure. A closed window covered half of one side to the right as two doors flanked both corners. Though it seemed like any other normal traveling food dispenser, this one was a DDA Secret Service truck, meaning one or more things.

Oliver opened the door for everyone. Alex curtsied dramatically as though she was still in the 1800s, before entering. The rest followed their lead, Sakri rolling his eyes heavenward before entering, as Maya relayed the earlier part of her afternoon that day.

At first, she had thought that Oliver, Aaron, and Cardor had brought her there for a quick snack, and she was more than ready to tell them she was vegan, but instead, she found herself entering another door, her batch mates leading the way, and was met by an enclosure unnoticeable to the outside beholder of the truck.

As they all entered the door in the truck, Maya saw the same sight she saw earlier. An entire control room, with up-to-the-minute monitors all over the walls, comfortable swivel chairs and even a long sofa on one side, a mini-fridge for cold drinks, and a wide, long keyboard that had flips and switches and buttons of all kinds. The wallflower had wondered if they really were still in high school or not for a moment, but she stopped her wonderings when Sakri cocked a gun that afternoon. The blood left her face then, even when he reassured her that it was plastic, but Alex was the only one that got the blood back up when she introduced herself.

Now she stood in the same room again, this time not even befuddled if her school was normal or not anymore. From that night on, she decided DDA wasn’t like any other school out there, everything she had seen and experienced as her evidence.

Nathan didn’t seem to have been having any problem coping with their situation as well. He actually looked quite relaxed.

“So,” She looked up at Sakri, who pressed a button on the keyboard and out came the DDA logo of a saber tooth tiger on the largest monitor. “Shall we hear what the Department has to say about our little…?” He paused when he looked back at them, his face as blank as his voice was flat when he continued. “…Ordeal?”

Oliver and Aaron snickered at his choice of words, Alex taking a seat on one of the swivel chairs and spinning it round and round, but Maya was the only one confused.

“Which department are you talking about?” She said, remembering that the school housed five completely different departments, then realized she asked a stupid question when she remembered her conversation with Sakri the night before.

“The Secret Service of course.” Alex mentioned, placing an arm around her shoulder, which was immediately peeled off by Nathan.

She looked up at him just as his glare disappeared, but the wallflower wasn’t given the chance to ask her question. Michelle’s voice rang through the vehicle, catching her full attention when she looked back toward the screen.

“Hello there!” She said, entwining her fingers together and giving them a light grin. There the prep sat on a swivel chair, her pink sundress showing off her bare shoulders, her flaming red hair tied to a ponytail, her hazel brown eyes glinting is amusement. “So, how did it go? Maya’s eyes are red.”

Nathan saw Maya bow her head as though on instinct. If she was worried about people seeing her cry, then the heartthrob thought she shouldn’t. After all, she had obviously already been crying a lot in the span of just four days.

“Stuff happened, now where’s Cardor?” Sakri asked, crossing his arms over his chest and propping his feet on the keyboard-filled desk.

Michelle grinned all the more, and somehow or another, Nathan couldn’t find the practical, no-nonsense girl he had met. “Zack’s giving him a sermon that could put a priest to shame.”