Little Green Stars

Chapter 38-Weird Energy

Malcolm was right—there is way too much weird energy in this room. And it got one hundred percent weirder the second those words came out of my mouth.

"My GOD," Bundty squeals in delight. "This is your dad?! Priceless!" Bundty flips out her phone to try and snap a photo of Malcolm.

"Young lady!" Malcolm demands, using his giant duffle bag to hide his face. "You do NOT have permission to photograph me without consent or payment."

Jaxson is too busy gawking at Malcolm to respond to my comment. He's in shock—no, he's shook! I don't blame him.

"I really thought we had something," Maverick says, trying to sneak his way past Bundty to the front door.

"Really, Maverick?!" I yell, as all my frustration spouts out. "What gave you that impression?!"

"Da boob photo," Maverick shrugs back, looking genuinely disappointed the night didn't turn out as expected.

"I'm not even mad," Bundty wipes tears away from her eyes, "This is just too pathetic."

"EVERYONE SHUT UP!" All eyes turn to see Jaxson's BIG MOOD. I think he might just explode with an overload of WTF. With wide, twitching eyes, he turns to me. "Vel, why are you running out of time? What is wrong!"

"Red Velvet Theory," Malcolm answers for me, taking out papers from his duffle bag. One at a time, he hands a paper to Maverick, Cece, and then circles around to hand one last paper to Jaxson. "The Shamrock red," Malcolm laughs to himself, moving his free hand to pat Jaxson's red-tinged curls. "This is a non-disclosure agreement. You all need to sign it. It protects myself as a celebrity. Don't worry. Your friends here alright signed it."

Confused eyes dart around to me and Jin.

"I'm not signing this!" Cece says, crumbling up the paper.

"Of course you will," Malcolm says, removing the same sage stone he used in the hospital parking lot from his pocket. He raises the stone to dangle before Bundty's eyes as she hurls insults.

"What the hell is—" Bundty's words stop dead as her eyes glaze over.

Malcolm removes a pen from his pocket and places it in Bundty's almost limp hands.

"Please sign this," Malcolm says in his typical unbothered voice.

We all watch in shock at the impossible sight of Cece Bundt, not saying a damn word, her hand singing the paper.

"Very good!" Malcolm says, turning away from Bundty, staring off at seemingly nothing. "Anyone else need help signing?"

"I'm starting to really like your dad," Jin whispers to me.

"What'd you do to my girlfriend?" Maverick says, scooting close to the wall behind him.

"She'll be back to her chipper self in a half-hour or so," Malcolm says, looking down at his watch. "I really must insist we hurry. T-minus five hours until your Red Lady comes."

"Red Lady?" Rina interjects, her eyes shooting over to Jin.

"Me," I say coyly, raising my hand, hoping to diffuse some of the tension.

"Signed it!" Maverick says, extending his long arm to hand Malcolm the pen and paper, keeping the rest of him as far away as possible.

"Sign it," I say to a flabbergasted Jaxson who grumbles, and swiftly grabs the pen Malcolm offers and signs.

Rina, in typical Rina fashion, follows Jaxson's lead and signs too.

"Really?" Jaxson says to me as his eyes watch Malcolm. "You're telling me this freak wearing a velvet suit is my grandpa?"