Welcome to My World

Chapter 49 Ez's POV {An Un-X-Shaped Box}

"Ellis?" I asked cautiously, approaching the pretty brunette. "What are you doing with the bean stew? Was it that bad?"

Ellis looks down from the roof, where she is rigging some kind of contraption with the full pot of bean stew. "Look, Ez, it's about that shadow I saw. I have a hunch that someone is watching the moon opal. With Viren after us, we can't take any chances."

I nodded. "Yes. Elle, I understand that. What I don't understand is why you need the stew."

Ellis nodded back, ripping the tape with her teeth, then sticking it to the pot. She swung down to the ground, where Ava had been anxiously awaiting her. She flipped up the edge of her shirt. "Look." She ordered me.

I did try to see what she wanted me to see. On the brown fabric there was a reddish blotch, hard to see, but it was there. "What about?" I queried.

"I spilled bean stew on my shirt at dinner last night, remember? When Callum said that thing about sandwiches and I laughed so hard and dropped my spoon?" Ellis reminded me. "I spilled it. Then I noticed that it stained, after I tried washing it out. If someone triggers that, it's sure to leave a stain. Then we'll know."

I saw numerous flaws in her plan, but I kept my mouth shut. Who knows? It might work. "Well, what do you think will happen?" I said.

She shrugged, but I could tell she just didn't want to say anything in case it failed.

"Come on." Ellis broke the silence. "Let's go inside. I wanna see if Soren beat Rayla yet."

Well, not like I had any reason to argue. I was freezing my socks off. All 5 pairs. Jeez, it was cold.

Soren, had in fact, not beaten Rayla. They seemed to be both losing to Callum in a Pokemon game, hooked up to the Xbox. It didn't look like an X-shaped box to me, but at least they were having fun. Callum cackled as his spiky yellow bird zapped Rayla's orange fox. Soren tried to counter with his floating rock, but Callum beat it easily. Looks like they teamed up against him and still lost.

"Ez, do you know anyone who wears a white and red scarf?" Ellis asked suddenly.

I thought for a bit. "No, but I saw one hanging on the coat tree this afternoon." I recalled. "It's not there anymore, and no one is wearing one, so it's probably either one of the Queens of Duren, Janai, Lujanne, Kazi, or Derek."

Her eyes narrowed. She looked really cute when she was thinking hard. Darn, Ez, not a real teenager, not a real teenager...

"Hmmm..." Ellis muttered thoughtfully. "I wonder if-"

She was abruptly cut off when Rayla yelled at Callum, then said a very bad word that would have made Dad wash my mouth out with soap.

Runaan came in, seemingly without cares for his daughter's language. Ethari followed. "Rayla, don't say that." He scolded. "It's not a nice word."

Runaan rolled his eyes. "Just don't say it in front of your teacher." He told her. Ethari gave him a look.

Suddenly, there was a crash from outside, then a stream of swear words that even Runaan disproved of. Ellis immediately ran outside. The Teenagers™ were crowding around the window, trying to see outside.

I couldn't just leave Ellis with only Ava to help her. I pulled on my boots and ran outside. Ellis was nodding approvingly at the reddish-brown snow. "Good. We'll see who got stained." She grinned.

We went back inside, explaining that it had just been a raccoon in the trash. Mom sighed with relief, Dad nodded, Runaan went back to cheering Rayla on, and Ethari gave us a knowing look.

Were we on the right track?