“Done.” Kallie tossed the wipes away, then looked at my wheelchair with a frown. “What do you want to do about that?”
“I’m not sure.” When I’d first gotten out of the hospital, Charlie and I had amajorblow-outargument about using disposable underpads to protect the wheelchair, and the gel cushion it had come with, in case something like this happened. I’d felt completely insulted, and complained he wanted me to use a puppy pad, but he wanted to play it safe just in case. Apparently, he’d been right.
“You could use your Water magic to get rid of it, then we can disinfect the chair and the gel cushion with the wipes,” Kallie suggested.
“You’re right. Ugh, this is terrible.”
“Hey, it could’ve been worse,” Kallie pointed out.
I shuddered to think. Definitely could’ve.
We managed to get everything else clean. The chair wasn’t ruined, but that was a stroke of luck. Kallie helped me into a new skirt, and put on new socks and shoes, since I still struggled to get them on by myself.
“Are you okay with me doing this?” Kallie asked as she finished knotting a bow on those awful, deplorable, no-good Mary Janes.
“I have to be. But sometimes, it makes me feel like a toddler,” I confessed. “Charlie has to get up even earlier now, because he’s got to help me dress after he gets ready, too. I’m still working on doing things by myself, and I think I’ll get the hang of it eventually, but I still haven’t mastered stuff that requires me to bend over, because my middle is so scarred. I’m shit at tying shoes.”
“Meh, Chancey can’t tie his own shoes either. The angel struggles to learn his colors and shapes. You can count to five, so you’re already way ahead of him.”
A loud laugh bubbled out of me. “I love you, Kallie.”
“No love needed for telling the truth. He’s a big, dumb idiot.”
Kallie pushed me out of the bathroom, and I felt a little lighter. What happened was horrible, but it was made a little less so by having a good friend at my side. Oberi panted, happy that we’d solved my latest crisis of the day.
“I definitely need to repay you for this. I owe you one,” I told her as she pushed me to the library.
“You don’t owe me anything. You needed me,” Kallie insisted.
I did. I’d needed her, and she hadn’t hesitated to step in. How could I express the immense gratitude I had for her? There wasn’t a way to show her how thankful I was.
Marcus was scribbling in a notebook while Rishi purred on top of a stack of books. Kallie pushed me to his table and plopped down in the seat next to mine.
Marcus glanced at me. “Don’t you have an exam right now?”
“It got moved,” Kallie said shortly. “We’re just hanging out.”
Kallie’s tone told Marcus to stop asking questions, so he changed the subject. “Professor Mazur caught me following her around. She gave me an infraction and threatened to send me to Cellblock 9 before she finally let me go. She knows we’re tailing her for information. She’s not going to slip up and talk about where Eddie is if she’s aware we’re following her.”
“We’ve gotta find a way to get through to her,” I mumbled.
“Pain works,” Kallie said, and she smacked a fist into her palm.
“Yeah, right, like we could get away with that.” I sighed, placing my chin into my hand. “Maybe we could negotiate. There’s gotta be something she wants. Or we could pay her off—”
“Don’t think so. She subscribes to The Mission’s cause like it’s her own personal vendetta,” Marcus replied.
“I bet she’s already told the Warden. He’s gotta be getting off on the idea that he knows more than us,” Kallie complained.
“Forget the Warden,” Marcus said. “My next idea is to rifle through her office. She’s outside giving an exam in the prison yard next period, so I figured I could do that now. Unless you girls have any other concerns.”
I paused. “Actually, Marcus… I wanted to ask you something unrelated.”
He turned toward me in interest, and I said, “I overheard your offer to Charlie, to help him talk to his mom. I know he’s not ready for that yet. But…”
I took a deep breath. “I want to talk to Monica. That is, if you’re willing.”
He blinked, and Rishi gave a low meow before Marcus stated, “If you think you’re ready, I can definitely do that for you, Ava. If I send her an invitation and she accepts, she’ll speak with us. She didn’t die that long ago. She should be easy for me to contact, now that I have a better handle on the spell after we contacted Thaddeus.”
