The Marina. TheMarina.Of course.
The place I never, ever wanted to go again.
My ears are ringing, my pulse thin and fast.
I don’t want to go. I don’t want to go. Idon’t want to go.
But I can’t justsayno. I can’t bring myself to say yes, but?—
“But what about Wendy?” I hear myself say.
Four sets of eyes turn to me.
“Oh yeah,” Fox says faintly, shaking his head through the neck of his T-shirt and giving himself a soft smack on the forehead. “Duh.”
“Oh,” Pan echoes, brows knitting like he’s just considering for the first time. “What about her?” He picks up his helmet from where it’s been resting upside down on the desk of the shop.
“I mean…she can’t just stay here by herself,” I say. “Right?”
“So you want to take her with?” Pan says, sarcasm and disdain dripping from his words.
“Yeah, no,” Kit cuts in. “It’s bad enough that we took to the Lagoon for a Happy Meal that one time. We donotneed to bring her on…whatever this is.”
“Agreed,” Fox says. “Can’t she just stay here?” He swivels around to Blue. “Don’t you have security, or something?”
Blue just nods. Definitive, decisive. “I can lock everything down.” He slices his gaze to me, a faint smirk in his voice. “Unless he’s proposing staying back as babysitter.”
“No,” I say, even though I guess that’s exactly what I was implying. “No, I just?—”
“Wait, actually, Fox? Do you guys have a waffle iron? Because I was thinking we could…” Wendy, with Nana trailing, slows on the stairs as she sees all of us. She frowns. “Um, what’s going on?”
Pan jumps forward before anyone else can speak. Of course.
“Listen, Wendy,” he says. “We’ve got to go handle some, uh, business stuff, for a bit. But you’re cool here by yourself, right? With your vicious attack dog?”
“Huh?” Wendy’s frown deepens. “I mean, I guess, yeah.” She looks around at all of us a second time. “What do I have to do?”
“Nothing,” Fox says. “You don’t have to do anything.”
“It’s probably better if youdon’tdo anything,” Kit says. “Like, don’t touch anything on the entire first floor unless it’s in the kitchen.”
“There is, like, Easy Mac and shit—I mean stuff,” Fox says quickly, “if you get hungry. I just bought a ton. And Nana’s got plenty of food, right?”
“Um, like fifty pounds?” Wendy says, like we’re stupid. “She doesn’t even eat that much. I mean, look at her.”
“We’ll lock all the doors,” Kit says, “and rig up all the alarms.”
“But donotanswer for anyone,” Pan adds.
“I’ll take the password off of the TV,” Fox offers, “so you can watch shows with bad words in them or whatever.”
Kit glares at him.
“What?” Fox mutters under his breath. “I’m trying to sweeten the deal.”
Wendy considers.
“Yeah…I guess,” she says at last, and I can’t tell if the hesitation in her voice is genuine or just a kind of bargaining chip. “I mean, as long as I don’t have to like do chores or something.” She wrinkles her nose. “You guys are kind of gross.”
