NOVEL NEXT 66: The Suffering That Comes From Packing
Wind whistled through the station as the sun’s last rays cascaded across the platform. Outside of the station as a whole, just before the security area, stood Angelica, tapping her foot with her arms crossed as she stared off into space. Her luggage sat beside her as she texted her students, [I’ve arrived at our meeting area, feel free to come whenever].
Everyone still had half-an-hour before the absolute deadline where they’d have to meet though.
Scrolling on her phone and exchanging texts with Roxanne, Angelica idled away fifteen minutes until a surprising trio of students appeared in her vision. Albion, Conrad, and Titus. Faced with these three before any of the other students, she blinked a couple times before slipping her phone into her pocket. “Good evening you three, how was packing?”
“Extremely tired,” Conrad yawned, dragging along a large suitcase behind himself. “My room was so messy.”
“That’s something you can only blame yourself for,” Angelica took off her sunglasses and slipped it on top of her head. “How about you two?”
“Same story,” Albion grumbled, sitting on top of his suitcase. He drummed his fingers against the suitcase while nodding towards Titus. “He’s the neatest among us three. So he didn’t suffer as much.”
“Good to know, I’ll... keep that in mind? I really don’t take notes about that type of stuff though,” Angelica shook her head. “Maybe it’ll come up one day, who knows?”
“It doesn’t matter if you note it down or not, we all know you have a perfect memory,” Albion sighed as he slouched over. “You know, it would’ve been a lot easier if Celeste and Nyssa helped us. We ran into them at lunch, and asked, but they turned us down.”
Raising an eyebrow as she noticed Nyssa and Celeste appearing in the distance—hand-in-hand as always—Angelica opened and closed her mouth a couple times as she considered her words. “Yeah, I’m sure they have their own things to do, you know? They’re busy, and do enjoy time to themselves, the same way you three enjoy your ‘goblin time’ together.”
“Ohhh, do you think we should invite Celeste and Nyssa next time we do goblin time?” Conrad clenched his fist. “Maybe we’ve underestimated their gaming skills.”
“You doofus, she doesn’t mean it like that,” Titus slapped Conrad’s arm, only to receive a slap on the arm back. “She means that they probably like... I don’t know, going on walks together. My sisters do that a lot. Or eating out together.”
“Just ask them, they’re right here,” Angelica sighed, massaging the bridge of her nose to stave off the headache appearing from the mass death of her brain cells. “And look at that, Ryker and Electra are here too. So, ask quickly, we’ll leave for dinner soon.”
“Ask us about what quickly?” Celeste walked up, letting her suitcase roll to a stop beside the already present trio. “Something on your mind? Is it about the packing help request we turned down earlier?”
“Kind of,” Titus sighed. “Angelica just mentioned how you two enjoy spending time with each other in a manner similar to our goblin time, and we were just curious as to how you two spend that time, since uh... we’re assuming you don’t do what we do.”
“Definitely not,” Celeste snorted as Nyssa covered her mouth and laughed. After resisting the urge to say ‘date,’ she patted Titus on the shoulder. “We don’t do too much during our ‘goblin time’ as you put it. Just hang out with each other in our rooms. Depending on the day maybe we read something together, watch something, get some homework done together, that type of stuff. Normal things? Go to the school events. Like the fireworks show last night.”
“And carpet bombing Electra and I,” Ryker retorted as he walked up. “The two of you did us in, otherwise, I bet we would’ve been able to beat Olivia.”
“I don’t think... so... maybe?” Nyssa murmured, “We also were the ones who convinced the upperclassmen to give you a boost, so it evens out right?”
As Ryker paused, unsure as to how to retort, Angelica cut him off. “Our train leaves in an hour, so let’s eat a quick meal before going through the security checkpoint and leaving. Luckily, the train makes a stop at our institute’s train station, so our commute time is, well... as you can see from the fact that we’re standing by it, very nice.”
“So... dinner?” Electra spoke through a yawn. “Do you have anywhere in mind?”
“Let’s get past the security gates, there’s an upscale restaurant inside the station on the second floor. It’s a field trip so I’ll pay. As a faculty member I get a discount,” Angelica smiled while motioning for them to enter the station. “Plus, I'm rich.”
“Praise the power of money,” Ryker clasped his hands and bowed before grabbing his suitcase and entering the double doors. As the last student to enter the station, he walked beside Angelica as they went through the basic security scanners.
Once past the checkpoint and gathered in the restaurant, the eight of them had some quiet conversation—pockmarked by Angelica lecturing them about what to watch out for and how to conduct themselves properly during the investigation. Hunter’s Association, Hero’s Association, they all had their own standards, and Nyssa found it... interesting to say the least to hear about the differences.
Mind-numbing as well. I’m just trying to drink my soup in peace! I didn’t need to know that the title conventions were different. I mean it’s cool that the Hero’s Association prefers two part titles separated by a colon, one more official followed by an interesting comment while the Hunters prefer business only... but... but soup...
The bread was so soft... and had nothing to do with titles either...
Once the dinner wrapped up—and Angelica paid—they made their way to the station platform where the train now waited. With an entire compartment to themselves, they spread out across the seats and tables, each little group claiming their own private section. Nyssa and Celeste in the front corner, Angelica in the back corner, Ryker and Electra in the back near Angelica, and the three monkeys in the middle.
“A little bit of privacy is nice...” Nyssa murmured as she cuddled up next to Celeste on the train’s chair. “Do you mind my position right now?”
“I do mind,” Celeste whispered back while wrapping an arm around Nyssa’s waist and pulling her in. “You’re not close enough.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Nyssa laughed as she hugged her arms around Celeste.
Before they could continue their quiet conversation in the front of the carriage though, Albion slapped down a massive briefcase onto the central table. Unlatching it with a slight smile, he pumped his arms up and down as Titus and Conrad backed him up. “Anyone want to gamble?”