I was pretty nervous arriving at the disco. I was still pretty sore from the falls earlier, and now I was going to be in a room full of people I didn't know. It's a good thing I arrived with Balae. I don't know if I could have gone in otherwise. I heard some people say some mean things, like asking why there was a man in a dress. But there were people saying nice things about me too, and Balae looked really cute in her bow tie, so I held on tight and we went in.
Billy and Carmilla were already there. Carmilla looked amazing, of course. They'd got a table with Sanjit and Hugo, and I asked Balae not to leave me alone with Hugo. I'm not sure she understood why. Turns out Sanjit is smarter than he looks. He'd figured out that Balae is an extra-terrestrial, even though she's done really well at pretending to be human and even managed to fool an Asterion. She talked some more about classic cars, and I didn't understand a lot of it, except for the part about how you shouldn't dissect a horse, but it was fun.
Carmilla wanted to go to the loos, so I had to explain to Balae that the three of us had to go together, and it was because we were going to have a conversation there. Except we got stopped on the way by the headteacher, Dr Hart, who was going on about how Carmilla and me weren't students and that meant the insurance was invalid. I didn't think that was a problem because Billy and Balae invited us, but he seemed really worried and I couldn't let him kick us out. So I told him that I was there to be emotional support for Balae because she'd never been to a disco before, and that he should put us on the insurance as staff.
That seemed to be enough to calm him down, and he said something about his daughter and then left. Carmilla figured out that his daughter was Claire, who was being mean to Billy earlier. She said she was going to do something about it. I was a bit worried she might be going to eat her, but Balae was pretty sure she wasn't. All the same I did take Balae to the loos once Carmilla went off after Claire.
I don't know what Carmilla wanted to talk about, but I told Balae that we were establishing an alibi. She got that straight away. All those James Bond books have really paid off. I didn't have a briefcase, but I did have my clutch bag. We couldn't have a conversation about the boys we came with, since we were there with each other, but I got out my makeup so we could talk about that. Quite loudly, so that the other girls would hear and everyone would know that's where we were while Carmilla was doing whatever she was doing.
Except somehow we did end up talking about boys, because I told Balae all about that time in the pub when Hugo kept pointing all the things about me that make me look weird, and how that really upset me. She'd missed it all because she was getting drinks at the time. I felt a bit better after saying all that, and Balae told me she didn't think I look weird, but then Carmilla came back saying that Claire had had to go home and we should go and dance.
Carmilla was an amazing dancer, of course. I don't think I danced very well. I was a bit scared of accidentally punching someone, and I was a bit tired, and I wasn't used to wearing high heels. After a bit I went to have a sit down and drink some water. Sanjit had sneaked some vodka in but I didn't bother because there was no point.
Then Hugo came over and sat down next to me, and I looked for Balae but she was on the dance floor having fun, and I didn't want to interrupt. I figured I'd just have to put up with him for a bit. He actually apologised for upsetting me in the pub, which was nice. Then he said I was beautiful, and gave me a corsage, so I guess Billy was right and he does like me. And I didn't really know what to think about that, but it was a really nice white rose, and nobody's ever given me flowers before. So I said that I hoped his hand was OK, and he said it was and I hadn't broken it.
I kind of wished I hadn't said that, because I think he was going to leave, but after that he changed his mind and asked me to dance. And there was no way I was going to dance with just him, so I said we could go and dance with Balae and Carmilla, and then I had to stop him taking my hand on the way to the dance floor. But then I was back dancing with Balae, and I didn't care what Hugo or Carmilla or anyone else was doing because we were having fun.
It wasn't until after I got home that I realised I'd hardly seen Billy all evening. I expected him to be showing off Carmilla all evening.
The next morning my feet were a bit sore but the rest of me was feeling better. It wasn't the 48 hours the doctor had told me I should rest for, but I didn't have time for that. Today was the day we were going to attack the Asterion factory. I thought I should leave a note for Tiffany, just in case I didn't come back, but she was watching the door and saw me coming, and opened the door before I could leave.
I couldn't exactly tell her what I was doing, and I didn't know how to explain to a four year old that I might get killed and never come back. I tried, but she wasn't having it. She wanted me to promise I'd come back. And I didn't want to do that, because I didn't want to lie to her. And then she went and got her copy of Peter Rabbit, and gave it to me, and said I had to come back to bring it back. I didn't want to, but I couldn't say no either.
So if you're reading this because I'm dead, it would be nice if someone gave her her book back.
I met up with the others. Carmilla had brought the AV, Splinters had given us the semtex, and Billy had brought Gary, Ygirel's former host, to pretend to be a Peacekeeper. Getting into the place was easy enough. The Asterions didn't realise Gary wasn't Ygirel any more and we were soon on our way to the holding cells. Except we needed to be in the control room. We'd planned how we were going to hijack the transport vehicle. The signal to start was when I headbutted one of the guards, and the others took out the rest while I threw him over the side.
There was a hairy moment getting into the control room, when Gary almost lost his nerve, and we did get in but with a huge number of Peacekeepers. No way we could fight them all. But Balae spotted some kind of cable and used it to set off an alarm, and Billy made some illusions to hide us while we got into cover while the Asterions all ran around panicking.
No comments:
Post a Comment