Anger fueling me, I sprinted after them, not thinking about hoere going past the off-limits area. I wished Kalei hadn’t left, because she would have caught up to them immediately. I also wished I had more time to train with her. Even though my stamina had improved already, I still felt winded pretty quickly.

  “Be careful of snakes iall pnts!” Aira said. “And small ft men that hide on the ground because they’ll jump out and steal your sense of smell!”

  “Will do, Aira!” Oka said. “Whatever that means!”

  “Yonna be in so much trouble whech up to you!” I yelled.

  “No, you won’t because we’re so much faster and you guys are so slow and we’re Chellsi-Mikei-Kei!!” Chellsi said. We caught up to her as she talked, because she stopped halfway through her rant. “Oh.”

  “Just give Laenie back her seeds,” I said. “And tell Ovie to get back here!”

  “But not Mikei-Kei?” Chellsi asked. “Because it’s super rude of you to leave her out, she has abando issues because of this oime she wasn’t io Ovie’s fifteenth birthday party and…”

  “Stop!” Oka said. “Just give us the seeds already."

  Chellsi hahem over.

  “We still have to get the rest…they took a lot.” Laenie said. “And we don’t have much time left.”

  “Mikei-Kei is, like, really good at pickpocketing,” Chellsi said.

  I tuned out Chellsi’s rambling, because I spotted an old barn on the horizon. Not just any old barn.

  “Hey, that’s the Tadriff farm!” I said.

  “That’s awesome, but now’s not really the time, Zeta.” Oka said.

  “But they’re running that way!” I said. “If we just checked it out a little bit?”

  “Zeta…” Laenie said.

  “We check it out while we chase them!” I said. “Chellsi, are you gonna give up or e with us?”

  “Holy, I fot what we’re even doing,” Chellsi said. “Is this a game?”

  “Uh, sure,” I said.

  “Yes, it’s a game!” Aira said and wi us. “Cops and robbers!”

  Aira suddenly tackled Chellsi and ed her wrists in a colorful rope before we could stop her.

  “Hey! What the!?” Chellsi said.

  “I’m bringing this criminal in!” Aira said, winking again. She tried to whisper but instead very loudly said, “I’m bringing her back to Iho Vinai to those detectives.”

  “Oh, I know this game!” Chellsi said. “Oh, you got me, detective dy! Now to fess all my crimes.”

  Aira picked up Chellsi and headed back towards the vilge.

  “I’ll only fess my fake crimes for the game,” Chellsi said. “So don’t tell that hot officer all my real crimes. You tell the uggo ohem though, I don’t care what he thinks.”

  “Are we just gonhem go?” Oka asked.

  “We have to catch up to Ovie!” Laenie said.

  We found a trail past the tall grass and ran onward. The houses on the farmnd were getting closer.

  “They’re probably in the barn already,” I said, almost running into a bst of energy at my feet.

  “Wrong again, Manure,” Ovie said, still holding the energy in her palm. She and her cohort were in front of us.

  “Ovie, just give Laenie back her stuff,” I said. “This is getting stupid.”

  “Oh, the stupid is only just beginning,” Ovie said. “Want to guess where those seeds are now?”

  I was already furious at Ovie for whatever she was trying to pull with that Jeans stuff in the flower shop but stealing Laenie’s stuff and ering us had me close to losing trol to just blind anger.

  “Not really,” I said. “ we just be doh this? It’s almost time to go.”

  “Not until I’m satisfied,” Ovie said.

  “Fine, whatever! Just tell me what you want!” I said.

  Ovie pulled out two bloodsabers that were lying iall grass. She held o to me.

  “Humor me, Manure,” Ovie said. “A quick sparring match is all I need.”

  “Zeta…” Laenie said.

  “Why here?” I asked. “’t we just do this at school? Or not at all?”

  “With the teachers around?” Ovie asked. “Even our time in the void is tracked. Here? It’s just us and our dear friends.”

  “Yeah, good luck Ovie!” Oka said. “Zeta’s gonna win this, easy.”

  I didn’t feel as fident as Oka was about my ability as I took the bloodsaber. It wasn’t a practice baton, but it definitely wasn’t as high quality as the ones we’d made in css. I had no idea where Ovie had gotten it, but I did want to show her up. Ovie raised hers and ig.

  “Are we…for real doing this?” I asked.

  “Don’t you want Jeans to know how far you’ve e since your fangs came in?” Ovie asked.

  That had me ready to flip the switd go full unthinking rage mode at her. Just as I put my thumb over the blood collector, I heard a small noise and turo see Laenie had started g.

  “Do you even care?” Laenie said. “All you two wao do was look at Tower of Hate and Love stuff. I love that show too, but I had stuff to do! I had my whole day pnned out and you stepped all over it!”

  Laenie wiped her tears with ched fists.

  “And now yoing to fight Ovie?” Laenie said. “Are you serious?!”

  Laenie suddenly let out a guttural yell and grabbed her fa her hands.

  “Whoa,” Oka said. “Laenie, just calm—”

  “I barely got to do anything I wao here, and the ohing I actually got done for Mrs. Cyto got stolen!” Laenie said. I wasn’t sure if I was hearing things, but it sounded like her voice was getting deeper.

  “Laenie, I’m so sorry!” I said.

  “Are you?” Laenie bellowed, her voimistakably deep and monstrous now. “You ruined my trip. You’re a thief just like Ovie, because…you…”

  Laenie screamed and puhe ground, shaking it beh us as her fists pierced the earth.

  “Oka…?” I said. “What’s…happening?”

  “I think…she’s a…” Oka said.

  I could feel energy in the air as Laearted screaming, like waves of something pushing me back. I wao run, but all of us were frozen as Laenie kept pounding the ground. I looked at her hands and saw they had ged as she puhey were bigger, cwed hands now. Then it hit me that all of Laenie was ging. She was turning into somethiial, a monster with glowing eyes and massive sharp teeth. Laenie, formerly tiny and meek, was now a titan looming over all of us.