“Well, you three look chipper today,” Betty said holding a cup of Starbucks. Her hair was down and she wore a sundress with a leather jacket and boots. She was leading the trio of warriors behind her along the street. Where she was leading them they didn’t know, they just know she texted them to meet up this morning. “Have a good night?”
Lily sipped from her coffee and looked over the top of the cup at the pair to the pair beside her. Looking over her shoulder she watched Dick stare at the ground and Samantha continue forward as if nothing had happened. They were definitely holding hands though and Lily grinned.
“We celebrated after the graduation,” she said. “Went late. Me, Gav and Lisa stumbled through the train stops but we got home in one piece. Not sure when Dick got home.”
“I uh. Got home. Late. Kinda.” Dick said trying to walk his way around it.
“That so?” Betty asked and chuckled. “I seem to remember you leaving rather early this morning.”
Dick tried to say something and instead just made a garbled collection of noises and stared at the ground. “No tango nada. Wait why am I getting all the teasing?”
“Cause it’s easy Dick,” Samantha squeezed his hand lightly.
“That it is,” Betty stopped, checking the street both ways before hitting the cross walk. “But I wanted to meet up with you all because you’ve graduated. And as warriors that means you’ll have a bit of a choice coming up.”
Crossing from the side walk and pavement they transitioned to the green of the park and they weren’t alone. The sun was high and the clouds were gone. Kids and dogs were running around screaming happily along. They recognized a few of the people from their school among the teens out.
Picking a tree at random Betty stood underneath sipping her coffee. There was another park nearby with a bunch of children playing at the jungle gym or enjoying the swing sets. A fountain sat adjacent to it spewing arcs of water. Samantha looked at her mentor who gave her a short nod. Sighing Samantha went to stand beside her. Lily glanced between them both and sipped her own coffee meeting Dick’s confused gaze.
Samantha pointed to Lily and Dick, “You two are nontraditional warriors. Which at the time was fine. You awakened to your abilities and helped to defend your city. But now that you’ve both graduated high school it’s time for you to decide what your next move will be moving forward.”
“What’s that mean?”
“To continue working with the Legion you’d have to be registered. You may get asked to go to other cities to aid in a tough situations or wraith related disaster relief. Like the kind we went through with Samantha.”
“What about college?” Dick asked frowning.
“College would be difficult for you to do in case an emergency were to happen,” Betty said honestly like she tended to be. “A general education can be provided by the Legion but beyond that we can’t promise anything.”
“And what if we say no?” Lily asked simply.
Betty sighed having anticipated that question, “If you were to say no then your ability to operate as a warrior would be nullified.”
“What the heck does that mean?” Dick asked scowling. “Would you try to arrest us or something?”
“Something like that.”
“What?” Dick stepped forward. “You mean if we don’t join up we can’t help people getting attacked?”
“Yes Dick. Being able to keep track of those with Geist is how we differentiate between people like you and people like those rogues last year.”
“So we have to put our lives on hold or even worse throw them away entirely to keep doing this?” Lily asked.
Sadly Betty said, “To fight for the Legion, you need complete dedication to that cause. Meaning we can’t afford distractions. We’re not like everyone else. We don’t get off time. You all know that.”
Dick shook his head, “And you know us. Know that we would do what we have to when we have to and balance a personal life.”
“Yes, we know that now. But what if in five months something changes? How much damage could you cause before we found out?” Dick opened his mouth to speak but stopped and looked down. “I made an exception for your brother and even that leaves me feeling uneasy. If he were to do anything that would be on me and I’d have to live with that.”
“Mi hermano wouldn’t do that,” Dick said evenly and glared.
“You don’t know that for sure. None of us do.” They stared each other down for a long moment and then suddenly Lily walked away. Dick paused but followed after her. Samantha started to follow but Betty caught her shoulder and just shook her head.
It took Dick a few beats to catch up to Lily, she was walking fast and with a purpose. She seemed to be going aimlessly but there was a method to her madness. Finding a garbage can she tossed out her coffee and then went to the accompanying bench. Lily slumped forward for a second pushing her fingers against her face.
Dick sat beside her and pressed his shoulder against hers, “So that’s crappy news, right?”
“Understatement Dick,” she glanced at him and sighed. “I worked hard to get into college.”
“I know.”
“I’m doing a lot at my school. All the extra programs, my major, my family rooting for me. I can’t just give that up. Give up my life to join the Legion full time like some sort of on demand national guard. But I can’t ignore that tingling in my head when a wraith is out there. I’ve seen what they can do. We both have. And if I could take one down I would in a heartbeat. If I could save someone I wouldn’t hesitate.”
“You and me both. But with school, you’ve been wanting this forever. Heck doing this Geist Warrior thing. I picked it. You kinda got sucked into it.”
She glared at him then, “I picked it just as much as you did.”
“I know gringa. Tried to give you kind of an out,” he mumbled.
“I know,” she sighed pressing her fingers together.
“Well we don’t have to make a choice yet. Betty said we’d have some time. We can think about it.”
Lily nodded and then glanced at him a small smile forming, “What about you? Ready to be Samantha’s partner for real?”
“Ha. Maybe. College is really something for tio more than for me.”
“Still haven’t declared your major?”
“Not yet. Nothing has jumped out to me. Maybe I’m just not cut out for higher education.”
“You could be. This could be your time to figure that out. My mom didn’t learn what she wanted to do until her junior year. That could be you.”
“I could be your mama?”
“You’re annoying. Go ahead and join the Legion. I’ll go and get my degree without you.”
“Please. You’d be lost without me.”
“No that’s you and we both know it,” she got to her feet and bent at the knees. “Come on. We kinda just abandoned Betty and Samantha.”
“Hold on. I want to tell you something.”
She looked at I’m, stopping and then sitting back down facing him. “What is it? Please tell me you used condoms.”
He covered his face staring at the ground, “Jeez Lily. I’m starting to regret telling you that.”
She laughed again and motioned at him. “Go on. Talk.”
“My brother called me yesterday. During graduation.”
“Rey? You hadn’t heard from him in like four months, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well how is he? Everything okay?”
“From the way he sounded yeah. Taking care of himself. Keeping a low profile. All that.”
“That’s good news right?”
Dick nodded but is face showed he was wrestling with how to say the next part. “He said he’d been feeding. Mainly on bad people.”
“Bad people? How’s he deciding that?”
Dick shrugged. “I didn’t get a chance to really ask him.”
“What Betty said is getting to you?” Lily asked and he nodded. She squeezed his shoulder and shook her head. “I get why it might. And she’s right. We don’t know what kind of a person he is now.”
“I know. I’m hoping that I’m not wrong about this. I can’t lose my brother again.”
“Well we can’t do anything about it from here. Unless we go visit him we’ll have to take his word for it. And with that in mind let’s get back to Betty and Samantha before they believe we’re just leaving them.”
They made their way back, Lily taking the lead as per usual with Dick following his hands on his head. Betty turned to face them and tried to smile. When they smiled back and she let out a breath and chuckled. “Sorry. Didn’t want this morning to as serious as that.”
“Yeah no kidding,” Dick glanced around and noted that Samantha was missing. “Where’s capitan?”
“Taking a phone call. She’s around here somewhere,” she waved a hand toward the fountain. Dick glanced over and sure enough she was sitting on the edge of the fountain with her phone to her ear.
“You know I tried to encourage her to leave the legion,” Betty said staring at Samantha. “She was a kid when I found her. And so angry. But what can you expect when someone loses their parents. Especially like that.”
“If I hadn’t repressed the memories like I did I might have been the same,” Dick frowned hard.
Lily looked at Samantha but glanced back toward Betty, “What made her stay with the Legion? Was it really just to help people?”
“That’s what it became but not where it started,” Betty leaned back against the tree and remembered back to a much younger Samantha. “She hated the wraiths. More than anything else. She would go out of her way to find and kill them. Constantly putting herself in danger to do so. It became her whole life. I didn’t want that life for her forever.”
Lily shrugged, “What changed then?”
“It’s her story to tell. She learned how to live and found a balance between being a warrior and being a person. It took her time but she got there.”
As if on cue, Samantha walked over to them her hands in her pockets. Glancing at the two of them she frowned but Dick waved his hand. “No worries capitan. We’re all good now.”
“Good,” she said slightly distracted but smiled. “So, what now?”
“Well we could do some team building exercises. I have no shortage of them that I can share,” Betty said pulling out her phone. Collectively the trio groaned. “Come on it won’t be that bad. Promise.”
The Harlequin Library 