Chapter Thirteen

It’s a brand new day and I find Divan on the toilet talking to his boss.

(Divan! What are you doing in there?)

He puts his fingers to his lips to hush me and says in the phone, “Four hundred and twenty extra simoleons sounds very nice! And a Happy New Year to you, too!”

When he puts down his phone, he smirks at me. “And that, Creator, is how you sweet talk money out of your boss.”

(Mmm hmm…I’m glad you weren’t on Skype. I doubt he’d find your office appealing. I know I’m plugging my nose as we speak!)

Divan whips a finger in the air. “Are you kidding me? SHE probably would have upped my bonus to $800!”

(Ugh.)

Not liking where this conversation is going, I find Kaila all smiles in the living room. I wonder what could make her so happy?

Oh. Right. She’s watching people burning in a building. Such a sweet show.

In a few minutes, I follow Hunter to school again, wondering what kinds of mischievous, demonic things his brain will think up next.

And there he is waiting with a villainous smile on his face.

But waiting for what? Why doesn’t he go in already?

Ah…he’s waiting for his hordes of minions to arrive. A whole different posse is galloping in like a stampede of horses.

As Hunter ascends the steps, he notices a cute blonde smiling at him.

He decides that he likes blondes in addition to redheads.

And by the time he’s almost done walking up the second flight of stairs, he adds brunettes to the mix.

“Your father is Mortimer Goth. Correct?” He pulls out his card. “Have him give me a call. I’d like to discuss…a business opportunity with him.”

Cassandra gives a little squeal and takes his card in both hands, carrying it as if it were made of gold.

(***eye roll***)

When he enters the computer lab, he sighs, “Ah…it’s so nice to be the master among all these lovely ladies.”

(Master? Where’s the teacher?)

The blonde gives him a “come hither” stare, but he just ignores it and takes his seat at the teacher’s desk.

As he clicks away, doing who knows what to the teacher’s files, one of his henchmen enters, sidling up to his desk. “Yes, Marvin?” Hunter asks, never looking up.

“Just wanted to let you know that the person in question is incapacitated in the janitor’s closet.”

“Excellent.”

When Marvin doesn’t move but stands there, staring out the window, Hunter says, “That will be all.”

“Uh, yeah, uh, Boss? When will I get that 3 D gaming system you promised me?”

Hunter stops tapping and says in a low, venomous voice, “When you stop asking me senseless questions. Now vamoose!”

“All right!” Marvin hurries away, feigning strength by smiling all the while wishing he’d put tape over his mouth. He didn’t want to end up as one of the poor schmucks tied up in the janitor’s closet.

Later, a brunette comes barreling in but there aren’t any seats available. She looks as if she’s about to cry.

But then she takes a picture of Hunter and giggles to her friend. “Look! I got one! And he didn’t even know. All the girls are going to be jealous now!”

The bell rings and it’s time to switch classes, so Hunter goes to the lab to steal the science teacher’s lunch.

As he’s downing a bowl of chili, he hears a menacing voice lilting from the microscope. “If it isn’t Hunter…what do you call yourself these days? Oh yeah, Hunter the Invincible was it? Nah…let’s make that Hunter the Terminable.”

Hunter ate the last of the chili off his spoon, frowning. Buzz the Buzzkill Landgraab. His archrival. Kid had been making fun of him since kindergarten. But Hunter is older now and his power is almost totalitarian. He’d never let Buzz bully him now.

Moving to a closer chair at the back of the room, Hunter laughs, asking, “What is it you want, Buzzard? Worms? Moldy cheese? A dead skunk? I can provide all to your liking.”

Buzz gives a side smirk. “Talk trash all you want, but you know I have all the best chicks and the burliest goons. I don’t know why you’re insisting on this world domination plan. It’s as futile as your dim brain.”

“Blah blah blah blah,” Hunter mocks, making a puppet out of his hands. “That’s all I hear from you. Talk. And talk is cheap, Buzzard. Now fly away with your other parasites. I’m busy.”

A syrupy smile slithers over Buzz’s face. “Oh…you did not just do that to me, Rodent. You call me Buzzard? I’ll take that. But you know what buzzards do to little rodents, right?”

All of a sudden, Hunters feels a buzz from his phone. He checks it and his stomach drops. “H-How?” His mouth feels dry like his tongue took a bath in sand. “My banking account. Thousands of simoleons. Gone.”

“You see, Rodent, you’re not the only one who has total access to the files around here. And you know that little email that was sent to you yesterday telling you that you won millions only you had to send over your account info so they could funnel you the money?”

Hunter gasps, glaring. “You didn’t.”

A wicked gleam sparkles from Buzz’s eye. “You figure it out.”

Feeling like he’s about to throw up, Hunter races into the bathroom and screams.

After school, Hunter trudges home, depressed.

(Aw, look at that sad little face! Cheer up, Hunter! When you hit YA, we’ll teach that bad guy a lesson! No one treats my creations that way!)

***Slaps hand over mouth***

What am I saying?

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