Go after Athena

You doubt that Athena has seen Phineas and Ferb, but still.

“Whatcha doin’?” you ask, popping up beside her.

“Whoa! Oh, god.” She rolls her eyes and takes a deep breath, then starts walking again, back toward the booth. “Take that off.” She pulls your Peachface mask off and lowers your hood.

“This is cool too,” you say, strolling beside her and smoothing out your robe. “Now I’m Spider-Man cosplaying as a necromancer.”

“Are you even speaking English? Why aren’t you at the booth?”

“Spying on you, obviously.”

She sighs deeply, then snorts. “Because of course you are.”

“Of course. I worry about my onee-sama,” you inform her.

“Your what?”

“So what are you doing with Sal?”

“Lord, save me. What makes you think that’s your business?” Athena asks.

You both dodge as some cosplayers in a hurry go tearing past. You shake your head.

“That is a terrible Itachi,” you say critically. “Normally, I guess it wouldn’t be my business, but it didn’t look super friendly. Are you OK?”

Athena’s expression softens. “Aw. Are you worried about me?”

Didn’t you just say that? She doesn’t know what onee-sama is, because she probably spent her youth doing cool people things instead of watching anime.

“I’m even more worried because you’re dodging the question,” you say with a big smile.

Athena laughs. “Meri, have you ever done something you weren’t proud of?”

“Of course.”

“Would you want me questioning you about it?”

Oof. OK. Point taken.

“Fine then,” you say, trying to give her the Frodo look. “Keep your secrets. But at least hold hands with me.” You put your hand out.

She laughs, then takes it.

Back at the booth, you find Nancy charging some horny nerd an extra twenty bucks because he touched her boob while they were taking the photo.

“Capitalism, baby,” she says, tucking the twenty into her bra.

“You need therapy,” Athena says tiredly, taking her seat and stealing a drink of Nancy’s soda.

“She gave me nothing,” you report to Nancy, folding your arms and giving Athena a stern look.

“Athena’s an enigma,” Nancy replies mildly, exchanging a look with Athena. You squint suspiciously like a meme. Is there some secret that they are both in on?

Yuki returns, stuffing her face with fried noodles from a clear plastic container. She is terrible at chopsticks. You want to teach her, but the rush hits. You should’ve expected this. The day is winding down. CCL’s booth is in a corner, and nobody knows about you. But now everyone’s hit all the stuff that they cared about, and now they’re seeing what’s left. On top of that, you’ve had all day for people to post about your booth on social media.

You take more pictures and sell more shirts in the last two hours than you did all day. It’s a success, but it’s busy. There’s no time to think or talk to the others, and all four of you are needed. With four, you can have two customers taking pictures at once.

All of you are worn out. Soon it’s time to break down the booth, but that’s an easy job: quite a bit of what you brought with you is gone now. The plastic tubs are much lighter as you carry them back to the car.

It’s dark outside. As you finish loading the car and climb into the backseat with Nancy, your head is buzzing. There’s been so much this weekend. Last night. Colby. The con. The protestor. The vibe in public. And Athena’s strange behavior.

For a second you all sit in the car, quietly, completely in sync with your mixture of tiredness and elation. Even if you’re worn out, it was a success. You don’t know the numbers, but apparently the profits exceeded Athena’s expectations, if only by a little. Meanwhile, you are secretly certain that if CCL had gone about this a little smarter, the profits could be amazing. It’s not Athena’s fault; she isn’t a business major. She’s a philosophy major. You aren’t a business major either, but… you are just a bit more online than these three.

“OK,” Athena says with a sigh. “We’re done.”

“Home,” Nancy says at once.

“Bar,” Yuki moans at the same time.

Athena snorts. Then she turns to look into the backseat. “Break the tie, Meri.”

Oh. OK.

Bar? Or back to CCL House?