MISC: The Girl Who Saved the World Part 66

[George Phillies]

Brian glared at Archie. "Not a polite question. But she wouldn't cheat. 
She just wouldn't. Besides, it's Janie and I who have gifts, which we 
wouldn't have told anyone about.Except that idiot Emperor Roxbury showed 
up with his stupid giant robots. Why did Roxbury have to show up here? 
Now I have the principal, the guidance counselors, the school 
psychiatrist, and half my teachers wanting to be real sure Janie and I 
don't lose our tempers. I don't. After all, Janie and I had our gifts 
for years now. No one ever suspected anything. Maybe some gamers. Janie 
plays under an Overton cage."

"That was just Trisha? Running fast?" MacDonald nodded. "She's for sure 
fast. Maybe she should join the girls’ cross-country team."

"Out of the question. Please don't ask her. I mean it. Just don't ask 
her. It's complicated. But she wouldn't want to say no. She just can't 
say yes," Brian said.

"GR! And Joe?" MacDonald asked, pausing to take another bite of salad.

"He disappeared," Brian answered. He drank half of his glass of milk. 
"That's been a super-incredible pain-in-the-neck. There were all these 
people who think Eclipse learned her City of Steel move from Janie. But 
she’s never met Eclipse. We don't even know what Eclipse looks like. Not 
for sure. So there are all these crazy people. They think Joe taught 
Eclipse. No one knows how to find Joe. You saw the papers.We had the 
National team and a bunch of people from the Federal District on our 
doorsteps. I met Speaker Ming!And Krystal North!"

*****

Janie sat in a quiet corner, munching on her sandwich and reading a book 
on Territories. Most days, she had friends to sit and talk with, but her 
schedule today was a bit complicated. She really did not want to talk to 
anyone at the moment. There were already people who know about Trisha 
being grounded. Most of them would be nice. Or sympathetic. She also 
knew a couple of meanies, people who didn't like her because she had her 
Highly Respected ranking, and would take it out on Trisha.

There, however, came Ingrid Fairhaven. Ingrid was a nice person. That's 
why she got along so well with Trisha. They were both just nice people. 
She was even nice to Trisha’s younger sister, even though Janie was a 
whole grade level lower. A lot of eighth-graders just looked down their 
noses at seventh graders, as though they were some inferior sort of 
insect. Ingrid waved. Janie waved back.

Ingrid sat down at the end of the table, looked around to see no one was 
really in earshot, and leaned over to Janie. "I promise I won't call you 
out of your book," Ingrid said. "You're the best Five Games player this 
school ever had. But I saw your picture in the paper. You and those 
Grandmasters. And the Speaker of the House. That was really frigid. Are 
you all right?"

"I'm just great," Janie said. "They were all nice to me. Well, I had a 
champion, a persona who protects me. And they grilled me on my move for 
two hours. Girl, but they gave away a lot of good ways to think about 
moves. I was really tired afterwards. Yesterday I won two correspondence 
games!"

"I'm more-or-less your sister's best friend. I won't pry," Ingrid said. 
"I want to help. If I can. Suddenly she dropped out of the music club. 
She told me that she was grounded, and that she didn't know why. If you 
can think of anything I can do to help her, just let me know."

Janie frowned pensively. "Please don't tell anyone else."

"Not in a million years," Ingrid said.

"If I said something to you, could you repeat it to her?" Janie said. 
Ingrid nodded. "Mom and Dad said that Brian and I can't talk to her 
unless they're in the room listening. But there's something I'd like to 
say to her, and I can't, because I don't want my parents to hear it."

"That is totally weird," Ingrid said. "Of course I will. And I won't 
tell anyone else what the message was."

"Please tell her. Brian and I both love her. And neither of us can 
figure out why mom and dad are mad at her. We just can't. It doesn't 
make any sense."

"Will do. Wait. Did they cut off her allowance, too?" Ingrid asked. 
"That matters.”

"That was this morning. She only gets lunch money. But I think she's 
dipping into her piggy bank to get enough to eat at lunch. She's a real 
jock, and eats a lot just to keep up her weight." Janie shook her head. 
It was all so crazy.

"I won't tell anyone. That's beyond strange. But we can't have her going 
around hungry," Ingrid said. "I just don’t know what I can do."

"Brian and I will sneak money from our allowances, just to be sure she 
isn't hungry," Janie said. "But we will get into super deep trouble with 
our parents when we do that and they find out. We’ll do it anyhow." 
Janie remembered Sunssword explaining about the life support gift. She 
and her two siblings could get along for a while without eating, just by 
calling on their gifts, but that wasn't healthy while you were growing 
up. She didn't want Trisha to do that.

"I'll see if I can find something," Ingrid said. "Mayhaps my mom knows 
the answer. Besides, I owe Trisha a ton for dropping out of music club. 
I was sure I was going to lose the lead singer spot to her." The two 
girls smiled at each other.

* * * * *

Trisha opened the house's side door and slipped in, closing it very 
carefully so it would make next to no noise. Her parents complained 
about everything. They'd complain if she slammed the door, even if she 
didn't. She kicked off her shoes, carefully untied the shoelaces, and 
stacked them properly at the door entrance.



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