Cody and Blaspheme had spent the past three days trying to figure out how Sheridan's Defiance Day picnic had gone. Sheridan, for her part, refused to budge off of a report of "fine."
"But why won't she tell us?" Cody whined as the three of them ate lunch. Sheridan had pulled daytime guard duty, giving her hall mates an excellent opportunity to compare notes. "She would want to know if it was one of us."
Rafferty had a feeling that Sheridan wouldn't particularly care.
"Because she's being a bitch," said Blaspheme.
"When she got back, she said that she would tell me how it went in the morning, and then in the morning she just said "It was fine," and now she says that counts. That's just wrong," said Cody.
In truth, Rafferty thought that Sheridan had every right to keep this private if she wanted to, but all of the obsession over the picnic seemed to cause the other girls to forget that they were irritated with her about the Zeros, so she wasn't going to discourage them.
"Sheridan always wants to debrief everything. When we had to sort that shipment of apples and carrots, we spent half an hour talking about how we could have done it more efficiently," said Cody.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
"I'm just trying to find out if she de-briefed Jason," said Blaspheme.
Cody giggled.
"You know she didn't," said Rafferty.
"Well, if she doesn't tell me what did happen, that's the story I'm going to tell," said Blaspheme.
Rafferty noticed Vincent walking past, carrying an apple. Didn't he ever go to Falls Rock, where he said he was staying? It seemed like he was always here. He looked over. Rafferty caught his eye, and decided to make a little trouble.
"I bet he knows," gesturing at Vincent before putting a forkful of food in her mouth.
Cody and Blaspheme lit up.
"Knows what? If it's important, I probably don't," Vincent said.
"We're trying to figure out how Sheridan and Jason got on," said Blaspheme.
"Oh, the picnic. That I do know. Went great. Jason won't shut up about it. He's practically in love," he said.
"Excellent," said Blaspheme.
"Did they kiss?" Cody asked hopefully.
"Absolutely. He says she tastes like strawberries," Vincent said.
Blaspheme shot up out of her chair, and kissed Vincent full on the mouth. Rafferty felt an inexplicable urge to strangle Blaspheme with her own hair.
"Thank you for that," said Blaspheme.
The gunslinger turned without saying goodbye, and ran out in search of Sheridan.
"Oh Mrs. Strawberries!" she called out in a sing-songy voice, as Cody followed after her.
Rafferty looked at Vincent, and they both laughed. He looked down at his apple, and then held it out to Rafferty.
She took the apple, and bit into it before handing it back to him. He took a big bite, right next to hers. Their eyes met while they were still chewing.
Are we having a moment? Is that what this is? I don't really know how those go.
Rafferty still hadn't decided what to do when Vincent's eyes shifted to her left. She turned and saw Seth walking toward her.
Despite the time that Rafferty had been spending with Katrin, she hadn't spoken to Seth much. In fact, the inscrutable B Hall second had hardly said ten words to her.
The dark haired girl stopped in front of Rafferty. There was an awkward moment, just a bit too long, in which no one said anything.
"You're being summoned," Seth finally said.
"By who?" Rafferty asked.
"Her majesty," said Seth.
"What for?" Rafferty asked.
"We need a fourth," said Seth.