Saturday I left the house by nine. Mom and I caught the bus downtown and after I promised her I would be home for dinner, I wandered into the park. I knew the fellows would be over by the gazebo, even this early. That's the odd thing about weekends. As a kid, like me and Chris and Peach and the others, Saturday mornings were time to get things done. As a teenager, like Sydney, Saturday mornings were time to sleep, unless you had a beauty parlor appointment. But then as an adult, like Mom and Dad, the morning was again time to get things done.

I was dragging my feet on purpose. I felt like the longer I went without telling the fellows about my connection (well, Mom and Dad’s connection) to Mr. Left, it was going to end up bad. But they’d already be mad at me if I told them today. I’d just see if anything came up today. Maybe there would be a good time.

I walked down the path until I came to the gazebo and stood, looking at it for a while. The Left family coat of arms sat on a plaque at one of the entrances to the gazebo, and I went to take a closer look at it. The coat was split in two horizontally, with a wide white X on solid green in the bottom, and a row of symbols in gold on white across the top. I couldn't tell what the symbols were, the coat was much too small and worn. With the coat of arms in mind, I turned and soon found the fellows in our meeting place, under the bushes.

"You're late." Chris looked at me for a minute, then carried on talking. "We have Donny's description of the house, seems quite normal for a man like Left. The tower is interesting, I think. Peach, tell us about towers."

Peach pulled out a thin book and flipped through it. "Towers are usually good places for hiding things. Villains use them as prisons, the tops being hard to escape from, and Supers use them often as lookouts, places to survey their towns from. Both good and evil tend to keep communication devices in towers, as well, their height being useful in broadcasting and receiving."

"Have you seen the tower?"

I shook my head. "Just from the outside, and there aren't antennae or anything. Sorry. But guys..."

"Well, try next time. You do realize that if you ever have a chance when no-one is in the house you should look around? Try to come in the front door more often, too. And take advantage of your time." Clive wagged a finger at me. “If you want to be a part of this team you have to earn your keep."

"Has anyone looked at the coat of arms?" I glared at Clive.

Peach frantically flipped through a notebook. "I thought I had notes here, something about it."

Donny looked at me. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I was looking at the gazebo and the coat of arms was posted by the entrance, but I couldn't see the top row of symbols. I wonder if they'd give us a clue."

Clive scoffed. "Yeah, a bunch of symbols that have been around for thousands of years are going to tell us about Mr. Left's Super abilities."

I scooped my knees to my chest and crossed my arms. The ground was cold. "Mr. Left and his father had a falling out when Mr. Left Senior passed on his family's legacy. He could have changed it then."

"What's this?" Chris Blue looked up.

I sighed. "My dad works for Mr. Left in the lab at the hospital. That's how I got the cat feeding job."

"You've been on the inside this whole time." Chris's question was more like a statement.

"My parents work in the research department of the wing that Mr. Left funded, it’s not like they have meetings at his house or anything..."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"You've been holding out on us." Clive went red all the way up to his hair. He stood up and jerked me out of the hiding spot.

Chris frowned at me. "Give us a good reason why we should trust you."

"Okay, well, you guys can't do this without me.”

Clive snorted. “That’s not a reason.”

“I’m not trying to hide things from you. I just didn’t think it was important.”

Clive waggled a finger at me. “That’s not for you to decide, sweetheart.”

I was slowly heating up. I shook my finger back at Clive. "First of all, don’t you talk to me. You’re not in charge here.” I turned to look at Chris Blue. “The thing about my parents, it was just a fact of my life that I didn’t think was important. They don’t really talk about work unless it’s something we read in the newspaper and…”

"You can't do this without us, though." Chris put a hand on Clive’s shoulder. "You want to know as badly as we do, but we have the numbers and knowledge to do something about it."

"All I know is, she’s officially a pain. Cut her, Chris." Clive slid back behind Chris, mumbling.

"Calm down, Clive." Peach shook his head. "She’s right, we do need her."

"Okay, but what has she done for us? Plus, look now. She's got us fighting."

"You’ve got a point there."

"Give it a few days, fellows."

"No, we can cut her out and still do fine. Let me get rid of her, boss." Clive stepped towards me, cracking his knuckles.

I laughed. "That would be intimidating if you were a foot taller."

"You're dead meat."

"Alright, enough." Chris folded his arms. "Clive, take a hike." Clive stared at him. "Go. I mean it. Walk it off." Growling, Clive walked off. "Peach, Donny, go take a look at that gazebo. See if you can get anything off of the coat of arms." Peach and Donny walked off, casually glancing back over their shoulders at intervals.

"They're right. You lied, and that's something we take seriously." Chris Blue folded his arms. "We need you, though. You have an ‘in’ and we need it."

"So what are you going to do? What if I just walked away?"

"You won't." Chris looked over my shoulder into the distance. "You want to know the truth, and you know we're gonna find it."

"Maybe going to find it."

"You're on probation. No meetings at the drugstore, no meetings at the park, no verbal contact. Any message you need to pass will be through notes at school." Chris ticked items off on his fingers. "We are not obligated to tell you what steps we are taking until you are necessary to that step. Any information can be withheld from you."

"How long is this going to last?"

"It depends." Chris gestured up the path towards the gazebo and we walked to meet the fellows. "What can you find for us?"

"We'll see, I guess." We walked without talking until we met up with the other three.

Clive glared at me. "I thought she was on probation."

Chris Blue nodded. "Yes, but she hasn't given us her information. She understands the terms of her probation. Peach?"

Peach pulled out his notebook and looked at me. "Ready?"

"My dad works at the hospital lab, for a project that Mr. Left is working on. I don't know the specifics of his project, just that he works with some computer people from the college. Mom works at the hospital, too, for Mr. Left, kind of. She mostly does bookkeeping and secretary stuff."

"So Mr. Left has a project on at the hospital, involving computer technology." Donny looked over Peach's shoulder at his notes.

"Yeah, pretty much. Dad has only met Mr. Left twice, I think he said."

"How many people are working on this project with your father? And is it a temporary position? Like will he have to find a new job after the research is done? And does the project have a deadline?"

"Would you like me to find out?"

"Cut the sass," Clive snarled. "You owe us, not the other way around."

"I think it would be good," Donny stepped in, "to find those things out."

"Those are your tasks. Find out more about your fathers' involvement with Mr. Left. And research your lead about the coat of arms." Chris pointed at me. "Contact will be restricted to school hours unless there is an emergency, in which case you know where to find us."

"Now get out." Clive grinned fiercely.

Boys are dumb, anyway.