TWO HUNDRED FORTY-FIVE: Bros, a Bromeliad, and a Pack or Herd of Bears

245

Lexi came back to the apartment on Sunday afternoon. Thanks to the magic of Bromelimas, and the fact that Kon was undeniably alive and well, he wasn’t in a bad mood.

He was insufferable about having completed all of his homework while Haoyu and Alden were moaning about theirs, and later that evening, while they were decorating the tree, he did grill Alden on what had happened. But it seemed like he was more worried Kon might have embarrassed himself than been endangered. Considering the pictures and videos Kon had been sharing with friends since he got back, that made sense. Talking to a sweecha, dancing along with the sand images at the train station, and trying every beverage he could think of in his new cup—he looked like someone whose biggest problem was going to be his body’s inability to handle the amount of liquid he was pouring into it.

“A summoning like that is great,” Lexi said after Alden had finally satisfied him with enough answers.

They were sitting on the floor in the living room with a bunch of craft supplies provided by Lute. Last year’s Brutal Ring Christmas Special was playing on their rarely-used television. Haoyu had declared the watching of it an official Bromelimas tradition. He said he was sure Instructor Waker was going to be one of this year’s surprise guests in the holiday matches because he’d overheard him saying, “Ho-ho howdy! I’ll jingle your bells!” to himself.

That was in keeping with the tone of the Christmas show.

“I think that kind of summoning sounds perfect, too,” said Haoyu. “I’m a tiny bit jealous you asked Kon instead of me.”

“I’m sorry. The next time a wizard’s wand breaks, I’ll tell them to call you. To fix it. With your Boxing Gloves.”

“On second thought…don’t do that.”

“You sure?”

Haoyu laughed. When he wasn’t commenting on what was happening on tv, he was making an ornament out of a toilet paper tube. He said the origami instructions Alden was following were too confining for his creativity.

Lexi had been trying for ages to use Writher to cut a single snowflake out of a piece of paper.

“Dream trip for a lot of people,” Lute said. “No wonder Kon’s thrilled. Go fix something. It takes minutes, then they let you hang out and go shopping with a friend.”

He was showing off his ridiculous Chainerness by being better at Alden’s chosen project than Alden himself. It was annoying to watch him glance once at a pattern on his interface and then produce three paper polar bears before the Brutal Ring announcer could finish introducing the next contenders.

So Alden was making a T. rex. Every Bromelimas tree needed a T. rex.

“I think I’m relieved now that Kon’s done one,” said Lexi. “That doesn’t make sense because this one doesn’t have anything to do with whatever other wizards might want from him in the future. And it probably doesn’t make sense for me to worry in the first place. He gave up on his original plan and picked what has to be a much safer Adjuster path as far as being summoned goes.”

“You should worry more about what wizards will ask you to do,” Lute said. “You went for an evil whip.”

“I know. My mom points that out every time I complain about Kon changing his whole plan at the absolute last second. Sometimes I think he flies around like a fart in a room full of Sky Shapers just to stress me out.”

Writher left a scorched spot on his snowflake, and he hastily set the whip aside.

“Anyway, this was a good one for him. Tell me the truth, though. Did he ask for an enchanted cup only he can use instead of normal, practical argold?” Lexi was looking at Alden.

The T. rex almost lost a leg.

Alden wasn’t sure if Kon was brushing aside this question when others asked. The more honest answer—that the trip wasn’t considered an official summoning—would have been fine to give, in Alden’s opinion. But wasn’t there a chance Kon was letting everyone assume it had counted as an official one…because he was trying to obscure the truth about being unsummonable?

Alden needed to ask exactly what Kon had told people. And what Mehdi knew from hearing just Kon’s side of the conversation right before he’d been teleported.

“I have no comment on your brother’s business,” Alden said. “You must ask the man himself.”

Shortly after the Brutal Ring special ended, the Bromelimas tree was finished. They had an argument over which of them had done best while they placed extra origami polar bears all over the apartment.

Haoyu was trying to win by pointing out that his bromeliad was what made it a Bromelimas tree in the first place.

Alden thought the dinosaurs and ryeh-b’ts attacking toilet paper roll Nautilus Needle were the obvious choice.

Lute was advocating for quantity of ornaments contributed.

And Lexi was pretending he was too mature to care.

While Alden lined up polar bears on the living room windowsill, he spotted someone in a black hoodie leaving the girls’ building. She wasn’t facing him, but he thought it was Maricel. He almost texted her, then stopped himself.

A couple of abrupt responses to his last messages, a couple of times when they’d passed on campus and she’d seemed to be actively not noticing him…

“Is Maricel still in the news a lot?” he asked. “I haven’t been keeping up with everything.”

Haoyu was putting a bear in the freezer. “Not as much on Anesidora, but I heard she’s doing some call-ins for programs in other countries. And EarthBox has her on their wraparound screen now! The one that celebrates Ground Shapers making a difference? It’s awesome. She’s the only teenager on it, and she’s twenty meters tall. Vandy said they pulled her out of class for the photoshoot.”

So she’s got a lot on her plate, lots of people vying for her attention, and a lot on her mind.

Those were good enough reasons. He suspected they weren’t the main reason, though. There was tension in him knowing that her new model globie status was built on such an edited version of events that it was almost a lie.

Only a little tension for him, but it must have been more for her.

Whatever’s up, she clearly isn’t eager to talk to me. And she hasn’t mentioned my name in the press or anything like I was worried about. So…ball’s in her court.

They’d have gym together again next month if she didn’t choose Elites.

Gym.

“No duels this week,” he said, placing the last bear in its herd. Pack? Bear group. “Not one-on-ones anyway. Foxbolt told me.”

“Good,” said Haoyu.

“Good,” Lexi agreed. “There are a few people who really…I’m just glad to have a break from them. ”

“I never have duels,” said Lute. “Instead, I have sense.”

“It sounded like Foxbolt thought we’d do them in one more class before the end of term, though.” Alden walked over to look at the tree again.

“All bros must help mist the bromeliad without getting the paper ornaments wet.” Haoyu was standing on the other side. “Tradition number eleven.”

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“I didn’t consider that,” Alden said.

“As someone who has sense, I did,” Lute announced. “I just assumed four Avowed should be able to figure out how to water a plant successfully.”

“This is seriously the best Christmas tree I’ve seen,” said Alden, reaching for the first paper star he’d placed on it and bringing it closer to the front. Since I was really young.

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