Annie XLVII: Summer

(Chronological index: High School (1st time for Raymond, 2nd time for Annie))



Raymond was usually the last person to leave the classroom after the bell rang. In addition to having to collect his stuff, he had to wait until his pet was ready and willing to depart.

He'd stopped just snatching her up and shoving her into a pocket about the time she started playing a character in the D&D campaign.

She wasn't sure if he was seeing her in a new light or just trying to stay on the party leader's good side. Either way, she enjoyed the small sliver of power that was afforded her.

When he was standing by the desk, his book bag slung on his shoulder and his hand out, she rose to her feet and walked to the middle of the desk.

"Reginald, be a dear and have the car brought around, would you?"

"It's waiting for you, ma'am," he replied with a smile. She nodded, grabbed his thumb and stepped aboard the hand as regally as a princess boarding a yacht.

Mr. Stucozzi stepped between them and the door. The gruff algebra teacher held out a blue pamphlet. "Something you might be interested in," he said. Then he turned away.

Raymond held it up to read the cover, automatically lifting his sylph, too.

"National Science Foundation's," she read aloud, "Summer Academic Math and Sciences Program in Worcester, Massachusetts."

They read through it as he walked to his next class.

-----

"It's summer camp for nerds," Annie explained at dinner. She sat at her little table by Raymond's plate, poking at her pea. "And he wants to go."

"She thinks it'll be boring," Raymond explained.

"Geeks from the varsity math team discussing four color map theory?" Dad asked, reading from the pamphlet. "Party time!"

"Victor," Mom said softly.

"There's an advanced math section, a computer programming section, a section on-"

"Yeah, yeah," Annie said. "Section after section after boring section."

"Salem," Dad said. Annie raised her head. "What? You didn't see this part about day trips and overnights? Tours of local interest sites, including a night spent in a haunted house in Salem?"

"Haunted?" Raymond asked carefully.

"Ooooooh," Annie hummed happily. "Raymond's afraid of ghosts."

"I thought you faced ghosts in those games?" Mom asked.

"On paper! Annie crowed. "Imaginary ghosts! He's afraid-"

"I'm not afraid. Ghosts don't exist."

"Sure," Dad agreed. "Well, if you feel that'll be disappointing, there's an optional overnight at Battleship Cove."

"Will they let Annie on a battleship?" Mom asked.

"They're retired," Dad explained. "Permanently anchored tourist attractions. No risk to national security from an itsy bitsy sylph."

"Cool!" Raymond said. "We'll go there, instead!"

"Coward," Annie muttered.

-------

There were two math problems in the pamphlet for applicants to solve. Raymond submitted his solutions and the application fee. He added a photograph of Annie standing on the pamphlet, asking if there were any difficulties in attending with a pet sylph.

For the next month, Annie maintained that threatening to bring a sylph to a college-level math course queered the deal.

He argued that they were looking for wide diversity in the students. They were asking for kids from every state. "And what's more diverse than a pet sylph?"

"Intellectually diverse," she countered. "Not a traveling freak show! You're going to spend the summer at the beach again, Master."

For whatever reason, he was accepted. A month after school was over, he was waiting to fly to Boston, then get bussed to Worcester and Clark University.

Mom took him to the airport. She spent quite a bit of time making sure he wouldn’t miss his connecting flight in New York. So much that he threatened to drink Annie's sedative.

"Fine by me," Annie said. "I don't want to sleep through my first airline flight."

"It's the law, Annie," Mom repeated.

"It's a dumb law," the sylph complained. Again. "What does Ayatollah Khomeini coming to power have to do with the sylph threat to commercial airlines?"

"Well, after that swamp sylph attacked President Carter on his fishing trip, the feds have all been a little edgy. Now, Raymond, Annie'll still be asleep when you land, so if you have any questions about-"

"AARGH! Mom, any more advice and I'm going to get myself lost in the airline system on purpose. I'm going to go sit over there."

"Master!" Annie called from the seat between them, hands up in the air.

"We. We are going to go sit over there until the flight's called." He picked up his pet and moved away. Mom raised one eyebrow, then opened her paperback.

A few minutes after Raymond sat down, a girl about his age sat next to them. "Cute sylph," she said.

"Thanks," Raymond and Annie both said. "Her name is Annie."

The girl nodded. "How smart is she?"

"Wow," Annie replied. "That's never the first question anyone asks."

"No," Raymond agreed. "They usually ask if she knows any tricks. Um. She's pretty smart. For a former cheerleader."

"Hey!" Annie protested.

"Hush, you. I'm the one that got invited to Math Camp!"

"Where at?" the girl asked.

"Worcester," Raymond said. "It's around Boston somewhere. Where are you going?"

"I'm not," she told him. "We're waiting for my dad to fly back from Flagstaff." She gestured to a gate some distance away. "I just didn't feel like hanging out with my sister and her sylph any longer."

She nodded at Annie. "And I always wonder if other sylphs are as dippy as my sister's Pet."

"You guys have a sylph?" Raymond asked.

"Two," she said. Annie and Raymond both had several questions forming in their mind. But their flight was announced, and Annie had to take her sleeping pill.

-------

At Clark, the students met in the lobby of a largely empty dorm. Doctor Hargood, their host and the director of the summer program, welcomed everyone. There were sixty students from across the US. Forty boys and twenty girls, with a variety of groupings established for what Hargood called the opportunities of cross-pollination.

Professor Lank spoke in his ear briefly and urgently at that point. "I mean, intellectual pollination, of course," he corrected as she sat back down. "This might be a good point to go over the rules of fraternization."

--------

Their professors introduced them to basic programming on the university's computers, to theoretical math like a 7 point geometry, to problem solving approaches that used soapy water, and to high points in math history.

Raymond was about as happy each day as Annie was bored.

The evenings were a bit better. A bunch of bright, motivated kids from across the country with relatively minimal adult supervision, they explored a variety of ways to entertain themselves.

Variations of chess games were played, jokes told, and stories shared. A bunch of people that were something of misfits in their home environment made connections and found they weren't entirely unique in the world.

On the first night, Raymond and his roommate invented a way to play Monopoly with Risk armies and let Annie play the Red Railroads force.

She lost, but she took the Boardwalker Battalion down with her, setting the board up for Ray's Connecticut Commandos to conquer all but the green countries on his next turn.

Sandy shrugged and pushed her army units to the center in surrender. "I wanted to play D&D chess, anyway."

"Oh?" Annie asked.

------

The weirdest thing for Annie was that most of the teens treated her like an individual. Some asked if she danced, but none asked if Raymond would make her dance.

Of course, she was still the only sylph in the dormitory, and Raymond controlled access to her. That put him in a bit higher demand than some of the others.

Even some of the counselors spent time seeking them out and getting Annie's take on life, the Sylph Act and being a boy's permanent roommate.

Two of the girls lived in Boston and were familiar with the area. They used that knowledge, and access to a cousin with a car, to try to be the most popular kids in the group.

When they managed to get Raymond to hang out with them, they sealed their position at the top of the list of Cool Kids.

Annie remembered doing similar things in high school. When she actually attended it, instead of visited daily. She figured her revered master was being played. But since he seemed to be enjoying himself, she didn't try to fight it.

Every few days there was a field trip, to a museum or a university. Lisa and Mary made sure to stay close to Raymond and Annie on all of them.

Annie thought they were still trying to be cool, turned out there was a clever plan.

------

About ten of the students were sitting in the lounge discussing their bordering territory maps. The problem was to discover the maximum number of colors required to map any possible arrangement of territories on a torus.

In another corner seven boys and girls were trying to find an elegant way to map a 13 point geometry.

Five more were playing memory Monopoly. Annie was pretty sure those kids were going to die virgins.

She was on the table with the torus discussion. They had grabbed a donut to focus their imaginations on. The sylph had high hopes for that donut.

The hopes decreased at every new set of fingerprints in the glaze, but there was still the interior. She licked her lips and waited.

Lisa asked Raymond some question. It took Annie a moment to realize that it wasn't for him to pass a coloring pencil.

"I dunno," he said. "Annie's not too interested in the battleships. But I'm not too interested in witchcraft."

The Agreement prevented her from pointing out that it was the haunt that kept him from the Salem trip. And he only pretended ambivalence about the warships to see where Lisa was going.

But she probably wouldn't have mentioned it to that girl anyway. Something about her rubbed Annie raw.

And it wasn't just the way she squeezed Raymond's upper arm after hearing his answer. Lisa nodded her head towards the hallway, a small smile on her lips.

Raymond shrugged and got up to go with her. He reached for Annie. "No!" she protested. "Someone has to stay here to protect the torus!"

"I'll buy a candy bar, later," he promised. She put up token resistance as he lifted her to his chest.

"Probably be a Peanut Crunch bar," she muttered.

"Chocolate," he promised. She smiled and settled down in his pocket.

Out in the hall, Lisa grabbed Raymond's arm, looked up and down the hall and then started to drag him along towards the stairwell.

"Here's the deal, Raymond. We don't want to go to Battleship Cover OR Salem."

"So you're staying here at Clark?" he asked. Annie shook her head in disbelief. There was never a conspiracy in staying where you were supposed to be.

"No. You know David?" Lisa asked. "He's from...someplace out West. Got his driver's license at 14."

"Yeah," Raymond nodded. They reached the stairs and started moving down towards the lobby. "But that doesn't do him much good if his car is out west."

Annie was beginning to wonder if her owner had suffered a head injury when the last rose bush had exploded. She already had a pretty good idea of what the bimbos were planning.

And in all but specific details, she had it right. A relative of Lisa's was going to loan them a car on the weekend of the two overnights.

The two counselors in charge of the outings hated each other and wouldn't coordinate the lists before the busses loaded.

David, Raymond and the girls would sign up for both trips. Then at the last minute, claim to be surprised to find that they could only go on one. They'd tell each counselor they'd chosen to go on the other one.

That they'd go as a group would be believable as they'd established that Raymond, Lisa and Mary went everywhere together.

Then, David could drive the cousin's car to Boston where they could attend a mutual friend's party while her parents were out of town.

Annie nodded silently as she listened. It seemed plausible, as teen party plans went. And as long as everyone was back in the dorm when the busses returned, no one would be likely to bust them.

"Interesting," Raymond muttered. They had gone out the back door to where David and Mary were waiting. They discussed the possibilities for a little bit.

"Well, let me talk it over with Annie," Raymond said. He instantly suffered a ration of shit about whether he owned her or if she owned him.

He tried to explain that he wasn't asking for permission, but to see if she thought of anything wrong with the plan.

"What could go wrong?" Mary... Or maybe Lisa asked. Annie couldn't tell them apart by voice too well. She popped up into view.

"Well, is there going to be alcohol at the party?"

"Of course. But David won't drink any."

"I'm Mormon," he said.

"Sure," Annie nodded. "Because religious people never violate their ideals when hot blondes say they need just a little drinkie." David blushed. Annie chalked up a point for her.

"Seriously, though?" Raymond asked.

"Eh. It's thought out, it depends on the stupidity of adults, and there's a pretty wide time margin to absorb errors. I'd have gone for it, when I was your age."

Lisa laughed. The sight of the sylph talking condescendingly UP at her master from his pocket always made her laugh. Raymond puffed up a little bit, as if he had some responsibility for her amusement.

Annie rolled her eyes and retreated to the bottom of the pocket.

---------

Back in their room, Raymond lifted the sylph to his desk. Waiting for her was a Hershey bar, with almonds. Her little nut sledge was already leaning on it.

"Aw," she said as she approached it. "Inn't it sooooooo cute?"

He watched with a small smile as she unwrapped it. She stripped it completely bare, running her finger down the grooves of the lettering. He turned it over so she could find an almond that was juuuuuuust right.

She planted her feet, raised the sledge-

"So, what do you really think?" he asked.

-and swung, hitting the nut dead center and merely denting some chocolate off of it. "SCHMUCK!" He was quiet for her second blow. That crushed the tip of the nut, mixing it with the chocolate just like she liked it.

She sat on the bar and scooped mouthfuls out with her fingers.

"I think... The Trixie Twins got invited to a party because they could promise a sylph. You got invited to get the sylph. David's invited to deliver the sylph."

He nodded as she chewed for a bit. "I think they want you to think you'll score with them. But if they're working this hard to get to a party, there's someone there each girl wants to get close to."

"So we shouldn't go?" he asked.

"No, we can. Just know that you're not getting into bed with any of them. But maybe someone at the party'll be drunk and easy." She finished her portion and stood, waving to offer him the candy. He took half and ate it.

"Will you behave?" he asked.

"Just... I'll do a dance," she offered. "As long as you put your foot down on any passion cakes?"

"Deal," he said.

"As long as it's not Muskrat Love!" she added. He shivered.

------

The weekend manipulation of the counselors went exactly as planned. They bowed out, a little ungraciously. It had been Annie's suggestion to appear to be callous, self centered teens. It'd help sell the con if the counselors used the word 'typical' under their breath.

Then they hid in the university book store until the busses were gone.

Lisa's cousin's car was parked behind the dorm, hide-a-key in the bumper. With giggles and thumbs up, the adventure started.

David was a fairly experienced driver...in Montana. Eastern Massachusetts, on a weekend, was a different matter entirely.

As they crept down the freeway, the girls kept suggesting that he speed up or the cops would think he was drunk.

"Hey, back home? If there's one car in front of me, and one car behind me, it's rush hour!"

Raymond hadn't been behind the wheel of a car yet, but he could see that the other guy needed help, not harrying. He turned sideways in the back seat and tried to help by being a spotter.

Annie tried to help by crossing all her fingers and huddling under all the cushions in her carrier.

-------

They weren't pulled over but it was probably a near thing. David was just getting comfortable with highway density when they pulled off. He was on city streets, dealing with New England drivers in their chosen habitat.

Raymond thought of bumper cars, but didn't need Annie to tell him it wasn't an appropriate thing to say out loud.

When they finally reached their destination, all five of them started to breathe easily.

"Which one?" Raymond asked as he looked up at a couple of apartment buildings.

"We have to go in back," Mary said. "Too many partiers through the lobby, Sheila'll get busted."

Raymond and David shrugged and followed them to the alley and the back entrance of one building.

David held the door for the girls, then Raymond and his carrier. Then they found stairs and climbed up to the fourth floor.

Annie sat in the carrier's turret, looking at the décor. "This is like the mansion Steve Martin bought in The Jerk," she said.

"Posh," Raymond agreed.

Sheila met them at the door to the apartment. Over her shoulder, multicolored lights bounced off a mirror ball on the ceiling. Earth, Wind and Fire informed everyone that this was a boogie wonderland.

Lisa and Mary parted to show Raymond. "Here's the sylph!" they said.

"Zowie!" their hostess said, letting them enter. She bent her head to Mary's ear and whispered. Even over the music, Annie's hearing picked up, "You did use the service entrance, right?"

The sylph froze for a second. Using the back door was one thing. But anyone from the South had a certain reaction to orders to use the service entrance.

Then she shrugged it off. Everyone in the group was white, and this was Boston. The 'don't track teenagers through the lobby' story was far more plausible.

As expected, Sheila showed Raymond to a table by the stereo and told him to 'make her dance.' She shrugged and waited for him to open the carrier door.

"Well," he paused. "She dances better when she's motivated."

"Rum?" a blonde offered, handing her drink out to him. He shook his head.

"No, no, alcohol makes her sleepy," he lied. "But chocolate...that makes her act like she's drunk."

There was an instant rush to the buffet table. As she stepped onto the table, her master winked at her. Teens came back, offering her chocolate dipped fruit, chocolate cake, cookies... All sorts of treats.

Annie tried to pay her owner back. She'd sample something, wait for a new song to start, then dance. It didn't take much style to impress this audience.

She was tiny, naked and energetic. As long as she kept moving, they kept cheering.

After four songs she was starting to sweat a tiny bit. Raymond scooped her up and held her. "She needs a rest."

She didn't and he knew it. But it was his turn for the spotlight. She crouched in his cupped hands, trying to look exhausted, as a bevy of beauties tried to entice him to let them hold her.

After her second dance set, she indicated a need to go to the little girl's sink. He gallantly picked her up again and took her down the hall.

She stood by the stream from the faucet, splashing water on herself here and there. He watched, waiting.

"These kids aren't poor," she finally said. "They're not from poor families." He nodded. "But... They're acting like they've never seen a sylph before. They should be able to afford one."

"Not one of your caliber," he said.

"Flattery will get you everything you already own, revered master," she said absently. I wonder of Bostonians have...an issue with people of my order."

"Doubt it," Raymond said.

"Did you notice they made us use the service entrance?" she asked. She shook her limbs. He turned off the water and grabbed her with a hand towel.

"They made us use the back door, and they explained it," he replied as he pat her dry.

"The guest said back door," Annie said. "The hostess said service entrance." He froze. She smiled slightly. He might question her interpretation, but he'd learned not to question her hearing.

"I'm...sure," he said slowly, "that you're reading too much into the phrase. There's a certain amount of culture gap between Jax and Boston."

"Ha!" she laughed. "The only gap you're interested in is the one that shows that redhead's cleavage."

"It is heroic cleavage," he agreed. He reached to pick her up just as someone started to knock on the door.

"Who's in there?" their hostess shouted.

"We'll be out in a sec," Raymond shouted back.

"We? There's no we in the bathrooms! That's what the bedrooms and the closets are for! Get outta there!"

He opened the door. Sheila blinked for a second, clearly not recognizing him. She looked past him for the girl she thought he'd been with. Then she noticed the sylph.

"Eugh!" she said. "Did she just pee in my sink?"

"No," he said. "Just washed a bit of sweat off of her."

"Oh, good." She stepped into the bathroom, gesturing for him to step out. He complied. "If she really does have to go?" She pointed down the hall. "Get a Dixie cup from the kitchen."

Then she shut the door and they were alone in the hall.

"That's friendly," Annie said cheerfully. "I'm right up there with contagious diseases!"

Raymond started to glower.

Back in the main room, he saw several guys coming back from a beer run. David was carrying two cases.

"Beer?" Raymond asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I just helped carry it," he said. "Domino asked if I'd lend a hand."

"You guys carried all that up the stairs?" Annie asked.

"No, we used the elevator from the lobby." He shrugged and carried the beer over to where the others were stacking it.

"Oh, really," Annie muttered.

"Sylph guy?" a voice called. Ray turned. One of the guys held new, cordless phone out. "For you."

"Who the hell knows we're here?" Annie asked. Ray pocketed her and shrugged.

He covered the mouth piece and took the phone out on the balcony for a little quiet. "Hello?"

"Hello," some woman asked frostily. "Who is this?"

"Uh...Raymond? Sylph guy?"

"Do you know where my worthless cousin is?" she asked.

"I don't know who your cousin is," he said. He glanced down. Annie shrugged.

"Okay. Try this. I left my car by the dorm while I came along on the Salem trip as a chaperone. I called my mother before we all went to bed, got my sister who said that she'd seen my cousin going to a party in Boston, with a guy carrying a sylph cage." Annie had waved her arms in warning but she was too slow.

"Carrier," he automatically corrected.

"What. Does. It. God. Damn. Matter?" the woman asked, biting off each word. "If my car was involved in getting the conniving little witch to that party, it's grand theft. Do you know anything about the punishments for grand theft auto, Raymond sylph guy?"

"Nooooo," he said. "And I'd like to keep it that way."

"Then get my car to Salem. If you get here before sunrise, I won't press charges."

"I'm not the one that actually drove-" he started to say.

"Accessory. Just as bad. There's one thing going for you, kid. I actually mapped out the drive to where we're staying. It's in the glove box. Get. Your. Ass. On. The. Road."

"Yes, ma'am," he promised. He returned to the party and looked around. None of his friends were in view.

Raymond was mostly scared. The woman had sounded serious about her car. He wasn't sure if he was more worried about the cops, Doctor Hargood, or Professor Lank finding out about the joyride. He did know that any of them would lead to his parents finding out. Then life would seriously be over.

But he was also mad. The girls had lied to him and David, Sheila had looked down on Annie, and probably on him. He wished he had a baseball bat. He wished he had THE baseball bat.

But there wasn't time to find one.

David was easy to find. He was in the kitchen watching people destroy their brains with chemicals. Raymond quickly explained how terribly screwed they all were.

The get-away driver went satisfactorily pale before he was done.

Mary wasn't too hard to locate. She was passed out in a bathtub. Annie took a moment to comment on how artfully someone had arranged her. "Head towards the drain, held up by a trash can, a slow trickle of water to wash the puke away. These kids are professionals."

David heaved her to a shoulder and headed for the car. Raymond continued to search for Lisa. Annie suddenly started pointing. Raymond followed her directions until they fetched up against a bedroom door.

"What's going on in there?" he asked softly.

"Lisa's saying, no, no, no, softly, and some guy's saying he won't put it in ALL the way." All Raymond's fears and adrenaline surged. He dropped Annie to the floor and slammed on the door.

It burst open and swung freely. A guy a little bit bigger than Raymond knelt over Lisa. Her dress was up around her waist. He was unzipping his pants. Raymond grabbed a telephone off the nightstand and smashed the guy's face.

He grabbed Lisa and pulled her to her feet. Supporting her with an arm around her waist he turned and tugged her to the door.

"RAY!" Annie shouted. He ducked, dropping Lisa and swinging around. A lamp swung through the air over him. His fist moved the other guy's balls up into his chest cavity.

Then he picked up his two charges and carried them out.

"I wish you had the bat, Raymond," Annie said. He grunted and stepped up his pace.

Sheila didn't blink when she saw Raymond hauling Lisa to the door. But she burst up out of her seat when she saw the carrier.

"Are you going? You can't go! She needs to do another dance set," she said, trying to coo. Annie was unimpressed by what she saw of the performance.

"Gotta go," Raymond said. "Gotta be in Salem by sunrise."

"Oh, there's plenty of time for that," Sheila promised. "Let me put Mary, here, in my bedroom and-"

"I had to kill someone to get her out of the bedroom," he told her. "And it's Lisa."

"Yeah, sure," Sheila agreed. "So. Um. Where are you parked?"

"Out front," he said. They'd made it to the door. She blocked it. Raymond was trying to decide what level of force was going to be required here.

"Well, could you please-"

"I'm not carrying a drunk down the back stairs," he snarled. We're using the elevator and going out the front."

"Sure, fine! But let me go get a pillow case to put over the sylph cage, 'kay?"

Annie almost shouted agreement. It'd get her away from the door, at the least. She even figured they could keep the pillow case for the drunks to barf into.

But before she could say anything, Lisa leaned forward and hurled. Sheila jumped out of the way of the flow, then away from the spatter. Raymond swung Lisa to the side to grab the door and open it.

David was outside, just about to knock. Raymond shoved the carrier into his arms and grabbed Lisa's armpits.

She finished puking by the time they reached the elevator. "Sweep her mouth!" Annie shouted. "Make sure she doesn't choke on anything."

"Eugh," the boys said in unison. But Lisa cleared her own airway, coughing most of the way down to the lobby.

They strapped both girls in the back seat, found the map and headed off.

Unfortunately, nighttime traffic was even worse for David. He'd been driving since 14, but most of that with a Daytime Only permit.

Once again, Raymond played spotter. Annie crouched in the glove box with a pocket flashlight, shouting out navigational advice.

The car filled with some powerful smells, even with all the windows rolled down.

"Can we put them in the trunk?" Raymond said after they had gone down the freeway a ways.

"Nah, it's full of art supplies," David said. He glanced towards the back seat. "And we can't put that stuff in the back seat any more."

"If you see a 24 hour car wash," Annie called. "Better pull over. We'll tie the girls to the hood and go through it."

"Funny," David said, forcing a smile.

"She's not joking," Raymond said. They rode in silence for a bit. There was no mention of Salem on the next road sign they passed.

"Annie?" Raymond asked. "We're five miles from Providence. How far is Salem after that?"

"Uh......"

They got turned around and headed back to the north side of Boston with little trouble. When they pulled over for gas, though, they had a hard time getting back on the freeway.

David grew tired of Annie's assurance that 'Oh! I know what I did wrong!' Raymond wouldn't tolerate him teasing or complaining, though. "That's my job," he snarled. Annie gulped and bent over the map again.

The sky was threatening sunrise when they pulled in beside the school bus the field trip was using.

Mary and Lisa staggered out to sit on the curb while David and Raymond desperately cleaned the back seat.

"Where's my purse?" Mary asked.

"Didn't see it," Raymond snarled.

"What happened?" Lisa asked. "Did I make out with Justin?"

"Which one was Justin?" David asked, throwing handfuls of semi solid material in the gutter.

"He's a KENNEDY!" Mary said. Then she grabbed her head.

"He had the ascot," Lisa said.

"Then you very nearly made out with him," Raymond said. She smiled. Annie sat in her carrier, shaking her head.

The roll of paper towels they bought at the gas station was nearly gone when Deborah showed up. She came around the corner of the bus, a foul mood telegraphed like a pirate's flag.

The first sniff of air near her car lowered her scowl by an octave.

"What did you do to my car?"

"Hi, Debbie," Lisa offered with a small wave.

"Shut up." She inspected their cleaning efforts, shaking her head. "Okay. Okay, we'll get home. We'll be seen by university staff. And then we'll go clean my car."

"Yes, ma'am," Raymond and David said. She saw them trying to stand at attention and smiled in spite of her mood.

"I told your professor I had a family emergency, and relatives coming to pick me up. So let's get out of here before they head for the wax museum."

Seating arrangements were straightforward. Anyone that stank sat in the back seat. After their cleaning efforts, the boys weren't too far behind the girls in that respect.

"I don't want her sitting on my lap," David objected.

"Do you want Raymond sitting on your lap?" Deborah said. Her voice was soft but the promise to carry out her threat was clear.

The boys rushed to sit and then pulled the girls in after them.

Annie's carrier got strapped into the passenger seat. She and Deborah had a pleasant conversation on the drive.

Debbie even bought her a donut to eat while they waited at the car wash.

------

Raymond finally dragged himself into the dorm room and placed the carrier on the desk. He opened the door and started to strip off his wet clothing.

Annie stepped out and smiled at him. "Quite an adventure," she said.

"Yeah. I just wish you'd learn to tell the toxic ones sooner," he said.

"Oh, no, master, that's not the problem." She wandered over to where half a candy bar waited.

He rolled everything inside his jeans and thrust that into his laundry bag. "What is the problem?" he finally asked as he grabbed new clothes from the drawer.

Annie chewed and swallowed. "It does me no good to play mining canary until you're ready to hear the warning. And as long as your little head does more thinking than your big head, you'll never hesitate to ignore me."

"I... I don't ignore you!" he protested. His voice dropped in force when he continued, "I just hope you're wrong."

"Get over that," she said with a smile. "You'll die a bitter, disappointed master."

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