“Nah,” was Teddy’s reply. “The Boss has bigger concerns than just being a Villain. She’s taking the fight to the pigs in charge.”

“Um, it’s not quite that,” Emily said. “I . . . ah, don’t really like doing Villain stuff. I’d much rather people see me, see us, as Heroes.”

“Huh,” Athena hooted. “Well, I’m sure we can do something about that. It’ll be substantially more work, but we can do it, I’m certain.” She nodded, and Emily had the impression there might have been a crucial misunderstanding there, but she couldn’t quite pin what and how.

“So,” she said, “I guess we have a few Mask things to do today. And we need to grab something to eat. Maybe we can stop by the thrift store again and buy a microwave, so we can cook stuff in here.”

“What’ll we cook?” Teddy asked.

“Um, just noodles and stuff,” Emily said. She felt kind of bad—it was her duty to make sure Teddy and Athena ate well, but she wasn’t exactly equipped for feeding them and so on. “And we can pick up some clothes for Athena. I don’t think she’ll fit in yours, Teddy.”

Athena nodded. “That would be nice. Could we stop by a book place, too?”

“Oh, sure,” Emily said. “There’s a used bookstore around, I think. New books might be beyond our budget, but we can probably buy some secondhand.”

Athena nodded along. “Sure.”

Emily smiled at her . . . sisters again, then sighed as she took off her backpack and set it aside. “I have to make a phone call real quick. Can you guys be, uh, a little bit quiet for a few minutes?”

Athena nodded at her seriously, and Teddy gave her a lazy thumbs-up.

Emily fiddled with her phone for a moment. She didn’t want to have to make the call she had to, but, well, she had to. Putting off that kind of thing was always so very tempting, but it wouldn’t end well.

She unlocked the phone, then stared at the twenty-odd texts from Mel.

Mel: Hey.

Mel: Hey!

Mel: Did you just catch the H loser?

Mel: Yo?

Mel: Kid, answer me!

Mel: Holy crap, just saw the vid.

Mel: You’re on the news. Again.

Mel: Well done!

Mel: Did you grab the D?

Mel: Oh, ewww.

Mel: Didn’t mean it like that.

Mel: Sorry.

Mel: Is Bear okay?

Mel: There was a camera in the lobby place.

Mel: I’m trying to suppress things, but I don’t have the pull for it.

Mel: Hey?

Mel: You alive?

Mel: Yo?

Mel: Call me.

Emily hesitated, her thumb hovering over the texts so long her screen ended up going dark. She sighed and unlocked it again, then tapped a few times until the phone was ringing.

She pressed it to her ear and waited until the click of someone picking up sounded. “H-hello?”