There was a world of unsaid questions that followed. Emily had kind of left Teddy, and now Athena, to her own devices, but she had never wondered how much either of them knew about how . . . things . . . worked.

She could vividly remember the horror of her mom explaining that kind of stuff and could only imagine the nightmare of explaining it all herself.

“What? Nah. Boys are yucky.”

“Yes,” Emily agreed right away. “Yes. Boys are real yucky and you should never let any of them so much as touch you, okay?”

Saved!

More or less.

“All right, Boss,” Teddy agreed.

Emily felt a little cheap. She’d caught herself admiring some of the guys in her classes already, and she could imagine a more charismatic, less awkward, and less socially idiotic version of herself maybe, sorta, flirting with some of them. But her little sisters could wait until they were in their thirties before worrying about that as far as she was concerned.

They arrived at the park in due time, Emily’s preoccupied mind making the trip feel rather short.

She only had to look around the parking lot for a minute or so before she spotted Melanie leaning against the side of a little red sports car. She was in costume already, and if it weren’t for the way the park was deserted despite it being a weekend, Emily imagined that there would’ve been plenty of people gawking.

Emily pulled Teddy a ways away and toward a little restroom building. “Let’s get changed real quick,” she said.

Teddy had it easy when it came to changing. She took her mask out of her hoodie pocket, then slid the hoodie off, and she was done.

Emily had to practice her dexterity in a little stall, doing her very best not to touch anything. Sliding into a pair of tight pants while hopping on one leg and avoiding mysterious stains left her jealous of her bear summon.

They stuffed everything into Emily’s backpack, and then, because they couldn’t leave that behind, put the bag onto Teddy’s back before heading out.

Melanie looked up when they came close. “About time,” she said.

Emily knew they were at least ten minutes early, but that was cutting it pretty close. “Sorry,” she said. “We had to get changed.”

“Mostly the Boss,” Teddy said. “I could just go around as a bear, but that would intimidate too many people, and the Boss wants us to be all Hero-like.”

“Uh-huh,” Melaton said. She flicked a thumb over to the car. “Get in.”

Teddy hopped in without argument and bounced around on the back seat while Emily climbed into the passenger seat and buckled up. “Teddy, can you manage your seat belt?”

“I don’t think I want to,” Teddy said.