“Yeah. Like I know how to talk, and do my business in the bathroom, and I know how to be a bear real good,” Teddy agreed. She could list off all the things she knew how to do all day if that was what the Boss wanted.

The Boss’s expression twisted this way and that before her arms went loose by her side, and she let out another deep sigh. “I could have just asked you this entire time,” she said. “I didn’t need to look it up online and get into trouble and threaten Handshake.” She tucked her phone away in her purse, and then used her now-free hand to rub at her face.

“It’s all right, Boss, you didn’t know that I know,” Teddy said. She didn’t like seeing the Boss looking all mopey and sad. Her job was to help the Boss, which meant making the Boss’s life better. That meant that the Boss being sad was the opposite of what Teddy wanted.

“It’s okay,” Emily said. “I just— I think it’s been a long couple of days.”

That made sense. “Yeah. But don’t worry, Boss, I’m here for you now.”

The Boss actually cracked a smile, even if she did it while turning to look away from Teddy. “Thank you, Teddy,” the Boss said.

Teddy couldn’t have puffed her chest out any more without turning into her full size. “No problem, Boss! Hey, do you want me to explain things to you?”

“I . . . would appreciate that, yes,” the Boss said.

Nodding, Teddy searched for a nice place to start her explanation. She decided to settle for the thing the Boss was confused about the most. “So, your rank, like on that chart, you wanna change it, right?”

“Yes,” Boss said.

“Right. Well, that’s easy. See, you get quests, just like I do, right? So if you do quests that fit with your rank, you’ll stay there, but if you do some for other ranks close to yours, you’ll eventually move over to one of those.”

“I see,” Boss said. “I guess that makes sense. Can you move up a lot? Like . . . faster?”

The Boss was already at Villain and she wanted to move up? Teddy searched her memory for ranks that were even more impressive. Super Villain and Mastermind were both close, but if she wanted to move fast . . . was the Boss aiming to be a Demon?

Teddy was very impressed. “Yeah, Boss. You just need to do really impressive stuff, like, way more than what the quest asks for.”

“I see,” the Boss said. “Okay. That’s good. I can do that. We can do that.”

Teddy grinned. She was being included in the Boss’s plans!

“What about, um, the points?”

“Points? You mean like on your status screen?” Teddy asked. When the Boss nodded, Teddy brought up her own screen just to be sure.