Plastic Bear Masks

E-Wright: Hello?

Mel: Yeah?

E-Wright: It’s Emily. We met yesterday? I thought we could meet again?

Mel: Good timing.

Mel: There’s a café on Main and Sixth. I’ll be behind it.

E-Wright: Okay. Thank you. I’ll see you soon.

Emily slid her phone into the pocket of her jacket and took a deep breath. The air outside was quite a bit cooler than inside, and not nearly as stuffy, though there was the dubious bonus of smelling like . . . well, like air in a city did.

“Where are we heading to, Boss?” Teddy asked. She had a hand in Emily’s and was looking about with big motions of her head, mostly because her hoodie was cutting off her line of sight.

“Main,” Emily said. “We’ll have to take the bus.”

“All right. I’ve never been on a bus before.”

Emily smiled down at Teddy. It had only been a couple of days, but she’d kind of gotten used to the little summon being around. She still liked her privacy, and talking—even to Teddy—was a bit exhausting, but it was growing to be like . . . like talking to her mom or dad. Easier than with others.

She wondered as she started to make her way toward the nearest bus stop if that was just her getting used to Teddy, or if the power she had over the bear girl had anything to do with it.

Her new position of dominance seemed to ease her into liking Teddy as much as she did. Emily had never had power over people before. It was amusing.

She shook her head and banished the thought. It wasn’t a very nice, or very Heroic, way of thinking. Power over others was just a disguise for responsibility. Teddy might have been her summon, and that might have meant that Teddy listened to her, but it also meant that Teddy’s welfare was Emily’s responsibility.

They arrived at the bus stop and sat down on the least sticky part of the bench while Emily fished out her phone and looked up the timetables for the city buses. They ran on a half-hour rotation across part of the city all day, but that schedule only worked as long as they didn’t run into construction or roadblocks, and there were both of those everywhere all the time.

“You okay, Boss?” Teddy asked. She was looking at Emily with obvious concern.

Emily shifted her backpack a bit. “I’m fine?” she said.

“All right,” Teddy replied. She didn’t sound so sure of it, but she didn’t look ready to push either.