Max could tell by the expression on Kalea’s face that she still wasn’t entirely comfortable with them. He couldn’t blame her. After all, until recently she’d kind of been playing for the opposite team.

“You guys are all going to love it here,” he said enthusiastically.

“I already do,” said Bats.

Kona put his arm around his sister. “I’m just happy to have my sister back.”

Looking at Kona and Kalea, Max couldn’t help but think about Ghost. Nemo had invited him to come with her to visit, but he’d said no. The weird thing was, he wanted to see her more than anything in the world. But he wasn’t ready.

He knew that every time he looked at her he was going to think about what she’d done, and he wasn’t sure he could ever trust her again, not completely.

Then again, if Kona could forgive his sister, maybe Max could forgive his friend. After all, he cared about her. A lot. They’d been through so much together even before meeting Six and Sam. And he’d made mistakes himself, and nobody was bringing that up. Didn’t Ghost deserve the same chance?

“You okay?” Rena whispered in his ear, bringing him back to the moment.

“Yeah,” Max said brightly. “I was just thinking about how tomorrow it’s back to classes. It’s like we’ve been on Christmas break and now it’s over.”

“I don’t know about you,” Bats said, “but my Christmas breaks never involved fighting giant dinobots on top of a hotel in Sin City.”

Everybody, including Kalea, laughed as Max nodded. “Okay, well, maybe it wasn’t quite like Christmas,” he said. “And maybe this school isn’t exactly like my old one. But we still have classes tomorrow.”

He tried to imagine life going back to normal. Was there even such a thing now?

“I haven’t been in school in a long time,” Bats remarked. “Not a real one, anyway.”

“Don’t worry,” Max said. “At least here you’ll always get to sit with the cool kids at lunch.”

Bats turned to him. “Really?” she said. “Are you going to introduce me to them?”

The table erupted in laughter again as Bats put her arm around Max, hugging him.

Yeah, he thought. Everything is going to be fine.

SIX AND SAM
NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Sam placed a folded-up T-shirt on top of the other clothes in his suitcase, then closed the top.

“That should be enough for two weeks, don’t you think?”

Six held up a bathing suit. “This is all I need,” she said. “I don’t plan on leaving the beach.”

“Then I say Operation Bye-Bye Parasites is officially underway,” Sam said.

They’d been given the all clear by Dr. Fenris only hours earlier. And thanks to Edwige, all of their other injuries were healed as well. It was as if Vegas had never happened.

“And Nine said he’d take care of cleanup, right?” Six said.

Sam nodded. “McKenna used his connections with the Vegas police to squash any further investigations, and they’ve done damage control with the press. As far as anyone knows, what happened was simply a publicity stunt gone wrong.”