“I turn off my brain by tinkering,” she said. “It’s like how on some computers you can push the number so high it goes back to zero, except it’s brain activity.”

“Kenzie,” I said. “Put the phone away. Close your eyes. Don’t fuss about things.”

“But—”

“Is there an emergency?”

“No.”

“Then hang up, put the phone away, close your eyes, and don’t worry. Everyone’s coming, we’ll tackle some things, compare notes, and all will be good.”

“Bye.”

“Bye Kenzie. See you soon.”

“In… twelve minutes. About. And Rain is coming, but he’s going to be later. He’ll arrive in—”

“Hang up the phone,” I said. “Or I’m going to start unplugging things at random.”

“Bye then.”

I didn’t respond, because it was apparent that Kenzie had to get the last word. The ambient noise came through the phone for another few seconds before she hung up. The cube to the right of her desk went dark.

It was strange to be in the space when the others had yet to arrive. Normally, my focus was on the task at hand, here. I wanted to be the rock, unmovable, in case others needed to reach out. It was hard to be that with Natalie’s words in my mind and the room empty.

The whiteboards were people’s thoughts encapsulated. Mine was numbers to call, things to do, a rough timeline of events, with the next being Auzure’s call to Cedar Point. They were Houndstooth’s recommendation. I added notes about the hack.

Kenzie had her costume notes, tinker notes, some drawings in erasable marker of her face, a circle with large eyes, a kiss-shaped mouth, and two buns, and various hearts and stars. She had two boards, one mounted on the wall behind the one with two legs and four wheels, and the tinker notes spilled out from the side of the one in front to the one in the back. So did the stars and hearts, for that matter.

Chris’s was at the other end, opposite her desk. I walked over to it, glancing at the others on the way. There were some names written down, but most had been erased.

Menagerie
Zoo
Zoological or Zoologic?
Hodgepodge or Hodge? Podge?

Note to self: bring books for Rain

All written in the bottom left corner. ‘Chris’ was in the top right corner, the ‘h’ smudged where a sleeve had rubbed up against it mid-write.

Ashley’s board was empty, except for a very elaborate, stylized rendition of her name. Kenzie had found some fonts and displayed them on the whiteboard for tracing. Ashley had okayed this one.

Just ‘Ashley’. Nothing else figured out.