Buster, Caleb Huett [great novels .TXT] 📗

I got it.” He scribbled something down.

I tried to stand up straight to see over the table—but he snatched the paper away. “It’s a surprise! But now I need one.” Something flashed across his face—a thought that didn’t feel good. “There’s nothing really special about me, though.”

Bad brain, I warned. He nodded once, slowly.

In the back of the room, a little face with a big smile poked up above the sea of adults and yelled, “Tonio! Hey!!!”

There wasn’t even time to answer before Devon was dodging and weaving through the crowd and dropping into the seat next to Tonio. He unzipped a shiny silver backpack—it looked brand-new—and plopped two boxes of cards in front of Tonio. “I brought all the cards we talked about. Not to brag or anything, but I’m extremely good at carrying stacks of cards from one place to another. I didn’t even drop them.”

“That’s good,” Tonio answered, heart already racing. Devon stared at him, wide-faced, waiting for a laugh. “Oh! You’re joking! I’m sorry!”

“No, I’m sorry. Next time I make any jokes, I’ll wear my T-shirt that says ‘I’m joking.’ ” He popped open the clip on the boxes and poured the cards out. Tonio opened his box of cards and took the rubber bands off the two decks he’d brought. “I hope it’s not too confusing to be playing with new cards all of a sudden.”

“Not at all.” Tonio shook his head. “We’ve been practicing with the ones I drew, so we’re ready.”

“Who’s we?” Devon asked, meaning absolutely nothing by it, but Tonio was already sweating.

“Me,” he started.

A sideways glance. “Right. And?”

“And …” I watched the wheels spin in his head. Just say anything! I thought, but didn’t want to distract him with Underspeak. Anyone at all!

“My …” Bad start. His Mia? No. Dad. Mom. Online friends. Just say anything!

“Dog,” he finished. I lowered my snout and pressed the top of my head against the table’s leg. We will never be able to keep this secret. What was I thinking?

But Devon just laughed. “Cool.” And reached over to scratch behind my ears. “I hope he kept you on your toes.”

“….…. Totally,” Tonio said after one million excruciating seconds.

“These are so cool!” Devon gasped, looking at one of Tonio’s drawn cards. He held up Tonio’s version of Summon Familiar.exe. “Can I have this one? The dragon looks so cute!”

Tonio blushed. “Sure.”

Devon did a short, excited dance, which Tonio watched carefully—probably searching for a sign that it was fake. But there was nothing to find. That was Devon.

The last few cards found their spots while Skyler stood up on a chair to yell across the crowd, “We’re going to get started in five minutes! If you haven’t turned in your sign-up sheet yet, please bring it to me.”

Five minutes, and no sign of Mia. I shouldn’t have trusted this to a puppy, I thought.

With a quick scribble, Tonio finished writing his Blademaster name. I tried to catch a peek again, but he pressed it to his chest and barely let go even when Skyler was reaching for it. “Whoa,” she said after looking at it.

“Is it bad?” Tonio asked immediately. “I can change the name. I just thought that—”

Skyler pushed the corner of her glasses to bring it back up her nose. “Your handwriting is really good,” she explained. “That’s all I meant.”

“But is the name okay?”

She looked again and grinned. “It’s intense.”

“Is that bad?”

“No, I think it’s cool.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and checked the time. “Is your friend here yet?”

Tonio shook his head. “Is there any chance you could wait a few more minutes? Just to see?”

“We have to get started. But …” Skyler consulted her clipboard. “If she was here, we’d have an uneven number of people, anyway, and someone would get a bye the first round.”

“A bye?”

“It means someone has to skip, ’cause there’s nobody for them to play against.” She wrote a note down on her clipboard, then chewed on the end of her pen for a second. “I’ll tell you what—I’ll sign her up, and give her the first bye. She can fill out the sheet when she gets here. That’s like thirty more minutes.”

Tonio’s eyebrows came together in concern. “Is that okay? If it’s not fair, I don’t—”

“It’s fine. If she wasn’t coming, everyone here would have to play, anyway.” She held her phone up for Tonio. “Do you want to call her?”

“That’s okay, I just—” I nudged him and underspoke, Yes. He gave me a confused expression, so I did it again, with an exclamatory quirk to my tail. Yes! “Uh, actually, that would be good. But I’m not good at phones. Is there somewhere private I could make a call?”

Skyler pointed. “Sure! Over there.”

Moments later, Tonio and I were crammed into a tiny bathroom meant for one human. I sat on the toilet enjoying the smell, and Tonio leaned against the sink, staring pointedly away from the mirror and waiting for the phone to finish ringing. He put it on speaker so I could hear.

“Rrrring, ring?” Mia’s dad Jeff answered.

“Hi, Mr. Lin. It’s Tonio.”

“Please, Mr. Lin is my husband.” He chuckled. “Jeff is fine!”

“Uh, okay.” The silence lasted too long. “Is Mia there?”

“Y’know, I don’t think she is.” He let out a sympathetic sigh. “Sorry about that, buddy.”

“Is she okay?”

“Between you and me, she’s been having kind of a hard time, and she won’t talk to us about why. I appreciate you checking on her, though.”

Tonio glanced at me, brow knit together. Go on, I underspoke.

He put his hand over the phone. “Do I have to?” he whispered.

It’ll be fine!

Tonio squeezed his eyes shut and brought the phone back up to his ear. “ActuallyMr.Lincouldyouput Mozartonthephone?”

This silence lasted even longer. “The dog?” Jeff asked.

“Yes, sir.” Tonio covered his squeezed-shut eyes with his free hand. I felt bad for putting him in such a stressful position, but we’d agreed this was our only chance to really find out what was going on. I fed