Page 34 of Mislaid in Parts Half-Known

DEPARTURES

THREE MONTHS WITHOUT SUMIbasically meant three months of peace. No quests had cropped up, no chaos had erupted, and only two new students had arrived, both of whom Kade had assessed as coming from Logical worlds, one Wicked, one Virtuous, and who had merged easily into the student body. Angela and Seraphina had been placed on probation as a consequence of their actions: they were currently banned from all extracurricular activities, required to attend nightly counseling with Nichole, and Christopher was working with Seraphina to find ways to reduce her impact on the people around her, and possibly live a more normal life.

Eleanor hadn’t wanted to expel either girl on a first offense, and Kade thought Antsy would have approved of that. She had given Vineta a chance to do better, after all; why shouldn’t Eleanor give Angela and Seraphina the same?

Using the information gained on their brief travels, Kade had finally managed to persuade Eleanor to leave classifying the worlds to him, citing her tendency to see Nonsense where none existed as detrimental, and to everyone’s surprised delight, she’d agreed. He was still reassessing the rest of the student body, resulting in several roommate swaps and substantially fewer arguments. Sometimes he even got time to himself.

That was what led to him being out jogging with Cora in the early afternoon, the two of them circling the turtle pond.

“I still hate this,” he wheezed.

“I know,” she said, much less breathlessly. “But if we ever need to run away from dinosaurs again, you’ll be so glad you did.” She sped up to get ahead of him and turned to run backward so she could watch his face.

“You’re a sadist,” he accused, without heat.

“Maybe,” she said brightly. “Need a break?”

“Lord,please,” he said.

Laughing, she slowed to a stop, putting her hands at the small of her back and stretching as she turned to look out across the turtle pond.

“Can this really be enough?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“We sawmagic. We foughtarmies. This—school, class, phys ed, waiting to graduate and figure out what happens next—can it really be enough?”

“It is for me,” said Kade.

“Not for me,” said Cora. “I know we’re supposed to get over it, but I can’t. I want to go home.”

“Then go home,” said a voice behind them, accompanied by the sound of a closing door. “You make it sound like it’s hard or something.”

“Sumi!” exclaimed Kade, whirling around to face her.

Explaining Sumi’s absence had been the hardest part of coming back. Antsy had blown in with the wind and mostly kept to herself; it didn’t surprise anyone when she’d blown out the same way. Sumi, though… Sumi was a fixture. Everyone knew she’d leave them someday, but someday was never supposed to be rightnow.

Cora didn’t turn.

Sumi grinned at Kade. “Miss me?” she asked.

“Oh youbrat!” he said, and lunged toward her, grabbingher around the middle and lifting her off the ground as he spun her around. Sumi squealed, totally delighted.

“Bad,badman,” she scolded, lightly hitting his shoulder. “Put me down.”

“Let me look at you!” Kade set her on her feet and took a step back.

Sumi spread her arms and did a little turn, showing off her patchwork vest and trousers. Dozens of cheap glass-bead necklaces hung around her neck, and more beads were anchored in her hair, worn as always in two messy pigtails. It was hard for a teen looking at a teen to tell the subtle gradations in age, but she looked about a year older—very close to the amount of time she’d been dead.

“I caught up,” she said, happily.

“Yes, you did,” he agreed. “Welcome home.”

“Kade?”

Cora’s voice was soft, almost shaking. He looked over his shoulder. She was still standing frozen, staring at the turtle pond.

“What is it, mermaid?” asked Sumi. “I missed you, too. Nice to have such an enthusiastic greeting.”

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