“Go to class, Peroxide,” Tammy said quietly. She got nose to nose with me. “Or do you need another lesson in the social graces?”
Partly because she was a Knight, but mostly because I felt like it, I decided to try a different tactic with Ms. Angel. “No, Tammy, what I really need is some answers. I’m feeling a little impatient today. I think I’ll beat them out of you.”
Tammy smiled smugly, but backed up a step. “You and what mob of lowlife geeks?”
“That would be us,” a voice said from down the hall.
Bobby approached quickly with Erica, Tish, Whatsisface, and a group of people I recognized as the usual victims of the goons. They forced themselves between the Red Team and me.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Dweeb League.” Tammy raised her nose in the air.
“You touch her,” Bobby warned, “you touch all of us.”
“As unappealing as that sounds, I think I’ll pass. Come on, Red Team. Let’s leave the superzeroes to their fantasies.”
I continued to glare at Tammy. Go ahead, I thought. Bump into me.
Tammy, Boot, and Agatha made their way past everyone without a foul word or nasty deed. When they disappeared around the corner, Bobby and his squadron began to cheer.
“One for Kitty,” Bobby said.
“The Dweeb League,” Whatsisface remarked quietly. “I like it.”
“It’s us,” Tish said. “Definitely.”
Whatsisface puffed out his meager chest, placed one fist on his hip, and pointed to the sky. “The Dweeb League!” His voice fell miles short of manly. “Mild-mannered reporters by day, purveyors of justice by night. Violently handsome crime fighters, we possess abilities far beyond those of mere mortals. When the sun sets, we unite to protect the noble metropolis of Greensburg High School.”
I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or gag, so I just said, “Thanks, guys.”
Whatsisface exhaled loudly and resumed his abnormal shape. “At your service, ma’am,” he said, and gave me a quick two-fingered salute.
“Rinnie.” Bobby’s voice was somber. “We came to ask you a favor. We got together and decided we want to fight back. We want you to train us. They might be bigger and stronger—”
“And faster and meaner and more likely to win,” I interrupted. “They’ll fight dirty, and most of them carry weapons. Not a good argument for fighting back.”
“But you, Miss Kung Fu Master, can teach us to use that against them. We want vengeance.”
I studied the kids standing behind Bobby. Tish continued to dress like a zombie, but she’d stopped slouching. She even smiled. Whatsisface apparently felt like Captain America, but his hairdo made him look like Major Mushroom. Erica Jasmine’s entire demeanor had changed—she looked whole again. The entire group glowed with something I had never seen in them before. I only hoped it wasn’t contagious.
“I don’t do vengeance,” I said. “Bobby, you just stopped them without my help. All you have to do is stick together. Nobody will ever bother you again.”
I turned and walked down the hall.
“Wait up.” Bobby hurried after me. “We gotta talk.”
“Not now, Bobby. I’m going after Angel. Don’t try to stop me.”
“Stop you? I want to hold her while you pound her.”
Robbed of my chance to bludgeon a poor excuse for a Walpurgis Knight, I suddenly felt irrational. “You’re right. We do need to talk. And you won’t like the subject.” I grabbed Bobby by the backpack and dragged him backward into the library, straight to the little study room Kathryn and I always used. I closed the door, pushed Bobby into a chair, and began laying my schoolbooks out on the table.
“What are you doing? I didn’t follow you in here to do homework.”
“We have to look like we’re studying.” I glared at the poor boy. “And you didn’t follow me. I dragged you.”
“What’s the matter with you?” Bobby held up his hands. “I didn’t do anything.”
“You wanna know what’s the matter? Let me tell you what’s the matter. Kathryn told you things about me she shouldn’t have. That’s what’s the matter.”
“And that’s my fault…how?”
“You’re here to yell at and she’s not. Being yelled at for things you have no control over is in the boyfriend job description.”
“Oh. I didn’t know there was fine print.”
“Duh.”
“Umm, what did she tell me?”
“Memory Lash,” I whispered. “Ring a bell? What else did she tell you?”
“Oh, yeah, well, that. And that you’re a Psi Fighter and—”
I pressed my history book against my forehead. “Wonderful. Do you have any idea what that means?”
“Yeah, you’re part of a secret society that fights bad guys. You’re the people they call when there’s real trouble. Kind of like Spider-Man without the cape. Secret identity and all that—”