Chapter Twenty-Three - The Little Adventures of Steffie

Steffie wasn’t sure what to make of the five girls stumbling into her classroom. Her mom had said that they’d have some new friends over, and Steffie was... well, she wasn’t sure if she was looking forward to it or not.

New people could be scary. But her mom told her that learning to make new friends was important. It was one of the most important things someone would learn at school.

Steffie couldn’t go to normal school, not yet. Her mom said that maybe she could go to highschool later, or middle school if she felt better by then. But then Steffie would have to live with people asking her questions about her wheelchair.

She spun the wheels of her chair around so that she was facing the girls. “Hi?” she started. “Who are you?”

Her mom had said there would be one or maybe two girls. This was... five. Steffi had been hyping herself up to deal with way less than that.

The girls spread out, two of them--who looked the same?--walked off to the blackboard and stared up at it while the other three formed a rough line by the door. “Question ain’t who are we, it’s who’s you?” the shortest but stockiest of the girls asked. She was wearing shorts and a t-shirt with the word ‘Bear’ on the front.

“That,” the tallest girl said. “Was the worst English I’ve ever heard. Did you learn how to speak from that little red book of yours?”

“Hey! I speak well enough,” the stocky girl defended herself.

“Hi! I’m Trinity,” the other girl who hadn’t spoken yet said. “Can I have your chair?”

“Um, no,” Steffi said. That was a bit rude to ask.

The tall girl sniffed. She crossed her arms with a creak from her leather jacket, set her legs, and looked down at Steffie. “I’m Athena. And the idiot here is Teddy.”

“I’m not an idiot,” Teddy said. “You are.”

“Aww, not this again,” one of the girls by the blackboard said. She was holding up a chalk stick and...

“Hey!” Steffi said. “You’re not supposed to doodle on the blackboard.”

“Why not?” the girl asked. She was about halfway done with a surprisingly nice image of a raccoon. Steffie blinked. Did the girl have a tail?!

Where had her mom found these girls? They were weird.

“So, what kinda shit do you learn here?” Teddy asked.

“That’s a swear-word,” Steffie gasped. “You’re not supposed to say those.”

Teddy grinned and raised her head up as if she was proud. “I can. Wanna hear another?”

“Teddy, don’t scare her. She’ll tell her mom, who will tell the Boss, and then we’ll all get into trouble,” Athena said. She walked over to the desk next to Steffie’s. Her mom had pulled a few of them over and set them down. They’d be two desks short as it was. “So, you’re Miss Headerson’s daughter, right?”

Steffie felt herself sinking into her chair. Without being all angry at the girls, it was a lot harder to talk to them. “Um, yes. I’m her daughter. You’re here for classes too, right? We’re doing geography today.” She gestured to a world map on one wall.

“That doesn’t sound fun,” Teddy said. “Don’t schools do, like, running around and exercising?”

Trinity whacked Teddy behind the head, then pointed to Steffie. “She can’t do running around. She has wheels instead of legs.”

“I didn’t know that!” Teddy said while rubbing at the back of her head.

Steffie tried. She tried really hard. But there was no way she could hold it in, and the giggles came pouring out of her. They only got worse when Trinity became smug and Teddy’s face fell into a big pout.

Athena grinned back at her even as Steffie worked hard to stifle her laugh. “So, what’s your name?”

Steffie glanced away. Her cheeks were burning already. “Ah, I’m Steffie,” she said.

“So, this is where you learn stuff?” Teddy asked.

“Yeah. Mom was a teacher. I guess she still is. She mostly does substitution now because, ah, I need a lot of help for stuff.”

“What kinda stuff?” Teddy asked.

Steffie turned to her and gave the girl a bit of stink-eye. Her mom told her it wasn’t very nice to look at people that way, but Teddy probably deserved it. “I need help with a bunch of things,” Steffie said.

“That sucks,” Teddy said. “You going to get better eventually?”

“Teddy, you’re being more of an idiot than usual,” Athena said.

“What?” Teddy whined.

“Stop being a jerk, or I’ll tell the Boss,” Athena said.

Teddy crossed her arms and glowered, but eventually she recanted and looked down at Steffie. “Yeah, I guess that was rude. Sorry. You look alright. Better than my dumb little sister, at least.”

Athena sniffed, but it was obvious that she didn’t put much weight in the insult.

Steffie wondered if this was how all girls were. “Apology accepted,” she said. A glance at the clock above the blackboard revealed that it was actually getting to be a bit late. “Mom usually starts our lessons by now. Did you want to self-study before we begin? I-I can help you all catch up?” That would be nice. Steffie wanted to be a teacher one day.

“Sounds boring,” Trinity said. Or was it one of the other girls that looked like Trinity? Steffie had lost track, and they hadn’t given her their name. She wasn’t going to ask now though, what if she pointed to one and used the wrong name? That would be mortifying.

The bottom half of the blackboard now had a panoramic image of a big explosion, with a few critters running away from it and what looked like heroes on fire in the background. It was actually pretty good.

Steffie gathered up her courage and spoke up. “You’re really good at drawing,” she said.

The triplets all puffed up their chests, even the one that hadn’t drawn at all. “Yeah, I’m pretty great. I wanna take up graffiti.”

“What?” Steffie asked. “You mean, like, with cans?”

“Yeah! I have two already.”

“Two what?” Athena asked.

“Cans,” one of the triplets said. “I found them.” All three gasped in stereo. “We should sneak out and go tag some buildings for the Boss.”

“We don’t have a gang tag,” Teddy said.

“We’ll invent one!”

Steffie shook her head. “No, you can’t do that. Graffiti is wrong.”

“Yeah, but it’s cool,” Athena said. “You can’t be wrong and cool at the same time, can you?”

Steffie shook her head. “Yes you can. I mean, no. Crime is wrong.”

“Hey, girls, let’s go do crime!” Teddy cheered.

Pouting, Steffie pulled herself up so that she was sitting correctly in her chair. She knew they were just being silly, but still. “I know some graffiti is nice. There was a huge mural next to Miss Corle’s ice-cream shop. It had big unicorns and and all the heroes and was really pretty.”

“There’s an ice-cream shop nearby?” Teddy asked.

“With lame hero graffiti on it?” one of the girls that might have been Trinity asked.

Steffie nodded. Sometimes, if she did good on a quiz, she’d go there with her mom and they’d talk and have sundaes. “It’s really nice. The owner is nice too. She gives me extra every time.”

“That’s it, we need to head out and go try that place,” Teddy said.

“The Boss and Step-Boss are still just talking,” Athena said as she poked her head out of the room. “Bet we could sneak out and they wouldn’t even notice.”

Steffie laughed. It was such a silly idea. “Yeah, there’s a way out from mom’s room across the hall. She has Rench doors onto the patio out back. I think they unlock from the inside.”

“Alright, cool, let’s go,” Teddy said. She moved behind Steffie and pulled her chair back out from under her desk.

“H-hey, wait, where are we going?” Steffie asked.

“Ice cream,” one of the triplets explained.

“We don’t have money,” Steffie said.

Suddenly, a pair of wallets were dropped on her lap. “I found those,” one of the girls said. “They were in some people’s pockets.”

With trembling hands, Steffie opened one of the wallets up and stared. It had a badge. An HRT badge with some guy’s driver’s licences and bank cards and everything. Even a few wadded bills. “This is a joke,” Steffie said.

“We don’t joke about ice cream,” Teddy said. “Or committing casual crime. Come on, it’ll be fun.”

Steffie whipped her head around to the last bastion of logic and common sense. Athena had seemed nice, and she felt smart. “You think this is a good idea?” she asked.

Athena grinned. “Don’t worry. Boss will probably forgive us! Besides, it’ll be a learning opportunity!”

“What are we supposed to learn from getting in trouble?” Steffie asked.

“How not to!” Athena said. And so Steffie was pushed out of the classroom, and into what she knew was going to be a heap of trouble.

***