When Danny picked up the phone, the person on the other end of the line was the last person he expected to hear from.

“Hello? Um… This is Monique. I was just calling to see if Danny was there…”

“Monique!” Danny said. “Hi! Oh, wow! It’s been so long! I was actually planning on meeting up with you some time, but this month’s been really busy since we’ve moved and everything.”

And there was all the chaos with Noa and Rion. But Danny didn’t want to mention that.

“Oh! Danny! Hi!” Monique said and he could hear the shift in her tone. She must be smiling. “It’s great to hear your voice. I, um… I was going to call you sooner, but…”

“Yeah, no, I totally understand,” Danny said. “How are you? How are things? Still hanging out with Sarina, I hear.”

Monique let out a snort. Danny could imagine her rolling her eyes.

“Yeah, we still hang out,” she said. “Even though Sarina can be the most boring person alive sometimes. She’s up to no good again. I thought you should know.”

“Oh. Oh no…” Danny said.

With everything going on, the last thing he wanted to deal with right now was Sarina. He was more worried about Noa. And with what Rion did…

“I’m not really friends with her anymore,” Danny said. “Sorry, Monique…”

“Oh, no, don’t be,” Monique said. “If I still had someone cool to hang out with like you, I probably wouldn’t hang out with Sarina either. But this is important. You should know. Everyone’s talking about it at school and Sarina’s being tight-lipped. Probably because I keep reminding her how boring she is.”

“Okay. Well, what happened then?”

“Apparently, she went and harassed Rion in the hospital. Sarina didn’t give me details. She just said she went and yelled at him. People at school are saying that she beat him up or something but that can’t be true. Hospitals have security, don’t they?”

Danny froze. Sarina yelled at Rion? Sarina had…

Wait. Celeste said she was going to tell Sarina about…

No…

“Uh, hey, mind if I call you back?” Danny said. “I have to check on something.”

“Sure. Um… Can I ask you something before that?”

“Huh? Oh. Sure,” Danny said.

“Want to go out for coffee sometime?”

“Of course!” Danny said, not even hesitating. “I’d love to catch up with you! I just have…uh…some stuff to take care of. Let’s talk later, okay?”

“Okay!” Monique said cheerfully. “I’ll call you back later. We can decide on a time. Also, I’m really glad you’re back. You brighten up the whole town.”

“Oh,” Danny said, blinking at the unexpected compliment. “Thanks, Monique.”

“I’m just being honest.”

“That… Yeah, that does sound like you. Thanks. Really. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Sure. Bye, Danny!” 

“Bye!”

Danny hung up. He took a second to collect himself, to shake off the nostalgia clinging to him from his brief conversation with Monique. Then he picked up the phone and called Celeste. Lucky for him, she was the one to pick up.

“Hello?”

“Celeste, it’s Danny,” he said. “Did you tell Sarina about Rion? Like, what he did?”

“Yeah. Yesterday. I wanted to get it over with… Why?” 

“Monique just called me. And she said Sarina freaked out on Rion at the hospital.”

“What? What?!”

“Yeah! That’s how I feel right now!”

“But… But she sounded totally calm when I talked to her! I don’t… She… I don’t understand.”

“Okay,” Danny said. “I’m going to call Peter. Let’s… Are you busy? We should meet up and see Rion or something and make sure he’s okay.”

“Okay…”

It took some organizing and calling back and forth to get the three of them together. Peter, Danny, and Celeste decided to meet up at the hotel and then go from there.

Danny was the first to arrive, followed shortly by Peter. And he did not look impressed.

“Hey,” Danny greeted him.

“Hi,” Peter said tersely, taking a seat at the table Danny had chosen. “I think I have a plan, but let’s wait for Celeste.”

“Sure,” Danny said. “This whole thing is freaking me out. I want to make sure that Rion’s okay.”

Even if Rion had electrocuted Amber, Danny still didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. It didn’t feel right.

Celeste arrived just then, rosy cheeked and a little out of breath.

“I hurried,” she said when she joined them at their table, pulling off her mitts. “What do we do?”

“I want you to talk to Sarina again,” Peter said. “I think Danny and I should go to the hospital and check up on Rion. We should make sure that he’s okay.”

“Okay,” Celeste said, pausing to bite her lip. “I don’t know if talking to Sarina will do much good. She sounded so normal on the phone, but then…”

“On the phone?” Peter said. “You told her about Rion over the phone?”

Celeste blushed, making her face rosier. “I… I wanted to tell her right away, and… I just… I didn’t want to go over to her house, and… How was I supposed to tell her that to her face? She… She was upset but she sounded okay on the phone. I didn’t think she would… I can’t believe she would go after Rion.”

Peter closed his eyes, took a breath, and let it out slowly. Danny got the distinct impression that he was trying really hard to not be angry with Celeste.

“It’s fine. It’s done. We can’t change it now,” Peter said, spreading his hands out over the tabletop. “We have more important things to worry about. Like Rion. If Sarina attacked him…”

He didn’t need to say anything else. Danny grimaced at the thought. Rion was already cut up and bruised. Sarina had to have noticed that, right? She had to have… She wouldn’t really hurt him after seeing him like that, would she?

Then again, she’d been fine to attack him right in front of them. Danny had seen Sarina grab Rion by the hair, hit him, kick him... If she thought that was okay before she even knew…

What Rion did was horrible. But he didn’t deserve to get a beating for it when he was already in the hospital. Right?

“We need to check on him,” Peter continued. “We need to make sure he’s okay. Danny, the two of us should go talk to Rion. Celeste, you find Sarina. Talk to her. Okay?”

“Okay,” Celeste said.

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Danny said. “Let’s do it.”