What Happens Now(69)

I turned to Camden, who had already slid his wig into place, his eyes sharp with excitement.

“This is it,” he said. “These are our people.”

He took the wig from my hand and slowly lowered it onto my head, glancing back and forth between the hair and my face, trying to get the position just right.

“There,” he finally said. “You’re Satina again. Hi, Satina.”

He leaned in to kiss me but Eliza stepped between us. She inspected me, then Camden, then gave a nod of approval.

Max, Kendall, and James had already started toward the hotel entrance, so we rushed to catch up. I watched as Kendall took pains to fall into step behind James, not next to him.

Inside the lobby, a huge sign on an easel said WELCOME TO THE TRI-STATE SUPERCON. Arrows pointed us to a registration table down the hall.

“Look,” said Camden. “The arrows are silver. That’s a good omen.”

“Watch what happens when they recognize us,” whispered Eliza.

After we signed in and got our badges, we crossed the threshold into the heart of the SuperCon, aka a hotel ballroom filled with booths selling comics, books, figurines, T-shirts, costumes, and accessories. Most of the people browsing the booths were dressed as something. There was a lot of hugging and picture-taking going on.

Eliza grabbed my arm briefly, indicating that I shouldn’t move on yet. She wanted us to linger. To wait and see if anyone noticed us.

Her plan was this: we’d spend the morning on the exhibit floor, then there were a couple of panels to check out. Somewhere in there, we’d have lunch. At four, there was a costume contest—the highlight and whole point, really, of the day. At six, the dinner and dance party began. We’d be on the road by ten and home at eleven.

Eliza scanned the crowd and said, “I saw on the message boards that there’s a group here cosplaying the Silver Arrow Reboot. We have to find them.”

“Then we rumble,” said Max.

Kendall snorted but Eliza gave him a dirty look. “If you’re not going to take this seriously . . .”

“I’m here, aren’t I?” He spread out his hands and waved them all around himself. “I’m dressed as a silver-haired alien and trying as hard as I can not to feel like a douche bag! How much more serious do you want me to get?”

Something in Eliza’s face softened. “No more serious, babe.” She took his hand. “You look great.”

Max drew a deep breath and let her keep hold of his hand, but he didn’t relax into it the way he usually did.

“Why don’t we split up for a bit, meet back here in an hour?” I suggested.

“No!” said Eliza. “We have to stay together. Well, those guys can take off.” She indicated James and Kendall with a dismissive wave. “But we are a cosplay group. We are basically one costume.”

I nodded. It was a nice try, I guess.

It’s going to be an awesome day, Camden had said, and I said it again to myself now. It would be awesome because I would make it awesome. The fact that everyone seemed on the verge of slapping one another had nothing to do with it.

Kendall turned to James. “Do you want to go off on our own, since we’re not part of ‘the costume’?”

“Yeah,” he said, looking relieved. “Let’s go. We’ll meet you guys at the cosplay panel later.”

As they walked away, Kendall gave me a quick, hopeful glance over her shoulder. I nodded. Go have fun.

Two girls came up to Camden and me. “It’s you guys! Satina and Azor!” squealed one.

“We loved your pictures,” chirped the other, who then ran her eyes slowly up and down Camden’s entire body. I found myself reaching out to grab his hand.

“Can we take pictures with you?” asked the first, and we nodded. She turned and handed her phone to the closest nearby person. Who was Eliza.

Eliza not looking happy.

“Can you . . . oh, it’s you!” the girl said. “I love your Atticus Marr! Really brilliant!”

Eliza smiled, but the girl still had her phone out, expecting Eliza to take it. She did, and after the girls posed with Camden and me, she dutifully took a couple of shots.

Then Camden said, “Here, let’s get Marr and Bram in here, too,” and beckoned Eliza and Max to join us. All of us huddled close with these two people we’d never met. We found a passing Bender from Futurama to snap the photo.

After the girls left, Eliza led us forward through the exhibit floor. The booths were supposed to be the whole point of the place, but clearly, the real action was in checking out everyone else’s costumes. Calling out a person’s character, stopping to compliment him or her. I thought of the way it felt that day in the parking lot at the lake, when we all found ourselves talking Arrowhead language. The sensation of being seen, of being welcomed back to a tribe you didn’t know you’d lost.

This was that, times a thousand.

At one point, Eliza was out of earshot and I turned to Max and Camden.

“Why is she being such a dictator?”

“She’s planned this day for six months,” said Max. “You know how important this stuff is to her. Although I know that doesn’t help when she’s making it so much less fun for the rest of us.”

Camden added, “Cosplay is the thing that helps her keep it all together.”