“I will,” I’d said, even though Alden was not the leader of this little trip, no matter what he thought. He might be older than me by a couple of years, but he wasn’t the boss of me, and as for having a good head on his shoulders, that remained to be seen. Good at a card game did not automatically translate into real-world street smarts as I had so rudely found out in the past year. And listen to him? Him with his big opinions and his low assumptions? Ha.
Jasper was exiting his older sister’s Bug when I arrived at the house. He’d bummed a ride from her because he hadn’t wanted to leave his car at Professor Tuttle’s house. Alden was already there, waiting by Professor Tuttle’s car. And yeah, the professor kept pushing for us to call him Gus, but old habits died hard. I kept thinking of Maxine as Professor Jackson half the time, even now. And it was still Professor Herrera to me, not Julio. Julio was a buddy you played cards and drank with on a Saturday night, not this stately older gentleman crossing the lawn, holding out a fat envelope of cash.
He was fully dressed in what looked to be churchgoing clothes—button-down shirt, tie, pressed pants. He and Professor Tuttle were regulars at some sort of inclusive church downtown, the sort of “welcoming” congregation that went against most of what I’d thought I’d known about religion before arriving at Gracehaven for school. And they must have been pretty darn tolerant, given the professor’s obsession with a card game where we regularly summoned demons to journey through the underworld with us. I had to smile at that thought as I sped up to meet Professor Herrera partway. My parents’ church wasn’t nearly so cool.
Oh well. I’d long ago stopped caring what any church thought of me or what I did. But, still, it was nice of Professor Herrera to see us off. Nicer still for the gas money, which would make my own limited funds go further.
“Thank you, sir.” I took the money. The car had a locking glove box, so I placed the money there before Alden could suggest that he take possession of it. Last thing I wanted was him doling out funds like Jasper and I were his wayward charges. “We’ll take good care of Black Jack, I promise.”
“I know you will. Gus thinks the world of you guys. And you flooding him with messages and photos and videos will be exactly what he needs.”
“Let’s start now.” Jasper whipped out his phone and had Professor Herrera take a picture of the three of us by the car. I glanced at the picture before he hit Send—Jasper looked sleepy but excited with a wide smile, while Alden had a suspicious tilt to his firm jaw and narrowed eyes. I was in the middle between them, closer to Jasper, taller than both, warier than Jasper but less apprehensive than Alden. If this was the before picture, I could only hope the after when we arrived in Vegas wouldn’t show us battle-worn and bloody.
“Who’s driving first?” Professor Herrera held out the keys, which were on a ring with a twenty-sided die key chain and another with the logo for the Gamer Grandpa show.
No one rushed to answer, so I took the keys. “I am.”
“I suppose that works.” Alden could say he wasn’t nervous about driving until he turned purple, and I still wasn’t going to believe him. The car intimidated him. It did me, too, but I was determined to not show it as I slid behind the wheel.
“Shotgun,” Jasper called, which left Alden to ride behind us. First, he gave Professor Herrera a little basket of muffins. Like, not even a plastic container or bag like normal people. A basket, as if it wasn’t enough that his moms had brilliant medical minds, but they also had to have mad domestic skills. At least he had the decency to blush, as though he knew how absurdly perfect his family was.
“We can have ours when we stop for gas,” he said primly. “No eating in the car.”
I sighed because I had a feeling this was the first of many decrees from Alden that I’d have to ignore.
“It cleans.” Professor Herrera laughed, but Alden didn’t. “Drive safe. Text Gus often.”
“We will,” I said before I closed the door. Backing out with him watching us made my neck prickle and my hands tense, and I waited until we were safely clear of the house to say to Jasper, “Can you call up GPS on your phone?”
“I took the liberty of printing maps as a backup as well as copies of our itinerary and scheduled stops,” Alden spoke up before Jasper could answer.
“Thank you.” I worked for a civil tone, as that was helpful even if the subtext was that we were both too stupid to think of such things.