A day had passed since the incident at Banana Man’s Banana Land. What Pim had said was still echoing in the back of Nora’s mind.
“I’ll have my revenge on you, just you wait & see!!”
Nora highly doubted it, & yet the thought kept lingering in her mind.
She shook the thought out of her head as she pulled up to the airport parking lot. Her sibling, Sorrel, was coming back from college in California. Nora had offered them to stay in her apartment for the time being, since she knew Mom & Dad probably wouldn’t let them stay at home.
The only issue she would have is figuring out how to tell Sorrel she was a magical hero now. Maybe she just wouldn’t tell them at all, & have them find out on their own. She certainly wasn’t going to tell them in the middle of the airport.
Nora decided it’d be best to tell Sorrel when she’s ready.
Entering the airport, Nora started looking around for Sorrel. Airports are pretty busy most of the time, so Nora suspected she would have a hard time locating her sibling.
Her suspicion was wrong, though, because she had spotted Sorrel almost instantly. It was kind of hard not to spot Sorrel, honestly. Who else would be wearing an orange tank top in the middle of January?
“Sorrel!” Nora waved. “Over here!!”
Sorrel looked over at Nora. “Nora!” they smiled, running up to Nora & embracing her. “Oh, it’s been so long! How’s my favorite little sister doing?”
“I’m your only little sister,” Nora chuckled.
“That’s why you’re my favorite! How’ve you been?”
“Oh, y’know.. fine. Cincinnati’s been as normal as ever.”
“& that’s to say.. not normal?” Sorrel raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah. Some guy was trying to take over capitalism yesterday.” Nora said, purposefully omitting the part about how the guy trying to take over capitalism is a banana, & that Nora & her friends had to become magical heroes to defeat him.
“You can’t take over capitalism!” Sorrel laughed.
“That’s what Cherry was saying!”
As the two of them talked, they walked back to Nora’s car & hopped inside.
“I’m sure that flight wore you out, huh?”
“It was only 4 hours, Nora. I’ll live.”
Sorrel’s stomach growled.
“..I could use some food, though.”
How about I call up the others & we all meet up at that Subway you like?”
“Ooh! Hell yeah!”
-
“Welcome to Subway! How may I help you today?”
Nora, Sorrel, & everyone else was at Subway, ordering their sandwiches. Cherry ordered the Meatball Marinara, Nora ordered the Steak & Cheese, Leslie ordered the Italian B.M.T, both Juniper & Kalani ordered the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki, & Sorrel got a Roast Beef. Kalani paid for everyone’s sandwiches as they all went to sit down at a booth.
“Feels great to be back in ol’ Cincinnati,” Sorrel said, taking a bite out of their Roast Beef.
“Well, you haven’t missed much.” Cherry said. “Just been the same as always.”
“Nora did tell me there was some guy who tried to ‘take over capitalism’ yesterday-”
Everyone looked at Nora.
“-which I presume is the outlier here in how uninteresting Cincinnati has been lately.”
“Yup! That’s the only weird thing that has happened here. Nothing out of the ordinary.. besides that.”
“Well, that’s good to know. Enough about the city, though. How have you five been since I left?”
“Uh..”
It appears there’s a mutual agreement to not tell Sorrel about the, uh.. magic stuff.
“We’ve been.. normal.”
“That’s good to hear,” Sorrel nodded, taking the last bite out of their sandwich. “I’ve.. actually gotta go use the bathroom real quick. Be right back!”
Sorrel got up from their seat & went over to the bathroom, leaving the group alone. Everyone turned to look at Nora.
“You told them about the banana guy?!”
“I didn’t TELL them about the banana guy! I off-handedly mentioned that there was a guy who tried to take over capitalism! Bananas & magic were not topics that were brought up at all.”
“Listen, Nora. Do you know what’ll happen if people find out about the.. magic thing?”
“Uh.. best case scenario, they don’t believe us?”
“Yea, it’s not like we’re famous or anything. If we were, say, a semi-famous rock band, then it’d be more of a big deal.”
“Ok, whatever, but still. We should still try to keep our lips zipped about the magic stuff.”
“Wuzzat about magic?”
The group jumped (not literally), turning to see who was there, because it didn’t sound like Sorrel. There was a person, around 6 feet tall, & they wore a purple tophat along with a purple suit. Their skin was a light blue, & their eyes were pure white, which the group just assumed was face-paint & contacts respectively.
AH! Who are you?”
“I am known as The A-”
“Why do you look like The Onceler?”
“Wha-”
“Yea, you’re just the Onceler, but purple.”
“I don’t-”
“Yeah, I can kind of see it-”
“WILL YOU LET ME FINISH?!”
The person cleared their throat. “Apologies! As I was saying.. I am The Auctioneer!”
“Uh-huh. Why are you talking to us?”
“Well, I just so happened to be passing by, & saw you five! & I thought, ‘Oh, well these 5 people are absolutely exquisite! They simply must visit the Auction House!’” The Auctioneer grinned, pulling out some business cards & placing them on the table. “Howsabout you all come in someday? We have free refreshments!”
The group got a better look at the business cards. They were a lavender color, & it had purple text on it that read “The Auction House!: The Best Auction House In Cincinnati!” Below this text was smaller text that included an address to The Auction House & a phone number.
After looking at the card for a moment, the group looked back up at The Auctioneer.
“We’d love to visit, but.. we’re just college kids. We can’t use all our money to bid on things.” Nora said.
In response to this, The Auctioneer simply laughed. “Ohoho, that’s HILARIOUS! You’re funny, you know!”
It was silent for a few seconds.
“Oh, you’re.. serious?” The Auctioneer asked.
Nora nodded.
The Auctioneer paused & thought for a moment or two. “Well, alrighty then! That’s a-ok!”
He took a bow. “I do hope you all reconsider, but for now.. farewell!”
With that, The Auctioneer left the Subway as the group glanced at each other.
“What was that about?”
“Hell if I know.”
The bathroom door swung open as Sorrel exited it, approaching the Subway booth again.
“Alright, I’m back! What’d I miss?”
“Oh, some weird dude tried to get us to come to their auction house or whatever.”
“Huh. Creepy.”
Sorrel stretched their arms. “Oh well. I’ve got some stuff to unpack at Nora’s place.”
“You’re moving in with her?”
“It’s temporary,” Nora said, taking a bite out of her sub. “Just until Sorrel finds a place.”
“Do you know how long it takes to find somewhere to live?”
“It’ll be fine. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Nobody responded to this, because there were too many “worst things” that could happen in this scenario.
“Well, we best be heading off now,” Sorrel nodded. “Take care, you four.”