Category : Books-Fiction

Sub Category : YoungAdult

Marius’ mind was reeling. Less than five hours ago he had been setting up in the market, and now he was on a secret mission with a stranger to Brazil. Their mode of travel had been the same as before, with the Board giving them a slip of paper to transport them to their destination. The Board had freaked him out. Everyone there had seemed nice enough, except for Councilman Bradley. He kept staring at Jayanti in a way that had made Marius want to step in front of her just to block his gaze. Shuddering, Marius returned to the task at hand. Right now, they were at a local supermarket trying to pick up the provisions needed to blend in with the locals. According to Jayanti, if all went according to plan, then they would be in Brazil for approximately three weeks before returning home, hopefully to never see each other again. Marius was fine with that. If never seeing her again meant he was done with this wizard business, then he was all for it. As of right now, Jayanti was off in the clothing aisle trying to make them look like they belonged, and had assigned Marius to Food Duty. He didn’t know what she liked, so he got a bit of everything. A giant box of off-brand fruit snacks, cereal, lunchables, and a watermelon. Because why not? When he got back to the checkout line, he found Jayanti’s light brown face frowning. 
“What are those?” She asked, pointing to the giant box sticking out of his cart. 
“The fruit snacks?” Jayanti nodded, clearly confused. 
“Oh my god, you’ve never had fruit snacks before!”
“Well, no, but I bet you haven’t tried a lot of things either!” She said defensively. 
Marius was cracking up. This fifteen year old girl  hadn’t had fruit snacks! He bent down, hands on his knees, and when he stood up, his tanned face was flushed. 
“Here,” he said, breaking open the box, “try some.”
Jayanti looked violated. “Marius! You can’t do that. We’re in the middle of a store!” She hissed. 
“Oh calm down. We’ll pay for them at check out, all right?”
Jayanti considered this. “Fine. But only a little bit.”
Pleased, Marius opened the bag and handed some to Jayanti. When she tossed them into her mouth, her eyes widened, and Marius laughed. 
“Oh my god! How have I never had these before! They’re delicious.”
“So we can get them?”
“Yes, we can get them!” Happy, Marius returned to the cashier, apologizing for the open fruit snacks. 

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Marius soon found out that for the three weeks they were staying in Brazil, they would be residing in a small hotel room with one small twin bed and a red pull out couch with cigarette burns on it. Jayanti, of course, leapt for the bed when she saw the situation- leaving Marius with the impossibly uncomfortable pull out. For the first twenty minutes after arriving at the hotel, Jayanti was running around the room, using her hands to make different symbols, then literally disappearing into thin air for minutes at a time and coming back with bags of equipment and weapons strapped to her shoulders. Marius had not been assigned a task, so while she was doing this he grabbed some of his new clothes and headed for the shower.

When Marius got back,Jayanti was sitting on her bed reading a book. 
“So,” Marius said, rubbing his hands together, “what’s the game plan?”
Jayanti looked up. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, what are we here to do? Infiltrate one of those anti-Adrea things? Gather up magical children?”
“We are here to do whatever the Board says we do. Right now, they’re saying that we are just here for surveillance.”
“For surveillance? If i’m leaving my home for three weeks, I at least want it to be for something cool,” Marius grumbled. 
“Surveillance is better than nothing,” Jayanti checked her watch. “It’s pretty late. We should get some sleep.”
It’s only nine thirty, Marius thought, climbing into bed.“You’re right. Goodnight, Jayanti.”
“Goodnight, Marius.”
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