Daddy's Girl: Cape High Book Five by R.J. Ross Page B

"We've got an anime marathon to start!"
    Ditto grins at me and holds up her toy so I can see it.  "Ditto," she says, as if that explains the blob.
    "Yeah, I sortta figured you were."
    "No, this is Ditto, too," she says.
    "Right."  Makes perfect sense.  Not.
    "Morgan!  Come sit with me, we're going to start the first movie!" Aubrey calls, waving me over.  "I got popcorn!"
     
    ***
     
    I have cheesy music stuck in my head and I'm surrounded by sleeping girls and Liz.  Liz is just as bad as a teenage girl, I've found out.  She likes cartoons, eats way too much junk food, and does prank calls in the worst possible way.  Like she called Taurus at one in the morning so Aubrey, Emily and I could sneak into his room while they were on the phone and raid his fridge--then she complained to him when we came back empty handed (because his fridge was empty).  Basically, I'm pretty sure she's crazy.  But fun.  That was definitely fun.  I'm glad, since I was sort of worried about Aubrey living with a stranger.  But now it's three in the morning , my mouth tastes strange, and I am so exhausted it's not even funny, but I've got work to do.
    I slip out from under my blanket and look around, certain that one or all of them will hear me, and walk as silently as I can to the front door, almost having a heart attack when the doorknob squeaks slightly.  I glance back, but no one's moved, so I slip through the door and into the hall.  I head for the stairs, careful to step slowly, testing for creaks with each step.  This place is old, you know?  Even with tiles on the floor it could be creaky.  I'm forgetting something...
    Oh, right, to breathe.
    The stairs.  I let out a sigh of relief that the door to the stairs is propped open and head in, still moving as silently as I can.  I wish I could fly.  If I could fly this would be so much easier, and less stressful.  When I get to the top floor I take a moment to lean against the wall and take a deep breath in.  Almost there.  It's just a little down the hall and to the right.  I can do it.  I don't hear the poker game going on, so hopefully it's already over and everyone's gone to bed.
    Creep, creep, creep, more creeping, there, I'm at the door.  I reach up, my hand brushing the knob briefly .  The door swings open.  I let out a sigh of relief--too soon.  The moment I look into the room I see Nico sitting at the table on the computer monitor side, his feet kicked up on it as he watches all the various monitors.  I can see a pointer moving in a different way on each screen, but his hands are propped on his stomach as if he were watching a football game.
    I can't do it.  I absolutely can't do it.  I slide to the ground next to the door and try and come to grips with the fact that I'm going to fail.  I'm going to fail and maybe it'll be a good thing--
    Sound starts.  I turn, daring to peek into the room and see what's on the computer monitor.  It looks like a youtube video, with a heavyset guy on the screen.  "Look, we've all seen the press release about Technico," the guy says.  "But they didn't go nearly deep enough.  I've been doing research on this since I was a kid--Technico is--"
    I can't listen to this now, I need to take advantage of the big mouth!  I get on my hands and knees and crawl into the room, unconsciously listening to the video even as I try and pass the back of Nico's chair undetected.  "Look, there aren't any technopaths other than Technico around right now, so most people won't know this, but Technico isn't just your run-of-the mill technopath!  Most technopaths can't fly, they aren't buff, either, and that he's Firefly's brother?  I'm thinking he's related to one of the big names--no, the BIGGEST name.  I think he's related to Superior, maybe a long lost nephew or cousin or whatever, but look at these pictures--"
    I can't see the pictures.  I turn my head and look, only seeing a quick glance of cape before the pictures are put down again.