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WD - Chapter 198: Follow the track
🕑 Added 2025-01-19 18:25:57 +0000 UTCLuke was traveling in Simon's dirty truck to Violet's house.
After finishing the school day, Simon drove them there. Both he and Kate were surprised that Violet had managed to convince Tuesday to go to her house.
On top of that, her parents were at work, and Josh (her brother) was at the school club, so they were alone.
“Incredible... If Sam finds out that a girl like that is at Violet’s house, he’s going to regret letting her go,” Simon said enviously as he watched Tuesday walk into the house.
“Yeah… Do you think Tuesday is a lesbian?” Kate asked, equally surprised and envious, since she also wanted to go inside, but Violet had told them they needed to study.
“My heart says no because... come on, look at her. It’s like someone sculpted perfection into a person. It’s hard to believe that a girl like her wouldn’t be interested in us, men. But…” Simon replied, pausing dramatically as he glanced sideways at Kate, who was waiting with evident curiosity. “My brain says yes.”
Kate raised an eyebrow. “And why’s that?”
Simon scratched his head, as if searching for the right words to explain his reasoning. “Look, it’s not just that she’s gorgeous. It’s the way she acts. Didn’t you notice? She looks at guys like they’re a nuisance. When someone tries to compliment her or get close, she gets distant, cold... almost like compliments make her cringe.”
Simon had noticed this over the days. He was very observant, especially when it came to Tuesday, a goddess who had descended to earth and arrived in their boring town.
“Now that you mention it…” Kate murmured, recalling Tuesday’s gestures at school.
“And besides, she dresses... I don’t know, unisex, right? Neither fully feminine nor masculine. It’s like she doesn’t care at all about attracting guys. And not just that—there’s this aloof attitude, like she’s above all of us, especially men. It’s like she looks down on us.” Simon sighed again, leaning his head against the seatback. “If that doesn’t scream ‘lesbian,’ I don’t know what does.”
“Is your heart still clinging to hope?” Kate asked, looking at him with amusement.
“Yeah. It’s a shame, but at least if she’s a lesbian, I’ve got no chance. So… well, it hurts less, I guess,” Simon replied, throwing his hands up in resignation.
Kate raised an eyebrow and looked at him with a mix of disbelief and amusement. “Wait... Did you really think you’d have a chance with her, even if she weren’t a lesbian?”
Simon opened his mouth to answer but immediately closed it.
“And what about you? Are you happy she’s a lesbian?” Simon asked, deflecting the question.
“What? No, of course not. Why do you ask?” Kate replied, caught off guard.
"I don't know, it's just that your reactions have seemed strange to me lately. You get a little nervous when she's around. And if she's a lesbian and you suddenly start acting weird too, well… I don't know, it makes me think things," Simon said, smiling mischievously.
Kate huffed and turned her gaze toward the window, clearly uncomfortable. "It's not that, idiot. It's just... I don’t know how to explain it. There’s something about the way she carries herself. Something about her presence, her confidence, plus the clothes she wears—it gives me very masculine vibes..." she said.
"Masculine vibes?" Simon repeated, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah... that's why it's weird," Kate said, trying to find the right words while frowning. "Look, her appearance is like... I don’t know, like a princess or a benevolent goddess. You know, the kind of beauty that’s supposed to feel warm and kind."
"Go on," Simon said, nodding slowly, recalling the time Tuesday apologized to Professor Memphis on the first day. That warm and kind personality seemed perfect for her appearance. But it was just a façade.
"But then there’s her personality. She has this... this aura that intimidates you, but not because she’s rude or aggressive—it’s because she always seems one step ahead of everyone. That’s why all the popular girls didn’t even try anything against her," Kate continued.
"Like a tough guy, but with the face of an angel?" Simon asked, trying to summarize.
"Ugh… if you want to put it that way, then yes, Simon," Kate said.
"So, Tuesday is like one of those gorgeous female bosses in video games—intimidating and seems to know all your moves before you make them," Simon said, smiling slightly.
"Yeah, something like that. It’s hard to explain, okay? You don’t get it because you’re just thinking about how pretty she is, like all the other guys who only think with their dicks," Kate said.
Laughing Simon started the truck and pressed the gas pedal, leaving Violet’s house behind in seconds.
…
"Sorry about the mess. I didn’t clean this week…" Violet said as she picked up a pile of dirty clothes from the floor and hastily stuffed them into the closet before quickly shutting the doors.
Luke, unfazed, sat calmly on the unmade bed. "It’s no big deal," he said with a shrug.
"I'm the same way, unlike my perfectionist sister," he added with a slight grimace, recalling Wednesday and her obsession with order.
If he wanted to sleep in the same room as Wednesday, he had to be tidy—unlike when he shared a room with Xavier.
Wednesday didn’t tolerate even a single wrinkled piece of clothing on the floor or a book out of place. Even the slightest hint of disorder was enough to earn a cold stare from her that made Luke reconsider his life choices.
But Luke had decided to adapt. Sharing a room and sleeping next to his attractive gothic girlfriend was infinitely more valuable than the freedom to be messy.
Now he was tidy, thanks to Wednesday.
"Your sister? You don’t talk much about her or to her," Violet commented casually as she threw some papers into an overflowing trash can.
"Not really… we have our differences," Luke replied lazily, staring at his hands. He still wasn’t entirely used to his delicate and beautiful feminine hands.
Violet fell silent for a moment as she watched Tuesday. There was something almost hypnotic about the way she stared absentmindedly at her hands. It was like she had stepped out of a classical painting.
"You know? Sometimes you look like you came straight out of a painting…" Violet murmured, her voice barely audible as her gaze seemed to lose itself in Tuesday without her realizing.
'What is she saying all of a sudden?' Luke wondered, raising an eyebrow as he looked at Violet.
"A painting? I’ve heard that before," Luke said dryly, recalling Natasha’s comment.
It was incredibly annoying to have this appearance. At first, it had been amusing for his ego and for manipulating people, but now it had become an irritating burden.
A burden because everyone seemed to be spellbound, looking at him with a mix of fascination and confusion, throwing comments about his "perfection" as if he were some kind of living work of art.
At first, seeing those reactions had been entertaining and ego-boosting, but for someone like Luke, the amusement wore off quickly.
Violet quickly changed the subject when she noticed Tuesday didn’t seem thrilled to discuss how "perfect" she was.
She quickly opened her laptop, typed in the password, and looked at Tuesday. "You can work here. It’ll be easier to type, and then we can print the sheets and hand them to old Memphis," Violet said.
‘The research must be in there… if she hasn’t deleted it,’ Luke thought as he stood and approached the laptop.
Violet, who was about to get up to give her seat to Tuesday, froze when she saw Tuesday’s delicate fingers pointing at her head. Before she could say anything, she felt an overwhelming drowsiness wash over her. Her eyes closed, and she fell asleep.
'Sleep,' Luke thought, as Violet fell forward asleep. He caught her and easily placed her on the bed.
Without wasting any time, he began searching for the file with the research Violet had done over the summer. Just like the room, Violet's desk on her laptop was a mess, with many programs, files, and folders scattered all over the screen.
It took him about ten minutes until he finally found a file named: investigation_summer2022.
'Yes, she didn’t delete it!' Luke thought happily. If Violet had deleted it, he would have had to read her memories and organize all the facts. Instead, reading the file and recalling it with his eidetic memory was much easier.
It made sense she hadn’t deleted what she wrote over the summer, no matter how much it had been a failure in the end. Everyone would be reluctant to erase a project they'd dedicated so much time to.
Luke spent 20 minutes reading the research completely.
"It’s actually strange..." Luke murmured, resting a hand on his chin.
It was odd that every year, people leave Shadyside and abandon the town with barely a goodbye to the neighbors. Why would they do that? A boring town?
If the reason was as simple as that, the thousands of towns similar to Shadyside would do the same, and soon they'd be deserted with everyone living in the big cities.
Why didn’t this happen in Jericho? It was a town similar to Shadyside, with a little over 10,000 inhabitants—double that of Shadyside.
Why didn’t this happen in the neighboring town of Sunnyvale? They were neighboring towns, and Sunnyvale had a size similar to Jericho.
Unlike Shadyside, these two towns were growing in population, rather than decreasing and having an exodus larger than the number of people staying.
Violet came to these conclusions, but since there didn’t seem to be any conspiracy or crime, and everyone seemed to accept the idea that people left Shadyside because it was a boring little town, she ended up accepting that idea.
But Luke knew that there were people with powers in this world, like him. Which made a conspiracy much more likely.
'Shadyside Realty...' Luke thought, his next destination in mind.
This was the real estate company that handles the houses left behind by the people of Shadyside who abandon the town. They acquire the houses as investments or to rent them out—they must know something or be involved in some shady business.
Luke closed the research file, and before waking Violet up, he modified her memories so that she would forget that Tuesday pointed at her strangely with her fingers and made her lose consciousness.
When Violet woke up, she did so naturally, making her think that she had never actually lost consciousness or fallen asleep.
Luke had spent an hour working, completing more than 60% of the homework. Seeing the time, he still had time to visit the real estate office. He quickly said goodbye to Violet, who wanted to accompany him to his house, but Luke refused.
‘She really wanted to make amends for her mistake...’ Violet thought, watching Tuesday’s back as she walked away. She worked diligently and a large part of the work was completed.
