"Damn it," I muttered, pulling my sword out of another monster. I knew the blood would just dry quickly so I put it back into its sheath without wiping it. Brushing the dirt off my jeans, I turned around to check on RenRen, holding his scooter and keeping his distance like I told him to while I fought off the monster.

"Watch your fucking language," He scolded. I frowned. He held his hands out. "Oh my god, Ana, I was kidding."

"Yeah, okay. What do we tell your mom about that?" I pointed to his scraped forehead. "That you fell on your scooter?"

"I'm good on my scooter."

"Fine," I shrugged. "You fell off my bike, then."

"Can we go to McDonald's now?"

"Why? You hungry?" I smirked. He lightly hit my shoulder and started to ride off on his scooter, leaving me behind. The half-weasel-half-snake was already starting to disintegrate and RenRen had pushed it behind a trashcan, so I thought it would be fine.

"Hey! Hoy, walang unahan!" ("No going ahead!")

And so we rode away from the back of the convenience store where I had to fight off another monster. They were tiring to fight and not to mention it hurt when I got home. As in, sore muscles that ached when I stood up kind of hurt. I was still trying to practice with the sword, and it was heavy. I had to swing it around and do stunts and push things away while keeping an eye on a monster to avoid getting my face bitten off.

I wish I had tied my hair back before leaving. I wasn't comfortable with the feeling of it so loose in the wind our way to McDonald's; I always had a fear of someone just grabbing it and pulling it back. And as someone who has that done to them by this kid in first grade, it doesn't do your neck well.

Laurence skidded to a halt when we arrived at the fast food restaurant. He pointed to an empty space in the parking lot. "Put your bike there."

"Here?"

"Yeah."

"You first."

"No, you."

"No, me." Elize came into view with Mia behind her. They greeted us as we put my bike and their scooters in their places. It was exactly 3:45, an oddly satisfying occurrence. The air was hot and dry and I couldn't wait to get inside the cold place.

I grinned, seeing Elize. "Hi."

She held my hand as we went up to the second floor. It was quite late in the afternoon, nearing nighttime, so not many people were there. Some who were probably having their late snack sat at tables, either on their phones sipping drinks or focused on their meal. The bright room and glass walls added to the cheerful feeling, but I frowned at the thought of Aerron scowling at me when we got to our table.

Aerron was not at our table. He wasn't at McDonald's at all.

"He's...wow." Mia shrugged and claimed a table by the window for us.

"He schedules things then shows up late, what a good role model," RenRen muttered.

Elize chuckled, blowing a strand of hair away from her face. "Come," she said, pulling my hand to get me to sit beside her. Mia and RenRen sat a seat away from each other, with Elize and Mia claiming the window side. Elize removed her small black backpack and hugged it, letting go of my hand.

"So what happened to that?" She pointed at RenRen with her eyes.

"We got attacked again," He said. "Near the 7-11."

"Behind it, actually." I fiddled with the belt hooks of my jeans. "Half weasel, half snake."

Mia scoffed. "That sounds like a weak combo."

"Weasels are kind of like furry snakes, though," Elize noted. I laughed as she said it.

"Furry snakes. Weird," RenRen said. "And," he glared at Mia while she rolled her eyes at him, "It's not a weak combo. They're both very flexible and agile and—" He stopped, hearing his cellphone ring. Hesitating for a moment, he pulled it out, pressed a button and held it to his ear.

"Who's that?" Mia asked, but I shushed her.

"You?" Laurence snapped.

Elize turned to me and whispered, "May ex ba siya?" ("Does he have an ex?")

I bumped her shoulder, holding back laughter.

"We're—no," RenRen stuttered. "Second floor, obviously. Like you said. Yes, you did say something! Where else would be safer? Wha—just come up already!"

Philip's head popped into the room, hand around the doorframe. He glanced behind him and nodded as if to confirm that we were there and then disappeared again.

"Okay..." I said, looking down and frowning, then laughing at how Elize looked at me.

"What was that all about?" Mia asked, looking disturbed.

"Let's go, get inside, we're already late!" Philip whined, coming through the door, pulling a grumbling Aerron along. Aerron made a sst sound at me and pointed at my itak, which was a signal for me to put it on the floor and hide it behind Elize's bag. He was dressed in basketball shorts and of course, his beloved hoodie and Philip in a polo shirt and jeans.

It always amused me how normal we acted and dressed when we were fighting things that didn't even show up on the internet when you try to do research.

Aerron probably expected RenRen to move, since there was one last free chair on their side of the table, but he didn't and Philip nudged him to go sit down. Aerron's eyes flitted over to Elize, and he waved, cracking a smile.

Elize looked away beside me, and I grinned cheekily, giving her a look. She smacked my arm and gestured to Philip sitting beside me. The silence was unbearable and I couldn't stop thinking of what RenRen said earlier and the possibility of him getting hungry but being too shy to ask for food. When you're two introverts as best friends, you get to know each other and your tendency to keep quiet when you have to speak up.

"Great, another day with her." Aerron scanned me from right across the table.

I smiled. "And I'm gonna make that your problem."

"I—"

"We're meeting them at Circle Park, right?" Elize asked. Then her innocent expression turned into a stern one. "Stop arguing na."

I shut up, bit my lip, and let Elize and Philip talk. Which was uncomfortable, since I sat between them. "Yes, Circle Park," Philip said. "We answer their questions properly. We don't know who they are or if they're really peculiars."

Elize scrunched up her nose. "How do we know what questions they'll ask?"

"Probably the basics."

"Where we live, how old we are?"

Philip shook his head, cracking a smile. "Nah, they're 20-ish like Mia said. And—"

"And they acted mature," Mia chimed in from beside Aerron.

Philip nodded, saying, "So if they act like we expect them to, they won't try to seem creepy."

"So what other questions will they ask?"

"Well, I don't know."

Silence fell between them.

I raised my hand. "We have to at least be prepared. Try something else."

"Try something else?" Aerron asked. "Are we troubleshooting a computer?"

I opened my mouth but Elize put her arm in front of me. "Do you have any ideas?"

I leaned back, amused. That was rare. Elize raising her voice and being her feisty self around Aerron? Rare.

"Why don't we..." Philip mumbled something under his breath. "Like algebra."

"Ew, math," Elize complained.

Philip huffed. "I'm not saying we'll have to use numbers, it's just—" he sighed and pressed his palm to his forehead. "Does anyone have a pen?"

I pulled out mine from my bag and handed it over.

Aerron put a notebook on the table almost as if they practiced this. "Thanks," Philip smiled. My face felt hot and I looked away.

"I don't really know how to explain it properly," he said, turning to a clean page and writing numbers down, "But it's like this. We have to be the two." He turned the notebook around so it was facing away from him, and we all leaned forward to read what he wrote.

"Science, page 120 to 122, parts of a microscope?" RenRen read aloud. Aerron quickly took the worn out notebook and folded it in half so the page Philip wrote on could be seen.

Mia smacked the back of my best friend's head. "No. The equation, dipshit."

"Ow!"

I frowned. "Mia, don't do that."

5 = x + 2, Philip had written. Oh. I understood that. Maybe he meant that we just had to review what we already have so we know what to answer. If they asked us questions. There were still a million other things Millard and Beatrice could do to us at Circle park. What if they were bad? What if they brought the monsters with them?

Millard wasn't like that, though. He sides with Jacob and Miss Peregrine. We could trust him. But what about that Beatrice girl?

My thoughts were interrupted by Elize sitting back down and saying, "So...so we just...what?"

I chuckled and patted her back. "I think what he means is that we say everything we know so we won't be unprepared later. Right?" I asked Philip.

"Say everything we know now," Mia added. Then she shook her head. "This sounds like us planning a roleplay for English, dear God."

"So not age, family, birthplace, full name," I listed down aloud.

Aerron smacked my hand with the notebook, stuffing it back in his bag. "We're not making a Facebook profile, Diana."

"I said not! Fucking..."

"What did you say?"

"Pangit ka daw." ("You're ugly.")

Mia interrupted by yelling, "ALRIGHT! We started fighting them in December, we know how to use blades and we're self-taught, we 100% did not make the monsters, obviously, but we know a few things about them through, you know, observations and several attacks and we wrote them down in Aerron's notebook—"

"We wrote them down in our notebook—"

"Whatever. We're self-taught, self-aware, self-defensing, self—self-defending, I mean, and no one else knows we're fighting the monsters except for us. Get it?" She asked.

"That was a lot to say for a little girl like you."

"Aerron, I will pick up this chair and make you eat it."

Philip pouted. "Mia, please don't."

Elize just kept laughing at their conversation while RenRen looked disappointed. I was...well, somewhere in between. I sighed, shaking my head and smiling. "Yes, we get it. Don't we?" I looked pointedly at everyone. Laurence nodded, Aerron muttered a "yes" and the rest followed.

"Okay," I said, crossing my arms. "Now I think you're hungry. I have money, we can eat here. Also I think it's an offense to stay here but not eat."

Philip nodded. "Right, um..." he glanced at Aerron. They exchanged a look, and I wondered what that was about. No, really, they were looking at each other for a long time. Oh my God, they're psychics!

"Is anyone gonna say something...?" Mia trailed off, tapping her fingers on the table.

Suddenly Elize stood up, kicking her chair back and tugging on my arm. "Let's go order food."

I leaned away from her. "W-what? No, I'll stay here."

She pursed her lips. "Okay, then I'll go with Mia."

Mia shot out of her chair and sprinted to the stairs with Elize following. I awkwardly glanced at RenRen as Philip left to join the girls.

Loud, deep voices came out of nowhere, sounding like they were coming up the stairs. I wouldn't have mentioned them if I didn't care, but Aerron looked up from his phone and tensed up, eyes darting from me to Laurence. "Hide," he said.