Sunflux: Friday Afternoon

She stared grimly down at the class roster. 20. The bare minimum for the class to stay registered, and therefore for her to be able to earn money by teaching it. 

There were only 19 young men and women sitting in the classroom. 

This was the 3rd consecutive class that A. Hobbs had missed. Meaning he was in danger of being dropped from the class list. 

‘He couldn’t wait two more weeks to skip class?’ 

She put the roster back down and focused on teaching English Lit 100, because for the moment at least it was her job. 

And, she determined, it was going to remain her job. Even if that meant she was going to have to hunt down that little asshole of a freshman and carry him to class enough that he didn’t get dropped from the roster.

She had only taught Hobbs four times, but she was pretty certain that she had seen him talking to D. Shultz. So she took a gamble and scribbled a “see me after class” note on a post it and put it in Shultz’s paper before she handed them back. 

When class ended, she waited near the whiteboard with a pleasant expression fixed on. Shultz sauntered over to her, holding the yellow note. 

“Ms. B?” he asked. “What’s up.” When he leaned forward, she got a face full of cologne. 

She coughed. “I wanted to ask if you know why Mr. Hobbs hasn’t been coming to class.” 

His face was blank for a moment. Then comprehension washed over. “Oh, Andrew.” His lip curled. “I... why do you ask me?” He dodged.

She felt her eyebrows raise. “I thought that you were dorm-mates. Was I wrong?” 

“Oh. Yeah, he’s down the hall.” Shultz shifter his weight from foot to foot. “But I don’t really know him.” 

“I see.” She allowed her time to seem a little disappointed. “I thought that you two were friendly.” 

“We’re chill, I just don't know the guy that well.” Shultz chewed his lip. His fingers tapped against the notebook he was holding, but it didn’t seem to be purposeful. “I haven’t seen him since the other day. Not around the dorm or dining hall or anything.” 

Oh. 

A frisson of concern shot through her. That didn’t sound like it was a regular case of skipping classes.

“When was the last time that you saw him?” 

Shultz looked cagey. “A party. Last Saturday, at one of the frat houses.” He started walking towards the door without breaking eye contact. “I didn’t stay that late, I don’t know what happened. If anything happened. He might have gone home.” 

There always were a few students who left early in their first year. But... 

“Did he collect his things?”

“Not yet.” Shultz was nearly at the door now. “I’m sorry, I don’t know much. I’ll see you next week.”

“Goodbye,” she said, feeling a frown come over.

She chewed over the possibilities on her walk home, essays heavy in her briefcase. She had an urge to throw something made of glass to watch it shatter. Instead, she tossed her briefcase on the table and sent a text to a number she only contacted on the shittiest of days. It was a desperation measure. 

It pinged back 3 minutes later with a meeting point. She zipped up her blue jacket and went back out the door. She only had to glance at the message from a person labeled only as “Fudge Friend” once to get her bearings. The other woman was already waiting, one booted foot kicked up against the cement wall. 

“You look pissed,” Fudge commented. She took an inhalation on her milkshake. It made the horrible sound of an empty straw desperately trying to suck up some liquid.

“Let’s go.” 

Fudge whistled and dropped the cup into her enormous purple bag. “Alright, alright.” 

She could hear Fudge close on her heels. She picked a direction at random and turned down a side street, scanning the building faces for the coffee chain she and Fudge went to together. 

This was the extent of their friendship. 

They never went to each other’s houses. They didn’t have friendly phone calls or conversation. What they did was agree to meet asap when the other person demanded it. And then they ate hideous amounts of sweets and complained, with no judgement. 

“Sunflux,” Fudge pointed out the sign. Her tone was dry. “Wow. You know, I’ve been down this street a hundred times and never seen this cafe before.”

“It’s amazing what you don’t notice when you’re not looking for it,” Kylie said tersely. She pulled open the door handle and was hit with a wave of warm air. 

Fudge click-clacked in behind her and let out a huffing laugh. “Look at those advertisements.” 

“They look fine to me.” Kylie held out a hand. “You save us seats, I’ll order.” 

“Sounds good.” Fudge handed over her wallet. “Large cafe latte, lots of sugar.” 

She got their orders- two cafe lattes, a tea, and 2 pieces of cake- and then heaved her tired body up the stairs to find Fudge. Fudge was looking at the advertisements with a frown line between her eyebrows. 

“Here you go.” 

Kylie put the trays down on the table and immediately began doctoring her latte with sugar. 

“The girls at that table are speaking Korean, I think,” Fudge commented. Her tone was airy. 

“It’s a free country.” She stirred the sugar in. 

“That’s written in Hangul, right?” Fudge indicated at a poster with her head.

“If you say so. Does it matter? A Sunflux is a Sunflux.” 

Fudge let out a sigh and dropped the topic. “What’s got you so upset?” 

Her jaw was really tense. She put the spoon down on the tray a little too loudly. “I think one of my stupid freshmen died of alcohol poisoning, or maybe got kidnapped. Something unimaginably dumb.” 

“Ah.” Fudge considered that. “And that has you upset?”

“If he misses two more days, he’ll be dropped from the class roster. And then the class won’t have the minimum of registered students. And I won’t get paid.” 

Fudge winced at that. “Fucking sucks.”

“It sucks,” Kylie agreed. She slurped down the excess of foam. She didn’t even like it. Why didn’t she just get a damn coffee.

“So you’re gonna have to like, find him?” Fudge asked. She picked up her fork and slid it into the tip of her chocolate cake. “Or force someone else to register. That seems easier.” 

“I thought of that.” Her tone was bitter. “We’re past the signup deadline.”

“Ah.” Fudge broke off a piece of cake and lifted it to her mouth. “Better hope he’s alive, I guess.” Then she popped the cake into her mouth and made a delighted little sound. 

Ugh. She slumped onto the table and considered her options. "I'm not a PI. I don't know how to find this kid," she complained. 

"Talk to his roommates, maybe his parents, see who knows anything." Fudge seemed to consider it. "Don't ask admin, you might need to lie in order to stretch out how long you have to find him."

"I have to hand in attendance records soon." Kylie grimaced. "If I claim he was in class and they find out he's dead or something, I will probably be in trouble."

Fudge pointed her fork at Kylie. "I know a half-decent necromancer, if you need," she offered. "He's kind of a creep, but it seems like a desperate situation."

"I hope that I don't need to go that far," Kylie said, thinking of her budget.  Necromancers were pricey. Buying magic always was. "But it's good to have the option. Can you text me his contact info? Of course, I'd have to find the kid one way or the other."

While she moped and mused, Fudge polished off her cake and latte and went off to the bathroom. Kylie was writing out a list of frathouses to begin trying to find out where Hobbs had last been seen when Fudge wandered back.

"It's one of the toilets where you can't flush the toilet paper."

"I hate those," Kylie said absently.

"Yeah, so. We need to run."

"Okay." She closed the notebook and stood as Fudge slid into her own seat. They made confuused eye contact.

"What did you think I said...?" Fudge asked. Her left eyebrow was all the way up, nearly buried in her dark brown bangs.

"We need to run," Kylie parroted back.

She snorted. "Jesus, what the fuck did you think I was doing to that toilet?" She picked up her tea. "No. I said "I forgot about this one." I meant that I forgot that I wasn't supposed to flush paper. But it didn't clog, so we don't need to flee the scene."

"Oh." Kylie sank back down. "That's good."

"Thanks for being ready to go, though." Fudge snickered. "I'm not doing anything here. I can't be on the run from the law in two countries."

She knew exactly what the other woman was trying to get her to admit. But Kylie hummed, playing dumb, dumb, dumb.

There was a long, aggressive silence.

"I know we're in Korea," Fudge sing-songed. "The fuck kind of magic do you have?"

Kylie sighed and rubbed at her forehead. "It's really not interesting," she said. Her tone came out a little more annoyed than was polite. 

"Humor me."

"I can just find doors to places that I want to go." She hoped the subject was closed.

Fudge seemed to think that over. "So... you have some kind of spacial manipulation or teleportation thing, and you use it to go to coffee shops? Bitch, all I have is the ability to sneeze on command. And I can make pizza go cold," she added as a disgusted afterthought. "You should use that power more. That's top tier shit."

"Fuck else would I use it for?" Kylie asked, honestly annoyed. She leveled the other woman with hard eye contact. "Please tell me if you have any good ideas."

Fudge was silent for a moment. "Nothing comes to mind," she admitted grudgingly. "But there's gotta be something better."

"Everyone is a critic," Kylie muttered. She opened her notebook again and scribbled down the final frathouse. "What do freshmen do?" she asked, trying to remember her own first year. She'd been hella serious and boring. So she honestly didn't have much to go off of. "Probably a lot of drinking and weed. Maybe he tried to join the frat he was at and died in one of their initiations. Maybe he owes someone a ton of money and got knocked off."

"Ooo, or maybe he gave up and went home," Fudge suggested. She fiddled with the heavy mug of tea in her hands. "They tend to either cling to their dormmates or give up and go home where they already know people. It's hard for some people to start over again socially."

"That's true," Kylie said, writing, 'busy doing weed? drunk too much and died? fleeing debt? ran home?' in her notebook. "Thanks, I appreciate it. I was just so annoyed that I couldn't think straight."

"Don't worry about it. I don't mind." 

And then Fudge dropped her tea onto the table. Ice and pinkish water flew everywhere.

Kylie blinked droplets of tea out of her eyelashes. 

The cafe was dead silent. All the other customers were staring at them. Fudge was looking at her tea cup with a betrayed expression.

Kylie sighed. She pushed her chair back, put her notebook down out of the way, and went over to grab a pile of napkins. Other people started talking again gradually as she began cleaning the spill up. There was even tea on the floor on both sides of the table. She honestly didn't have anywhere near enough napkins to get it all cleaned up. 

"I guess now it's time to run." Fudge grimaced. "Let's go."

"It's just not gonna be a good day," Kylie agreed. "Thanks for meeting and listening." They put the trays away and trooped down the stairs. The windows and glass door showed a busy night street lined with cosmetics stores and a blue bus decorated with blinking lights. They opened the door and stepped out into a cloudy day in North America. The alley was dingy and small. There was no Sunflux sign.

She shoved her hands into her pockets. It was Friday night. She had to find that kid before the weekend ended, and somehow find time to grade all those papers.

"Good luck," Fudge said, and then she was gone. Kylie stalked back to campus, grimly determined. It was going to get dark within an hour or so, but that didn't make any difference to her.

Dead or alive, that little fucker was coming to Literature class at 10:30 am on Monday morning.