Chapter 210: Book 3 Chapter 42: The New Kids

Though there were still classes and tests on graduation day, they were far more spaced out, giving underclassmen plenty of time to relax while seniors scrambled to finish packing and preparing for the big day. The underclassmen loopers made use of that spare time to sit down and enjoy a brief reprieve from their hectic end-of-year schedules.

“You know, no offense to Vell, or, uh, you guys,” Samson said. “But I really don’t know how we’re going to get by without Lee and Harley around.”

“Eh, don’t worry about it,” Kim said. “I know Vell gets all weird about being in charge, but he always comes through in the end. He’ll be a good boss.”

“Okay. Then what about when he leaves?”

“Oh, then we’re fucked,” Kim said. “I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“I’m right here,” Hawke said.

“You have no idea what you’re doing either!”

“Yeah, but you could have at least faked it in front of the new guy,” Hawke said.

“We’ve got a whole year to get our shit together,” Kim said. “We’ll manage.”

A few seniors walked by, hauling the disassembled wreckage of some kind of ray gun. Samson actually recognized it. That beam had made everyone on campus grow a third leg exactly three months ago. He sincerely hoped it stayed disassembled.

“You know, if you two don’t feel up to it, maybe I could be in charge,” Samson suggested. All things considered, he’d done a pretty decent job his first year -occasional incidents of assholishness aside. Kim and Hawke shared a quick glance.

“Let’s see what happens next year,” Kim said. “We haven’t even lost the seniors yet.”

Lee and Harley were currently racing through their own end of year prep, with some help from Vell. The three underclassmen had lent a hand as well before their own responsibilities had pulled them away, and now no more help was needed. The fact they had nothing to do really drove the sense of finality home.

“No matter how we get by, I’m going to miss those guys,” Samson said.

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“Yeah yeah, don’t dwell on it, you’ll only make it worse,” Kim advised. “Just try looking on the bright side.”

Samson tried it. He turned the situation over in his head several times and found that every side was dark.

“No, I’m struggling here,” Samson said. “We’re losing Lee and Harley.”

“And Harley’s robotics friends,” Hawke said. As much as Sarah unnerved him, she was very useful to have around.

“Yeah, all the seniors are graduating,” Kim said. “All of them. Think about it. You know who we’re never going to have to see again after today? Michaela fucking Watkins!”

Kim pointed emphatically to the Marine Biology lab, which sat silent, dark, and non-threatening -for now.

“After today, we’ll never have to deal with Michaela Watkins or her weird, flapping gills ever again,” Kim said. “And I’ll never have to resist the urge to punch her dumb face in again either.”

“True,” Hawke agreed. “At least we’ve got that going for us.”

Though they would still have to deal with the equally awful Dr. Professor Michael Watkins, and also every other horrible person in the Marine Biology department (all of them, sans Skye), they would soon be free of at least one nuisance. That would have to do.

“Oh, there they are, dad.”

Kim’s metal heart sank so hard in her chest it almost made a clanging noise.

“Speak of the devil,” she mumbled, as Michaela and Michael Watkins strutted towards the trio.

“You reprobates are surprisingly hard to find when you’re not sabotaging groundbreaking experiments,” Michael scoffed.

“Literally groundbreaking,” Samson mumbled. One of the Marine Biology departments more recent disasters had broken the island in half. Leanne and Kim had also done that recently, but they were at least nice.

“Why are you-”

Kim was about to ask what they were doing when she saw that the loathsome duo was actually a trio. A young man was standing between and behind Michael and Michaela.

“Who’s that?”

“Ah. This is the reason we are here,” Michael said. “I wanted to familiarize our newest student with his mortal enemies.”

“This is my little brother,” Michaela said. “Michael Jr.”

Hawke was no stranger to screaming, but him screaming with frustration instead of fear was new.

“Wow that guy is a freak,” Michael Junior said.

“Yes, yes he is,” Michael Senior agreed. “Now come along, Junior, you should know where the radioactive isotopes are stored.”

“Why?” Samson snapped. “Why should he know that? What possible applications do radioactive isotopes have to Marine Biology?”

His desperate pleas went unanswered, as the loathsome family wandered off in search of fissile materials. Samson let out a bone-shaking sigh and put his head down on the table.

“I could kill them,” Kim said. “I could. No one would ever know.”

“No, Kim.”

“Why not?”

“Because with our luck, we’d just get someone worse,” Hawke sighed. Kim didn’t know if that was true, but she decided she didn’t want to risk it.