While the rest of her team prepared for their trip to Ketzia’s cabin, Adah returned to the studio to film the second episode of Ready, Steady Go! Michel joined her once again, and made sure to remind her of last week’s underwhelming performance during their drive over. Though, once she shot him a glare and told him that wasn’t the pep talk she needed just a few minutes before she got on camera again, he kept quiet.
When Adah arrived on set today, only the door to the room being used for the Social phase was open. She took a quick peek inside to see how the crew had adapted the set for today’s episode, and was surprised to find the room in quite a different state than the week before. All of the individual desks had been replaced by a long, oval table, and the classroom decorations ditched in favor of a standing whiteboard covered in generic business phrases—“What’s the big picture?”; “Sell the sizzle.”; “Find the angle.” Surely all lines used on a weekly basis in the boardroom of the company producing this show.
Perhaps the theme this week was like a mock committee meeting. Or a focus group? Putting herself in that mindset might have helped Adah prepare for the Social phase, but it seemed unlikely to do her much good throughout the rest of the episode. There had been a loose connection between the classroom and library sets of last week, but that chain fell apart with the café set. She couldn’t rely on each phase sharing an overarching theme.
Although the set had changed, the social atmosphere at the studio for the second episode remained the same as it had been during the first. Ciel and her posse had already taken seats around the oval table and were chatting away while Ren leaned against a wall in the shadows of the soundstage and browsed her phone. She glanced up when she heard Adah approach, but only gave her a moment’s attention before returning to her phone. Adah stood against the wall next to her anyway.
“You sure you want to be so obvious?” Ren said without looking up.
“I’ve got a target on me already,” Adah said. “What’s the point in holding back? Although if you want me to go, I’ll leave you alone.”
“Do what you want.”
Even though the cameras weren’t rolling yet, Adah saw her opportunity to start grabbing the spotlight’s attention.
“What I want is for one of us to win today,” she said. “Don’t you think this week is an opportunity for us? Ciel will be out of the challenge, so it’ll be up to the rest of her group to figure out how to win. From what I’ve heard, they’re not exactly scholars.”
Ren slid her phone into her jeans pocket and gave Adah her full attention.
“Depending on the sabotage, you might as well be out of the challenge, too,” she said. “Working with you could slow me down.”
“I’m used to fighting from a disadvantage,” Adah said. “Being the underdog is kind of my team’s whole claim to fame, in case you forgot.”
Ren looked Adah up and down, pausing on her face with that same calculating gaze from last week’s filming. Ren was smart. If nothing else, she was smart enough to know that Adah didn’t hold any of the grudges against her that the girls from her region did. She had nothing to lose from teaming up—if their plan didn’t work out, she could ditch Adah and avoid last place against a sabotaged opponent.
Adah expected Ren’s cold gaze to turn to one of understanding, but it burst into one of surprise instead. She looked past Adah as her mouth fell open.
“What are you doing here?” she said, hardly managing to keep from yelling.
Adah turned around and came face-to-face with a handsome boy with hair as black as her own. Locke smiled at her, but he was standing so close that his sudden appearance made her jump back in fright. How had he sneaked up on her like that?
“Yo,” he said, making a peace sign. “It makes me happy to see you two getting along so well. That was a cool trick you found last week. I hope I get to watch something even cooler this week.”
Ren peeked through the doorway to the first set of the day, then tugged on Locke’s sleeve to pull him around a corner where the magical girls inside couldn’t see them. Adah followed close behind.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Ren said once they were out of sight. “Why are you here?”
Locke stroked his chin and said, “Hmm, I guess it’s like a guest appearance? Jay told me they wanted to mix it up so that the fans aren’t hearing from only magical girls. It sounded like fun, so I said sure.”
Ren’s mouth was still agape, though her expression had scrunched up, squeezing her shock into a tense worry that made Adah want to ask if she was okay. Her cool, almost lazy posture had tightened up as well, and she dug her thumbnail into the crook of her forefinger.
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“But Sirk told me you were going to be out for a while,” Ren said. “And then—I mean, you barely answered my texts.”
Locke bit his lip and let his own detached attitude fall by the wayside, too.
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that,” he said. “I shouldn’t have left you in the dark like that. I just… well, you know.”
At that, Ren dipped her head and said, “No, I’m sorry. I’m not trying to make it about me.”
The two of them must have been closer than Adah realized, because Locke reached out and squeezed Ren’s shoulder, leaving his hand there until Ren looked up into his eyes again.
“Hey, it made me happy,” he told her. “I’m glad you kept messaging me. Thanks to the two of you, I’m doing a lot better than I was.”
“The two of us?” Ren said, then pointed at Adah. “What did she do?”
“I guess watching her get all serious with her region gave me a new perspective,” Locke said, looking to Adah. “Plus, I was happy you liked the necklace enough to wear it. That wasn’t how I expected to see it, but surprises like that are your style, aren’t they?”
“You gave her a necklace?” Ren shouted. The shock of that revelation caused her to forget they were trying to hide Locke from the other girls, so Adah ushered their trio farther into the studio’s shadows.
“It was a friendly necklace,” Adah explained—however much of an explanation that was. “I didn’t even really wear it. I attached it to a hat and wore the hat. So that’s all it was—no big deal. I’m dating someone anyway.”
The more words she said, the worse her explanation became, so she resorted to spitting out whatever she could to convince Ren she had no feelings for Locke. The girl seemed to buy her final excuse, but still sneaked a glance at Adah’s neckline to see if the jewelry in question was hidden there.
Adah had an inkling after the first time she’d met this pair, but this interaction confirmed it beyond a doubt. Ren was more infatuated with Locke than any of the other would-be lovers Adah had encountered during the last year. She and Rika should start betting on which pair would hook up first. Adah’s money was on Seb and the silent sister.
While Locke laughed off the misunderstanding of his own making, the same production assistant who had ushered Adah around last week approached their trio.
“Since you’re out here,” the man said, “can we get started with you two for mics and makeup?”
Adah’s time at the makeup station last week had been mercifully short compared to the endless primping Lina usually subjected her to, so she didn’t mind getting it out of the way early. However, as she started to walk away from Locke, the boy spoke up.
“Actually, I need to talk to Adah quick,” he said. “Gotta give her a message from the Secretary—real important. It’ll only take a second.”
That comment only reignited Ren’s suspicions, but she left with the production assistant after only a momentary side-eying of Adah. With her gone, Adah found herself alone with Locke in the shadows.
“What does Sirk want from me now?” Adah asked.
“Nothing,” Locke said as he watched Ren walk away. “But it’s a good excuse to get some privacy. I wanted to give you a heads up about Ren.”
“Is she planning to stab me in the back?”
Locke shook his head and said, “Nothing like that. You noticed though, didn’t you? No offense to you, but Ren’s got way more star power than anyone else on the cast. She probably gives the show more publicity than it gives her. There’s no reason for her to take a job like this.”
“Sure,” Adah said. “So Sirk’s punishing her for something.”
“Not a punishment,” Locke said. “More like a test. Actually, let’s call it an errand.”
An errand?
“I don’t know if you’re aware,” he said with a grin, “but there are a couple of problem children on this show.”
“I’m actually not causing enough problems, apparently. But who’s the other one?”
“A certain Cerulean Ciel,” Locke said. “She’s got a bad habit of trying to knock down other magical girls who are on the come up. As you can imagine, when those girls happen to be ones that he’s ordained, our Secretary doesn’t appreciate such antics. Ciel’s gotten bolder as she’s gotten more popular, and now Sirk’s sent Ren here to—let’s say—sort things out.”
“In other words, humiliate her,” Adah said. “I don’t get it, though. Why send Ren here when he could just rig the show against Ciel? Instead, she ended up winning last week.”
“Getting what you want is all about asking the right person at the right time,” Locke said. “The studio’s already doing Sirk a favor by running a show like this. If Ren and Ciel already hate each other, why not have one deal with the other? Sirk keeps his hands clean while fanning the flames of their feud. Maybe down the road, Ciel’s hatred of Ren will become useful to him instead. Hell, if Ren fails to deliver results here, maybe he even decides to bring Ciel into his circle over her. He’ll never go all-in on a single magic user.”
Standing in front of Adah was the person who probably understood that fact better than anyone.
“What about me?” Adah asked. “How is Ren supposed to handle this problem child?”
“That’s more like reconnaissance. Sirk wants to see how you act in a situation like this—both in front of the camera and backstage. You’re not his enemy yet; you’re too useful. You and your Secretary.”
Even if she wasn’t thrilled about the idea of Sirk finding her “useful,” Locke’s explanation sounded reasonable enough. Ren’s openness to cooperation proved she wasn’t here on orders to undermine Adah. So, that left Adah with just one question.
“Why are you telling me all of this?” she asked. “I doubt Sirk asked you to.”
Locke looked around the studio floor, at all of the people and equipment spread throughout the shadows like stock in a warehouse. He’d kept up his easygoing persona until now, but the cracks were starting to form on his face. He grimaced as if bracing against a harsh wind.
“For the same reason I agreed to be on this show,” he said. “This is my first step toward doing things my way, rather than someone else’s. It’s the start of building a world that does right by those guys. When it’s time for me to see them again, I don’t want to have to apologize for being the one who got left behind. I’ll do enough with this life for all four of us to feel proud of it.”
When he turned back to Adah, all that pain on his face had hardened into a scar of a smile. She didn’t know what to say, only that she wanted him to know she understood. She nodded at him, and he nodded back.
“Hey, Adah,” he said. “You’re going to win this week, right?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I am.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”