Shake It Out (Rick Tyler Book 2)

Chapter Four

"Did you get Mrs. Smith for English?" Dinah asked Rick as he drove them.

"I still don't know who my teacher is. How did you find out?"

Dinah groaned as she hit her head on the back of the seat. "That means no. Mrs. Smith sent out a summer reading list for everyone who has her. Look at this list Rick!" Dinah said as she held up the list. "How am I ever going to get this done while trying to deal with this JSA stuff?"

As they approached the stoplight, they saw Cameron painting the mural of his dad.

"Hey Cam!" Dinah called out.

"Hey Di. Rick."

Rick stared up at the mural.

"Rick, the light is green."

Rick continued to stare at the mural.

"Can I help you with something?" Cameron asked.

Rick looked to Cameron. "From you? No." Then Rick hit the gas and sped off.

"I'm sorry Cam!" Dinah called out the window.

Dinah leaned back in and hit Rick's shoulder. "Why can't you be nice to him?"

"Are you forgetting who his dad is? The one who's face is being painted on that wall?"

"I know very well who his dad was." Dinah replied. "That doesn't mean Cameron is like his father though. What if we had judged Henry based off who his dad was?"

"I still say Cameron is bad news."

"Yeah well I've been friends with him a lot longer than you."

Rick pulled his car over and looked at Dinah.

"Look, I'm sorry. I just...I don't want another person getting hurt because of that family. Especially you. As cheesy as it sounds, I don't know what I would do if I lost you. Or any of the team for that matter. You guys are my family."

Dinah leaned over and gave Rick a peck on the lips. "I know. And I forgive you. Now we need to get to the diner because Courtney texted me saying she needed to talk to us."

"So I tried finding some books on this Eclipso Beth's goggles warned us about last night." Courtney said as they sat at a table in the diner.

"And?" Dinah asked.

"All that kept coming up was this Bruce Gordon guy. He wrote most of the books talking about Diablo Island."

"Devil Island? Seriously?" Yolonda asked.

"Look at these books. It was on the maps up until this point and then it just stopped appearing. Then this Bruce Gordon finds it and write all these books. And get this, he's the only person to have come off that island, no one else survived."

"That's not sketchy at all." Dinah said.

"That's not it. I ran into the Shade." Courtney said.

"And you didn't call backup?" Rick asked.

"He just wanted to warn me and tell me all he wants is to eliminate Eclipso."

"We're seriously going to believe this guy?" Rick asked.

Dinah shrugged her shoulders. "I mean he is the only one who has given us any information on Eclipso."

"I'm going to go and try and get more information out of Pat and if that fails, I'll go back to the book store and library." Courtney said as she got up. "We'll meet up tonight and discuss anything we find?" She asked as she held up a thumbs up and walked away.

"I need to get back to work." Yolonda said as she got up as well.

"Oh can I place a to-go order?" Rick asked.

"Yeah." Yolonda responded as she grabbed the pencil from behind her ear.

"Can I get a dozen cheeseburgers?"

"Are you serious?"

"I have a dog." Rick said with a shrug, earning a chuckle from Dinah, who knew he was talking about Grundy.

"Okay." Yolonda said. "A dozen cheeseburgers. Coming right up."

"What kind of dog is it?" Beth asked.

"A big one." Rick responded.

"Are you serious? The Crocks are out of jail?" Dinah asked Courtney on the phone as she drove to Cameron's.

"Yeah. They wanted to see Artemis' tryout. Oh and she attacked me during her tryout as well."

"What?!"

"Yeah. She started acting weird and then she ran at me and attacked me."

"That's insane!"

"I know! I'm going to be sore and bruised for weeks!"

"I'm sorry."

"It is what it is." Courtney said with a sigh. "Pat still won't tell me anything about Eclipso."

"You still think he's hiding something?"

"Yeah. Well I better get back to looking through these books for any information."

"Okay. I'll let you know if I happen to find anything. I'm at Cameron's now with an apology pizza because of how my boyfriend acted earlier."

"What'd Rick do?"

"He's got some type of grudge against Cameron. Thinks he's like his dad. I know where Rick's coming from but Cameron is nothing like his dad. He doesn't even have powers!"

"Yeah. Well I'll let you go then."

"You want me to tell Cameron you said hi?" Dinah asked with a smirk.

"What? No!"

"Uh huh. You love him." Dinah teased.

"I'm hanging up now!"

"Bye Courtney." Dinah said with a chuckle.

Dinah got out of her car, pizza in hand and went up the the Mahkent's front door. She knocked and Cameron answered it.

"Hey."

"Hey. I brought an I'm sorry my boyfriend was a jerk to you pizza." Dinah said as she held the pizza out to him.

"Thanks. Are you going to come help me eat it?"

"I'm glad you asked. Oh! Courtney says hi by the way."