Names

"We have to distract the adults," Lucy said, her eyes flitting from Morris to Carol to Dawnie.

They were isolated from the others by the sheer coincidence that they weren't cooing over someone else. A good chunk of the released kids were clustered around Don, listening to whatever tall tale he was currently spinning. Aarti had taken the released Amazon off to another corner to interrogate her. Lucy figured it was more like getting their stories straight.

Lucy wasn't sure that Aarti's mother even knew that the Amazon had been missing. She obviously hadn't known that Aarti wasn't where she left her until that ill-omened foray to the Batcave. Lucy paused. She made a mental note to talk to Jebediah about some DNA testing when they got out of here. Well, secret DNA testing because otherwise Aarti would go absolutely ballistic, and besides San, no one else could contend with her.

"Exactly," Dawnie agreed. "We can't reveal the existence of the hat."

"I totally thought it was something weird you guys made up to get me out of the campground," Carol grumbled.

Lucy chuckled. Carol was always such a pessimist. Then she sobered up. Thinking about it, she hadn't really followed up on just why Carol was hiding out in some upscale campground. Lucy could have sworn that she and Court had vetted the bioparents they'd known of. Clearly, there had been some slipup that they'd been unaware of.

"You were in a campground? Cool," Morris enthused. "Were there marshmallows? I hear you get to eat those when you're camping."

Lucy looked from Carol to Morris. She had no clue exactly where Morris had ended up, only that it was somewhere close to Paul. From the looks of it, he'd been behaving himself, especially judging by the quality of his clothes. Both him and Paul were sporting a hipster look, much the worse for wear due to their captivity. Lucy examined Morris more closely, realizing that part of his clothing was actually real and not him. That was a new development.

"There were even s'mores," Carol boasted, buffing her nails on her chest. "It was totally awesome."

"I would just about kill for some s'mores right about now," Dawnie sighed. She glanced over to the gaggle of kids surrounding her brother. "Right now, they just think it's something he's found here, which isn't exactly wrong."

"As long as they keep thinking that," Lucy said, the other two nodding in agreement. "Can you even imagine the chaos if they found out?"

"People would annihilate us for that thing," Carol said with a sigh. "I just want to go back and create that new candy palace for that competition."

"What competition?" Morris asked. He looked intrigued by the thought of a candy palace.

"It's funny you should ask, because we really need someone to play the adult entrant," Carol said, perking up. Then she paused. "Uh, where's Aarti? Shouldn't she be part of this?"

"Well, Aarti is busy with Euphemis and her mom," Lucy said. She shivered. "Who names these girls, anyways? Don't they have a baby book or three there? Even I have a baby book."

"Really?" Dawnie glanced back at Lucy. "Which is your favorite for a girl? I'm leaning towards Rose to keep the horticulture theme."

Lucy nodded in agreement.

"There's also Lily and Daisy, but I think Daisy is so bland," Lucy added which elicited another round of nods.

"I thought of Daisy, but then it's just doesn't resonate," Dawnie replied. "What about you, Carol?"

"I was always fond of Britney, but not the one we know," Carol added with a nod.

"Britney is really good. It has that weird international flair," Lucy said.

"I'm creeped out. Officially creeped out," Morris said, backing away with his hands up. "Also, way too young to think about this."

"Our condolences," Dawnie and Lucy chorused, shooting sympathetic looks towards Carol.

"Oh, no," Carol immediately retorted. "You're not pinning that on me."

"They're not," Morris asked, his tone hurt. "Going, going!" He scurried away towards Don's group.

"Now, look what you've done," Carol said, glaring. "Now, I have to go soothe hurt boy ego."

"No, no, you don't, not really," Dawnie said. She shrank back as Carol's glare got fiercer. "Though I hear that that's a really good thing to do," Dawnie hastily added.

"What about our plan," Lucy said, watching Carol stalk away.

"You're the boss. Just come up with one and let us know," Dawnie said. She yawned. "Now I want s'mores. Let me go see if Don still has any mocha banana bars left."

Before Lucy could stop her, Dawnie was gone. Lucy frowned and massaged her forehead.

"That has absolutely no relation to s'mores," Lucy remarked to the air. She turned to look in the direction the adults had gone.

Leilani, Sabrina and Ella drifted back from that direction. Leilani and Sabrina had unhappy looks on their faces while Ella seemed to be thinking hard. Noticing Lucy's gaze, they changed course to her.

"We don't work on them," Leilani sobbed, throwing herself at Lucy.

Lucy fought back the grin. She had thought that would be the case. They had never been able to work on Aarti after all.

"It's very disturbing to come across people I can't influence," Sabrina said solemnly. She shook her head at Leilani's antics. "You know it doesn't work on Lucy, right?"

"But I know why it doesn't work on her. I don't know why it doesn't work on them!" Leilani protested.

"Why don't you two go check on the baby? We're leaving soon, and he's not a toy." Lucy pried Leilani free and turned her in a random direction. "He's not with his parents."

Leilani and Sabrina heaved sighs but still went. Ella watched them go before turning to Lucy.

"Thank you for trying to rescue me," Ella said.

"I didn't try to rescue you," Lucy immediately protested.

"Okay," Ella said, giving her a quick hug. "I'm going to go make sure they don't get into trouble. I don't think they've ever been around a baby before."

Lucy paused as Ella vanished. Then she smacked herself on the head before hurrying after the trio.