I Am Totally a Real-Life Wizard (Not Clickbait, I Swear!)

"What are you, government agents? Also, you have eyes?" Valeri raised their eyebrows.

"What? Hmph. Clearly we're no one's agents but our own. And we can see somehow!"

Valeri laughed, then said, "Okay. I spy with my little eye... something gray."

Dawn gasped. “Is it a building?”

Dusk floated up the window. “Or maybe a car?”

Dawn’s glow dimmed. “Or maybe a storm cloud.”

Vendetta laughed. “Or maybe it’s that billboard that Valeri always makes fun of.”

Valeri grinned. "Good guesses, but you're all wrong."

"What else around us is gray?" Dawn hummed thoughtfully.

Dusk asked, "Is it something in the car?"

"Nope. Any more guesses?"

"That person with a gray overcoat?"

"That pet manticore's leash?"

"The sidewalk?"

Valeri nodded. "Bingo! It was the sidewalk."

"Whaat?" Dawn yelped. "I can barely see the sidewalk behind all the cars!"

Valeri just smirked and said, "Who's going next?"

Dusk vibrated. “I got it right, so I have to go next. I spy with my little eye something orange.”

Dawn hummed. “A traffic cones!”

“There are no traffic cones.”

Dawn mumbled and glowed a dim orange.

"The sun through the clouds?" Valeri guessed. "Or that person's hat?"

"Or is it me?" Dawn glowed a brighter orange.

Dusk chuckled. "It is not! It's that person's hat! I fooled you."

Vendetta shook their head. "Valeri already said that."

Dusk hummed in disappointment. "Oh."

"Whoo!" Valeri glanced out the front window, then said, "Ooh, okay. I spy with my little eye... the end of the traffic!"

Dawn brightened up. "Hooray!"

Khalil turned around and gave them a smile. "Alright. Cody and I decided that we're going to head to St. Louis, Missouri to see the famous Gateway Arch. But if you see anything interesting along the way, feel free to ask us to stop by!"

Dawn gasped. "The Gateway Arch? Maybe this is a Rick Riordan novel."

"And we're still on that." Dusk sighed. "Just don't blow it up or something."

"I'm not going to blow up the gateway arch!"

"And don't jump off from the top of it either. Unless you're a child of Poseidon like Percy."

"H-hey, what's with all the Rick Riordan comparisons?"

Dusk bobbed in the air like a shrug. "Maybe the writers just really like RR."

(Somewhere in the world, there was the feeling of two writers being called out >.> =P)

"Anyways," Valeri chimed in, "where are we going to eat dinner?"

Khalil chuckled at their antics. "We'll stop and pick something up on the way. Any preference?"

Vendetta shuddered. "Please, not Mary Arnold's."

"Chippotle is my go-to place..." Valeri thought for a moment. "But does anyone else have any preferences?"

"I love McRonald's golden arches," Dawn said.

"...Anyone who actually eats?"

No one else responded.

Khalil nodded. “Chippotle it is.”

Dawn sighed dramatically. “I wish I could eat food.”

"You don't even have a mouth." Valeri raised an eyebrow at the sword.

"My hilt could totally open up and be a mouth!"

"...Oookay. That's a weird image. Anyways, we still have a few hours until dinner, right? So is there anything Vendetta and I can do right now to unlock our unique abilities?"

"How would that work? Would you just-" Vendetta folded their hand at a ninety-degree angle. "I hope you know this will haunt me forever."

Dawn gasped. "It's an honest desire!"

"It makes no sense!"

Dusk cleared their throat. "We're moving on! We're talking about signatures now."

Dawn grumbled, "I just wanted to know what food tastes like..."

Khalil smiled in amusement and turned to look at the teenagers and immortals in the backseat. "Alright. So, signatures are best discovered in a spacious area. That's because some can be quite, er, messy."

"Messy? In what way?"

"Well, you know, the typical transforming into a lavasheep, or sending gummy worm projectiles in all directions..."