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

Vendetta laughed. "Maybe. Or maybe he was taking a college course in illusions or something. To learn a new form of magic."

Dawn grumbled something about food.

Vendetta turned to Valeri. "What about you? What do you think?"

"Hm, I think you give Joe too much credit. He seems like the kind of guy who'd just be naturally talented at magic and incredibly arrogant about it." Valeri rolled her eyes, then said, "I'm gonna bet he was shopping for more discount magic staffs, and he decided to teleport to Houston because they had the best deals or something."

Valeri turned to Cody and Khalil. "Do you both have any guesses?"

Cody sighed. “I’m not sure. But whatever it is, we’ll know soon.”

The next couple of hours were spent in either silent napping, silly car games, or ranting about Joe. The road trippers stopped for lunch and dinner at some places run by local centaurs and dryads, and once again, they camped under the stars.

By the next afternoon, however, Dawn was feeling a little restless. "Can we stop somewhere and stretch our legs for an hour or so?"

"You don't have legs," Dusk commented.

As Dawn glowed a frustrated orange, Cody glanced at the GPS. "We only have three hours left... Do you think you can hang on until then, Dawn?"

Dawn sighed. “Fiiiine!”

Cody smiled at kept driving.

Three hours later, they arrived in Houston. Lavender poked their tip out of the quiver, vibrating in excitement.

"Lead the way, Lavender!" Dusk hummed.

The arrow glowed brightly and shot into the air, and the group tried their best to follow. Valeri started panting again. Maybe they should've considered getting in shape before this...

Lavender stopped in front of an bookstore, spinning in front of the door.

“A bookstore?” Vendetta leaned against the glass. “Maybe he was signing his own books.”

Dusk glowed purple. "Ha! I called it."

"Don't celebrate yet, Dusk. Maybe he was eating breakfast here or something." Dawn twirled in the air.

Valeri grasped the doorknob and pulled the door open, and a string of bells cheerfully announced their arrival.

As they entered, Valeri whispered, "How are we going to find out what Joe was doing? Do they have security tapes, you think?"

Vendetta shrugged. “Probably. How likely is it that they’ll just give them to us?”

Khalil chuckled. “Not likely.”

Valeri eyed the woman at the counter. "Time for your puppy dog eyes again, Vendetta?" Valeri picked up a book and pretended to read the summary.

Vendetta sighed and approached the woman. "Hello!"

The woman looked up. "Can I help you?"

Vendetta gave her the puppy eyes. "Can you show me some of your security footage, please?"

"O-oh! Of course! Anything for a customer." The woman picked up her mug of coffee as if in a daze, then unlocked a door behind her and waved the group through.

Vendetta smiled. “Thank you!” TThey walked past the woman and into the security office.

“What date are you looking for?” The woman took a sip of her coffee.

"Monday, June thirteenth."

The woman typed a password into the desktop computer and pulled up some files.

Spoiler

I don't think we came up with an actual date, so I just put a random one, if that's alright xD

“Here you go! Have fun.” The woman walked out of the room, leaving the group behind.

Vendetta sighed. “I really hope she doesn't snap out of it and and call the police or something.”