"Yep" Payne says, guiding me gently to the group.
    When I join them I feel immediately uneasy. The neon lights highlight the dark shadows under their eyes. They look originally indifferent, but I notice how they bounce on their heels and how their eyes bounce around from person to person.
    "Alright, lovebirds," Madeline croons, puckering her lips. "Can we get whatever we gotta get done now because DoorDash is having a 50th anniversary sale that's calling my name. And why, Payne, couldn't we have said all this over text?"
    Unlike me he doesn't blush at her mocking comment and responds curtly, "Because I've got something special planned," he says, the only one who seems awake at this early hour. "Unfortunately, there's not much else to say that we haven't already said over text, so-"
    "So why the fresh hell are we here?" Joshua interrupts with surprising force. The way he lumbers over to Payne reminds me of a heavy-weight wrestler on the pay-to-watch channels. He leers just inches away from Payne's golden curls. Even though Joshua reigns a good head above him, Payne's hands lay in pockets, hip stuck out to one side. I look at Mina, but she just stares at the scene like it was a movie she had watched over and over again.
    "You drag me out of bed for this bullshit? I don't recall making you the leader of anything," he seethes. His hands are in tight-locked fists, a far-cry from the brooding boy of before. But Payne looks into his blood-shot eyes with bemusement.
    "Anyone who is not okay with me leading right now say I," he questions, looking around  at our pale faces.
    The answer is Los Angeles silence; the buzz of fluorescent lights and the hum of a far away car. While Madeline twists her face in contempt, she says nothing. Mina pushes herself up from the light pole she rests against.
    "Josh," she says, the way a mother would with an upset child. "I know you don't like him. Believe me, he's been annoying almost all of us. But he knows things and has resources that we don't have. We need him whether we like it or not." Mina kicks around a pebble as she talks. I'm barely able to hear her over the noise of the lights.
    He takes a quick look at her, then joins her under the streetlight wordlessly. I can see his hard stare but the fire in his eyes dims as he puts her arm back around her as a bodyguard would. Payne's easy-going perception has saved us.
    I jump as I also feel an arm slither around my shoulder. It's Payne, but he doesn't comfort me, he grins at Joshua (Josh?). His white teeth reflect a mocking glow. A challenge, maybe? Putting Joshua in his place? Whatever it is, it's working. I hug the blanket closer and wait for his instruction.
    "Now," Payne says, crossing one foot in front of himself. "As I was going to say, I know we don't have much to go on right now. Any information that everyone has can be put into text but we can't exactly bond over text, can we?"
    "Is that what this is all about?" Madelines groans, tossing her lollipop in no particular direction. "You want us to go on a little gaming excursion?" She points to the arcade. "I thought this was going to be something important."
    "This is important!" he says. I'm startled by his sudden change in demeanor. It reminds of the way elementary teachers would get excited just to get their students excited.  "As a team I feel we should break the ice a bit. Which is why I asked Mina if we could use her Dad's arcade before school to get to know each other better. You guys have about an hour before school starts, right?"
    I didn't look at Madeline, but I know she is rolling her eyes. But I did not hear a word of protest, which according to Payne was agreement, further exacerbated by Mina tossing him a silver ring of keys, each with varying stages of age. Giddy, he skips to the door, pulling me alongside him.