Chapter 6
2125 Words
"Absolutely not!" Caleb told me without hesitation.
I just told my friends during lunch that I would be going to Xavier's house after school to work on our english literature project. What's so wrong about that?
"It's just a project!" I protested.
"We need to focus on the mission though." Caleb said firmly.
"I have been focusing on the mission." I said through my gritted teeth.
"No, you haven't!" I rolled my eyes.
"Yes, I have. I even went on that spying task yesterday." I said annoyed.
"Well, what do you even know about this Xavier kid?" He asked me.
"This is pointless." I said ignoring his question.
"Good. I guess we've come to the agreement that you're not going then." He said.
"No. What I meant is that our conversation about this is pointless because no matter what, I'm going." I said.
I looked at my other friends and they all looked away when I caught eye contact with them. What's up with that? Are they seriously all on Caleb's side?
"Skylar.." Julia started, but her voice trailed away.
"Yes?" I asked, urging her to continue.
"Maybe you really shouldn't go." Julia said in a really tiny voice. Is she really agreeing with Caleb right now?
"What do you mean by that?" I was confused. I thought Julia would've been on my side.
"You barely know Xavier. You don't know what could happen at his house." Julia said.
"I'm going to be fine." I said firmly.
"Caleb and Julia both got a point." Ashley said firmly, butting into the conversation.
"So you're taking their side?" I asked incredulously.
"It's not a matter of taking sides, Skylar." Ashley said with a frown.
"Jack?" I asked him, wanting his opinion.
Jack quickly looked away and stayed silent. That means he must agree with the others. I scoffed.
"You guys really don't think I can handle myself?" I asked them.
"Stop being so stubborn, Skylar!" Ashley suddenly screamed.
"Excuse me?" I asked in utter disbelief. Did Ashley, my best friend, just scream at me?
"Why can't you get it through your thick skull? You shouldn't go to Xavier's house tonight!" She said annoyed and frustrated.
"Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed." I mumbled.
Unfortunately, Ashley heard me because all of a sudden, she was in my face. She quickly brought up her open hand to slap me across the face, but I knew how to defend myself. I quickly grabbed her wrist with one of my hands and her arm in my other hand. Without hesitation, I slung her over my shoulder.
Ashley, being one of the top FBI agents like me, knew how to protect herself, so she landed perfectly on her feet, but prepared a kick at me. I dodged her kick and kicked her right in the stomach.
Now don't look at me and accuse me because I kicked my best friend. She brought it upon herself and her guard was down. What do you expect me to do when that happens? Make cupcakes? No.
"Stop fighting guys." I heard Jack say in the background.
"No!" Ashley and I screamed at the same time.
Ashley and I's personality is very different except for the fact that we hated losing. There was no way that one of us would back down.
We continued sending punches and kicks towards each other while trying to avoid our teammates who were constantly trying to get us to stop fighting. Luckily, we were behind the school at a spot where nobody goes so that no students will see or hear us.
I suddenly saw a hand come right next to my wrist and I instantly thought it was Ashley's wrist since we were fighting each other, but I was wrong. I grabbed the wrist and was about to throw the owner of the wrist over my shoulder, but immediately stopped when I heard a scream.
"Julia?" I asked bewildered.
"Yeah?" She asked in a hushed voice while caressing her wrist.
"Was that your wrist?" I asked nervously. She nodded.
"See what you did?" Ashley asked me.
"You started the fight!" I protested.
"And you hurt her though." Ashley shot back at me.
I ignored Ashley since she was being such as b***h and turned back to Julia.
"Why did that hurt you so much?" I asked Julia suspiciously.
"What are you talking about?" She asked nervously
"Your wrist. Why does it hurt so much when somebody grabs it?" I asked again, but in different words.
"It's weak from training." She said a bit too quickly.
"You can't use that excuse again." I said before reaching out towards her wrist.
She brought her wrist back towards her chest
"Julia, what's the matter?" Caleb asked.
"It's nothing really." She said, trying to convince us. I looked at her and she looked away guiltily.
"Okay." I said. If she doesn't want to tell us now, then she doesn't. I think I know what's going on with her already though.
I looked at Ashley and she just shot me an annoyed look. I frowned. What's her problem? What's so bad about going to Xavier's house that she has to fight me?
***
School was over and I was at my locker. I put all the books I need for homework inside my bag and shut the locker. When I turned around to walk out of the school, I crashed into a wall. Wait, it's a chest.
I looked up to see a shocked Xavier. I sent him an apologetic smile.
"Sorry." We both said at the same time. We laughed.
"No need to be sorry. I was just looking for you." Xavier said.
"Oh, okay. Why?" I asked.
"I'm really sorry, but the people I live with have something really urgent to do and they need my help." He said. I nodded understandingly.
"No worries." I said.
"What about tomorrow? The project is due Monday and it's only Thursday." I nodded.
"Sure." I said.
We said bye to each other and I continued walking towards the school's main doors.
After turning a corner a bumped into another wall. Wait, never mind. It's another chest. Why do I keep bumping into people?
I backed up to look at the person. Chris looked down at me, since he was taller, with an amused grin.
"Hey, sunshine." He said happily. He sounded more happy than usual.
"You seem pretty happy. What's up?" I asked.
"I heard you're free now." He said.
"What?" I asked, confused.
"Well, since you're not going over to Xavier's house now, do you-" I cut him off.
"How do you know that? I just talked to Xavier about that not even a minute ago." Chris shrugged.
"I have my ways." He said with a smirk.
"Alright. So, now you know I'm free, what do you want?" I asked.
"Do you want to hang out?" He asked.
Last time I hung out with Chris, I got a lecture from Caleb. Also, since Chris is possibly a member of the illegal gang, I shouldn't be taking my chances right now.
"I don't know." I said unsurely.
"Come on. I won't drag your friends into it this time." He said.
"It's not about that." I said.
"Then what?" I sighed.
"It's hard to understand." I said simply.
"So you don't want to hang out with me today?" He asked.
"I have to ask my brother." I said.
"Okay." He said and brought his hand up to ruffle my hair at the top of my head.
"What are you doing?" I asked, confused.
"Your hair is too neat." He said.
"Maybe because I straightened it this morning. Now stop." I whined.
Chris stopped messing up my hair and brought his arm to his side. He then brought his hand up a bit so that it looked like he was on his phone. Wait. He actually was on his phone. Hold on. That's my phone.
"Is that my phone?" I asked, already knowing the answer, but I just wanted to double check.
"Yep." He said popping the 'p'.
"How is my phone with you right now? I thought it was in my p-" I cut myself off when I felt inside my pocket. My phone wasn't in there.
"Are you curious as to how I took your phone?" He asked.
"Yes." I answered warily.
"When I brought my hand down from your head, I took your phone out sneakily. Simple as that." He said as if it was the simplest thing ever.
My mouth dropped open. I can't believe Chris managed to do that without me even noticing. He must really be the gang member then if he's able to do that.
He handed back my phone and looked at me expectantly.
"What?" I asked.
"I just entered my phone number in. Ask your brother if you can hang out with me and then give me a call." He said.
"Alright." I said.
***
"Chris is even worse than Xavier!" Caleb told me.
"Listen to me though. I have a plan." I said.
"Finally. We've all been waiting for you to come up with a plan for ages." Ashley said coming into the living room which is where Caleb and I were talking.
"Butting into the conversation again?" I asked annoyed. I don't know what's up with Ashley today, but it's getting really annoying.
"Becoming a slut lately?" She asked. I looked at her confused. Slut? Where did that come from?
"Anyway.." Caleb said, trying to divert the attention back to my plan.
"Yes?" I asked.
"What's your plan?" Caleb asked expectantly.
"My plan is that if I hang out with Chris a little, I can find out things about him. This can help in our mission since we already found out that Chris is the gang member." I said. Caleb took my idea into thought a little.
"Are you sure that's not just some petty excuse to hang out with Chris?" Ashley asked.
"Go away, Ashlynn." I said, using her full name. For some reason she hates it, so I call her that in some urgent situations. In this situation, she was really getting on my nerves and I was more likely to tackle her any second if she continues to be bitchy.
"I guess that's a good plan." Caleb said after a while.
I smiled at him and he smiled back. It's good to know that we both finally agree on something during this mission. Our brother-sister relationship has been pretty rough, so it's good to finally get along for a while.
"What's a good plan?" Jack said coming into the room with Julia.
Caleb told the plan to Jack and Julia. They both agreed that the plan should be put into action, but I could see a frown evident on Jack's face when he was told the plan.
After we all finished this discussion, I managed to pull Jack into another room so that I could speak to him privately.
"Are you okay, Jack?" I asked him.
"I'm fine. Why would you think I'm not?" I sent him a sad look.
"I could see you frowning back there. Is there something you don't like about the plan?" I asked. Jack looked at me protectively.
"Are you sure your plan isn't too risky?"
"How can it be risky? I'm simply just hanging out with Chris for a while. I can protect myself."
"What if Chris does something? He's part of a gang. You never know what they'll do."
"I'll be careful."
"You better."
"Why do you even care so much?" After I asked this, Jack went silent. I tilted my head and took a step towards him.
"Why do you seem so protective of me?" I asked, hoping that it didn't sound too weird.
"I'm not. I just don't want you getting hurt." He defended himself.
After my talk with Jack, I took out my phone to call Chris. I searched up 'Chris' in my contacts and found his name immediately.
I called him and he picked up after only two rings.
"Hello?" He asked on the other end of the phone.
"Hey, it's Skylar." I said.
"Don't you mean sunshine?" I could clearly hear the amusement in his voice.
"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I can hang out." I told him.
"Okay. Where do you live? I can come pick you up." He offered.
"Why don't we just meet up at the park near school?" I asked. I thought it would be a risky move if he knew where I lived.
"Alright, if that works with you. See you in a few." He said and hung up.
Let's just hope this task of hanging out with Chris won't be a huge disaster.
- Writer
