LAST KISS

CHAPTER 11: JEALOUSY HUNT!

Seemingly moments later while in my deep sleep, I startled awake by the sound of a car door slamming! I BECOME SO NERVOUS WHY I CAN'T MOVE. I tried to move but it seems my hands and toes are tightly tied and the bag over my head obscures my vision.

Oh my God! What's happening? Am I in trouble? What is this mess I'm in? Am I kidnapped?

I tried to shout but I guess there is something painful that covers my mouth. It was taped.

Why didn't I woke up when I was tied up and taken in the car? Is it because of excessive intoxication?

There is nothing I could do but to keep quiet with a loud throbbing noise of my heart inside my chest that was seemingly becoming absurd in too much worry.

After a short drive, the car comes to a stop. Someone kills the engine. I've heard that I'm not alone since there are also two or more voices trying to scream like me.

Suddenly I feel like I'm being pulled out of the car and finally, I found myself settled outside of the car since I could smell the asphalt and sense the wind blowing in my face. I heard some commotions and heels clicking over the asphalt as someone with heels walks around the truck.

"Up and at em' hell week starts now!" Did I just hear Becca's voice? Wait! I was kidnapped by Becca? I tried to detach the tape in my mouth and I did and shouted in total fury.

"What the Hell Becca! Why did you kidnap me?"

"Shut-up pledge!" she reprimands.

"Could someone take off the bag in my head?" I shouted in irritation. I feel someone grab my arm and haul me out of the bag in my head. I shrugged in the wet asphalt, dewy grass and struggle to keep my footing with zero visibility.

I saw that I was not the only one who was here but also with the presence of Abbie and Caitlyn and another woman we had met in Kappa.

"Margie!!!! Abbie's cry running towards me, we immediately hugged each other in terror when we got near.

"And why did you kidnap us in the middle of the night?" Caitlyn shouted angrily.

"Speak when spoken to, Pledge!"Madison shouted too as a response. We all stood in front of six sisters.

But wait----

Why do they lack one? They should be seven of them on the frame.

"It's a tradition! Kappa has done things this way for generations!" explains Becca. Giada steps forward and spoke

.

"Now! your first challenge as pledges will be to find the monogrammed cashmere sweater of our leader Thyra Avrisha Memorata."

Leader.

I was stunned by Giada's word. We all thought that Becca is the leader, so where is she?

"Where is she?" the other pledges asked.

"May she rest in peace!" Madison's whispered just enough to us to hear it.

"She's dead?" the other pledges asked again.

"Shut up Madie! We still don't know if she's dead. Our sister disappeared after a shipwreck in the middle of a cruise last year when the storm came, and until now her death was not yet announced." Giada explains, now another Kappa steps in and spoke.

"Thyra has everything Kappa aspires to be, poised, rich, beautiful, smart, sophisticated and unfailingly chic!" she must be Hermoine with the surname printed in her sweater spelled to be Poe.

"So where will we find her missing jacket?" shouted Abbie.

"you just need to follow the clues scattered around the campus to find its resting place" Becca explains. "The first team by three to return the sweater will move on in the pledges process. Everyone else will be eliminated!" she added.

"The first clue is---- " Becca unfurls a scroll tied with ribbon and reads it aloud. "For early mornings or all-nighters, this is a home of weary writers"

Did she just say a poem? But this is where I excel most. I am good at it.

"--You have two hours to return the sweater to us Kappa Starting now!" yelled Becca. The pledges immediately went away. We remain in the same place thinking and guessing about the mysterious phrases she said when Becca left.

As the other pledges split into teams and set off in opposite directions, We put our heads together to puzzle out the clue.

"It means that the place is somewhere the writer hangs if they're tired-- that's what it means" I explained my points in a whisper.

"Library?" asked Caitlyn seemingly doubtful.

"Library is where writers hang while making the book if they are tired I don't think they hang up there" defined Abbie. She got some point and that made me think again until a brilliant idea slithers into my mind.

"Or maybe in a cafe!" I suggest. They all look back at me on the second time more obscure.

"and why of all the places do you think it is a cafe?" Cait asked as if not convinced. "I bet if everyone is tired, they should head to bed and not at the cafe!"

"There's a lot of room definition for Pete's sake! Where will we go first?" Abbie said in contrary to me and seems to debate to Caitlyn's answer.

"That's exactly my point. What I mean is, writers when tired go to the cafe to get some coffee so that they can stay awake in finishing the book. I am not saying it is right but maybe we can search at the cafe and ask James for anything weird!" I explained thoroughly. Their faces brightened and I can see their lips slowly curved into a smile.

"You are a total bad-ass genius, Margie! Now let's hunt!" says Abbie in excitement.

The three of us headed to the cafe and push through the door. Brandon looks up as the bell rings.

"Evening, ladies! Looking for Tyler?" suddenly he pronounced and we were all shocked to see Tyler in his back, Tyler greeted us with a sly smile.

"Oh hey, guys! Yeah, we agreed to study together right?" He winks on us so here we are, Abbie and Caitlyn confused. I am about to object just when Tyler gave me a meaningful look.

"Yeah right! Let's start!" I wink at Caitlyn and Abbie when I get Tyler's agenda. I sat down at Tyler's table and was disguised as he opened his book. I and Cait grab the seat with Tyler while Abbie snoops around looking for the next clue.

"Tyler what's going on? Why are you here at this time?" Asked Cait.

"I came here to talk to James, but then I chickened out and said came here to do some late-night studying" He explained to us.

"And if I leave, he'll know I was just lying! Can y' know, help maintain my cover?" Tyler begs us, Caitlyn. How can we say no to him?

James walks over to our table to check up on us just as Abbie comes back from the bathroom, shaking her head to say she couldn't find the clue.

"How's that studying going to Tyler?" James asked us in confusion when he figured out or hidden signals.

"Oh! it's... It's going well! Learning a lot about volcanoes." Tyler fidgets.

"Oh! I didn't know Hartfeld offered a volcano class" James wondered and looked at us in doubt

"Yeah! its' an independent study type of thing.." Tyler's defensive response, we just nodded pretending to agree with Tyler.

"What's this music, James? I like it!" Caitlyn suddenly gasped for a change of topic.

"Oh, it's this production called 'wizard Brain'. I think he's doing a show in town soon" answered James. I am not so familiar with that Band though I love kinds of music.

"Oh! Tyler loves music! Right, Tyler?" I scold Tyler in a sudden elbow jerk hitting his no abs tummy.

"Well, if you ever finished studying just let me know. I've been looking for someone to go with" James beam on us with a smile.

"Well that's awesome!" inserted Tyler with twinkle on his eyes. Abbie looks up from surreptitiously searching the trash can. We couldn't stop James from turning to what Abbie was doing.

"I-I'm not actually doing so weird!" Abbie said defensively when she saw us all gawking at him, including Tyler and James.

"If you're looking for the next clue, Madison just came here earlier and tried to hide something in the coffee beans." we are all so delighted to hear that from James. " I went to see what it was after she left here."

James handed down to me a scroll tied up with a ribbon, just like the one Becca reads from before.

"Thanks, James! All right team, let's see where we're going next!" we are so excited to open the note and flatten it out on the table.

"fear not that you've gone astray, the next clue is just clicked away" we all looked back to each other but this time James and Tyler were together.

"What have you got into Margie?" Tyler asked suddenly from us as if confused.

"We're rushing Becca's sorority and now we're pledges!" I explained.

"Holy Cat! and why do you think you are doing the right thing?? You don't even know that much how Becca hates you and you wanted to figure it out that's why you wanted to join Kappa?"

"Yeah, I know. But this is part of the professor's assignment and I have to do it before I lost my scholarship." I explained. Tyler throws us a concerning look.

"Don't worry Tyler, I will be okay with Becca If ever she'll let me and our friends part of the sorority." I smiled at Tyler.

"Okay, back to the Hunt" Abbie cuts off. "What's up with that I still don't understand poetry!"

"It sounds like that the next clue is, somewhere in the computer lab. The next clue is one click away, you know just like a mouse click!" I explained to them.

"Oh! that must be it! Maybe it's one of the computer's or something." Caitlyn also agreed with what I said.

"you're pretty smart, huh! " praised Abbie smiling at me, I smiled too.

"I just try guys!" I blushed.

We decided to hurry and we arrived at the campus computer lab to find Lucas and some of his gamer friends seated at a cluster of computers, their screens glowing with digital warfare.

"Hey, Guys! Mind if we interrupt?" asked Caitlyn but Lucas and his companions didn't even look at us.

"We're in the last round of our platinum qualifying match so, yeah, we mind!" it came from Kris' football teammate Tripp.

"Sorry about him! We'll be done in a sec!" it was from Lucas who was still looking at the monitor.

"Does anyone has eyes on the enemy? They took out my scanner, I'm totally blind here.." that was from Edgar which is our classmate in the speech lab subject.

"I'm watching the stairwell. No movement" shouted Tripp which seems deaf even though they are just facing each other monitors.

"Oh crap.. Oh crap!! they are in the control point! I need back up here.!" we heard Lucas shouted again. It seems that Abbie and Cait are already upset that Lucas couldn't even notice us.

"I got you!" we heard a voice from a woman sitting next to Lucas. If I am not mistaken, This is Leila, it would be Tyler and Luke's classmates on a minor subject. Abbie and I looked at Caitlyn as if getting irritated with Leila's approach towards Lucas. Lucas looks at Leila and they stared for a couple of seconds.

"Good game!" Edgar shouted a few seconds later.

"damn Leila, No mercy! You destroyed those guys and saved me!"

"You did your best to distract the opponent so we make a good team!" Leila gives Lucas a playful punch on Lucas's shoulder, and he looks up to meet Caitlyn's gaze.

"Well anyway.. we're doing this hunt to get into Kappa and we think that the next clue is in here. Maybe one of you check something weird in your monitors?" After that, I insisted to asked in an attempt to turn the attention to the hunt. Because I could smell from here that there will be an igniting fight between Lucas and Cait again because of this.

"I found a file called 'kss.txt' that definitely wasn't here yesterday." we heard from Edgar. Good thing Edgar was also a working student and in charge of the computer lab, He can probably help us out.

"That stands to be Kappa Siera Sigma! that must be it! What does it say?" asked Abbie as if in a hurry. Edgar clicked the text.

"Opening now and! oh! it's weird. It's kind of a rhyming couplet!"

"Can you read it for us?" I asked again in a rush.

"The final clue is close to hand, in the desk of a Melville fan" he reads. This time I think I don't have any idea about it.No one has spoken to us, speculating about the clue except Lucas.

"Well, Melville must refer to Herman Melville.. the answer may be in the literature professor's office."

"Professor Vasquez is the head of the literature department! The clue must be in his desk" I added as I can no longer chase the ideas in my head.

"Nice solve Lucas! You are so smart!" Leila's response was noticeably obvious to get Lucas's recognition again. Abbie makes a gagging noise as Leila stares adoringly at Lucas. Caitlyn gives me a sly look and leans over to whisper to me.

"That Leila girl is all over Lucas."

"Forget him. He's clearly having plenty of fun with that awful b***h!" Caitlyn added which apparently has overheard Abbie's whispering to me.

"Do I detect a hint of Jealousy?" Abbie asks Caitlyn a tease.

"No!" denied Caitlyn while blushing and immediately run out of the computer lab's door. Abbie and I were smiling and headed to the professors' office. 

Our girl is jealous!