Liz, her mind swirling with thoughts. None of them about Cammie, but filled with equations and theories. Her quick hands rushed over to Dr. Fibs' sink as she cleaned out the test tube. After a quick rinse and some of Dr. Fibs' instant clean soap, she grabbed a white towel. Her eyes stared at the towel intensely, the clean and soft surface mesmerizing her.
Everything slowed down. Liz's hand opened for a split second, and the glass fell to the ground. Something that should've taken two seconds seemed to take a full minute. The almost melodic sound of smashing glass reached her ears, but her brain didn't process it. The sparkling shards glimmered in the light that seeped through the shades. Not a thing stirred. Liz's dull eyes pierced the ground, not even acknowledging the fragments of the old test tubes.
Steady steps approached the lab, getting louder every second. The brass knob made a creaking sound before Madame Dabney's head poked through the door.
"Elizabeth? Are you okay?" A concerned tone bled into her voice. Her glasses were soon visible as she examined the mess. A small gasp escaped her mouth. "Let me get the dust pan."
Her feet were firmly planted on the ground as Madame Dabney swept up the shards. The remnants of the test tube crunched beneath her feet, but chimed when they hit each other in the bag.
"There. All cleaned up. Are you hurt?" She took Liz's hands.
Liz absent mindedly shook her head. "I'm okay." Physically, but not mentally.
"Good," she cracked a wide smile and let go of Liz's hands. "I know that you've been dealing with Cameron's death, dear, but I think that you've been handling it relatively well. If you ever need help, I'm always here," she joked.
A closed mouthed smile reached the blonde girl's face as Madame Dabney walked away; but as soon as the footsteps disappeared, a stony look appeared once again.
She repeated her washing routine. Soap, rinse, dry, repeat. That was why Liz loved science so much: because every fact was laid in stone. Nothing that Liz couldn't handle. Nothing unpredictable. It was peaceful and beautiful.
When she was little, she had always dreamed of becoming a scientist, discovering new things to share with everyone. Never would she have thought that she would become a spy. Of course, she wouldn't be a field agent. The Research and Development track was routine enough for her to enjoy, but interesting enough to keep her intrigued. How she even agreed to be a spy mystified her; there was too much risk. Yet she stayed all the way. It wasn't just because of the classes. No, it was because she felt like she belonged with these people. Her sisters.
She wasn't on task. Her glassware handling was sloppy. Liz focused back onto the task at hand: preparing for the freshman chemistry class. Work always took her mind away from the world.
Although she tried to concentrate, she kept on wandering off. The mini breakdown she had while drying was an accident. It wasn't that she was thinking about Cammie. She had pushed Cammie to the back of her mind right after she hid the letter in her binder. It wasn't her fault that the memory flowed back to her. In fact, she tried so hard to suppress anything that related to Cammie; she no longer kept peanut M&Ms in her drawer for Cammie. She no longer put a lint roller on the empty bed in the room for when Cammie came back from her secret passageways. All of that stopped a week ago.
She couldn't stop it from running in her mind. The first time they were in the lab together. Just the second conversation they had together.
The honey haired girl appeared by Liz, right when she turned around. Liz practically jumped ten feet in the air. She knocked over a rack of test tubes.
"Oopsie daisy!" Liz exclaimed, hugging her arms to her chest. Swiftly, the honey colored girl caught them and placed them back into their spots.
"Sorry to scare you," the girl said, "I just needed a place to clean up and I thought that the lab was empty."
A quick sweep of the girl concluded that the skirt that she had probably been wearing for an hour, was soiled at the bottom already. Dirt and dust covered the white and blue fabric.
"It's fine. You're Cammie, right?"
A look of shock came upon Cammie's face. "You remember me?"
Liz shrugged. "Well, it was just two hours ago that we met."
Cammie grinned. "I guess someone can see through my Chameleon-ness."
She glanced again at the dirty skirt. "Do you want some stain remover for that?"
"That's why I came in here. I think that there's some in his cabinet." Cammie pointed to a large, dark, wooden case.
"Let me get it for you," Liz walked over and stood on her tiptoes to reach the purple bottle.
"Thanks," Liz's gesture of warmth was met with a wide smile.
"It was nothing." A smile of equal size came upon Liz's face.
At the end of the memory, Liz gave herself a slight smile. Dr. Fibs had run out of stain remover by the second month of school that year. They never traced it back to Liz and Cammie.
She took a deep breath. Thoughts kept running through her head, flashing from scene to scene. Remembering Cammie. The rubber gloves came slipping off her petite hands and onto the sink's edge. Her feet whisked her away to the dorm. It was like she had no control over her actions. The binder's inside flap was lifted and out came the crisp letter, looking just as it did when she was given it; just as it did when she put it away without reading it.
But she was ready. Her friend's final words to her didn't scare her anymore.
With trembling hands, she gingerly unfolded the paper and scanned it with her blue eyes.
Lizzie,
Lizzie! I'm going to miss you so much. With your cute bob (that I could never pull off) and your petite figure. You're my southern friend, and nothing could ever change the fact that you're one of my best friends.
Every time I think of you, I think of the time that we broke that flower vase and how we try to make another one on the pottery wheel. We almost passed it off as the original (except that no one in the mansion is a civilian and that they noticed the M&M at the bottom of the vase). What can I say? The M7Ms in our room are just too tempting.
I don't know how I'm going to be without you. In fact, I can't even imagine myself without you.
But aside from all the memories, I have to tell you one thing:
I'm sorry for going on the mission. I knew that I probably couldn't come back if I went on it, but hey, I broke the odds just by making it to the hospital. I was being so selfish, and I don't blame you if you hate me. I couldn't keep living my life with everyone after me.
No matter what, you're still my sister. I love you, Bex, and Macey so much.
I know that you're coming later today, so I'm ending this letter. Bye!
-Cammie
A splatter of water stained the corner of the paper. She without a word, she walked over to her bed and fell onto it, burying her face in the comforting softness.
Silent tears. She turned her head to look at the empty bed on the other side of the room. Cammie's covers had been stripped off of the bed three days ago, but her lingering scent was still near that area. Although no one else knew, everyone in the dorm knew that the bottom panel of her old desk popped out. That was where she kept her important things. Liz had found a picture of Cammie, Macey, Bex, and herself on the lawn in freshman year. The corners were bent, but it was one of the only things she had left of Cammie. She reached out to her side table and touched the creased paper.
She would trade almost anything for Cammie to come back.
A.N: Wow! I really haven't updated! I am so, so, so, so, so, so sorry. When some of you saw this alert in your email, you were probably like "who the heck is this?", but it's just me, having not posted in 6 months. I know I promised that I would update more frequently, but I've had writers block since I last posted. I wanted to post the new chapter, but I didn't want to write it because I feel like if I were to post, I could only post from when I don't have writer's block. I don't want to spoil the story :( But it's May and I have a national competition a week from now, and another international competition a month from now. I'm studying like crazy and it's kind of hectic. When I have more time, I'll post.
On the bright side, you won't have crappy inconsistencyanymore because I think that this story is coming to an end. I plan on having about 4 or 5 more chapters left (Zach, Macey, Ms. Morgan, and the overall school speech). So then I can finally continue my other story, Distance Doesn't Work. It's been on hiatus longer than this story, but I hope that I can pick it up again.
I actually didn't plan on updating until I checked up on the reviews for this story, and I saw a guest reviewer, L, that reviewed, asking if I was going update this story. So if the person that was L hadn't reviewed, I would've never updated. So if you're out there, thank you so much!
So if I don't update this story, please review and remind me.
I tried to make this chapter longer than usual (1, 391 words) to try and make up for the wait (which I know that it doesn't :( ) but please review! It would mean a lot to me! Sorry for the spelling and grammar issues, but I didn't have time to proofread because I wanted to update this story. (I almost forgot how to log in)
Thank you so much to Sunshine011 (I did Liz's letter :D) and feeling-alone-chamed-always for reviewing my last chapter!
Sorry for the long AN. Thanks for reading :)
-Cassidy and Layla (but actually, it's just Cassidy right now)
[If anyone is going to Nationals for Science Olympiad or Internationals for FPSPI, pm me so I know to look for you]