ahhhh here we go! The next few chapters are posted!
Chapter 42~Anna
Tuesdays... generally very boring. Especially when you have nothing to do.
Luckily for me, I have plenty; hang out with friends, meet Emma's new friends from Basic Training (it's weird to think, but my weird, nerdy sister may possibly have more friends than me right now... nah- that's just... too weird...), find out how to hack a nonexistent site- I hadn't really had time to do anything since my conversation with Emma...- contemplate whether or not Meryl or Mac found out about my forbidden chat with that orange-shirt Karlie, and pondering over the complicated feelings I suddenly had for Dan.
Ok, just ignore that last one- it is incredibly unnecessary. But otherwise, I had plenty to do. Ish. Ok, not a lot. I don't count thinking as something to do. At all. So that crosses off everything apart from hanging out, meeting Emma's friends and hacking. I scowled at the ceiling and whistled randomly, contemplating getting up and doing something (like swimming, or practising karate, or running, to get ready for Basic Training) but decided I really couldn't be bothered. Life's too short to do shit like that. Having said that, life is also too short to sit around contemplating. In other words; I should probably get off my lazy arse and do something. Probably being the operative word in that sentence.
I turned back to my laptop and glared at it, daring it to hack into MI6 and get me the information I wanted without me putting in any effort. My glares achieved nothing- the computer was also telling me to get off my last arse and do something. Damn computers.
"If you want it that way!" I snapped at it, "I'll go sit with computers of a higher intellect!"
Meaning, of course, the even crappier computers in the ICT rooms.
My laptop didn't say anything in return, so we parted with a glare from me and the silent treatment from... it.
Great, I thought, stomping down the corridor, I am having an argument with my laptop. Clearly, I am being overworked here. I need to find someone to complain to about this!
I arrived at one of the ICT rooms and chose a random computer in a far corner, logging into Liam's user account, just because I'm overly paranoid. Tapping the keys lightly, I pondered over Emma's words about the start up programmes thingies. Cautiously, I began clicking. Then typing, then frowning. And then cursing. Quietly, mind.
"Work you pathetic computer!" I growled.
I heard a, "It can't hear you, you moron, it's not a living thing," This was accompanied by a sniff that I had come to know- and hate- so well.
"It can't hear you, it's not a living thing," I repeated to myself, "Hopefully if I am quiet it will stop sniffing and go away, even though it isn't alive,"
Of course, you know I was referring to Sandi not the computer.
"Fine then, be like that!" Sandi sniffed.
"Oh, good it appears to have gone. Maybe someone disposed of it," I said loudly, before turning back to my computer and continuing to scroll through the default programmes that had now decided to load.
After a few seconds, I got up and grabbed a random pen that was lying on the front desk and some paper from the recycling bin. I popped back to the computer, grinning slightly as I saw Sandi leaving grumpily. Quickly, I started to scribble down the programmes and everything I could find else.
Ten minutes later I had deserted my computer, leaving Liam still logged in (simply because you can't log into two computers at the same time and it would take him ages to find that one and be able to log himself off).
I jogged back up to my room, deciding that it wasn't worth risking the lift, and started up my laptop, looking over the list of programmes on it. Before I could do anything, my door burst open and several people fell inside. I shoved the piece of paper into my pocket and turned to glare at my intruders.
"The door was shut for a reason," I growled, annoyed at being interrupted.
Elizabeth, Tom, Dan, Andrew, Liam, Emma, the girl who was with Emma from Basic Training and I can't remember the name of, another girl from Basic Training whose name I can remember because her brother is very annoying and called Zack (it's Tess, by the way, but you guys probably already know that), and a third girl from Emma's Basic Training that I'd never met in my life. And Gabby and Flo.
"And this room," I went on, "Is not made for fifty people, so get out and come back when there are less of you. I'm not being nice, I know, it's this thing that happens whenever I was doing something highly secretive and incredibly important and then get interrupted. I also tend to babble a lot and make no sense at all, but who cares about that?"
I was met with silence and a load of confused looks.
"Great! Now, if you'll excuse me I have a certain incredibly important thing to be getting on with," I told them, not wanting to do anything other than to get back to the default programmes.
"Anna, chill out, we're only going to invade your personal space until we can convince you to go paintballing with us," Dan rolled his eyes.
"Oh good, now that you've tried, could you please go away?" I asked grouchily, sensing that if I gave in and went I wouldn't get back to my laptop for the rest of the day.
"Nope, stop being anti-social, Anna," Emma tutted.
"I'll have you know I am the most popular member of the HSTDRE," I said haughtily.
"What the hell's a HS... thingie?" Liam demanded.
"Hacking Society That Doesn't Really Exist," I replied.
Gabby looked confused, "Wait... so does that mean you just made the HST... crappy thing up? Or is it real but no one knows about it?"
"Yup," I grinned, just to be confusing.
"It doesn't exist, Gabby," Dan sighed, "Anna just made it up because she's being difficult,"
"Yup, I did, I admit it, but hey? What can go wrong when you're possibly the best hacker in the country and definitely the best hacker in CHERUB?"
"Full of yourself much?" Emma asked.
"Nope, just stating the truth. Just like Elizabeth could say that she's the girl who gossips the most on campus and we'd all have to agree," I shrugged.
"She has a point," Elizabeth agreed, grinning.
"Hey! I wouldn't have to agree about you being good at anything!" Liam snapped.
I could tell that he was determined to get me back after the email thing.
"You would, Liam, because if you go and try to log into your account right now, you'll get a message saying you're logged in somewhere else," I retorted.
"What? You know Liam's password?" Dana and Tom gawped in unison.
Liam scowled viciously at me. I pretended to look guilty, "Yeah, I forgot to log you off, sorry! And now I can't remember which computer I used..."
"I knew she had Andrew's password," Dan was admitting to Tom, "But I never knew she had Liam's,"
"Hey!" Andrew frowned, "How the hell did you get my password?"
"Ways and means, Andrew, ways and means," I said mysteriously.
Emma leaned in close to me and whispered subtly, "It is quite possible that you are the only one in the whole of the campus that can change a conversation topic so easily,"
"It is easy though," I whispered back, "Just say something completely outrageous that you know they'll all disagree with and BAM! You've got a changed subject,"
Emma grinned slightly, "I'll have to try that sometime," She glanced at the three girls mooching in the hallway, "That one's Raine- you kinda met her when we got back. And that's Tess, and the other girls Lilly,"
"Hello, Raine, Tess and Lilly, nice to meet you and all," I greeted them, adding a mock salute to the end.
"Good to meet you too," Tess nodded, "So can we please go paintballing now?" She asked loudly, so that she got everyone's attention.
"Nope, sorry, I'm having a night in," I shrugged apologetically, "Maybe... like, three weeks time?"
"Then you'll be in Basic Training, Anna, so, no, you're not going to have a night in," Dan pointed out.
"Says who? I can stay in if I want to," I snapped immediately.
"You do realise, Anna, that there are, what? Eleven of us, and one of you?"
"Yes, I do, which is why I am going to go find something to tie myself to the chair with," I told him, looking around the room for anything rope like.
All eleven of them crossed their arms with annoying simultaneousness. It was also slightly weird and a tad freaky.
"Preferably very quickly," I muttered to myself.
"We could just... carry her or something?" Suggested Emma with a grin.
"Now that is mean," I told her, grabbing my laptop off the desk- I wasn't leaving it in reach of them.
"You could get us back when we're paintballing," Elizabeth shrugged.
"Or you could just paintball between yourselves and give me no reason to," I said hopefully, backing off slightly.
Dan leaned over to Emma, "How many people do you reckon we'd need to carry her?"
"Um, one, I'm right here, two, you're not carrying me anywhere, and three, I'm not that heavy," I scowled.
Dan grinned, knowing I had just giving him a challenge, even if it wasn't on purpose. Dan was like me in that way- our immediate reaction to being told we can't do something, is to do it.
"Seriously, I don't think my dignity is gonna come out of this unscathed," I muttered.
"Yup, 'cos you'll be fleeing from a bunch of kids, and all of them except two have completed Basic Training," Elizabeth added.
"Ouch," I muttered, stepping around the bed and making sure it was between me and them. Unfortunately that then meant that the bed and they were between me and the door. For now, at least, I still had enough dignity not to lock myself in my en suite.
"Now would be a good time to give up and come quietly," My sister advised with a grin.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" I sighed, "You're supposed to be nice and older-sisterly,"
"And you're supposed to be sweet and cute and younger-sisterly," Emma countered, suppressing her grin slightly.
"That's Gabby's job! My job is to be annoying and point out all the flaws in anything you say!" I argued.
"Hey! I am not being brushed off with the cute and cuddly! Arron can have that! I'm the younger sister that looks innocent and no one suspects of anything!" Gabby snapped.
"That would be kinda disturbing, actually," Flo muttered.
"Yeah. It would freak me out a lot, actually, and I'm not even related to him," Dan agreed.
There were quite a few other nods at that. Emma, realising that I may just have managed to change the subject and escape gave me a withering look. I grinned smugly, and mouthed, "Just say something completely outrageous that you know they'll all disagree with and BAM! You've got a changed subject," Back at her.
If Emma had been anything like me, then in that moment, she would've stuck her finger up at me. Fortunately for the younger siblings around, she just shook her head with an emotion somewhere between disapproval and awe.
Shifting slightly, I hid my (well, our, technically, even though Emma had agreed I could keep the laptop temporarily) laptop under the bed (a place so obvious it becomes unobvious) and prepared to leg it as fast as I could.
While the others were still discussing how weird a cute, cuddly Arron would be, I darted over the bed, shoved past them and down the corridor, cackling madly as I did. What can I say? I have a tendency to be melodramatic.
Chapter 43~Emma
Anna cackled as she ran from the room, leaving us all in a state of confusion. I shook my head again, partly in awe, party out of amusement at everyone else's faces. If Anna ever had her cover blown on a mission –if she got any before she got too old- then there would be no doubt she would be able to get away. She was just too weird for anyone to be able to focus on the job at hand. After a second, Dan frowned.
"You know, I believe your sister has just successfully evaded eleven people, nine of which, as Elizabeth so smugly pointed out half a minute ago, have completed Basic Training," Dan sighed, "She's good,"
Liam sat up, and I almost laughed as I saw the bruise already forming on his forehead. Evidentially, Anna had pushed his head into a wall or something similar, "No, she's not good, she's dead when we finally get her to go paintballing,"
Andrew leaned over to me and whispered in my ear, "Liam's the under sixteen champion at paintballing on campus. Anna, I'm sorry to say, is dead,"
"I wouldn't count on it- she might never have done paintballing before in her life, but Anna's pretty inventive when she wants to be," I replied, smiling at the many whacky things my sister had done over the years, simply to avoid getting punished- she didn't mind the getting into trouble part.
Before Andrew could reply, Tom had helped Liam up.
"Should we go after her?" He asked, "I mean, is it worth running all around campus to find her, just for a game of paintball?"
Raine, Tess and Lilly were getting to their feet too, but seemed relatively unscathed- they didn't have a massive bruise on their foreheads like Liam did, at least.
Dan grinned, "Yes, it is- Anna and I went paintballing once- she's wicked at it. Well- she can't aim to save her life but she still managed to ground every person on the other team in under five minutes,"
"Is that even possible?" Liam gawped, a hint of jealousy in his voice, "How come she gets to be good at everything?"
"Um, hello? I just told you she can't aim to save her life, Liam," Dan rolled his eyes.
"Well, I would run all over campus with you, but I just did my nails," Elizabeth shrugged.
"How can your nails affect your running?" Flo demanded.
"They don't," Elizabeth sighed, "So, do you mind if I wait while you guys collect Anna?"
"If she's bailing out of running after one of the fastest girls in our year, so am I," Tom said immediately.
"Us too!" Gabby and Flo added.
Lilly and Tess shrugged, "If you don't mind, we'll go with you- we've had enough running for a lifetime,"
Andrew looked at me, "What do you want to do?"
I considered for a second, "I might not have my sister's endurance but I can still run fast, and I have been waiting for humiliation to catch up with my sister for a long time,"
Dan smiled slightly, "Of course, the chances are, it'll be us ending up humiliated and she'll get away fine,"
Elizabeth stood up and took Tom's hand, heading out of the room and down to the paintballing area or whatever it was called- I'd never been there before, obviously. Gabby and Flo followed.
"Sheesh, all this fuss for a game of paintball," Liam sighed.
"You just don't want to be beaten, that's all!" Dan retorted, "Where do you think Anna will have gone?" He frowned.
"Yeah, we've probably given her plenty of time to hide," Raine pointed out.
"Somewhere unexpected," I said, "It's what Anna does- she chooses the place your least likely to look,"
"So... the dining hall?" Andrew suggested.
I shrugged- it would be unexpected to find her sitting and eating.
"The boys' toilets?" Liam snickered.
"That is just sick and immature, Liam," I told him witheringly.
"The ICT room perhaps? Or the library?" Dan proposed.
"Well, let's start checking the rooms then! I kind of agree with Liam though," Andrew added, "It does seem a waste if we spend the next hour or so searching for Anna,"
"It'll be worth it if we do find her," Dan promised.
"I think we should have an all against her contest- see how long she lasts then," Liam growled, clearly still jealous that she was so good.
"You can mate, but I'm not suicidal- I'm going with her," Dan told him.
"If she lets you- she might not be feeling so kind if you drag her kicking and screaming," I told him, smiling slightly.
"Well then, I'm screwed," Dan shrugged, and set off out of the room running.
We jogged after him, taking the stairs slowly so we didn't trip.
"We should probably try everyone's rooms, too," Raine suggested to Dan, "Because you wouldn't expect her to be there,"
Of course, if we'd all thought about it a bit harder, we would have realised that there was one place we would never have dreamed she would be- the paintball range itself. But we didn't think of that one, and spent the next half hour looking everywhere but there.
Chapter 44~Anna
I'd grabbed a face mask, some gloves, plenty of ammunition and a paintball gun thing as I'd gone in, and was now hiding high up in a tree, camouflaged by leaves and branches. Below, several metres away, I could hear Elizabeth, Tom, Tess, Lilly, Gabby and Flo, sitting talking, and waiting for the others to come back with me. Suckers.
The only downside was that I was in a t-shirt and three quarter shorts- if I got hit by a stray paintball, it'd hurt quite a bit. The silver lining to that was that no one knew I was up here and it would be relatively easy to eliminate them all and complete my master plan (get both flags before either team could).
Silently, I tried to brainstorm ideas on how to get them all out of my way, find out where both flags were and possibly find some less noticeable clothes (a light blue training t-shirt wasn't really good camouflage. Unfortunately, most of my ingenious methods came to me seconds before I was about to be killed/massively humiliated so my brainstorming wasn't getting very far. I decided I'd just have to stick with the t-shirt I had, and maybe spread some slime over it when I got the chance- as longs as it would all wash off later, I would be fine.
Finally, after a good while, I heard Emma, Andrew, Raine, Liam and Dan arrive, a bit put off by being unable to find me. It was getting slightly darker now, which would work to my advantage, as it was about seven in the evening, and the sun was going down.
They split off into groups, deciding very conveniently to discuss this only a few metres away from me. Emma, Elizabeth, Andrew, Tom and Tess were on one side, and Raine, Lilly, Liam, Dan, Gabby and Flo were on the other.
They scattered to opposite sides of the arena place to get ready, and, after a few minutes of silence, I dropped down from my tree and scooped up some mud, thankful that it had rained earlier today. Quickly, I caked my t-shirt in it and moved away from the tree, making sure my mask was secure. It was.
I jogged slowly and cautiously to the left- down to Emma's side of the arena, taking care that I could see well ahead of me, in case someone started running out to meet the other team or whatever.
I had nearly reached Emma's end of the arena when Liam shouted loudly; "Are you ready?"
There was a chorus of yes' from a few metres away.
"Go!" Liam shouted, and everyone started to run forward, straight past my hiding place, where I'd dived to when I'd heard Liam. I counted five figures running past. That was everyone then. Smiling to myself, I crept forward, keeping a lookout for everyone. I spotted the flag up ahead, and there was no one around that I could see.
I darted forward until I was behind a bush, a metre away from the flag. I wasn't going to let anyone spot me and give the game away- it would be more amusing if both sides couldn't find the other's flag and no one realised that they had been stolen.
Checking again, I saw that there was no one doubling back to guard the flag, and no one from the other team either. I swiped the flag. It was dark blue, and, because the flag pole had been long ago broken, was hanging from a branch. I tucked the material through the belt loops in my shorts and moved away quickly, amazed that I'd been able to get the flag so easily. I darted back through the trees, but stopped almost immediately, sliding under a bush.
Up ahead, I spotted Andrew, sitting in a tree, paintball gun poised, ready to shoot anyone heading towards the flag. He was barely visible, and I certainly wouldn't have noticed him if I'd been running the other way. Looking around, I spotted Tom, a little further away, on lookout duty, just like Andrew. These two would be hard to slip past.
Cautiously, I eased forward, waiting for a good moment, and realising there wasn't going to be one. I held up my gun, and pointed it at in the direction I was heading. I didn't bother with exact aims- what was the point of them? As long as I got a general direction, my shots did exactly what I needed them too. I pulled the trigger and an ear-splitting BANG echoed in the space around me.
Andrew and Tom jumped to attention, and pulled up their guns, staring at the space ahead of them. So neither of them noticed me sneak underneath Andrew's tree and climb stealthily up behind him. I was so close I could hear him breathing. Quickly but carefully, I checked his pockets, seeing which had his ammo in, and, with an ease that I'd never had before, pick pocketed him, and dropped him ammo quietly on the ground, putting a crumpled up piece of paper in his pocket instead.
Admittedly, it was the list of the default computer programmes, but this was vengeance I wanted, and I could always redo the list later. I slipped out of the tree, and kicked all of Andrew's ammo, scattering it, then sent another shot out the way I'd come, so that, if Tom had stopped being so focussed on the path ahead, his full attention was on it again.
I repeated the process with Tom, only this time, replacing his ammo with a packet of chewing gum. I'd reclaim it later. I scattered his ammo too, then, tucking myself right up next to the tree, shot behind me.
Andrew and Tom cussed in unison, and tried to turn around in the tree, to see how anyone had got past them. I ran for it.
Up ahead, I could begin to hear the gun shots and the shouting, so decided to stick to the arena wall and stay as quiet as possible.
I passed by the majority of the others with ease- they were too busy dodging shots and firing at the other team to notice me, covered in mud, twenty metres from the side in the growing darkness of the evening.
I skirted around Gabby and Flo, who were presumably supposed to be guarding the flag, but were playing rock, paper, scissors instead.
Finally, after another two minutes of being stealthy and quiet, I spotted the end of the arena, and the flag. Unfortunately for me, this lot had decided to step up their guard a bit more, and Liam was standing in front of the flag, eyes trained on the trees around him. I crouched down, trying to figure out how to get past Liam and to the flag, which was still hanging from a partially broken pole, and was dark green. I bit my lip and thought harder.
This wasn't like the last time I had played- that was just shoot everyone down on sight and reach the other side (we'd varied the rules a bit because none of us could be bothered with the flags). Once everyone from one team was either tied up or unable to move, or one whole team had reached the opposite side, the game had been won.
This game, however, required a bit more subtlety- which I didn't have- as if my master plan was to work, no one should know the flags were gone. If I knocked out Liam, or tied him up, it would kind of give the game away.
I considered all of this carefully, then started to creep forward, dividing my attention between where I was going, and the pattern I was beginning to make out in Liam's 'random' scanning of the space around him.
First, he would look to his left, opposite from where I was, then he would look up, and check the branches of the trees around him, to make sure no one was trying to climb over him (which would be virtually impossible to do anyway), then he would look straight ahead, then to the right. However, rather than going immediately back to the left, he went back to looking forward, then up, then left, before the process repeated itself. If I was going to get past, I would have to wait until he'd turned to look up in the trees, just after he'd looked right (towards where I was). That would hopefully give me anything from fifteen seconds to thirty seconds, which didn't really feel like a lot of time. The plus was that Liam never once looked behind him.
Liam looked straight ahead, and I prepared to run, moving from a crouch to a half-crouch half-standing position. Liam looked right. I leaned forward, tensing my legs slightly, taking a deep breath. Liam looked up. I set off, jogging a further ten metres to his right, so I would be hopefully be past the very edge of his peripheral vision. Liam looked straight forward. I compared the distance and decided I should probably add in another five metres. Liam looked left. I sprinted forward, diving into some bushes as quietly as possible.
I lay there for a few minutes, calming down a bit, and trying to catch a glimpse of Liam, to make sure he was still looking forward and that he hadn't spotted me.
I decided he hadn't and crawled out from under the bush, silently moving to the flag and pulling it off the pole, less than a metre behind Liam. I pulled it through my belt loops, like I had done with the other flag, and was backing away again, but, suddenly, I had an idea. Scooping up some leaves, I leaned forward, barely daring to breathe, and swapped his ammo for a bunch of leaves.
Deciding that I'd had my fun, I moved to his right, until I reached the arena wall. While I waited for Liam to look left again, I chucked the ammo on the ground. Liam looked left, and I sprinted full out, not bothering to stop until I spotted Gabby and Flo up ahead again.
Once again, I skirted around the two of them leaving them their ammo because the pick pocketing could only work so many times, and well, I was saving those times for everyone else (the end result; two eight year olds with ammo, everyone else with pocketfuls of leaves). Of course, my plan could only work if everyone was standing still, as I couldn't exactly pickpocket them by standing in front of them, and I wasn't good enough for anything more than the basics.
Luckily for me, I managed to get my own back on Dan, Elizabeth, Emma, Raine and Lilly. Tess, however, evaded me every step of the way- she never stopped moving! I deemed my work done for the day and took my leave before anyone realised they had run out of paint.
Outside the arena I pulled of my mask and gloves and dunked my ammo and gun. I pulled out the two flags and placed the two of them on the ground, overlapping each other. I stood back to appreciate it for a second, then went off to find leaves. True to my form of immaturity, I turned up a few minutes later and arranged my pile of leaves in the shape of an A. It was wet enough from the rain earlier today, and the wind wasn't too strong, so the flags and the leaves would stay that way at the least long enough for the others to notice them when they came out.
Happily, I jogged back to my room, gathering a few funny looks from other people, and took a long shower, shoving my dirty clothes aside and pulling on some clean, identical ones because I felt like being difficult and making them all question whether I had been at the arena or not.
It was another two hours before they turned up, muddy, grumpy and annoyed with me, at my door.