Cinder furrowed her brow in a way that, even Carswell had to admit, was fairly adorable. They, as well as Kai, had all met back up in the library for study hall. It was Friday, the rare day when neither Kai or Cinder had band, choir, or a club to take up their free time. A blessing, as Carswell's brain had been exploding with letters and meanings and j's for e all morning.
He was surprised that Kai's new girlfriend (apparently he had actually asked her out at the dance, a fact Carswell had been told a week too late) had agreed to even meet with them at all. After all, she was a busy person. Just right now Cinder was playing lacrosse, the chess team, acting as a tutor for several people, working on a project for a national history competition, and somehow still managing to keep her future valedictorian status. The girl was a machine.
She put the paper on the table after only five minutes of studying it. Carswell felt his heart sink, figuring he had given up already, and Cinder seemed to notice his change in face. She rolled her eyes and starting to pull on her jacket. "The code is incredibly simple. Really, Kai, you're the coding club president. You should've been able to solve this in only a few minutes."
"Maybe I just wanted an excuse to hang out." He said smoothly, laying his chin on his fist. "You really are so busy these days. Any day, really."
"While this is adorable and all," Carswell interrupted, trying not to gag at the couple's flirting, "you still haven't told us just what the code is. Which would be really helpful to know before you leave, because hell knows Kai'd go on a big rant to explain the functions of coding to me. Which, of course, I don't give a crap about. Just thought you should know."
"Where did you get these letters?" Cinder asked, pausing in her shuffle out the door and leaning against the library's wall. This girl was strangely intimidating. She never seemed to show emotion. Even when it was the wee hours of the morning and school had just started, and everyone knew she had spent the last twelve hours sleeping instead of studying, she barely ever blinked.
Still, Kai liked her. Like liked her, which was rare. That had to mean something; maybe Carswell would just have to get to know her a little better. After all, his friend had never been one to waste his heart.
"They appeared in my locker over the weekend, the first two. Then they all started to arrive, quickly, throughout the week. I have an idea who sent them, but I'm blank on what they say or mean or how important they really are. So if you could just please-"
"A equals f. B equals g. Z would equal E. Do you see what I'm getting at?"
"That you really didn't decipher this at all and are just trolling me?"
She rolled her eyes, "No. The code shifts the letters over. By five, to be exact. And if you check, you'll see that I actually did decipher the code, so I wouldn't be a little shit about that, yeah?" Cinder started to finish her walk out, but stopped for a moment to turn around. There was a slight smile on her face this time. "Whoever wrote those must be really smart. And really, really like you. So you'd better appreciate that. Are you coming, Kai? We have Geekclub today."
"Right," Kai punched Carswell on the shoulder lightly and rushed to join his girlfriend. "Later, Thorne. Good luck with all that."
"Yeah," he said uselessly, looking helplessly at the mess of letters on the table. "Alright, five. Five over. I can do this. Five over."
Carswell grabbed a pencil and went to work.
hey, it's me. just a quick question: would you guys like to read the letters? just send me a quick message yes or no, or even just comment. this story is ending, so i you'd like that kind of extra let me know!