Hey there! I hope you all had a good week! I started virtual again this week, so it's taking a bit of adjusting not seeing people anymore, but I'm planning to write a bunch while at home. This chapter brings in a subplot, a twist and probably false opinions on the "Berica/Zen" spectrum. I hope you enjoy! I will just mention, I borrowed off a friends story for the twist, so it's not completely my idea. Anyways, hope you all have a great week, and I'll see you in the next one! (figuratively...)
Chapter Eight
Realisation
C.I.A. Personal Chalet
Montreal Quebec
December 31
0800 hours
"Good morning Ben!" Erica said happily, sitting on the couch reading a book.
"Morning." I muttered sleepily.
7 months ago I had wondered what Xorvat was, why my mom was an enemy agent, and if Cyrus was okay.
Now, I rarely think about any of it. Nothing had happened except school, my fourteenth birthday, summer break, and more school. Oh yes, and Mike and Zoe started dating.
The school had decided that this year for Christmas and New Year they would send us to chalets in a different country, just so we could get perspective of different areas of the world.
They sent us off to Canada, and we had spent time on a private ski hill. It was awesome.
There were ten students and one teacher per chalet.
I was happy with mine. There were only two that I knew really well, but I had made new friends as well.
- Erica
- Jawa
- Emma
- Timothy
- Joanna
- Jack
- Paisley
- Jason
- Charlotte
- Finn
And our teacher - or in our case monitor - was Chip.
We hadn't only skied. We had also tubed, ice fished, snowshoed, skated and every other winter activity you can imagine, along with polar dips. We did training too. We played classic games of manhunt but with paintball guns, and it had been along the ski hill, so we had hundreds of acres to run through.
"I made breakfast." Erica said, getting off the couch and coming into the kitchen after me.
"You made breakfast? I thought Chip was making breakfasts."
"His breakfasts suck."
"True."
She handed me a plate with pancakes on it.
"I hope these are better than my Mom's." I muttered.
"Trust me, they are. Your Mom lost her touch."
"How do you know?"
Erica rolled her eyes.
I sat down at the island, and started eating. Slowly, other kids came out of the bedrooms and Erica gave them food. Emma was the only one who sat down at the island with me.
"What do you want to do today?" She asked.
"I'm not really sure. We're going home in a few days, so I want to make the most of it."
"We could go get hot chocolate!" She said happily.
"I can make hot chocolate just fine thank you." Erica put in.
"I didn't say you couldn't," Emma muttered.
"I think I'm going to stay here today." I said, with a smile.
"I think I'm going to go skiing with Timothy." She said.
"I'm going to read." Erica said quietly.
"Did I ask your opinion?" Emma snapped.
Erica looked like she wanted to rip her arm from her shoulder. I glanced nervously between them, as they stared at each other angrily.
Emma had a profound hatred of Erica, and she was the only thing that ever drowned her overly hyper mood. It was mostly out of jealousy.
"Ben, you are coming with me." Erica said quickly, and then grabbed my hand. I glanced warily at her hand, and then at Emma. I grimaced, and then got out of my seat and followed Erica from the kitchen.
Surprisingly, she passed the living room where all the others were sitting, but brought me outside. I was not dressed for the weather. The cold wind was dragging the snow from the ground and was whirling around in the air. Within seconds, I was chilled to the bone. Erica looked completely fine.
"I can't stand Emma." She groaned, kicking the snow at her feet angrily.
"Why?" I asked.
"She's always so happy, and she doesn't like me."
"Being happy isn't a problem is it?"
"She also likes you."
"She does not."
"Does too. It's so obvious. All the other kids took their food and went to the living room to hangout. You and I were the only ones in the kitchen, and she decided to stay."
"We're friends."
"She likes you. And you know it. You are just embarrassed."
"What's your problem with my relationships?!" I cried. I completely lost my temper with her.
"Fine. Be that way." And then she stormed off to the back of the cottage.
Emma came out the front door and stood beside me.
"What's wrong with her?" She asked looking after Erica.
"She's annoyed." I replied simply.
"I know that. But why?"
"I don't know. She's annoyed with me I guess."
"You didn't do anything wrong."
"How do you know?"
"I don't. You just don't seem like the type to do something wrong."
I didn't feel like going behind Erica's back, but Emma was my friend, and I trusted her.
"She's jealous."
"About what?"
"Me."
"Why?"
"I don't want to get into it right now."
Honestly, I did. But I knew I shouldn't, and Erica was already annoyed enough with me.
We fell into awkward silence after that. I could tell we both wanted to go inside, (We were both visibly shaking) but neither of us wanted to go first.
I could hear the kids from the other chalets getting ready to have a day of activity. I heard Zoe somewhere in the distance, as her voice was quite distinctive. I heard Chip rounding up kids inside, and then I heard the sounds of kids feet walking through the snow.
I also heard my phone beeping inside my pocket. And Emma's.
We both turned them on, and then read the message that had popped up in our Notification Center. And I wish that message had never popped up.
"Ben!" Erica cried suddenly, skidding around the corner.
"I saw!" I said back, and then we both quickly went back into the house.
Emma followed, but before Erica could tell her to go away, I told her to come. Erica shot me an annoyed glance, but didn't say no.
"It's not like she won't be hearing about it soon." I told Erica.
She went up the stairs, and onto the carpeted hallway upstairs. There were 13 doors lining the hall. There were five doors on either side. All the students' rooms. Girls on one side, and boys the other. There had been some protest of this when we first moved in, but had been resolved. At the end, there were three doors. The middle one was Chips' room. On either side of the door were two bathrooms. Erica continued straight into Chips' room.
"Are we even allowed in here?" I asked.
"What do I care?" Erica responded.
She opened the door quietly, and then walked in. The room was a mess. There were week old clothes strewn everywhere from the bed to the top of cabinets. He had files piling up on his desk, and his bed looked as if it hadn't been made - or washed for that matter - since we had arrived.
"Disgusting." Erica muttered. She went over to a chair, and with the tips of her fingers pushed the papers from it, onto the floor. And then she sat in it, and waited for Emma and I to navigate our way around the mess of the floor.
Emma closed the door, but then opened it when Erica said -
"Don't close that door and lock me in this horrid room."
Emma stood in the doorway, apparently afraid that Erica would flatten her if she did anything else wrong. I sat on the desk he had pulled out to the middle of his room. I didn't care about the papers or the clothes, I just sat down on top of them.
"We know now it's confirmed." Erica started.
"We didn't get ahead of them." I said.
"Which means there's a high probability that we won't get ahead of them now."
"They've outsmarted us!" I cried.
"You're acting as if the world has come to an end."
"It has, hasn't it?"
"Someone please explain!" Emma spoke for the first time since our entry to the house.
"I've given up on this girl." Erica muttered so that only I heard.
"Give her a chance!" I exclaimed under my breath back to her.
"You explain then." Erica snapped. And then she bent down and started looking through Chip's files.
So I did. I started at the beginning, how Erica suddenly appeared in Florida, and then all the way to the time when we arrived back at school and forgot about it.
Erica sounded like she wanted to intervene at every story turn, but she didn't.
"And that notification proved that we were correct and we are late." I concluded.
Emma looked only mildly surprised. It was when she smiled that I got creeped out.
"Do you want to know a fun fact?" She asked, sounding as if she was trying to hold back laughter.
"Sure, I-"
But she interrupted me.
"I knew all of this already." she said.
Erica's eyes widened in surprise - maybe sudden realisation of something - but I wasn't surprised. I was just overly confused.
"What do you mean?" I asked her.
"Well isn't it obvious?" she asked with a super creepy laugh.
"No it isn't." Erica said coldly. "And I'm surprised you pulled it off with your size of brain."
"Please, please explain!" I said, a bit louder than I intended to.
"No explanation. This will be enough." Erica said.
"No Erica please don't!" Emma pleaded.
"Don't tell me what to do. Ben, meet Sophia. Sophia Hale."
