It was the day of the Academic Decathlon.
And Peter was no where to be found.
God, I was about to murder that boy.
I knew that Ned knew what he was up to. I also knew Ned was an easy nut to crack.
"Where's Peter?" I asked Ned for the third time as I peeked up over the bus seat to look over his shoulder. We were almost at the Decathlon and Peter was a no-show.
Ned only looked down at his phone, pretending not to hear me.
"Ned," I pressed. "I know you know where he is. So help me I will—"
"Alright!" Ned said.
That was easy.
Ned lowered his voice. "Peter brought the suit."
I clenched my teeth and rolled my eyes. "And what's he doing?"
"He's following a tracker he put on a criminal yesterday," Ned said quickly, not making eye contact.
"And he didn't tell me?" I asked, rather offended. Peter told me nearly everything.
"Cause you aren't in any shape to fly," Ned said. He clapped a hand over his mouth. "Peter told me not to say that."
"I mean, he's right; I'm not," I began, "but, this criminal low-life is bigger than the thing we've been preparing for for months?" I stuttered, trying to understand Peter's logic.
"Eve," Ned lowered his voice even more so. "These guys are using alien tech."
My eyes narrowed as I tried to wrap my head around what he had said.
The Academic Decathlon seemed to go by so quickly compared to all those hours of practice. But we emerged as champions, all without the help of Peter.
Our team celebrated as we exited the building in our mustard-yellow blazers and stared up at the Washington Monument. We had a day of sigh-seeing ahead of us.
I couldn't really focus as Peter was still missing and my wound was sore from all the walking we had already done.
Ned picked up his ringing phone as we made our way through security to go up to the top of the Washington Monument.
"Peter?" I mouthed. Ned nodded. "Tell him I'm gonna kill him," I said.
"Don't worry it's safe, it's in my backpack," Ned told Peter on the other end as he hoisted his bag on the conveyer belt to be x-rayed.
"You missed the Decathlon, I covered for you," said Ned, annoyed with his friend.
I pulled the phone from Ned's hand. "Peter I swear, you are so lucky we won, 'cause I'm gonna—"
"Miss, all things on the belt, please," the security guard said.
I hung up and put the phone down.
Our group boarded the elevator with a tour guide, listening to arbitrary facts as we went up the obelisk.
A dull blast shook the elevator beneath our feet.
"What the—" I breathed.
BOOM! The elevator was filled with a purple glow. The whole stone monument shook.
I cursed. My heart was pounding as my wings slid back against the metal elevator wall.
Ned threw his backpack down in the middle of the elevator, it being the source of the purple glow and explosion.
"Look at the ceiling," someone noticed.
Above us was a red ring of heated metal.
My peers began mumbling various "we're all gonna die" statements which was most definitely unhelpful.
"I know that was scary," the tour guide began, "but our safety systems are working. We are very safe in here."
I couldn't help but to doubt her.
We worked as a group and got the elevator top hatch open and began hoisting people out. Above us, I could hear the cables snapping under tension.
I was in no condition to fly myself out of this one.
As one by one, my peers began climbing out, the elevator took another lurch downward, then another, then another.
"Your turn, Eve," Mr. Harrington said.
"No way," I said. "Let someone else go. I can fly myself out if I need to."
Another student climbed out.
All that was left was me, Ned, and Mr. Harrington.
The elevator took another lurch.
"Go, Eve," Mr. Harrington insisted.
It looked like we had sunk down the shaft too far to reach the top floor by simply climbing.
I crawled up through the hole in the roof. I wasn't supposed to be doing anything strenuous like climbing, let alone flying.
The shaft was hardly wide enough for my wings to get a flap in, but a good jump was all it took to grab the outstretched hand of a person at the top. As they pulled me up onto the floor, I gritted my teeth at the sensation of the pointed ledge against my wrapped torso.
I could feel I had messed up my stitches as I came to a painful stand on firm ground.
Just as I had gotten my footing, the elevator cable snapped completely.