I am writing non-stop right now, just wrote Chapter 3 - Introduction. Guess what the naming scheme is for these chapters. ALSO, REVIEW! 1 READ = 1 REVIEW, ALRIGHT? REVIEWS WILL HELP ME WRITE BETTER, WHICH I NEED TO DO! UNDERSTOOD?
It was the first class of the first day I was out of the infirmary. Of course, it just had to be Advanced Self Preservation, my worst class, although I was fairly good at staying alive. And we just had to be firing handguns at moving targets.
"Hey, Ben," Stephanie called from behind me, skipping over to me. "Good to see you out of the nurse's office!" She had been acting very nice to me recently, which was the whole time I knew her.
"Hi," I said, happy to have someone near me. Most people steered clear of me, knowing my tendency to miss targets by a few meters at point-blank distance.
"Ben and Stephanie, you will be tested in Firearms Handling today, as you," she said, looking in my direction, "had the accuracy of a blind elephant, and I expect that you want to make up for your getting knocked out in the surprise exam. And you, Stephanie," she said, much more kindly, "never had the chance to get the test."
I went first. I was happy to be doing this with a very pretty girl next to me, but at the same time, not so much so, as my shooting skills were "as dangerous as a wet piece of tissue paper". Aiming came naturally, as my calculations were always spot-on, but firing was the problem here. Two shots actually hit the target, but the rest missed.
"Umm… how do I shoot a gun?" Stephanie asked timidly, "I never learned how to do it."
Professor Simon showed her how to load, aim, and shoot a handgun, and she actually managed to hit the target on her first shot. The next 7, however, were not so successful, hitting multiple other students (they were rubber bullets) in the process. "Try to aim more steadily," Professor Simon advised.
Frustrated, Stephanie gripped the gun harder and tried to shoot, but when she pulled the trigger, it somehow spun out of her hands, over her shoulder, and hit me in the head, then clattered to the ground. "AARRRGGHH!" I shouted, out of pain and surprise. Stephanie rushed over and tried to help me, but couldn't, because you can't do anything about pain, and Professor Simon simply frowned.
"That was one of the most ingenious actions I have ever seen!"
"err… that was a mistake, " Stephanie started to protest, but the bell rang and we were dismissed.
Stephanie said, "meet me in the library after the last class!" and hurried off before I could ask why.
Eight hours later, I arrived at the library, breathless from running, to see Stephanie waiting patiently for me with about a dozen books stacked around her. She was reading some book about cryptography. "Hey, you're here!" She swept her hair back and smiled. I was once again breathless as I saw her friendly eyes and smile. I was wrong about her being less beautiful than Erica. She was as pretty as Erica, and had a warm, welcoming aura, unlike Erica's demeanor. "What are you waiting for? Come here," she called.
"Y-yeah," I stammered, and quickly sat down next to her, trying not to look awkward. Then I realized all my friends, except for Erica, were also sitting there at the table. Mike raised an eyebrow at me, Jawa had an amused look on his face, and Chip was snickering. Zoe was glowering at either me or Stephanie. Shoot. Everyone knew about my interest in Stephanie.
"Already falling for Stephanie now?" Chip whispered.
"No," I denied, way too quickly. I had a tendency to do that when asked about very pretty girls.
"Hey, I heard that," Stephanie snapped, looking at Chip, "and it's okay to like me. It's better than liking Erica, who has no feelings towards anyone," she said, smiling at me. My cheeks burned and my heart pounded. It was at this moment that Erica walked in.
"I see you're warming up to each other," she said, without any hint of emotion. She walked over and took the remaining seat. "So, what did you call us here for?" She asked.
"We have been chosen as part of a top secret mission against SPYDER." Stephanie announced.
"SPYDER? I thought I would be notified of this first, or at least Ben. We're the ones who have the most knowledge about them. And Cyrus would have arranged this, if this is a mission against SPYDER, and he hates you." Erica said, frowning.
"First of all, it was my uncle, your father, who arranged this," Stephanie started.
"Wait, Alexander arranged a mission? He's hardly competent as a spy!" I burst in. I didn't want to interrupt this argument, but I was astonished that he was arranging a whole mission, and that I was on it.
"Calm down. He isn't a good spy, but he is good at plagiarising other, much smarter spies' plans, and appealing to the higher-ups to get it accepted," Erica explained.
"And that attitude towards him is what makes Alexander like his niece better than his own daughter," Stephanie snapped, "which is why Alexander notified me" first, instead of you, who would only berate him for being a bad spy. He gets hurt when you do that. He has feeling too, you know!" Stephanie was shouting now, red-faced and shaking with anger. Stephanie seemed to be very defensive about Alexander. I made a mental note not to mention him in front of her.
"I don't care. He deserves it for not being honest with his work and being a shame to the family, like you are." Erica insulting someone so directly was rare, unless that person was Alexander, and it meant she was very angry with someone, and was bad news for the recipient. I could see things were getting serious.
"Sounds just like the Ice Queen would say," Stephanie snapped. Apparently she knew about Erica's nickname. "Of course you don't care, you never care about anyone but yourself."
Both were suddenly standing, and Erica looked ready to lunge at Stephanie, Stephanie the same, although she would end up with several broken bones if that were to actually happen. "Hey! I think we should stop being angry with each other and talk about the mission right now," Mike burst in. I waited for a flurry of violence that would end with multiple dislocated limbs and unconscious people, but to my surprise and relief, it never happened.
"Sure," they both said. And they sat down, although still glowering at each other.
"Well… what's the mission supposed to be?" I asked, wanting to re-start the conversation as fast as possible without any new conflicts.
"Honestly, I don't know yet," Stephanie confessed. "But from the fact that I was included, I think it is some kind of hacking scheme."
"Well, when do we get to know?" Erica asked impatiently.
"Our orders are to meet at the Nathan Hale Building at midnight."
"Well, see you then." Erica trotted out of the library. Everyone except for Stephanie started to exit, but Stephanie told me to stay and follow her to her room for some extra studies. I vigorously agreed, happy to spend some time with Stephanie alone.
"Hey, can I have a word with Ben for a sec?" Mike said, grabbing me and pulling me out of the library. Once he was sure that nobody was listening, he said, "What's wrong with your forehead?" referring to the spot where Stephanie hit me.
"Somehow she managed to propel a gun backwards while firing it and hit me in the head whilst doing it."
Mike laughed. "Seriously? She's worse than you!"
"Yeah, I guess, although I did hear that Erica was giving her lessons before she came here. Not guns though."
He leaned in to whisper, "She likes you, you know?"
"No way," I said, managing to not say it too quickly. However, I was not able to hide the excitement in my voice.
"Seriously. By the way she smiles at you, I can see it," Mike said. Was this true? Mike was an expert on these things after all. He knew that Zoe had a crush on me, too.
"I don't know, but I can see that you failed at wooing her with your smile," I teased.
"Everything okay back there?" Stephanie called.
"Well, I'll be going. Good luck with Stephanie!" Mike said as he walked away. Heart racing, I walked back in.
"What took you so long?" Stephanie inquired.
"Ummmm… we were talking about… stuff," I said.
"Well, I won't ask more. Let's go!" she exclaimed, and she grabbed my hand. Heart racing again, I followed.
It was when we were walking towards the dormitory building that I noticed the heavy bag of books she was holding. "Here, let me hold that for you," I said, wanting to be somewhat polite and help her. She gratefully gave me the bag. It was very heavy, at least a third of my own weight, but I tried not to sag from the weight.
When we finally reached her room, I heaved a sigh and put the bag down. I was sweating from the exertion, and having an increased heart rate didn't help. "So, what are those books about and why did you bring me here?" I asked, panting.
"Cryptography and basic computer science. You're going to need this by tomorrow. Let's see… you have seven hours to read it all. That ought to be enough," she said, handing me a bundle of books that looked like it would take seven weeks to read. As if she read my mind, she said, "Go through the cryptography ones first and search for the concepts you don't know in the computer science books. You'll like crypto; it's mostly math, and just skim through them. Alright?"
"Yeah, I'll read it all," I said. "Umm… I'll be going now."
"Yup! Good luck!" she exclaimed cheerfully.
When I got back to my room, I examined the books. I decided to start with a book titled: The Code Book. It seemed to be about the history and evolution of cryptography.
For thousands of years, kings, queens, and generals have relied on efficient communications in order to govern their countries and command their armies...
I have finally concluded this chapter, to anyone who's reading this. Probably nobody's reading this. Thank you for reading this. Anyways, the book, The Code Book , is a really good book, one of my favorites, along with Permanent Record . Try to read it if you can, it's a really great book, especially if you are interested in cryptography. Final word, making chapters longer is kind of working now, and I won't update for a month or so because of my semester finals. Wish me luck.