A/N: Sorry about the long wait. There's just been a lot of stuff going on with me, but I'm not going to bore you guys with the details.
Before I go on, I just want to thank you guys so, so much for the reviews, subs, and favorites. The reviews especially. They give me such a lift when I feel down =)
With that in mind, I want to give a shout out especially to ConfusingStateofMind – whose review of Ant Invasion I still read every once in a while - especially lately with my recent crisis of confidence. I just love the ego boost from reading that review. =)
Just one more thing. I think from now on we're going to have to consider this fic A/U, because I looked ahead to synopses of future Ant Farm episodes and I think there's a good chance that some of my stuff might not make any more sense.
Anyway, the story goes on…
Chapter 6
Olive was bored to tears. There was only so many times that Olive could read this book. She flipped through the pages of the 2014 almanac, for what felt like the millionth time.
Chyna was gone – to dress rehearsals. Chyna's parents were downstairs in the lobby sharing a dinner together. Cameron was gone as well; she didn't even want to think about what the boy might be up to…
And so Olive was all alone in the Parks' suite, with no idea of when anybody was coming back, and nothing to do. This wasn't quite what Olive had in mind for a second night in New York.
She looked at the time –
There was a bright side, at least. Fletcher was due to arrive at the Diamond Hotel anytime now. So she'll have some company pretty soon.
It was probably a blessing in disguise, now that she came to think about it. Without Chyna in the mix, maybe she'd have her opportunity to get to know Janice a little better -
Sure, Olive had hit a few rough spots with Janice in the past, but since then they'd gotten along pretty well. Maybe this trip was her chance to finally, really, become friends with her!
Olive felt a smile on her face. There was always a bright side to things, if you try hard enough to look for it. But an hour was too long a time to be doing nothing.
She made a decision. She wasn't going to wait around for Fletcher.
She closed her book and left the suite. She was sure that there was something better to do – anywhere else.
Olive felt very uncomfortable right away when she hit the top of the stairs of the hotel lobby. It was bad enough that the place was busy – really, really busy – that in itself was usually enough to make Olive uncomfortable in most situations - but everyone she saw on the floor looked absolutely dressed to impress.
Olive felt like she was at the Oscars – what with everybody dressed in tailor made suits and fancy looking dresses. She even spied Chyna's dad among the crowd, dressed in slacks and long sleeves. The only time she'd ever seen the man dress up before was in his police uniform!
Darryl spotted her, waved, and went in through a door with Mrs. Parks by his side. She eyed the overhead sign – it read Guillan's. She guessed it had to be the hotel bar, or something like that.
Needless to say, Olive felt very out of place. Here she was, in a simple blouse and jeans. She didn't belong here. She was definitely second guessing her impulse to leave the suite…
Maybe it was better to wait for Fletcher and Janice, before deciding what to do. Yea, that was it. She'd wait. There was nothing wrong with facing absolute boredom for one more hour.
She made to go back up the stairs, when she noticed a distinct shape among the swirling, mixing shapes and colors of the crowd – the wide frame, the sloppy posture, the messy hair –
Suddenly, she forgot all about her fear of the busy, dressy crowd. She dived straight into the river of people, with no hesitation -
"Angus – oof – Angus-!" She called out, again and again. It felt useless. She strained to get her voice atop the crowd's, but the lobby was so loud, and very quickly, the back of the boy who she knew to be Angus was swerving from view –
She moved quickly through the lobby, but it wasn't quick enough. She came to a point in the lobby where the crowd had thinned and she felt free enough to shake her arms loose. Two doors and a hallway spanned her view, and she didn't know which way Angus had taken.
Exasperated, she took out her phone. She had Angus on dial immediately. She waited as she listened to the dial tone, but after a few rings the call had went straight to voicemail. A cold feeling washed over her as she looked at her phone.
A deep, friendly voice had snuck up on her, "I see you've got the latest Sprint smartphone. The TX-3. I got one, too!"
Olive turned. It was Gervin, the ice cream man from Washington Square. "Oh, hi!" Normally she would've been happy to see a friendly face, but Olive found that she suddenly lacked the enthusiasm to put any sincerity behind her greeting. But if the man had noticed it, he didn't show it. Smiling eyes greeted her atop a full beard. The beard was so prominent, she couldn't tell where the smile of his mouth began and where it ended.
"Sorry to sneak up on you like that," Gervin apologized. He made to wipe an imaginary tear from his eye. "It's just always nice to see another TXT-er."
The joke brought a smile to Olive's face. "It's ok. Right back at ya," she said, this time with more of that typical Doyle friendliness.
"Anyway – sorry to bother you. You look like you were in a hurry to go somewhere. I just wanted to remind you, feel free to stop by Tien's again, anytime. We're always happy to see customers return."
"Oh, thanks! And oh – I'm not really, in a hurry to go somewhere – it's just that I saw my friend, I saw him walk over here, but then I lost him – "
"Was it a really big kid? Looks about 16, had on a really bad combination of a yellow shirt and green slacks?"
"That's the one – and I know, the color combo is an eyesore, right?"
Gervin laughed a husky, merry laugh. "Well, he made his way over to the front desk. If you hurry now, you probably can still catch him – "
"Thanks a lot, Gervin!" In her rush, she forgot to say goodbye to the old man.
Olive had caught up to Angus. He was still at the front desk, in a discussion with Marion, the creepy manager who had checked the Parks in yesterday. Marion was slumped over on a desk, a pained expression on his face. "I SWEAR, it's as if god invented kids solely for the purpose of making my life miserable!" He complained.
Normally, Olive would've laughed at the sight of a grown man whining like Marion was, but Olive stayed silent as she took in the scene.
What was Angus doing here?
"Look mister, I'm just saying, why would you charge me for an extra day. I wasn't even here that long." Angus said.
"I just told you!" Marion whined again. "Check out time was at 12 noon. What is it that you don't understand?"
"What I don't understand is how I'm going to come out 300 dollars lighter than I expected to. Do you know how much 300 dollars is? That's like, 5 lunches. That's a lot of food!"
Marion gasped. "Where in the world do you eat, sir?"
"That's not really any of your business! Anyway, I don't see what the problem is. If you can just take back my third day – "
"Still thinking with your belly, I see." Olive said loudly, interrupting the argument. Manager and boy turned, spotting Olive.
Suddenly, Angus took on a whole new, accommodating demeanor when he spoke to the manager. He was backing up now, " – You know what, Marion. I see your point. I am checking out way after check out time. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I'll just be heading out now – "
Angus turned, but was stopped when Olive grabbed a hold of his arm. "Not so fast, Angus."
Angus slowly turned. He had a wide, red smile on his face. "Olive! Oh wow. So crazy seeing you here! Small world, who would've thought – of all the places – you look great by the way! Digging that hairstyle! Anyway, I got to go – "
"You're not going anywhere." Olive said. She wasn't mad yet, but she felt really confused, and frustrated. She was so surprised to see Angus and yet he didn't look at all surprised to see her.
The fake smile was gone from Angus's face. "I'm sorry Olive," he said seriously. "I didn't mean to – like this – the way I wanted it was easier," he spun, and made for the front door.
What the? Angus was making no sense!
Olive walked in quick, small strides at first as she chased after Angus – but then the strides got wider, until she skipped walking altogether – she was in a light jog now. She realized Angus could move faster than she thought –
The next thing she knew, she felt the cool air of the Manhattan night hit her face. The humming, milling of the hotel lobby was replaced with noisy, honking cars, rustling air and even a distant siren -
But she ignored all that, as she spotted Angus running to the Northwest corner of the block. He was about to cross the street when he seemed stopped by some invisible force. He side – stepped left and then side – stepped right, but still, he looked stymied and unable to cross the barrier between curb and street.
It was when she finally caught up to Angus that she saw what was keeping him. Chyna was blocking Angus from crossing the street. She had a stern, cross look on her face that Olive had only seen fixed at the likes of Lexi Reed, and well, Janice –
"Chyna, can you please let me go?" Angus pleaded.
"No. Not until we finish this conversation!" Chyna said firmly.
Olive heard, but she didn't understand. "Finish the conversation? What conversation?" Olive wondered.
Both Chyna and Angus stopped looking at each other right then, and turned to face Olive.
"Olive, you're here!" Chyna plastered a grin on her face. "How was your night?"
Olive rubbed at the sudden tension on her forehead. "Not so good, right now Chyna. What's going on?"
Chyna had a sympathetic look on her face, while Angus had a very much, fish out of water expression.
Silence loomed.
"Well, is somebody going to tell me? Because it's looking more and more like my two best friends are keeping a secret from me."
Chyna had opened her mouth to say something, when, a perky female voice joined the mix: "Olive! You're here too! Aww. You Ants really go everywhere together!"
Olive turned to see who it was - she hadn't seen this girl in months. It was Maddie, dressed in a dark gray blouse and a long, black skirt. She was positively beaming as she joined the group, until she saw the sour look on everyone's faces. After a long moment of everyone looking at each other, Maddie licked the tip of her index finger and held it up to the air, as if testing the wind. "That tension in the air. Does anyone feel it?" She joked.
Maddie laughed, to which no one joined in. "Awkward," she said. The smile slipped off her face. "I don't understand," she said, but then right after she said it, it looked like she did understand.
Maddie turned to Angus. "None of your friends were ever supposed to know, were they?"
Maddie took Angus's silence as an affirmative. She tsk-ed, "I can't say I'm not disappointed in you, kiddo."
Maddie was walking off now. "I really hope you kids work it out," she said honestly. Maddie looked to Chyna, and Angus –
Olive felt like Maddie took an especially long look at her –
It startled Olive a bit, to see the pitying look on Maddie's face. But why would Maddie feel sorry for her? Very awkwardly, Olive waved Maddie hello, to which Maddie mouthed, "Hi, sweetie."
Maddie finally, walked off, and then sped up to a gallop. She screamed, "Wait up, Jacques!"
And then it was three again. Olive looked to Chyna and Angus, who looked every bit as awkward as she was annoyed.
"Someone tell me what is going on now," Olive said. Her patience was really thinning. She felt like she just wanted to snap – mostly at Angus – who'd been frustrating her for about the past month now –
All those times she'd tried to talk to him and he would just shut her out…
Her words were really directed at Angus, but it was Chyna who spoke. "Angus's leaving the Ant Farm, Olive. He was just, going to leave, and not tell anyone."
"What?"
"It's exactly what Chyna said," Angus confirmed. His words were so soft spoken, Olive had to strain to hear it.
Olive stepped forward, right in Angus's personal space. "Come again?"
"He had a job interview, Olive. Maddie set him up. Angus's basically going to be this anti – Hacker, for some secret organization that works for the government."
"Hey! Why do you have to say it like that? It sounds so stupid when you say it like that!" Angus whined.
"When is Angus supposed to start this job?" Olive asked Chyna, though she was looking right at Angus's face.
"Next week." Chyna answered.
"Oh." She'd been about to blow, like a nuclear reactor overheating because it had too many cracks in it –
She shut it off. She shut everything off. Now she felt about as lively as an Artic wasteland – cold and empty.
"Olive, please don't look like that." Olive heard Angus say. Something about his tone – it made her look Angus in the face. For the first time in weeks, he looked more like the boy she'd been spending time with all these months, and less like the doof that she couldn't figure out.
Something threatened to flicker inside Olive, but she fought it – she remained steady, cold. "Like what?" She said flatly.
"Like – that. It's exactly what I was trying to avoid."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Olive insisted, in that same flat tone.
"C'mon Olive – "
"Save it, Angus." Chyna cut in.
Chyna was obviously coming to Olive's defense, but somehow, it just annoyed Olive. Some parts of her coldness gave way to fire –
"Stuff it, Chyna."
Her friend's dark eyes widened. "Wait. You're mad at me, too?" Chyna was incredulous.
"What do you think?" She spat. The fire inside Olive was about to spread wildly, all it needed was more fuel –
"What did I do?" Chyna asked.
Olive looked into Chyna's huge, disbelieving eyes – and suddenly she had no more energy to light the flame. She was back to feeling cold again. "It's more like what you didn't do," Olive answered, in a dead tone. She spun and turned to re-enter the Diamond, not sparing another look at her friends' faces.
It shouldn't be too long until the next update. Possibly the weekend.
-Go10