Chapter Nine- A Life of Secrets

"Stand up for what you believe in, stand up for others, stand up for the innocent, and stand up for yourself. It's a great feeling to prove that all of the people that put you down and told you that you couldn't were wrong." –Rachel Murray

Aflie stood up in the middle of their conversation and said, "I'm hungry. I'm gonna get some snacks. Anybody want anything?"

They were buried deep in their conversation and managed a small shake of the head as he walked out. He opened the door and a girl feel forward from leaning near the door.

"Oh, Alfie, I was just looking for you," Willow said trying to cover up her eavesdropping.

"Oh, well you found me," Alfie said.

"Willow, how much did you hear?" Nina asked trying to not sound concerned.

"A little bit of this, a little bit of that," she answered nonchalantly.

"Seriously Willow. What did you hear?" Nina asked a little more directly this time, hoping that the ditsy girl would get the hint.

"I heard something about finding a Knowledgeable One and how they know everything. Also how they are protective of their friends and they will give away their knowledge," she answered like it was no big deal.

Willow hopped out of the room after a moment of pause. She never felt the need to stay if the conversation faltered.

"Nina," Alfie said gruffly, "what's the big deal? So she heard some of what we said, I don't get why you're freaking out."

"Aflie, with all that's happened, especially a number of life or death encounters, I don't think we should be telling everybody everything that we know willy-nilly," she responded.

"Alfie, I also think that with all of this business with the Knowledgeable One, we are going to have to be weary of everyone. We can't take chances. Last time was too close of a call. We have to be careful," Fabian said.

"KT you agree with me, right?" Alfie begged her.

"I'm sorry, Aflie," she said, "I see their point and I kind of agree with it."

"Eddie, c'mon man. Your girlfriend was evil last year, but that doesn't stop it now. Willow's innocent. You see my point, right?" Aflie just wanted one of his friends to understand.

"This is different. All someone has to do is come up to Willow and ask what's going on; she could spill all of it out. If this information got in the wrong hands, we could have another disaster," Eddie said with an apologetic look on his face.

Alfie stormed out of the room in a huge, overdramatic huff. "Patricia," KT asked, "you're the only one he didn't hear, what do you think?"

"Well, it's not like we accused Willow of being a spy, we just said we had to be careful, and that's true. I think that we should be cautious, but we can't think that everyone is against us. If we split apart from our friends now just because we are worried… well that's just dumb," Patricia said.

Alfie ran back in and shouted, "I'm standing up for Willow because I know that she didn't do anything wrong!" He slammed the door and ran out of the room.

As he ran down the stairs, Victor yelled, "Don't slam doors, boy! And don't run down the stairs!"

The five looked at each other. They all felt slightly ashamed that they had to always suspect people, but what could you do? They couldn't just let all of their information slip into someone else's hands. It's not like they thought that Willow would deliberately tell anyone, but she could say one small thing and give everything away.

"I hate this feeling," KT complained when she sat down.

"I know what you mean," Fabian said with a large sigh.

Patricia let out a big huff to show her annoyance and fell on to her bed to show that she agreed with their feelings.

"I hate this paranoia!" Eddie shouted in a loud, angry voice as he sat down on the floor in front of Patricia while she was lying down on the bed. He put his head in his hands, a sign that he was frustrated. She ran a hand through his hair.

They all hated being paranoid with a deep passion. They hated how it felt like you had to have one eye ahead of you so you can watch where you're going and one eye behind you to make sure that no one is watching you.

They all sat in their own thoughts about how they hated living a life of secrets, and how it seemed as if no one could be trusted.