Revamped!

[Wow. This is part eight already. I thought we were only on the fifth.]

Forming Clay Soldiers: Part Eight

Commonwealth, The Earthen Union

Wolf takes the binoculars and looks at the date being interrupted by Winter. He tries to get a closer look at their facial expressions to see if he could get a hint of what's going on in that restaurant. All he could read is panic and worry that will lead up to chaos. That wouldn't look good for anyone. He wishes he had some audio context of that situation.

"It looks like an emergency…" Wolf hypothesizes. "But, yes, Winter is cock-blocking them."

"Winter would be the best cock-block out there," Thorne says. "It's like, yeah, you're disappointed that your date is being interrupted but you can't be that mad since it's Winter. She's as beautiful as she is interesting."

Thorne thinks his reasoning is logical. He even glances at Wolf who's nodding while looking through the binoculars. Thorne looks at the girls and he doesn't need the binoculars to see their stabbing glares (Scarlet's resembling a butcher's cleaver and Cress's a plastic knife). Neither grimace fazes Thorne in any way whatsoever since only Wolf could scare the stars out of him.

"Boys are all the same," Scarlet says, not surprised at all. "They think with their dicks."

"Agreed," Cress says.

"Winter is hot and there's no denying that," Thorne argues. While that is a valid point and both Scarlet and Cress agree, it's not helping him.

"Are you done fantasizing Cadet Clay's girlfriend, Ex-Cadet Carswell?" Cress questions.

Thorne tries to get mad at Cress for calling him that (despite it being the current name of their group chat) not only because that's a stab at his pride but his stupid first name was said aloud. Oh, how Cress can poke at his bubble with that cute face of hers.

"I haven't even started," Thorne replies playfully.

Cress rolls her eyes.

-o-

Kai and Cinder stare at Winter in a dumbstruck shock at her presence and appearance. They didn't expect her and she looked like a wreck. Her hair is unkempt, mascara runs down her cheeks, and her entire body was shaking like a bomb about to explode. Cinder and Kai are worried about what could have caused this, especially since she was fine when Cinder last saw her an hour ago, and other people in the restaurant are staring at this emotional wreck of a girl.

"Winter," Cinder says softly, "just take a seat, have some of my food and tell me what happened."

Winter remains standing. "I think Jacin's on drugs, Cinder. He called me and just kept on talking about them. I have to save him! I can't have a repeat of Orion's Beach, Cinder, I need to get to him."

It takes Cinder a while to wrap her head around all that Winter said. She couldn't process the fact that Jacin called her let alone the drugs. It was the mention of Orion's Beach that threw Cinder off the most. Those memories of the last days in Artemisia were buried for many reasons. Kai, on-the-other-hand, isn't sure what's going on as of now but he knows it's something bad.

"Winter…" Cinder mutters. "Calm down and breathe. Overreacting won't solve your problems."

Winter wails like an anguished animal. The restaurant goes silent as do the other people.

"No, Cinder, I can't!" Winter yells.

Before Cinder could get another word in, Winter runs out of the restaurant. Cinder gets up and watches from the inside for a second. She starts to run off as well but stops in her tracks when she remembers that she's on a date. Cinder spins on her heel to face him again and she skids back to the table.

"Look," Cinder starts, "I like you, I really do and me running off again looks really bad but I have to do this. Winter is my family and when you love someone, you share their problems as much as you share their joy."

Cinder turns around again and starts heading out. Kai smirks to himself, admirable about her, as he stands up and brushes himself off.

"Cinder, wait," he calls.

Cinder turns around again. "I'm sorry, Kai, I really am. The way I was raised by Levana was that you could do whatever you want as long as you say sorry which is ironic since she never apologizes but I'm not her so, I'm sorry."

She goes to leave again. Kai rolls his eyes with a small laugh.

"Cinder, look at me for a second."

Cinder turns around again. She sees Kai take out his wallet and drop some bills on their table. Cinder looks up at him a bit confused by his actions.

"What are you still doing here?" Kai questions. "I'll be right behind you. You're losing her."

Cinder smirks, knowing that she picked the right boy to have a crush on. She takes one last bite of her sandwich and drink of water as a kick-starter for energy as they both run out to start following Winter at top speed. This was yet again, the second moment for them that ends with running because of Jacin. If she wasn't worried about him, she'd kick him to the stars.

-o-

"Pass those," Thorne says.

He takes the binoculars from Wolf and looks through them. He sees Winter run out of the restaurant, eventually followed by Cinder and then Kai. They run at top speed as if they were racing towards something or being chased by something else.

"That doesn't seem right…" Thorne mutters.

"And we don't need binoculars to do see that," Scarlet says, taking them from Thorne and throwing them over her shoulder. She stands up. "C'mon, let's go after them."

"I can't run that fast," Cress says.

"Who cares," Wolf says. "You'll eventually catch up to Kai."

The four of them start running the same way, hoping to catch up to the others. They pick up speed as they hear Cinder and Kai call out Winter's name repeatedly to get her to stop. Eventually, Wolf outruns the other three, leaving them behind to catch up to Winter faster.

"With that speed, how did he never catch me?!" Thorne questions. "Do I run faster than Winter?"

Scarlet and Cress roll their eyes.

Up ahead, Winter continues sprinting. She never knew she could run so fast. People in her way throw themselves to the sides and their curses blow past her. She doesn't hear or acknowledge anything that will get in the way for her to find Jacin. Adrenaline is a powerful thing and it's coursing through her veins. It's uncontrollable, especially since her body is already in overdrive.

Winter sees a crosswalk up ahead that has about five more seconds left before it turns red for her. Once she reaches the cross, it's in its final two seconds but she still runs through. It turns red halfway through her run and cars honk, although they have to let her finish crossing first.

"Cinder, stop!"

Cinder skids just before the curb. She pants heavily as someone else whizzed past her, running right through the red light and causing a strew of angry drivers to honk. Cinder doesn't know who passed her. Her first guess is Kai but she doubts that he could outrun her.

Although this red light gives Winter more time to run ahead and Cinder a delay, it gives Cinder time to catch her breath because the sides of her chest burn like they're burning … which further remind her of the beach party and where Winter started to lose her mind.

-o-

Location Unknown

Jacin sits in a cubicle with a table separating him from the customs officer who sits on the other side. He knows that this is where everything could go wrong for him, especially since the officer knows that he's a cadet without the legal paperwork for him to travel.

"Cadet Jacin Clay, am I right?" The customs officer asks, already knowing the answer to that question.

"Yes," Jacin replies as the customs officer begins typing on his computer.

The customs officer runs Jacin's name through the database. Jacin sits back relaxed. He has nothing to worry about. He knows that the customs officer will be looking for "missing child" report of some sorts and there won't be any. His passport couldn't have been flagged since he could get here. The best part of being a Lunar, especially from Artemisia, is that nobody would put anything out in the public that made them look bad; and nothing would be worse for his father than to have a story saying that his son ran away from his military school. All that mattered in Artemisia were the statuses and the secrets that kept them so high.

"So, your father gave you permission to travel here without paperwork?" The customs officer asks.

"Yes," Jacin replies, lying right through his teeth. He hopes he doesn't get caught or else he'll go to jail.

"Why don't you have the paperwork?"

"My dad is the dean. I don't need paperwork to confirm a father-son relationship."

"Aside from the explicit issues with that, you said you were visiting your girlfriend?"

"Yes."

"What's her name?"

"Winter Hayle-Blackburn."

The customs officer nods, sitting back in his chair and folding his hands together. He mutters Winter's last name again before sitting erect again, discarding his thoughts on her last name.

"Write down her number."

Using a nearby pen and notepad, Jacin writes Winter's cell number. He's glad he's memorized it since he didn't bring his phone. The customs officer dials the number from his desk phone and Jacin can hear the receiver ring. There's no pick up the first time so he calls again. Jacin tries to hide his shaking with a straight face. If Winter doesn't pick up, then he's screwed. Sure, Winter might not be up-to-date on his alibi but she'll play along. He's sure of it.

However, by the third call attempt, it still goes straight to voicemail.

[If I had to chase Winter like that, I'd die. I'm not physically fit at all.

Also, that beach party (Orion's Beach) that was mentioned in the middle will be told further in detail in a future arc.] [2020: Two arcs from now].