Chapter 31

Mr. Mosely was handing out the scores of last week's test to each student in the room. Once he reached me, he gazed at me with a bored expression. "I must say, I'm quite impressed you've survived this long in my class, Miss Clark."

"I told you, I love challenges," I mused and grabbed my paper from his hands. I scanned the contents until my eyes reached the circled number in red on the top right corner. Smirking in satisfaction, I leaned back against my seat, very proud of the bold red number ninety-two. 

The teacher shook his head and continued to hand out the papers to the rest of the students.

"That's good," Chase commented by my side, and I glanced at his paper. 

Surely enough, there was a bold one-hundred circled in red on the top right corner of his paper. How surprising.

"Yeah," was all I said and looked back to the front. 

It had been a week since I told my plan to the others, and as much as I hated to admit, I was nervous. It was clearly not the first time I have dealt with these people, so that was pretty much a plus. I believed that they still gathered up at the same spot as before. When I was part of the gang, they used to plan everything in an old bar downtown. The place was dirty and rusty, but all they cared about was the liquor. Typical gang stuff.

The bell to next period rang and I quickly grabbed my stuff then walked out of the classroom. I made my way to my locker without glancing at anyone, not really wanting to make eye contact with Chase. Once I reached my locker, I slung my bag off my shoulder and opened the door. I was about to throw the unnecessary stuff inside when a white envelope fluttered down to the ground. I stared at it for a second too long before kneeling down to grab it. I snatched the paper from inside the envelope before reading it carefully.

Getting your locker combination was far from easy. You should consider changing it, but it will be of no use, honestly. Be aware, Amelia. I am closer than you think.

-E. C.

I threw the paper back inside the envelope and threw it inside my bag angrily. The warning bell rang, and I closed the locker before heading over to my next class.

When the last bell rang, signaling lunchtime, everyone hurried out of the classroom in a haste to get to their homes. I threw my books back inside my bag and walked out of the classroom behind everyone else calmly. People rummaged through the halls, either on their way to the cafeteria or out of the school. 

I rounded the corner to the cafeteria and glanced at the people around me. Outside the cafeteria, I noticed that Chase and Izzy were having quite a heated conversation. Curious, I walked closer to them and was able to make out their expressions better. Chase wore a desperate and alarmed expression, while Izzy looked beyond furious. I furrowed my brows at this and walked closer to them, standing behind Chase.

"No, Izzy, I don't approve of this. I'm not going to do this." Chase said.

"What's happening here?" I asked, and they both snapped their heads to where I stood.

"It's Gregory," Izzy huffed immediately.

"What about him?" I asked, raising an eyebrow expectantly.

"We went out on a date," she started, and I narrowed my eyes at her. "Before you kill me, hear me out."

"I'm listening," I said and crossed my arms over my chest.

"He took me out to eat somewhere. Everything was going alright until I excused myself to go to the bathroom. When I came back, he was talking to some buff guys that looked scary, and after they left, I asked him about them. He refused to tell me, so when I pressed him to answer me he—he slapped me, and said that I was being annoying," she said, her anger disappearing and shifting to sadness. 

Chase looked at her, bewildered, and I sighed heavily when I noticed tears forming in the corner of her eyes. "I warned you about him, but you didn't listen to me. Now, look at how it ended up." I said with a shrug.

"I know, but I thought he changed. Anyways, I wanted to get some sort of revenge and asked Chase for help, but him being the damn chicken he is won't help me!" She groaned in frustration, and Chase narrowed his eyes at her.

"Stop, Izzy. Just—"

"Chase has every right to chicken out, Izzy," I interrupted, my arms still crossed over my chest. "Do you think that after what Gregory did to him, he would even consider looking at him? I mean, yeah, it might be cowardly, but I don't blame him either. You dug yourself deep into this hole, so you get your own self out. That's the consequence for not listening to me, so deal with it."

She looked at me with a bewildered expression, and stomped off while crying into her hands. I almost felt sorry for her. Almost. I watched her as she retreated, and turned away from Chase before making my way to the double doors of the cafeteria.

"Amelia, wait," he called, and I stopped walking. "We need to talk about something."

"Sorry, I don't have time," I said quickly, and began walking again. Before I could even touch the door, Chase stopped me again. 

"Amelia, please. It's important," he pleaded and sounded...nervous?

"Maybe later. I've got some things to do." I said. Before he could stop me one more time, I walked into the cafeteria and grabbed my food before paying. 

I made my way to a table, and as I walked past the soccer team table, a disgustingly familiar pair of eyes met mine. I stared at Gregory for a moment and he smirked at me before looking away. As I narrowed my eyes at him, I sat down on a table far away from his. I ate in silence until it was time to go to the gym. When I finished eating, I threw the trash away and walked out of the school with my bag on my shoulder. I threw my helmet on and hopped on my bike, before making my way over to the gym. 

Once there, I parked my bike and went inside the gym to see everyone already there. I changed into my workout clothes and looked down at the necklace I always wore ever since my birthday. I fiddled with it for a bit and sighed before walking down to the shooting range. 

Everybody looked at me and I ignored them, going straight to where the guns were and picked one up. I placed the headphones over my ears and loaded the gun, putting on my safety glasses afterwards. Their eyes were on me, but I brushed them off and focused on my aiming. I pulled the trigger several times until the target was all battered up, then changed it and kept on shooting. I wasted bullet after bullet until someone placed their hand on my shoulder and I lowered my gun.

"You shouldn't overdo it, Lily. We need those bullets for when we attack," a female voice said after I took my headphones off. 

I froze and looked over my shoulder, fighting off the grin that wanted to invade my lips. "Lindsey! It's been so long!" I chirped and placed the gun down. 

She laughed at me and hugged me tightly, and I—obviously—hugged back, then smiled. 

"Yes, it has. How have you been holding up?" she asked me.

"Well, I haven't gotten suspended for over a month, so I guess I can say that I'm holding up very well," I said with a chuckle, and she rolled her eyes at me.

"Same old troublemaker I see." She chuckled. "So are you going to introduce me to the new member?"

"What?" I asked and furrowed my brows. 

She raised an amused eyebrow at me and looked over at where Chase was standing. "I surely don't remember seeing that face around here before," she said, and Chase scratched the back of his neck shyly.

"He's my new experiment," I said, "and his name is Chase."

"Nice to meet you, Chase. I'm Lindsey Hawk. I used to work with Wes about five years ago," she introduced herself and extended a hand his way. 

He nodded and shook her hand reluctantly, glancing at me briefly.

"Alright, enough of the chit-chat. Lindsey, I already filled you up with everything. I'm guessing you're here to help?" Wesley asked, and Lindsey smiled.

"Why, of course. I've been wanting to get my hands on Bryce and that gang for a very long time now," Lindsey said, and Kenneth chuckled.

"Seems like there's a lot of people that want to get rid of them," Kenneth commented, and Danielle nodded in agreement. 

Lindsey motioned for all of us to gather up, and we all sat down on the chairs. 

"Do you have those letters still?" Lindsey asked me, and I nodded at her. 

I took out all of the letters from my bag and handed them over to her. 

She eyed them curiously, before putting them inside a Ziploc bag. "I will take this and search for any sort of fingerprints apart from yours. Since it's computer-written, I can't compare handwriting or any of the sorts. Have you found anything else?"

"No. All we have are those letters," Danielle said.

 "I do have my suspicions on where they might be hiding," I said. "We will go there on Saturday, after the sun sets. The place will be secluded and it's some blocks away from other buildings. We will need to go with a lot of company. They might be expecting us anytime soon, so when they spot us, they will hit us with everything they've got."

"Do we seriously need to do this so fast?" Chase asked, and everyone looked at him.

"They've been on our backs for over a month now and you think this is going fast?" I asked in bewilderment.

"I just don't think I'm prepared," he admitted, and I huffed in disbelief.

"You accepted this for a reason. If you're going to chicken out now, fine. That will just prove to me just how much of a coward you really are," I spat and stood up. 

He flinched at my words and I pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Lily—" Danielle started.

"I need some air." I sighed and walked over to the stairs. I made it out of the shooting range and into the training room before walking out the back door and stepping outside. 

The warm breeze blew past me, making my hair slap against my face repeatedly. I brushed them off and went to pull it up in a ponytail when I heard footsteps behind me. "Can't I just be alone for a damn minute?"

A pair of hands gripped my shoulders and turned me around in a haste. I instantly went into defense mode, but my eyes met a pair of chocolate-brown ones. Chase stared down at me with pleading eyes, and I found myself relaxing under his gaze. "We need to talk, Amelia."

____________________________

[Edited: September 8th, 2020 by michh_44]

New character! How do you think her personality will be like? Will she be strict, funny or careless? Well, there's only one way to find out! Keep on reading and watch as her character develops along with the rest of them! Comment your thoughts and vote if you liked! Lots of love ❤