After school, Keira rushed out the front door and headed to the bus roundabout. It was the busiest place in the school around this time of day, which was saying something since the school really wasn’t that big. She might have been hoping to miss the talk, but unfortunately Paige, Imogen and Naima were already waiting for her by their bus. Keira tried to wipe the scowl from her face as she approached, it wouldn’t do her any favours after all, if she looked unfriendly. Iris and Morgan, who had been trailing behind her, stopped a couple of seconds before she did, meaning that she was alone in her approach. Paige scowled at Keira and separated from her group as well, meeting Keira halfway.
“Just so you know, I’m only doing this because Naima asked me to.”
“Oh my gods, same! We have so much in common.” This only earned her a deepened glare from Paige. After a couple of beats of silence Paige spoke up again.
“So are you going to apologise?” Keira caught herself before she asked what for, it wouldn’t do her any favours, she knew. Around them a small smattering of people formed, mostly from their year, and all of them she remembered talking to at some point or another. Maybe she should apologise for Paige losing her necklace? Ah, but wait. There was a more important thing that she almost forgot about. Maxwell had told her to not say please or sorry to anyone, as it may be a trick. And if it were her trying to pull such a trick… it would look pretty similar to this. So even if she wanted to swallow her pride and apologise, which she really didn’t, there was also that risk. There must be another approach… something more diplomatic perhaps?
“I feel like it would be better if we started off again, or at least tried to. With a clean slate so,” Keira held out her hand, “hi, my name is Keira Aboret.” Paige eyed the hand before snorting and knocking it to the side.
“I’ve known you for ten years. I don’t need an introduction, and I don’t need whatever pathetic social play you’re trying here. If you can’t even swallow your pride enough to apologise then Imogen was right, this was a waste of time.”
“What would be the point in apologising? I don’t even think I was in the wrong! I wouldn’t mean it, and I know you wouldn’t either.” She could see Morgan looking at her from her peripherals and guessed that he knew the real reason.
“I have nothing to apologise for and the fact that you think I do just shows how immature you still are.” Paige went to turn away but then someone booed from the small crowd around them, most of whom were familiar faces. People who lived in the same village they had, she realised.
“You’ve been spreading rumours long before the ‘she stole my necklace’ one. Don’t pretend as though it’s all Keira!” Keira’s head snapped towards the vaguely recognisable bystander.
“Wait. She has? Like what?!”
“T-that’s not important.”
“No, no. This is very important.” The man suddenly lost his confidence at now having both of the girl’s attention. Realising that he wouldn’t say anything else, Keira turned her attention back to Paige. “How long have you not liked me?”
“A few years after we first met? I don’t why this is important, I think I’ve made it clear that I really hate you.”
“There is a difference between openly disliking someone and pretending to be their friend for five years. Why did you even bother keeping it up? And why?”
“It’s because- you’re so pretentious! You have to be smart, but you’re not smart, so you had to settle for being better than everyone around you, even if it meant putting them down. I thought you might learn to be a better person if I dropped enough hints though and become actually likable like you used to be. But no, that fucking necklace was the last straw to get you out of my life!”
“How does that lead to spreading rumours?! You didn’t like me so you had to make sure no one else did?”
“They needed to know what they were getting into.” Keira gaped at her.
“Well, this has been informative. I’m glad I accepted Naima’s request so I can now tell you to go drown in Morsemt’s stream in person!” Paige scoffed and rolled her eyes, which was a completely different reaction to Naima who decided to step in.
“Guys… you’re supposed to make up and be friends again…” Keira snapped her head towards Naima.
“We are not friends for a reason. It may be because Paige is a raging bitch, but if I think that, then you can’t force me to change my opinion. You can’t force people to forget their history together and like each other again, it’s not how it works. I-“ Keira was interrupted by someone else from the small crowd around them.
“Fight! Fight! Fight! Fi-“
“Don’t you have anything better to do?” Paige snapped. Those around them shared some looks before shrugging and offering a small murmur of disagreement. The person from the back of the crowd began chanting again. Suddenly the nature of the situation hit Keira and she flushed red.
“Let’s just go our separate ways, okay?” Paige eyed her again before offering a small nod and walking off in the direction of their bus. Keira also started to walk over as it was going to set off soon and her parents would take at least forty minutes to get there to pick her up. In the same direction. They were walking in the same direction because they lived in the same area. Keira was going to have to sit on a bus with them for at least twenty minutes. She felt like curling in on herself and dying. A quick glance behind her, however, told her that Morgan and Iris were having the time of their lives watching her. Fortunately they had their unspoken seating rule, which was put a decent amount of space between them. Unfortunately, almost everyone on the bus had seen their argument and wouldn’t stop looking between the two. Keira shot a pleading look to Morgan, who had taken the seat beside her.
“You want me to distract you?” Keira nodded helplessly. “Alright. How about I tell you how badly my history lesson went today?”
“Did you learn more about the Cernia-Junein conflict?”
“Nope! It seems like our history teacher heard your complaints about that and switched to ancient history today. We were learning about Mictepeh.”
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“Ah, the City of the Dead. Or is it the Land of the Dead? Can never remember. Learn anything new?”
“Both and yes. I was partially the reason why the lesson was so disastrous actually. Apparently the archaeology team had recently uncovered a new section of the city that had previously been sealed off and had extracted some relics from it. They were supposed to be going to a museum, but the convoy got attacked and what’s believed to be the world oldest mirror was stolen.”
“World’s oldest mirror? Was it like polished bronze?”
“Obsidian actually.” Kiera’s head snapped up and she looked at Morgan.
“How did it survive that long? Isn’t obsidian basically volcanic glass? And Mictepeh isn’t even a volcanic region.” Morgan just offered a shrug.
“I guess those mysteries are part of the reason why the teacher went on a twenty-minute rant.” Keira burst out laughing.
“Twenty minutes? Oh now I actually feel kind of bad for you.” Morgan nodded and patted Keira’s shoulder.
“Thanks for the sympathy.” They lapsed into a slightly more comfortable silence. Iris popped up from the seat in front of the two of them.
“Do I hear someone getting over their embarrassment?”
“No.” Keira responded.
“I think I do. We can’t have that now. Hm…” Iris pretended to be lost in thought while Keira started to shake her head. “I know! Imagine if you had to go on the geography trip with them. That would be super embarrassing.”
“You know Iris. I was almost having a good day again-“ Keira cut herself off as Iris started giggling and sank back down into the seats in front. Then, as if something had just occurred to him, Morgan snapped his head up.
“Do you want to do something over the weekend?”
“I would love to, but I have to go and clean out Grandma’s house.”
“…Why are you raiding an old lady’s home?”
“I have permission to rob her, so it’s not stealing.”
“Ah, of course. Well if something changes give us a call.” Keira nodded and the group lapsed into silence. The rest of the trip went by quickly and when they arrived at the village a surprise was waiting for them.
Amelie was leaning against the bus stop when they arrived and instead of making a bee line to Iris, like Keira had thought she would, she went for Imogen, Iris's ex-friend. It did surprise her, as she had shown that she wanted to be friends with Iris again so doing this in front of her was a bad move for that, but on the other hand it did track with Amelie’s general obsessiveness around the girl. Iris fled the scene very quickly, but Morgan stuck around giving Keira a look that practically said ‘don’t do it.’ The two continued talking for a couple more seconds before Amelie led Imogen away from the crowd, and slightly curious, Keira moved to follow, grabbing Morgan's arm on the way. He hesitated and pulled back slightly.
"Are you sure that this would be a good idea? It could be dangerous if we're found out."
"I have you with me, Gary's following like five feet behind and Archer has been arrested. We'll be fine." Morgan's head snapped back and sure enough he spotted the man behind them. Looking very conspicuous despite the fact that she knew he wore those cloths on weekends or when out drinking.
"Isn't he supposed to be on duty?"
"Yes." Amelie rounded a corner and dragged Imogen into a small alcove to the side. While Morgan was still following them, it was mostly because Keira had a vice like grip on his arm, which he brushed off very quickly. He stopped when she did once they reached the mouth of the alcove and while she didn’t think it would be a risk to her life if they were discovered, Morgan was right. Amelie appeared to be a little unhinged at times and it could get a little dicey. The man following them frowned and walked over to some occupied tables twenty feet behind the two. There were a few beats of silence before the two began to talk.
“You said that you wanted to talk about Iris?” Keira recognised the voice as Imogen’s.
“Kind of, but that was more of an excuse to talk to you.”
“Couldn’t you have just come round to my house?”
“I just wasn't sure when I was going to be able to catch you. Your parents aren't like Iris's after all, I can't just say we are friends."
"You could have messaged me then. I do have a phone."
"No, I don't want any paper trail with what we're talking about."
“Ah. And pulling me aside in front of multiple witnesses was much better.” There was another beat of silence. “Whatever, is this about what I asked you?”
“Yes. It would have been easier if Archer didn’t get charged with Keira’s kidnapping, but justice needs to be served and all that. I any case, the answer at the moment is that I can’t.”
“What? You said-“
“I realise what I said, that was before Archer was arrested. He is- was a slightly higher-ranking member than me, he had access to information that I don’t. Since they’ve deemed him a liability and cut him from the organisation… well. It’s going to be significantly harder to get what you want.”
“So you essentially pulled a scene like that for no reason?” Imogen’s voice was full of venom and considering the dry amusement towards the action she had expressed earlier, Keira guessed that the aggression came from the fact that she couldn’t get what she wanted. Hearing that Archer was a part of a larger scheme unsettled her though and made her think that she was slightly out of her depth. Morgan may have agreed with her mind’s sentiment on that, as he tugged her sleeve and signalled for them to leave. Keira shot a glance at the mark on her wrist and noted that it hadn’t been acting up. However, she had decided that trusting Palotl’s opinion on something like this was a risk, still… she wanted just that little bit more information. Something that could help.
“Not no reason.” Keira held up a single finger to Morgan. He seemed to understand and left go of her sleeve with a sigh. “As Archer has been kicked out of his… limited position, there is now a nice and juicy opening for us to take advantage of.”
“From what you’ve said, I doubt they’re the type to let anyone like you into that slot.”
“It’s not a coveted position, just a better one than my current one. And I could use that to help fill the slot I have left behind.” Amelie’s voice trailed off. Morgan gave Keira’s sleeve another tug.
“And I would do that in hopes of getting the answer to my question? I’m not that curious about the answer. Dig your own hole.”
"Think about this. It gives you power and influence. And if you do well it'll make me look good and if I look good, I'll get more power and influence."
"You're already looking to move up in the organisation?"
"Not just that my friend. I'm looking to take over the entire organisation and for that, I need a strong support base.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“I’ve spoken with the kind of people they like to recruit. Archer is as dim-witted as they come and the fact that they trusted him with such a vital role shows their general level of competence. I’m guessing that there are only a few smart ones there that run everything, so we make enough of a splash and the rest should follow. So I shall ask again, would you like to be a part of it?"
"It sounds... interesting. Though I wouldn't know how to start."
“You don’t have to. Let me sort it out, but there are a few things that you should be prepared for-“ Amelie started to rattle off a few things in a list but by that point Keira had taken Morgan’s hint and began to move away from the alleyway entrance. As Archer had been arrested for her kidnapping, she would assume that the two that were to investigate him would move on with whatever next project they would need to deal with, which left her alone with Amelie. While they set her on edge, making her think that she was one wrong word away from being turned in, they had also provided her a safety net from anything else that may come after her. If Archer truly was a part of an organization, what would stop them from coming after her? Especially with all of the weirdness that had surrounded these past few days. She needed to pass this information along. Keira tugged on Morgan’s sleeve, even though they were far enough away from the duo that they could talk properly.
“I want to go to the police station before calling it a day. Would you mind accompanying me?”
“Of course not. But I do think you shouldn’t do things like that anymore, this is starting to sound a little to… big.” Keira smiled and led the way, knowing that she couldn’t tell him just how right he was.