Jae pushed himself off the wall. He lifted his arm and his hand clasped Neal’s. The gesture produced a clapping sound. Both parties had a firm grip as they shook hands. Their gazes betrayed zero emotion while they assessed each other.
“I’m Jae Parker. It’s nice to meet you and I appreciate the offer” Jae responded with a nod, “I’ll surely keep it in mind.”
Deep down, he wanted to inquire a different set of questions. The curiosity tempted him a lot. When they dropped their hands, he almost didn’t want to let go and yank the person closer. He knew the girls were usually straightforward.
Yet, he had a nagging voice at the back of his head. Something that pushed him to prod further. He had almost dropped but the Marquis showed up, spiking his nosiness.
That voice refused to shut up. Rather, it rang louder and echoed around his head.
“How do you know Alex?” He finally asked.
It was still better to have it over and done with. This was proved further when his mental chaos calmed down to a simmer.
Neal raised his eyebrows from the bluntness. It lasted a second before he composed himself. He tucked his hands into his pockets, saying, “I think that’s something you should ask her yourself. She is your friend and not me.”
He had a valid point, Jae mused.
He didn’t like it though.
“What she said was that you’re acquainted because you attend the same events” he decided to admit. At least, it placed that information out of the way. The Marquis wouldn’t need to repeat it.
Maybe he would add more facts instead.
“I’m guessing that you’re not satisfied with that answer?” Neal exhaled sharply. He saw through the tactic immediately, “It is quite true though. I’ve mostly seen her because our families received the same invitations.”
“So you never like…” Jae shrugged while he waved his hands with incoherent gestures, “Hanged out at each other’s houses? Have play dates or whatever?”
“We never met without a formal arrangement.”
“I see” he nodded, his bottom lip sticking out, “Thanks for the enlightenment. Surprisingly, you’re much more of a talker than she is.”
“On the contrary, I think we’re similar” the Marquis chuckled, “We both don’t do casual talk but being in the Student Council had increased my tolerance for it.”
“Right…” Jae cleared his throat. The quiet atmosphere that followed felt awkward compared to the previous ones. He didn’t know what else to say. He couldn’t actually ask Neal about his stepsister without looking suspicious, could he?
His phone rang from his jean pocket. It was the tone for a new message notification. He held up a finger, excusing himself to check it out.
“I’ll be leaving then,” Neal said after he glimpsed the phone, “I can’t stay for too long. Please drop by the staff room before you leave. Enjoy your time.”
With that said, he headed for the other staircase and descended down the building. Jae breathed out a sigh of relief. He thought the Marquis would never leave—as if he knew something felt off about Emily’s ‘accident’ with the restroom door.
The best part was when Emily staked her claim and even revealed the bruise on her foot when Marisa insisted that she had done it purposely.
The blonde elf had thought of everything.
Jae opened the message alert and read its contents.
‘GET. RID. OF. NEAL. NOW!’ – Emily
He snorted. His gaze went to the stairs where Neal disappeared to. He double checked just in case the Marquis came back. Satisfied with the lack of sudden visitors, he turned his attention back to his phone. The grin on his face grew wider as he typed his reply.
‘I will if you give me a kiss.’ – Jae
The response arrived immediately.
‘Or I can get rid of you both by shoving you through the window. Do I have to do everything myself?’ – Emily
‘Too late! Now, you owe me a kiss!’ – Jae
‘Asdfghjkl. Go sleep and dream then! Because that’s where you’ll get your kiss. Only. In. Your. Dreams.’ – Emily
Jae wheezed on his spot, clutching his stomach. He didn’t know why but he found it extremely hilarious. The girl had the best wit whenever provoked the right way. She outshined her previous self with new ones.
Days could never be boring when she was round
“I see that it’s not too late for me to shove you through the window” Emily glared. She strolled through the corridor with Charlotte by her side. She could hear his laugh even from upstairs. It irked her a lot.
“You could” Jae answered, “But I also need to drive Alex back to Woodlands.”
Emily rolled her eyes and headed for the storage unit. Charlotte and Jae exchanged eye contact, nodding their head at each other. The three of them entered the room and closed the door. They found Alex with her peach coat wrapped around her body. She sat on the desk, swinging her legs over its edge.
She hopped down at the sight of them, “What took you so long?”
“Well, someone else decided to show up” Emily grumbled. She crossed her arms over her chest, “Neal had been making his rounds when he noticed you weren’t with us. Blame his prying self for interrupting us.”
Jae stood beside her and stared at Alex, “Did you get what you wanted?”
She responded with a shrug, using a nonchalant tone, “More or less. It wasn’t everything but it was something.”
“That’s good. Did you remember to record it?”
Alex gave him a pointed look. Her eyebrows furrowed in annoyance. How stupid would it be if she had a wire tap on her? What if Skye found it? Then, everything would be all for nothing.
Her voice took a sharp tone when she spoke, “Now, why would Skye talk to me if I had a recording device?”
She grabbed her phone from the desk. Making sure that he could see the screen, she turned it on, “I didn’t even have this with me.”
Jae’s eyes widened in disbelief. Although Alex didn’t tell him the plan, he had expected her to have something up her sleeve. Maybe even a recorder somewhere in that wig of hers.
“Well, we have to get back with something!” He exasperated, “Your aunt will be really angry if we didn’t.”
He could just imagine the amount of trouble they’d arrive at if they caught nothing. There wasn’t a hint of doubt in him that they’d be forbidden to do something like this again. If he had known things would turn out this way, he would have done something else instead of waiting. He would have lunged at Skye even if Neal was around.
Anything at all could have made the difference.
“That is true” Alex nodded calmly, “But I don’t have anything on me. Skye wouldn’t have told me anything otherwise.”
Jae wiped a hand on his face, sighing gravelly. He should probably make his own obituary, “So we’re just going to let her run around until next time?”
“Says who?” Alex blinked. She shifted her attention to the fourth person in the room, “Hey, Charlotte.”
The girl’s black ponytail swung behind her as she skipped towards the group. She held a clarinet close to her chest. Her blue eyes gazed around the room, spotting the security camera behind Alex. Charlotte stood next to her and held up the windpipe.
“Isn’t my clarinet so pretty?” She gushed as Alex supported it from the bell at the bottom and the mouthpiece, “How could they dump it in a place like this? Look at its buttons! They’re in perfect condition!”
Her fingers fluttered over the tone holes like how a person would slide their hand over the keys of a piano, “Also, I just want to say that a vibrato on a wind instrument is different from a string.”
She paused on a hole and wiggled her fingertip.
“It’s not like this,” she informed the group. Then, she fluttered her finger, tapping the hole multiple times, “It’s like this!”
Charlotte pulled the clarinet away from Alex and demonstrated it to the group by blowing into the mouthpiece. The difference between the two was noticeable. Alex nodded her head in understanding. In contrast, her fingers fidgeted together. The soft sound of a lock popping out echoed faintly in their ears, the clarinet’s notes overwhelming it.
Emily smirked and clapped her hands at her friend’s effort, “Very impressive. If I didn’t know any better, I think the two of you are communicating telepathically.”
She stepped to her cousin’s other side, grabbing the black device from Alex’s hands.
Jae finally noticed what was happening. His jaw dropped slightly. Emily hid it well in her hands but there was no mistake that it was a tiny spy camera. It almost had the same size as a cellphone’s lens.
“That SD card contains the recording of everything” Charlotte stated, watching Alex tuck it inside her coat’s breast pocket, “I should clear up that it doesn’t belong to me but Emily’s.”
“How—” Jae squeaked out. He seemed more like an audience member instead of a character in this scene right now, “How did you—”
“What?” Alex blinked at him. The corner of her lip twitched into a playful smile, “You think it’s a coincidence that we entered this place? How Emily and I trapped her in between it so it’s the closest place for privacy?”
“A clarinet also happens to be a good hiding place for a tiny camera” Emily added. She pulled the collar of her blouse and dropped the camera in it. She couldn’t risk losing it even if it didn’t possess any contents.
“Thanks, Charlotte” Alex smiled at their accomplice, “Hopefully when I have free time, I can hear you perform at a proper school event.”
“There’s no need for that. I just really wanted to get back at that bitch,” Charlotte giggled. She waved goodbye to the group and stepped towards the exit, “Gotta go before the band noticed I left for too long.”
Jae closed his eyes and shook his head.
“You girls…” he breathed out, “I don’t even know where to begin…”
“I had to make her choose the place or she’d be suspicious of it” Alex humored him. This time, a full grin bloomed on her lips, “I also hid in the stairs so she wouldn’t think I had been waiting in front of this room on purpose. It’s simple logic.”
“Yeah, you big oaf” Emily snorted, “How come you didn’t figure that out?”
The two cousins fist bumped over their abdomens. The gesture didn’t go unnoticed by Jae. He rolled his eyes at their amusement. They probably crafted this whole plan through a series of messages in their phones. They probably also snickered behind his back all this time, waiting for this moment.
Such sneaky girls… if this continued, he’d grow white hair from the emotional rollercoaster they caused him.
