The Hijinks War

15. A Date with Backbone

Day three as an un-led army began with my tired voice addressing a tiny coalition of rogue soldiers.

"I know we're all tired." I paced my room as the sun broke over the horizon, a thin line of light hinting at the time; we'd been up nearly all night. It hadn't taken very long to convince my chosen soldiers to join us, though some hadn't been too happy about being woken after one in the morning. By 2 a.m., all of them had descended on my room. I cursed the fact that the Trifecta were taken on a Sunday night, and we were having to pull this off between classes. 

"We only have a little time now to get our plan into action before people start waking up. You all know what to do, who your contacts are. We've already lost two days, so we have to try and pull this off today alone. Remember we are operating outside of the Elite's stupid orders, and have to stay under the radars of both sides, and Corbis."

I glanced at the time display on my phone and grinned, "Let's fuck up their plans, Bitches!" I watched as they split into groups and filtered out of my room, all grinning as excitedly as I was.

Jess hugged my side and nestled her head into my shoulder, "You're kind of terrifying, Babe."

Ashley nodded in agreement, as I pulled her into my other side. "Yeah, who knew you had it in you, Kemper."

-.-

The gaps between classes were punctuated by beeps and buzzes. It was so normal that no one noticed I checked my phone more often than usual.

Got that movie if you wanna borrow it later.

The puppies are already tagged...

If anyone glimpsed my messages, they would appear frivolous. No one would know Eddie's movie was actually a live feed to the security cameras scattered throughout the Academy. Tagged puppies? Tracking devices on the Hellhounds Elite; I'd even gotten a further message saying there were 5 puppies in total. Meaning we would have a constant eye on the Triad, and a couple hangers on. I couldn't wait till I got word that we had a location. 

-.-

At lunch, only two of the Triad sat in the dining hall; they'd been rotating at mealtimes for the past few days. From where I sat behind Hadley and Vivienne, I watched Katy and Brian across the hall, cuddled together at their table as they always were. Every once in a while, Eddie's laptop would pull their attention away from each other. They pointed at the screen and made joking comments about what they saw. 

In another part of the room, Emma had her back to the wall as she poured over her laptop in much the same way Eddie was doing. For all outward appearances she was watching a movie. I watched in bored interest as her eyes darted across her screen, clearly jumping between multiple screens. Her hand wrapped around her phone absently, and without even looking down at it, she tapped out a message.

When my phone beeped, I wasn't surprised.

I think I know where I'm taking you tonight, can't wait!

I slid the phone to Jess, so she could read the message and we both laughed at how typical I was being. Got a message from a potential date and shared it with my best friend. She raised an eyebrow and grinned into her smoothie as she watched me type out a response.

Send date night coordinates to my driver, E. See you there.

After a moment's thought, I sent a second message to Eddie, the aforementioned "driver".

Fun date location for the lovebirds. I think they'd enjoy it.

Jess leaned against my shoulder and squealed. We were giddy with anticipation. We had a date with backbone tonight, a date with headstrong determination, a date with our own first steps to breaking out of our molds.